PMI-ACP Exam Prep

Let's
Start

Overview of Domain I: Agile Principles

and Mindset
• Defining Agile Values for Projects
• Embracing the Agile Mindset
• Exploring the Declaration Of Interdependence
• Doing Agile Project Management
• Reviewing the Agile Manifesto
• Twelve Principles of Agile
• Comparing Agile Project Management Approaches
• Leading an Agile Project
• Management and Leadership in Agile
• Practice Visualization to Enhance Transparency
• Experiment to Find Efficient And Effective Ways Of Working
• Encourage Emergent Leadership

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Agile Principles and Mindset

• Think agile and value for the exam
• 16 percent of the exam content
• 19 questions
• Agile fundamentals
• Values for agile projects
• Agile principles and methodologies
• Serving as an agile leader

Agile Principles and Mindset Tasks

• Advocate for agile principles and values in the organization
• Ensure common understanding of agile principles
• Educate and influence agile
• Transparency equates to trust
• Safe environment for experimenting

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Agile Principles and

Mindset Tasks

• Experiment with new techniques

and processes
• Share knowledge new collaboration
• Emergent leadership
• Practice servant leadership

Agile Values and Principles

There are two strategies to fulfill agile values and principles:
1. Adopt a formal agile approach, designed
and proven to achieve desired results.
2. Implement changes to project practices in a
manner that fits the project context to achieve
progress on a core value or principle.

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Utilizing Agile
• Why use agile?
• Different types of projects use
different approaches
• Predictive project plan up front
• Knowledge work has many
unknowns

Knowledge Work
Projects are Special
• Industrial work requires up-front
planning
• Knowledge work expects change
• Knowledge work is invisible work
• Agile is best suited for software
development projects

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Industrial Vs. Knowledge Work Projects

Industrial projects Knowledge work projects

• Visible • Invisible
• Stable • Lots of changes
• Running things • Changing environment
• Structure • Less structure
• Correct answers • Lots of questions
• Task driven • Value-driven
• Command and control • Autonomy driven
• Standards • Innovation
• Performance measurement • Learning and teaching
• Cost of workers for a task • Workers are an asset not a cost

Definable vs.
High-Uncertainty
Work
• Definable work projects have
clear procedures that have
proven successful
• High-uncertainty projects have
high rates of:
• Change
• Complexity
• Risk

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Defined Processes

• Repeatable processes
• Do the work the same way each time
• Prescribed process of action

Empirical
Processes
• Based on experience and
observation
• Transparency
• Inspection
• Adaptation

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Defined processes vs.

Empirical processes
• Industrial work relies on defined processes
• Knowledge work relies on empirical processes
• A defined process defines all steps in advance

Defined processes vs.

Empirical processes
• Empirical processes are:
• Interactive
• Incremental
• Change often
• Adapt
• Pass through reviews

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Agile Declaration of Interdependence

Some of the general characteristics of the agile mindset includes the Declaration
of Interdependence (DOI).

The DOI outlines six rules…

Increase
return on
investment.

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Deliver reliable results.

Expect
uncer tainty.

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Unleash creativity and

Innovation.

Boost performance.

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Improve
effectiveness
and reliability.

Exam Tip
• You must be agile not only know agile
• Embrace empirical processes
• Knowledge work is invisible work
• Communication and collaboration is paramount

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Being Agile
Agile is a mindset that is:
• Defined by values
• Guided by principles
• Manifested through many different practices

The Agile Mindset

What does it mean to “BE AGILE”?

Being agile isn’t simply a matter of using a certain –

Set of tools or practices
or following a specific methodology

Agility involves a new mindset – way of thinking –

based on the Agile Manifest including
values and principles

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Summing Agile Core Principles

Welcome and expect change

Create small value-added increments
Utilize feedback loops
Constantly learn through discovery and creativity
Focus on developing a value for stakeholders
It’s okay to fail fast
Deliver value throughout the project
Constantly improve upon the project and the project work

Creating
Organizational
Agility
• Think and embrace agile as an
individual
• Doing and understanding agile
helps us to begin to influence
others to embrace agile
• Influence others to embrace
agile through education and
demonstration

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Inverted Triangle Model

• Time/cost/scope
• What’s a variable and what is fixed

scope fixed time cost

Agile Triangle of
constraints

Triple
constraints

time cost varies scope

Exam Tip
• Don’t cram for the PMI – ACP exam
• Embrace the mindset of agile
• Understand agile from a leader’s perspective

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One person

If one member of an
organization adopts an
agile mindset, it can
help that person
become more effective.

