Your organization is transitioning a large, multi-year infrastructure program to agile delivery. The program consists of five interdependent product teams, each running two-week sprints. After three program increments, dependencies between teams are causing frequent delays—Team A cannot complete their sprint commitments because they're waiting for API specifications from Team B, while Team C's database changes block Team D's integration testing. The program board shows 47 active dependencies across teams. Teams are becoming frustrated with blocked work and declining morale. What approach would best address these systemic dependency issues?

Question

Accepted Answer

The correct answer is B. Option B is correct because it addresses the root cause—team structure that creates inherent dependencies (ECO Process Task 2.8). Conway's Law states that system architecture mirrors organizational structure; restructuring around value streams enables teams to deliver customer value independently, dramatically reducing coordination overhead and improving flow. This represents true agile scaling by minimizing dependencies rather than managing them. Option A is a strong distractor that appears appropriate for scaled agile but only adds coordination ceremonies without reducing underlying dependencies—it manages symptoms rather than fixing the structural problem. While SAFe has value, it works best when teams are already structured appropriately. Options C and D both add overhead and delay rather than improving flow, with D specifically creating handoffs and bottlenecks that contradict agile principles of team autonomy.

PMP Practice Question: Process — Agile, Hard

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