PMP Practice Questions

An agile team working on a financial services application has maintained a consistent velocity of 28-32 story points over the past six sprints. During Sprint 7 planning, the team estimates several user stories and realizes they are consistently giving higher estimates than in previous sprints for similar work. When asked, team members mention they are concerned about upcoming regulatory requirements that might require rework, though the specific requirements won't be finalized until next quarter. The Product Owner is concerned that velocity is decreasing. What should the team do to address this situation?

July 7, 2026

A cross-functional agile team is building a data analytics platform. During Sprint 6, a critical production bug is discovered in functionality delivered two sprints ago that is affecting customer reporting. Fixing the bug will require approximately 13 story points of effort. The current sprint backlog contains 32 story points of planned work, matching the team's average velocity. The Product Owner wants to add the bug fix to the current sprint without removing any planned stories. What should the Scrum Master recommend?

July 7, 2026

An agile team is developing a customer relationship management (CRM) system. After the fourth sprint, the Product Owner reviews the increment during the sprint review and realizes that several features don't match what key stakeholders envisioned. The stakeholders are present and express concern that the product is heading in the wrong direction. The development team is frustrated because they built exactly what was described in the user stories. The team's definition of done includes code review, testing, and documentation. What is the most likely root cause of this issue?

July 7, 2026

A software development team is working on an e-commerce platform using two-week sprints. During sprint planning for Sprint 5, the Product Owner presents 15 user stories totaling 55 story points. Based on their velocity from the last three sprints (average: 34 story points), the team knows they cannot complete all stories. The Product Owner insists all stories are critical for an upcoming trade show demo in four weeks. The team is concerned about committing to work they cannot complete. What is the best approach for the team to take?

July 7, 2026

Your agile team has completed three sprints of a mobile application project. During the sprint retrospective, several team members express frustration that they are spending too much time in meetings and not enough time developing features. The Scrum Master notes that the team is attending daily standups, sprint planning, sprint reviews, sprint retrospectives, and several ad-hoc meetings called by stakeholders. Velocity has declined from 32 story points in Sprint 1 to 21 story points in Sprint 3. What should the Scrum Master do first to address this issue?

July 7, 2026

During sprint planning, your agile team commits to 30 story points based on their historical velocity. Midway through the sprint, a critical production bug requires immediate attention, consuming 40% of the team's capacity. The product owner insists that all originally planned stories must still be completed and suggests the team work overtime. Several team members express concern about burnout. What is the most appropriate action?

June 29, 2026

Your distributed agile team spans three time zones across North America, Europe, and Asia. Team members have complained that the daily standup time rotates to accommodate everyone, but this means each region experiences inconvenient times regularly. Additionally, team bonding has suffered because members rarely interact outside of formal ceremonies. Sprint retrospectives reveal low team morale despite delivering features successfully. What should you prioritize to improve team cohesion?

June 29, 2026

A new team member joined your agile team two weeks ago. She has strong technical skills but comes from a traditional waterfall background. During the daily standup, she provides detailed status reports to you rather than discussing impediments with the team. She also waits for task assignments instead of pulling work from the board. Other team members are becoming frustrated with her approach. How should you handle this situation?

June 29, 2026

Your agile development team is struggling to complete stories within sprints. During planning, developers frequently say they cannot estimate stories because requirements are unclear. The product owner insists the stories are sufficiently detailed and becomes defensive when the team asks questions. This pattern has repeated for four sprints, causing incomplete work and team frustration. As the project manager, what is your best course of action?

June 29, 2026

You are leading an agile team that has been working together for three sprints. During the latest retrospective, you notice that two team members consistently dominate the conversation while three others remain silent. The silent members later confide in you that they feel their ideas are not valued. Team velocity has been declining, and you suspect the lack of diverse input is affecting quality. What should you do first to address this situation?

June 29, 2026

Your agile team is developing an e-commerce platform for a retail organization. After six sprints, market research reveals that a major competitor has launched a similar platform with an innovative feature that is gaining significant customer attention. The executive team is concerned about competitive positioning and wants your team to immediately implement a comparable feature. The product owner estimates this work would consume approximately 60% of the team's capacity for the next two sprints. However, you are currently three sprints away from releasing core shopping cart and payment functionality that is essential for the minimum viable product. Some team members argue that chasing competitor features contradicts the product strategy and will delay the MVP launch. How should you facilitate this decision?

June 24, 2026

Your organization has recently acquired a competitor, and your agile project team has been asked to integrate features from the acquired company's product into your platform. During the integration planning, you discover that the acquired company used entirely different technology standards and development practices. The executive sponsor wants the integration completed within four months to realize merger synergies and reduce operational costs of maintaining two separate platforms. However, technical analysis reveals significant architectural incompatibilities that will require substantial refactoring. The team estimates that a proper integration would take at least eight months. What should you recommend?