One team

If one team in the

organization adopts
agile principles and
practices, it can help
the team members
become more effective
at delivering their
project work.

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If the entire
organization adopts
agile principles and
Organization practices, it helps many
team members become
more effective at
delivering their project
work.

Agile • How can the project team act in an

agile manner?
Mindset • What can the team deliver quickly and
obtain early feedback to benefit the next
delivery cycle?
• How can the team act in a transparent
manner?
• What work can be avoided in order to
focus on high-priority items?
• How can a servant-leadership approach
benefit the achievement of the team’s
goals?

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• Increase return on
investment
• Deliver reliable
results
• Expect uncertainty
• Unleash creativity
and innovation
• Boost performance
• Improve
effectiveness and
reliability
Agile Leadership Network

Doing Agile Versus Being Agile

Doing Agile Being Agile

• Agile practices • Agile mindset
• Iterations • Embracing agile principles
• Stand-up meetings
• Tailoring processes
• No agile mindset

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Personal

• You, the project

manager, must:
• Embrace agile
mindset
• Understand agile
principles
• Sell the idea of
agile
• Expect skeptics

Team

• Agile team
members must:
• See the value of
agile approach
• Experience
benefits agile
provides
• Have quick
victories

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Stakeholders

• Project stakeholders
must:
• Be willing to try
agile approach
• Be convinced on
agile values
• Experience quick
ROI
• Eat dessert first

The Agile Manifesto

The Agile Manifesto includes four value statements and twelve guiding
principles.

The Agile Manifest was written by software development experts. It uses terms
from the IT field to express ideas. Those ideas are applicable to any kind of
knowledge work project, so be prepared to recognize these ideas in other
contexts.

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The Four Values

Individuals and
Interactions over
processes and tools

Working software
over comprehensive
documentation

The Four
Values

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The Four
Values
Customer
collaboration
over contract
negotiation

The Four
Values

Responding to change
over following a plan

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Individuals And Interactions Over

Processes and Tools
• Individuals and interactions are most important
• Processes and tools will be needed on projects
• Projects are completed by people not processes and tools
• Agile projects are people driven

Focus on People First

• People complete projects
• People negotiate
• People do knowledge work
• Processes create repeatable results
• Agile is not a machine

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Working Software Over Comprehensive

Documentation
• Agile project need to deliver value
• Value is about the purpose or business need the project aims to
deliver
• Documentation is barely sufficient
• Documentation is done just in time – as the last responsible
moment
• Documentation might also be just because
• Industry requirements
• Organizational requirements

Beware Documentation
• Documentation adds no value
• Who reads the EULA?
• Who reads the reports?
• Comments are okay, excessive documentation is waste

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Customer Collaboration Over Contract

Negotiation
• Agile is flexible, accommodating, and willing to change
• Contracts are often rigid and uncooperative
• Agile contracts must accommodate change
• Difference between being right and doing the right thing

Contracts and Agile

Projects

• Agile is uncertain
• Contracts are legal documents
• Contracts want certainty
• Define project approach
• Nature of agile to change

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Responding to Change Over Following A

Plan
• Agile welcomes change
• Predictive projects plan everything in advance
• Agile projects have lots and lots of many changes
• Agile projects have uncertainty up front

Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and

continuous delivery of valuable software.

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Welcome changing
requirements, even
late in development.
Agile processes
harness change for
the customer's
competitive
advantage.

Deliver working
software
frequently, from a
couple of weeks
to a couple of
months, with a
preference to the
shorter timescale.

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Business people and

developers must work
together daily
throughout the project.

Build projects
around motivated
individuals. Give
them the
environment and
support they need,
and trust them to
get the job done.

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The most efficient and

effective method of
conveying information
to and within a
development team is
face-to-face
conversation.

Working
software is
the primary
measure of
progress.

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Agile processes
promote sustainable
development. The
sponsors, developers,
and users should be
able to maintain a
constant pace
indefinitely.

Continuous
attention to
technical
excellence and
good design
enhances
agility.

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Simplicity--the art of maximizing the

amount of work not done--is essential.

The best
archite ctures,
requireesigns
ments,
and d
e from
emerg
anizing
self-org
tea ms.

