Free PMP Course

Tips&Tricks and Test

BEN HAMOUDA CONSULTING
by Ahmed Ben Hamouda

PMP® SCT® SAFe®

 Course Outline

● Chapter 1: Business Environment

● Chapter 2: Project Stakeholders
● Chapter 3: Project Team
● Chapter 4: Agile & Scrum
● Chapter 5: Predictive & Hybrid
● Chapter 6: Planning Techniques

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 Course Outline

● Chapter 7: Performing project work

● Chapter 8: Procurement Management
● Chapter 09: Quality Management
● Chapter 10: Uncertainty and Risks
● Chapter 11: Assessing Project Performance
● Chapter 12: PMP Exam Tips and Tricks

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 Agile & Scrum
Tips & Tricks
● Scope
Waterfall Agile

Fixed Flexible

● Delivery cadence/release is defined by the PM/PO in consultation with the team, and
taking customer contract into consideration.
● Agile values are: Collaborative team, Incremental Product, Customer involvement,
Welcoming changes.
● Customer involvement is a source of feedback and reduces disagreements about
deliverables.
● Transition to Agile is encouraged and no backing off of it.
● When there are a lot of change requests in the project, switch from Waterfall to Agile.
● In Agile, the main focus is on creating and delivering value continuously.
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In Agile:
Iterative Approach Incremental Approach
goals is to refine product Goal is Time2Market

Scope not defined Scope defined

Many changes Minimum changes
Using Experimentation Completed increments
Welcoming feedback to improve Early ROI
Delivery at the end Delivery possible after each iteration.

● Full Agile Approach: mix between iterative and incremental.

● Lean is about continuous improvement of existing processes.
● KanBan is a flow/pull-based approach with limiting WIP.

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In SCRUM:
● Scrum values transparency in information. Key Scrum roles:
Product Owner Voice of the customer Prioritizes the value to be delivered
and refines the project backlog.

Scrum Facilitator, Coach and Removes impediments and

Master/Project Servant Leader resolves conflicts.
Manager

Team Self-organized and Plan and estimate their work,

Cross-functional manage the sprint backlog.

● No using e-mails between SM/PO/Team, use direct communication.

● User stories US are estimated in Story Points.
● Acceptance criteria AC is part of the Definition of Done.
● US and AC are part of the product backlog which is maintained by the PO.
● Tasks are part of the sprint backlog which is maintained by the team.
● They are both part of artifacts including increments.
● Risks are addressed through iterative delivery. Contracts often emphasize flexibility and
collaboration. 6
 In SCRUM:
● MVP (for getting feedback and minimizing risks) Vs MMP (to speed up T2M).
● MVP/Prototype/PoC can mean the same in some questions. Best for 1st release to test market.
● In the sprint: first day is Planning, last day is Review (demo) and Retrospective (improving ways
of working). Every day there is a 15 minute status update and impediments meeting. It cannot
be skipped or canceled.
● No other/urgent meetings are allowed between SM/PO/Team.
● Blocking issues are raised during the stand-up meeting. Identify their root cause then decide
action. In order to ensure that a certain problem does not repeat in the future, discuss it in the
retrospective meeting.
● The SM defends the team from interruptions & empowers them to take solutions.
● No changes are allowed in the middle of the sprint. PO cancels the sprint if it
won’t deliver the expected results/value.
● DoR during Planning and DoD during Review. 7
 In SCRUM:
● Burn-down chart is for tracking remaining work in sprint by SM/PM. If the line of work
completed is below line of plan, it is good.
● Burn-up chart is for monitoring scope in release/project by PO. If the line of work completed is
above line of plan, it is good.
● Stakeholders can attend the Review meeting. if they are complaining that the team is not
delivering the expected value, ensure the product owner has clearly and correctly defined it
and reflected it in the backlog. Engage stakeholders in the review meetings.
● Scrum Master tries to re-energize the team during the Retrospective meeting.
● As a servant leader, pay attention to your team’s needs and discuss that with them.
● Team tries to maintain consistent velocity across sprints.
● Partially finished work is not counted into velocity. The Work ends when budget ends.
● Scrum of scrums is for projects with multiple teams. SM’s meet to share updates.
● Lead time (process E2E) and Cycle time (between process steps). 8
10 Test Questions

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 Correct Answer

Question 1 D

A project manager is assigned to a project that follows an adaptive approach. After gathering all
requirements, the project manager previewed 3 to 5 releases to achieve the project goal. They intend
to define the details of each release progressively when they get more insight and feedback from key
stakeholders.

What should the project manager do, taking into consideration that the project has a fixed budget
that cannot be exceeded?