June 24, 2026

Your agile team is developing a software platform for a healthcare organization that must comply with HIPAA regulations. During sprint 5, the compliance officer informs you that new regulations will take effect in three months that require additional data encryption and audit logging capabilities. The product owner wants to continue delivering the currently prioritized user-facing features to meet market launch deadlines, arguing that compliance features can be added later. The compliance officer insists that launching without full compliance could result in significant fines and reputational damage. The team estimates the compliance work will require approximately three sprints. What is the best approach to handle this regulatory requirement?

June 24, 2026

You are leading an agile project to develop a new product line for your organization. During the third sprint review, the CFO attends for the first time and expresses concern that the team is delivering features incrementally rather than waiting to release a complete product. She worries that this approach increases operational costs due to multiple deployment cycles and questions whether the incremental releases provide sufficient return on investment. The product owner explains that early releases allow the organization to capture market share and gather customer feedback, but the CFO remains skeptical. How should you address this situation?

June 24, 2026

Your organization is undergoing a digital transformation initiative, and your agile project is developing a customer-facing mobile application. During sprint planning, the product owner announces that the executive leadership team has decided to pivot the company's go-to-market strategy based on new competitive intelligence. This requires significant changes to the product backlog, including deprioritizing 40% of the currently planned features and adding new features aligned with the revised strategy. Several team members express concern about the wasted effort on features that may never be delivered. What should you do first as the Scrum Master?

June 24, 2026

An agile team is developing a customer portal for a retail company. After launching the MVP, analytics show that 60% of users abandon the registration process. The product owner wants to add more features to make registration attractive. The UX researcher suggests the abandonment is due to requesting too much information upfront. Meanwhile, the marketing department insists on collecting comprehensive customer data for segmentation. The next sprint planning is in two days. How should the project manager facilitate resolution of this conflict?

June 20, 2026

Your agile team is developing a SaaS platform for the healthcare industry. During the development of the third release, a major data privacy law is passed that affects how patient information can be stored and accessed. The law takes effect in four months. Your current release plan has features scheduled that would violate the new law if implemented as designed. The product owner is pressuring the team to deliver these features as promised to key clients. What should the project manager do?

June 20, 2026

Your organization is implementing agile practices for the first time. The finance department requires detailed cost estimates and fixed budgets for the entire fiscal year before approving projects. Your agile product development initiative has high uncertainty regarding final scope and features. The CFO is concerned about committing funds without a complete project plan. You need funding approval to begin in three weeks. What approach best addresses this business environment constraint?

June 20, 2026

An agile team is working on a product for an organization undergoing a digital transformation. After three sprints, a competitor launches a similar product with advanced AI features that are gaining significant market attention. The CEO wants the team to pivot immediately and incorporate AI capabilities. The current product backlog includes validated customer research supporting different features. Several team members lack AI expertise. How should the project manager address this market change?

June 20, 2026

Your agile team is developing a mobile banking application for a financial services company. During sprint planning, the compliance officer informs the team that new regulatory requirements have been issued by the financial authority and must be implemented within 60 days. The product owner wants to continue with the current sprint plan focused on new customer-facing features. The regulations affect data encryption and audit logging across multiple user stories. What should the agile project manager do first?

June 20, 2026

You are facilitating a project using a hybrid approach where requirements are gathered upfront but development occurs in two-week iterations. After four iterations, the team's velocity has been inconsistent: 28, 15, 32, and 18 story points respectively. The team reports that some iterations include significant work on technical infrastructure that doesn't directly relate to user stories but is necessary for the architecture. The project sponsor is concerned about the unpredictable pace and asks why the team cannot maintain consistent velocity. How should you address this situation?

June 7, 2026

During the eighth sprint of a twelve-sprint project to build an e-learning platform, your team completes a sprint review. The product owner and key stakeholders attend the demonstration, and while they acknowledge the functionality works as specified in the acceptance criteria, they express concern that the user interface is more complex than they expected. They mention that teachers, the primary users, may struggle to navigate the system without extensive training. The team followed the user stories and acceptance criteria exactly as written. What should happen next?

June 7, 2026

Your Kanban team is experiencing flow problems on a data migration project. The team's board shows 15 items in the 'In Progress' column, 8 items in 'Code Review', and only 3 items in 'Done' over the past two weeks. Team members report feeling overwhelmed and context-switching frequently between multiple work items. Lead time for items has increased from an average of 5 days to 12 days. The team lead suggests adding more people to help clear the backlog. What is the most appropriate action to improve flow?

June 7, 2026

You are leading a Scrum team developing a customer relationship management (CRM) system. During sprint planning, the product owner presents a high-priority user story estimated at 21 story points, which exceeds the team's average velocity of 35 points per two-week sprint. The product owner insists this feature is critical for an upcoming sales conference in three weeks and must be completed in the next sprint. Several team members suggest breaking down the story, but the product owner argues that all components must be delivered together to be valuable. How should you proceed?

June 7, 2026

Your agile team has completed three sprints of a mobile application development project. During the sprint retrospective, team members express frustration that they frequently discover integration issues late in the sprint when merging code. These issues require significant rework and have caused the team to miss their sprint goals in two of the last three sprints. The team asks for your guidance on how to address this recurring problem. What should you recommend?

June 7, 2026