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Exercise 1

At regular
intervals, the
team reflects on
how to become
more effective,
then tunes and
adjusts its
behavior
accordingly.

Agile Approaches and Methods

Agile approaches and agile methods are umbrella terms that cover a variety of
frameworks and methods.

Lean
Agile
Kanban ScrumBan
Crystal

AUP
Scrum
XP
FDD DSDM

Source: TOGETHER FOR THE FIRST TIME

PMBOK ® GUIDE – Sixth Edition + Agile Practice Guide, Page 11

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EXERCISE: SEVERE SUMMARIES
To make sure you understand the intent behind each of the Agile Manifesto principles, shorten
them to just five words or less that describe the essence of the idea. You can use these
shortened descriptions as a memory aid to help you recall these concepts. The first two have
been done for you as an example.
Principle Shortened Version
1 Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer Satisfy customer with great
through early and continuous delivery of systems
valuable software.
2 Welcome changing requirements, even late in Welcome change
development. Agile processes harness
change for the customer’s competitive
advantage.
3 Deliver working software frequently, from a
couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a
preference to the shorter timescale.
4 Business people and developers must work
together daily throughout the project.

5 Build projects around motivated individuals.

Give them the environment and support they
need, and trust them to get the job done.
6 The most efficient and effective method of
conveying Information to and within a
development team is face-to face
conversation.
7 Working software is the primary measure of
progress

8 Agile processes promote sustainable

development. The sponsors, developers, and
users should be able to maintain a constant
pace indefinitely.
9 Continuous attention to technical excellence
and good design enhances agility.

10 Simplicity—the art of maximizing the amount

of work not done—is essential.

11 The best architectures, requirements, and

designs emerge from self-organizing teams.

12 At regular intervals, the team reflects on how

to become more effective, then tunes and
adjusts its behavior
accordingly.
ANSWER
Your description may vary, depending on what part of the principle stands out most for you, but
the following are possible abbreviations.

Principle Shortened Version

1 Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer Satisfy customer with great
through early and continuous delivery of systems
valuable software.
2 Welcome changing requirements, even late in Welcome change
development. Agile processes harness
change for the customer’s competitive
advantage.
3 Deliver working software frequently, from a Deliver frequently
couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a
preference to the shorter timescale.
4 Business people and developers must work Work with business
together daily throughout the project.

5 Build projects around motivated individuals. Motivate people

Give them the environment and support they
need, and trust them to get the job done.
6 The most efficient and effective method of Face-to-face communications
conveying Information to and within a
development team is face-to face
conversation.
7 Working software is the primary measure of Measure systems done
progress

8 Agile processes promote sustainable Maintain sustainable pace

development. The sponsors, developers, and
users should be able to maintain a constant
pace indefinitely.
9 Continuous attention to technical excellence Maintain design
and good design enhances agility.

10 Simplicity—the art of maximizing the amount Keep it simple

of work not done—is essential.

11 The best architectures, requirements, and Team creates architecture

designs emerge from self-organizing teams.

12 At regular intervals, the team reflects on how Reflect and adjust

to become more effective, then tunes and
adjusts its behavior
accordingly.
PMI-ACP Exam Prep

Iterative and Incremental Approaches

Iterative and incremental approaches reduce waste and rework because of
feedback. These approaches use:
• Very short feedback loops
• Frequent adaptation of process
• Reprioritization
• Regularly updated plans
• Frequent delivery

Core Principles of Agile

Let’s sum up the core principles of agile:
• Welcome change
• Work in small value-added increments
• Use build and feedback loops
• Learn through discovery
• Value-driven development
• Continuous delivery
• Continuous improvement

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Four Types of Life Cycles

Predictive life cycle…

Source: TOGETHER FOR THE FIRST TIME

PMBOK ® GUIDE – Sixth Edition + Agile Practice Guide, Page 18

Four Types of Life Cycles

Agile life cycle…

Source: PMBOK ® GUIDE – Sixth Edition + Agile Practice Guide, Page 18

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Tailoring Circumstances
Once a situation arises that requires tailoring, discuss those
changes with those who will be impacted by the change.
Plan a short trial, along with an honest follow-up review before
committing to the change.