A. Since the budget is fixed, the project manager should adopt a predictive approach for the project
instead of an adaptive approach
B. Since chances of scope creep are high, the project manager should ensure that a Change Control
Board (CCB) is established before the start of project
C. Before the start of the project, the project manager should set a fixed number of releases and
develop a detailed budget for each of them
D. The project manager should work with stakeholders to prioritize work for each release until
running out of budget 10
 Correct Answer

Question 2 B

An agile team has completed an iteration and delivered the agreed features to the customer. In
a surprise to the team, the features are not accepted by the customer. The project team
conducts a root cause analysis.

What should the project manager do to avoid this situation in the future?

A. Ensure that customer requirements do not change from the start of the project.
B. Ensure that the definition of done (DoD) is well defined and complete for future iterations.
C. Ensure that the development and quality assurance team members implement the feature
correctly.
D. Ensure that the team facilitator allocates tasks correctly to team members.

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 Correct Answers

Question 3 A &B &C

The team is working on a critical project deliverable and the project manager is concerned
about meeting the deadline. There have been complaints from some stakeholders about
some of the team members' performance. The project manager wants to understand the
situation and provide feedback to the team as soon as possible.

What three actions should the project manager take to address this situation?

A. Define team ground rules

B. Perform a retrospective session
C. Implement daily team meetings.
D. Request a manager performance review
E. Conduct an annual review.

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 Correct Answer

Question 4 1+D , 2+A ,3+C, 4+B

Drag the agile Ceremonies on the left to the main subject discussed during the event, on the
right.

1. Iteration Planning A. Development flow

B.Backlog items completed

2. Daily meeting or not

C. Continue, stop, or start

3. Iteration retrospective actions

D. Goal for this Iteration

4. Iteration Review

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 Correct Answer

Question 5 A

During a retrospective review, many project team members say they are not completing
tasks during the iterations because of interruptions and requests for help from other teams.

As a team facilitator, what should the project manager do to avoid this?

A. Identify the problem's root causes and define the ground rules with all project team
members to minimize interferences.
B. Hire a coach to help all project teams to improve their abilities to solve problems on their
own.
C. Reunite with the project team members affected and tell them not to reduce the team's
capacity.
D. Recommend to the project team members that they should improve their planning and
make their stones smaller.
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 Correct Answer

Question 6 A

An agile project has a documented list of requirements prioritized in high, medium, and low
categories. The project team has expressed that it is difficult to know what to work on next
as so many items are listed as high priority.

What should the project manager recommend?

A. Ensure the product owner determines the priority based on a product roadmap, release
plan, and iteration plan.
B. Ask the team to prioritize the high-priority items based on what they feel is a logical
sequence to build.
C. Ask the team to prioritize the high-priority items based on the release plan and what
allows to testing most effectively.
D. Discard the current categorization of requirements as high, medium, and low and
prioritize numerically. 15
 Correct Answer

Question 7 A

A product owner presented the backlog to the team, and the team raised concerns over
implementing some of the features due to various impediments.

What should the project manager suggest that the product owner do next?

A. Ensure that the impediments are captured and prioritized based upon the highest
valued features
B. Estimate the financial impact of the impediments and request additional funding
C. Begin to remove the impediments, starting with the easiest ones first, to foster team
accomplishment
D. Capture the impediments and inform management that their assistance is needed in
resolving the impediments

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 Correct Answer

Question 8 A

As per the Burnup chart shown below, what happened at day 7?

A. Work was removed from the scope

B. The team velocity increased
C. The team velocity decreased
D. Work was added to the scope

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 Correct Answer

Question 9 A

A project manager is managing a project aimed at providing incremental deliveries to the

market every three months. The team has been assigned, and the product backlog was
created and prioritized by the product owner. After four iterations, the product owner
escalates complaints to the CEO because the product does not meet the product owner's
expectations.

What should the project manager have done to prevent this situation from happening?

A. Implemented sprint reviews with the product owner and retrospectives with the team
to minimize gaps
B. Performed risk management analysis during daily scrums
C. Reviewed the organizational process assets (OPAs) and lessons learned from similar
projects
D. Performed backlog grooming to ensure that acceptance criteria were being met
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 Correct Answer

Question 10 C

Five agile teams working together on a product recently performed release planning. Midway
through the project, each team showed that their progress was on track. When all of the
teams integrated at the product level, many integration issues were observed. The overall
product release progress declined with predictions showing the committed content will not
be able to be accomplished.

What should the project manager have done differently?

A. Formed a separate quality assurance team to test all items coming from each team at the
end of each sprint.
B. Performed a Scrum of Scrums on a regular basis to help the teams remove impediments.
C. Ensured frequent and continuous integration of work to obtain early feedback and
continuous learning.
D. Arranged an online session on the integration concept and suggested tools to the teams.
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Thank You
for learning with us!

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