Tailoring Risks and Mitigation

The tailoring process can be effective and productive, but may
involve some risks. The team can mitigate these risks with the
following best practices:
• Get used to normal, out-of-the-box agile before attempting to
change it
• Carefully examine the motivation to drop, amend, or append
a practice

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Introducing Scrum
• Scrum is easy to understand, but can be difficult to master
• Scrum is a rugby term
• Scrum uses a methodology called the scrum framework
• The scrum framework is a set of practices, roles and
responsibilities, events, artifacts, and rules

Scrum Pillars and Values

• Transparency – a common understanding of what done means
in a scrum project
• Inspection – reviewing the project to determine the
completeness of the project; finding root cause of variances
from the project goals
• Adaptation – making adjustments to the scrum process to
mitigate problems or bad trends

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Introducing Scrum Sprints

• Timebox iteration for project work
• A timebox is a predetermined duration
• Scrum sprints are between one and four weeks in duration
• During a sprint no changes are made that would affect the goal
of the sprint
• A sprint can be cancelled if they change in the project goals
make the sprint goals obsolete
• Only the product owner may cancel a sprint

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More About Scrum Sprints

• If a sprint is cancelled, uncompleted backlog items are returned
to the product backlog
• Within a sprint there are several activities:
• Sprint planning meeting
• Development
• Daily scrums
• Sprint review meeting
• Sprint retrospective meeting

Introducing Scrum Team Roles

• Scrum Master – responsible for communicating the scrum
methodology and ensuring the methodology is used effectively
• Product owner – prioritizes the product backlog to ensure value
from each sprint
• Development team – the software developers who create the
product through the sprint

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Looking At The Scrum Activities

• Scrum activities are also known as events or ceremonies
• There are five scrum ceremonies:
• Product backlog refinement
• Sprint planning meetings
• Daily scrum
• Sprint reviews
• Sprint retrospective

Grooming
the Backlog
• The product owner owns
the backlog
• Backlog refinement is the
prioritization backlog items
• The entire project team
may participate in the
backlog grooming

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Sprint Planning Meeting

• Project team needs to discuss the goals of the upcoming sprint
• Team discusses how the work will be accomplished
• Product owner reviews with team items in the updated backlog
• Development team defines how the work will be done in the
goals of the sprint will be achieved
• The development team is self-organized

Participating In
a Daily Scrum
• The daily scrum is also known
as a stand-up meeting
• This is a 15-minute time-boxed
meeting
• The daily scrum is held every
day at the same time and
location
• The daily scrum is for the
development team only

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Daily Scrum Meeting Questions

01 02 03
What have I done What do I plan to Are there any
since the last daily do today? impediments to my
scrum? progress?

Working With Large Scrum Teams

• Scrum of scrums
• Scrum of scrums of scrums
• Four questions are answered:
• What has your team done since we last met?
• What will your team do before our next meeting?
• Are there any roadblocks in your team’s way?
• Will your team put anything in another team’s way?

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Introducing A Sprint Review

• Hosted at the end of every sprint
• Attendees will be the development team, the product owner,
scrum master, and sometimes other project stakeholders
• Development team will demo the work created in the increment
• The group will decide if “Done” has been achieved
• The development team and the product owner will discuss the
sprint and the remaining items in the product backlog

Introducing a Sprint Retrospective

• The development team meeting posted after the sprint review,
but before the next sprint planning meeting
• This is a meeting to inspect an adapt
• Lessons learned and opportunities for improvement
• Review of the product owner’s feedback about the last iteration
• An opportunity to improve on their approach based on the
retrospective and the last sprint

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Scrum Artifact – Product Increment

01 02 03
The product The product The development
increment is the increment is a chunk team and the
outcome of an of the project work product owner must
iteration be in agreement of
what done means for
an increment

Scrum Artifact – Product Backlog

• The product backlog is the source for all product requirements
• The product owner sorts and prioritizes the backlog items
• The development team always works on the most important
items based on the prioritized items in the product backlog
• The backlog is always prioritized before the current sprint
• Backlog refinement is done by both the product owner and the
development team working in harmony
• The team estimates their capacity to attack the items in the
product backlog

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exercise
3

Scrum Artifacts – Sprint Backlog

• Sprint backlog is a subset of the product backlog
• Sprint backlog serves as the goal for the current iteration
• Sprint backlog is a view into the work to be accomplished in the
current sprint
• Sprint backlog is updated and refined by the development team

All About Kanban

• Originated at Toyota
• Japanese word meaning “signboard”
To Do In Progress Done
Create landing page Server setup Domain purchased
Build shopping cart Domain routing Logo created
Payment gateway Printed materials
Catalog search Marketing emailer
Site search

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Kanban Pull System

• A pull system moves work through development
• The development team completes an item; the next item in
queue is pulled into the next stage of the process
• Kanban does not use time boxed iterations
• Only so many items can be in each stage of the project
• Work moves from left to right

Kanban
Board

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Exam Tip
• Kanban Boards are pull systems
• They visualize the project
• Kanban boards are sign boards
• Kanban in Japanese means “cards you can see”

Principles of Kanban
• Visualize the workflow
• Limit work in progress
• Manage the workflow
• Make process policies clear
• Aim for collaborative improvements

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Kanban Pull System

• Work item completed
• Next item pulled into WIP
• Only so many items allowed in WIP
• Not a real need for iterations

Extreme Programming
• Extreme programming is also known as XP
• XP is all about software development best practices
• The PMI-ACP exam will lightly test your knowledge of XP

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XP Core Values
• Simplicity – reducing complexity, extra features, and waste
• Find the simplest thing that could possibly work

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Extreme Programming Core Values

• Communication
• Ensuring that the
project team knows
what is expected of
them
• Ensuring the project
team knows what
other people are
working on
• The daily standup
meeting is an
excellent
communication tool

Extreme Programming
Core Values

• Feedback:
• The development team
needs feedback early in
the project
• Failing fast is a way to get
feedback early
• Feedback gives the team
an opportunity to improve
the project

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• Courage
• Developers’
work is entirely
visible to others
on the project
team
• Team members
share code and
correct each
other’s code
Extreme Programming • XP uses pair
programming
Core Values

Extreme Programming
Core Values

• Respect
• Team members must
respect one another
• Everyone is responsible
for the success and or
failure of the project
• Everyone works differently
but must work together

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XP Team Roles
• Coach – mentor/guide/facilitator/communicator similar to the
ScrumMaster
• Customer – the individual who provides requirements priorities
and direction for the project similar to the product owner
• Programmer – the developers who write the code
• Testers – Define and write the acceptability test

XP Core
Practices:
Whole Team
• XP team members
are collocated
• Generalizing
specialist not role
specialist
• Efficient and sharing
of information

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• Planning games are just planning activities

XP Core • Release planning is the release of new
functionality
Practices: • No more than one/two releases per year
Planning • The customer outlines the functionality
required in the release
Games • Developers estimate the difficulty to
build the functionality

XP Core • Iteration planning is similar to sprint

Practices: planning
Planning • Iteration planning happens at the
Games start of every iteration
• The customer defines what
functionality they want to see by
the end of the iteration
• The development team estimates
the difficulty to build the
functionality

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XP Core • Small releases to test environment are part

of the XP practices
Practices: • Increases visibility to the customer
Small • Helps to deploy working software to the end
Releases users

XP Core Practices: Customer Tests

• Definition of the required functionality
• One or more test criteria for the software to be working
PMI-ACP Exam Prep

XP Core Practices: Collective Code

Ownership
• Any pair of developers can improve or amend the code
• Multiple people will work on all the code
• Improve defect resolution in discovery
• Knowledge is shared not isolated

XP Core 01 02 03
Practices: A coding
standard is
The team
adheres to the
Provides for
consistency in
Code defined standard writing the
code
Standards
PMI-ACP Exam Prep

XP Core Practices: Sustainable Pace

• Productivity is optimized through a sustainable pace
• Consistent overtime and long hours are not sustainable

XP Core Practices: Metaphor

• Metaphors and similes are used to explain designs
• Metaphors help communicate the software to the customer

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XP Core Practices: Continuous

Integration
• Compiling the code frequently throughout the day
• Programmers check-in code to the code repository
• Integration test run automatically for immediate feedback

Acceptance test are written

prior to developing new code

XP Core Initial tests will fail because the

Practices: code has not been fully
Test-driven developed yet
Development When the code has been
written correctly it will pass
the test
PMI-ACP Exam Prep

XP Core Practices: Refactoring

• Cleaning up the code
• Removing duplicated code
• Lowering coupling
• Increasing cohesion

Exam Tip
• Embrace the idea of refactoring
• Cleans up the code to make it:
• Simpler
• Easier to understand
• Adhere to standards
• Future work
PMI-ACP Exam Prep

What is the simplest

thing that could work?
XP Core
Practices: Simple does not mean
Simple easy
Design
Simple design is a risk
mitigation approach

Exercise 4

One person writes the code

while the second person
reviews the code
XP Core
The two people change roles
Practices: frequently
Pair
Programming
The pair will catch mistakes
and speed up productivity
PMI-ACP Exam Prep

Lean Product Development

• Toyota production system
• Visual management tools
• Customer requirements to find value
• Learning and continuous Improvement

Exercise 6

Seven Lean Core Concepts

• Eliminate waste
• Empower the team
• Deliver fast
• Optimize the whole
• Build quality in
• Defer decisions
• Amplify learning
PMI-ACP Exam Prep

exercise 5

Seven Wastes Of Lean

• Partially done work
• Extra processes
• Extra features
• Task switching
• Waiting
• Motion
• Defects

Dynamic Systems Development Method

• Focus on the business need
• Deliver on time
• Collaborate
• Never compromise quality
• Build incrementally from foundations
• Develop iteratively
• Communicate continuously and clearly
• Demonstrate control
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Feature-Driven Development
• The development team creates a model for the product
• They will build a feature list and a plan for the work
• The team moves through the design and build the directions for
the product features
• The team designs by features and builds by features
PMI-ACP Exam Prep

Domain object modeling

Developing by feature
Individual class code ownership
Feature-Driven Feature teams
Development
Inspections
Characteristics
Configuration management
Regular builds
Visibility of progress and results

Crystal
• Customized methodologies coded by color names
• Methodologies are appropriate for different criticalities and team
sizes
• Criticality is about the impact of a product defect design

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Crystal Details
• Crystal Clear
• Crystal Yellow
• Crystal Orange and others
• Unique characteristics are driven by several factors such as
team size, system criticality, and project priorities.
• This Crystal family addresses the realization that each project
may require a slightly tailored set of policies, practices, and
processes in order to meet the project ‘s unique characteristics.

Product Vision
• A product vision is created
• The product must be in alignment with the company’s strategy
• This is done by the product owner

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Creating the
Product
Roadmap
• The visualization of
product features
• The product
roadmap equates to
the product division
as a whole
• This is done and
owned by the
product owner

Release Planning
• The release timing for specific product functionality
• Priorities are assigned to the product features from most
important to least important
• These features become the product backlog
• Owned by the product owner

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Iteration Planning
• Goals are established for the current Sprint or iteration
• Goals are based on the product backlog
• Product owner in the development team work together to
prioritize features
• This is done at the start of each Sprint

• The development team meets

each day throughout the Sprint
• What have you done since the
last daily scrum?
• What will you do today?
• Are there any impediments in
your way?

Daily Scrum

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Sprint Review
• The development team provides a demo of the product
• Happens at the end of each Sprint
• Product owner and development team own the stage

Sprint Retrospective
• A look back at the last sprint
• Opportunity to optimize efficiency
• Opportunity to refine environment and processes

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Released
Product
The product is released
according to the project’s
release plan

Agile Roles Team facilitator

In agile, three common roles are used:

Cross-functional
Team Members

Product owner

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Cross-functional
Team Members

Cross-functional team
members have the skills to
produce a working product.
Cross-functional development
teams deliver potentially
releasable product on a
regular cadence.

Cross-functional teams are critical

because:

01 02 03
They can deliver With higher quality Without external
finished work in the dependencies
shortest possible
time

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Management vs. Leadership

• Management is about getting things done
• Leadership is about getting people to want to do what needs to
be done
• Management is more concerned with task control command

Comparing Management and Leadership

Management Leadership
• Task and things • People
• Control • Empowerment
• Efficiency • Being effective
• Speed • Direction
• Command • Principles
• Doing things right • Doing the right things

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Product Owners
Critical success factor for agile teams is
strong product ownership

Product Owners
Create the backlog for and with the team
Backlog helps teams determine how to deliver the highest value
without creating waste

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Product
Owners
• The product owners:
• Guide the direction
of the product
• Rank the work
based on its
business value
• Provide feedback
• Set direction on
next deliverable

Product Owners
• Work with stakeholders, customers, and teams to define
direction
• Typically have a business background and provides deep
subject matter expertise to decisions
• May requests help from other SMEs

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Team Facilitator
A team facilitator or servant leader is typically seen on agile teams, and may be
know as:

Project manager

Scrum manager
Project team lead

Team coach Team facilitator

Management vs. Leadership

• Management is about getting things done
• Leadership is about getting people to want to do what needs to
be done
• Management is more concerned with task control command

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Servant Leadership Empowers the Team

Servant leadership is the practice of leading through service to the
team, by focusing on addressing the needs of the team to enable the
highest possible team performance.

Purpose People Process

Servant Leadership Characteristics

These characteristics enable project leaders to become more agile and facilitate
the team’s success:

Promoting self-awareness

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Servant Leadership Characteristics

These characteristics enable project leaders to become more agile and facilitate
the team’s success:

Listening

Servant Leadership Characteristics

These characteristics enable project leaders to become more agile and facilitate
the team’s success:

Serving those on the team

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Servant Leadership Characteristics

These characteristics enable project leaders to become more agile and facilitate
the team’s success:

Helping people grow

Servant Leadership Characteristics

These characteristics enable project leaders to become more agile and facilitate
the team’s success:

Coaching vs. controlling

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Servant Leadership Characteristics

These characteristics enable project leaders to become more agile and facilitate
the team’s success:

Promoting safety, respect, and trust

Servant Leadership Characteristics

These characteristics enable project leaders to become more agile and facilitate
the team’s success:

Promoting the energy and intelligence of others

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Servant Leader
Responsibilities
Servant leaders
manage
relationships to build
communication and
coordination across
the organization.

Servant Leader Responsibilities

• Educate stakeholders around why and how to be agile
• Support the team through mentoring, encouragement
• Celebrate with the team and external groups
• Help team with technical project management activities

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Servant Leaders Facilitate

When project managers act as servant leaders, the emphasis shifts from:

Managing TO
Facilitating
Coordination Collaboration

Servant Leaders
Remove
Impediments
• Servant leaders are responsible
to streamline processes that
are impeding a team or
organization.

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Primary Role of Servant Leader

Summing up the PRIMARY role of a servant leader is to:
• Shield the team from interruptions
• Remove impediments to progress
• Communicate and re-communicate the project vision
• Carry food and water

Servant Leadership
Success

Servant leaders can usually see how well their

leadership integrates into the agile mindset and
value.

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Leadership Tasks
• Give transparency through visualization
• Create a safe environment for experimentation
• Experiment with new techniques and processes
• Share knowledge through collaboration

-ACP
Coach

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Team Formation and Development

Forming The agile process of
team
formation and
development is based on
the Bruce Truckman
Storming Norming Performing model.

Adjourning

Source: PMI-ACP® Exam Prep, Page 214

Agile Teams
In practice, the most effective agile teams tend to range in size from:
• Three to nine members
• Located in a team space
• 100% dedicated to the team

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Agile Teams

Agile encourages self-managing teams, where

the members decide who will perform the work
within the next period’s defined scope.

Agile teams thrive with servant leadership, who

support the approach to their work.

Creating Collaborative Team Spaces

Characteristics and location of the delivery team
Work environment has significant impact on the team’s capacity
for collaboration and communication
Collocated teams, but this comes with some challenges

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Collocated Teams
Agility’s definition of a collocated team isn’t enough to locate all team
members in the same city or even the same floor of the same building.
An agile team is considered to be collocated if all its members are working
within 33 feet of each other, with no physical barriers.

Osmotic
Communication
A benefit of collocated
teams is osmotic
communication.
Useful information that
flows between team
members who are in close
proximity.

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At least one team member is working off-site

Distributed Majority of agile teams are distributed
Communication tools and reduced
Teams communication costs
Cost-effective approach

Global, Cultural, and Team Diversity

As communication options expand, it’s not uncommon to have
team member from different countries working together.
However, this may create challenges:
• Different time zones
• Different cultures
• Different communication styles
• Different native languages

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Digital Tools for Distributed Teams

• There are a host of electronic tools that distributed teams can
use to mimic the low-tech, high-touch tools favored by agile
teams and establish osmotic communication.
• Videoconferencing, live chat, Skype
• Interactive whiteboards
• Instant messaging (IM), and VoIP
• (Voice over Internet Protocol) headsets

Digital Tools for Distributed Teams

• Electronic tools for distributed teams to mimic the low-tech,
high-touch tools:
• Presence-based applications
• Electronic task boards and story boards
• Web-based meeting facilitators
• Survey applications
• Agile project management software
• Virtual card walls

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Distributed vs.
Outsourced Teams
Distributed team: multiple development
sites that can span buildings, cities, or
countries
Outsourced team: multiple legal entities,
contracting, contract administration and
different development infrastructures

Encourage Emergent Leadership

• Team success is more important than individual success
• Anyone can be a leader on an agile team
• Understanding roles and responsibilities

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Fostering Emergent Leadership

• Allow team members to take charge
• Motivate the team members
• Show recognition of individuals and team
• Avoid zero sum rewards

Assignment: Roles and Responsibilities

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Section Summary
• Defining Agile Values for Projects
• Embracing the Agile Mindset
• Exploring the Declaration Of Interdependence
• Doing Agile Project Management
• Reviewing the Agile Manifesto
• Twelve Principles of Agile
• Comparing Agile Project Management Approaches
• Leading an Agile Project
• Management and Leadership in Agile
• Practice Visualization to Enhance Transparency
• Experiment to Find Efficient And Effective Ways Of Working
• Encourage Emergent Leadership

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Question 01

What Agile Principle

Best Equates Trust?
Correct Answer!

Transparency
Equates To Trust
Question 02

Agile projects are different

than waterfall projects
because they do not do what
approach?
Correct Answer!
Predictive planning
upfront
. Agile projects do not
plan out the entire
project upfront
Question 03

Agile relies on this approach for

experimenting and creativity to
discover and learn.
Correct Answer!

Agile processes are

empirical processes.
-open for experimenting
and creativity
Question 04

We increase return on investment

by making a continuous focus,
How do we do that?
Correct Answer!
We increase return on
investment by making
continuous flow of value
our focus
Question 05

This meeting is just 15-minutes

long and addresses three
question,
Correct Answer!

This daily scrum is a 15-

minutes meeting that
addresses:
What have I done since the
last daily scrum?
What do I plan to today?
Are there any impediments to
my progress?
Question 06

This is a meeting to
inspect and adapt…
Correct Answer!

The Sprint
Retrospective is a
meeting to inspect and
adapt. It’s a
development team
meeting posted after
the sprint review, but
before the next sprint
planning meeting.
Question 07

This process aims to clean up the

code, remove duplicate code, lower
coupling, and increase code
cohesion?
Correct Answer!

That’s right!
Refactoring aims to
clean up the code,
remove duplicate
code, lower
coupling, and
increase code
cohesion?
Question 08

This agile approaches asks

what’s the simplest thing that
could work…
Correct Answer!

XP core practices
asks what is the
simplest thing that
could work?
Question 09

With what approach the recognition

is on the team members not the
project managers or coach or
ScrumMaster…
Correct Answer!

Servant leadership
outs the recognition
is on the team
members, not the
project managers or
coach or
ScrumMaster.
Question 10

This is a Japanese word

that means sign board.
Correct Answer!

Kanban is a Japanese word

that means sign board. The
signboard has categories of
work for each stage of the
production process. Kanban
Visualize the workflow
Limit work in progress
Manage flow
Make process policies explicit
Improve collaboratively
Question 11

Working software is
preferred over this item,
Correct Answer!

As part of the agile

manifesto, working
software is preferred
over comprehensive
documentation.
Question 12

In this approach, one person

writes the code while the other
person reviews the code.
Correct Answer!

Pair programming,
One person writes the code
while the second person
reviews the code.
The two people change roles
frequently.
The pair will catch mistakes
and speed up productivity.
Question 13

There are seven key

concepts in this
approach,
Correct Answer!

Lean has seven core

concepts you should be
familiar with,
Eliminate waste
Empower the team
Deliver fast
Optimize the whole
Build quality in
Defer decisions
Amplify learning
Question 14

This is a scrum artifact that is a

subset of the product backlog.
Correct Answer!

Like the product

backlog, the sprint
backlog is a
prioritization of the
product. The sprint
backlog is a subset of
the product backlog.
Question 15

This a scrum artifact

that is the outcome of
an iteration.
Correct Answer!

The product increment is

the outcome of an
iteration.
The product increment is a
chunk of the project work.
The development team
and the product owner
must be in agreement with
what done means for an
increment.