Vocabulary the cards assume
- Product backlog
- The ordered list of everything that might go into the product. The product owner is accountable for its order.
- Iteration or sprint
- A fixed timebox that ends with a usable increment. Scrum calls it a sprint; the CAPM outline says iteration.
- Sprint backlog
- The sprint goal, the items selected to meet it, and the developers’ plan for delivering them.
- Story points
- A relative size that blends effort, complexity and uncertainty. They are deliberately not hours.
- Velocity
- Points a team completes per iteration, averaged over several. A planning input for that team only.
- Capacity
- The working time the team actually has in an iteration once holidays, leave, meetings and support duty are taken out.
- Lead time and cycle time
- Lead time runs from request to delivery. Cycle time runs from the start of work to done.
- Throughput
- Items finished per unit of time, the flow counterpart of velocity.
- Cumulative flow diagram (CFD)
- Stacked bands showing how many items sit in each board state over time.
From a WBS to iterations
Task 3.2 asks you to translate a work breakdown structure (WBS) into adaptive iterations. The mapping is loose but usable: major deliverables become epics or themes, the pieces under them become features and user stories, and the story takes over the work package’s job as the unit that gets estimated and scheduled.
Timing is the real difference. A WBS is decomposed in full before execution. A backlog is detailed just in time, a few iterations ahead, and its far end stays coarse on purpose: items near the bottom are the ones most likely to change shape or drop out before anyone builds them. Refinement is where that just-in-time detail gets added.
Adaptive and predictive tracking
A predictive project tracks against a baseline with earned value, covered on cost and schedule variance. An adaptive project tracks completed, accepted work: burndown and burnup charts, velocity, and flow metrics read off the board. The table below says which chart answers which question, and the same topic comes shuffled with fresh cards on the practice test filtered to iterations and backlog.
Which artifact answers which question
| Artifact | Shows | Ask it |
|---|---|---|
| Iteration burndown | Remaining work in the current iteration, day by day | Will the selected work be done by the end of the timebox? |
| Release burnup | Completed work rising toward a separate scope line | Is the team slow, or is the scope growing? |
| Velocity chart | Points completed in each past iteration | How much should the team take on next time? |
| Cumulative flow diagram | Items in each board state over time | Where is work queuing up? |
| Kanban board | Current state of every item, with WIP limits | What is blocked right now? |
| Information radiator | Any of the above, posted where everyone can see it | Does the whole team see the same picture? |
Cards on this topic
These scenarios come from sprint planning, board reviews and backlog decisions. The product owner turns up in many of them, sometimes making a call that belongs to someone else.
Practice cards here are written for study, not taken from PMI. The real CAPM mixes multiple choice with drag-and-drop, hot spot, comic-strip and video items.
Card 01 of 25 · 0 done · 0 right
To do 25
Doing
Card 01 of 25
During a sprint estimation session, what is the Product Owner’s primary role?
Note on A
Assigning tasks to individuals is not the Product Owner’s job; developers organize their own work.
Note on B
Correct: The Product Owner explains each item’s intent and acceptance criteria so the developers can size the work accurately.
Note on C
Estimates come from the people doing the work, so the developers, not the Product Owner, size the items.
Note on D
Facilitation is usually the Scrum Master’s role, not the Product Owner’s.
Card 02 of 25
A product owner reviews the development team’s estimates for an upcoming release and concludes the delivery date will be missed. The product owner instructs the team to halve every estimate so the release can still meet the committed date, noting that the product owner is accountable for delivery value. How should the team respond to this instruction?
Note on A
The Product Owner owns value and ordering, not the size of the work; halving estimates only hides the gap.
Note on B
Moving stories without discussion takes a scope decision that belongs to the Product Owner.
Note on C
Estimates belong to the developers; the Scrum Master coaches but does not set them.
Note on D
Correct: Honest estimates keep the forecast transparent, and the Product Owner protects the date by reordering or trimming scope.
Card 03 of 25
A Kanban team’s throughput has stalled, and items are piling up in individual stages of the board. The team debates whether to set a WIP limit for each column or one limit for the entire board. Which approach is most appropriate?
Note on A
Removing WIP limits lets work pile up further and hides where flow is breaking down.
Note on B
Correct: Per-column WIP limits show exactly which stage is overloaded, so the team can swarm on that bottleneck.
Note on C
A single board-wide cap can hide a pileup in one stage, which is the problem the team is seeing.
Note on D
Limiting only the done column does nothing to control work piling up in earlier stages.
Card 04 of 25
A regulated product must produce audit evidence for every increment it delivers, but the team currently assembles that evidence only at release time. Recent audits flagged gaps in traceability between requirements and delivered features. What should the team change?
Note on A
An extra inspection step adds a handoff but does not make evidence part of finishing each item.
Note on B
A separate register assembled at release keeps the late, batch approach that caused the traceability gaps.
Note on C
More audits find gaps more often but do not prevent them in the team’s way of working.
Note on D
Correct: Making compliance evidence part of the Definition of Done means every increment carries its traceability before it counts as done.
Card 05 of 25
A team’s burndown chart has shown a nearly flat line for the past four sprints, remaining far above the ideal trend line, while story points committed at each sprint planning session stay constant. What should the project manager and scrum master do?
Note on A
A flat burndown means work is not getting done, so calling it a sustainable pace hides the problem.
Note on B
Shorter sprints change the reporting cycle but do nothing about what is stopping the work.
Note on C
Correct: A flat line over several sprints signals blocked work, so the scrum master and project manager should help the team find and remove the impediments.
Note on D
Weakening the definition of done lowers quality to make the chart look better without fixing the cause.
Card 06 of 25
A team is planning a sprint. When should they use capacity-based planning instead of velocity-based planning?
Note on A
A long, stable velocity history is exactly when velocity-based planning works well.
Note on B
Correct: When availability changes noticeably, past velocity no longer reflects what the team can do, so planning from actual capacity is more realistic.
Note on C
Neither approach predicts an exact date; both give forecasts.
Note on D
Well-refined stories help any planning approach and do not by themselves call for capacity-based planning.
Card 07 of 25
At Sprint Planning, several of the highest-ordered backlog items lack acceptance criteria and estimates, so the session stalls and no items can be selected for the Sprint Backlog. The team wants to prevent this from recurring. Which corrective action should the Scrum Master recommend?
Note on A
Pulling only ready items gets through one session but does not fix why the top items keep arriving unready.
Note on B
Correct: Ongoing backlog refinement with the Product Owner adds acceptance criteria and estimates to upcoming items before Sprint Planning.
Note on C
Writing a full quarter of detailed stories in advance creates waste and ignores how priorities change.
Note on D
Re-estimating the whole backlog in one long session is heavy and still not a sustainable habit.
Card 08 of 25
A new market opportunity competes with a planned roadmap item for the same capacity in the next release. What should the product owner do?
Note on A
Overtime to fit both items is unsustainable and avoids the actual prioritization decision.
Note on B
Being on the roadmap does not make an item more valuable than a new opportunity; the roadmap is meant to adapt.
Note on C
Ordering the backlog is the product owner’s call; a change control board is a predictive mechanism not needed here.
Note on D
Correct: The product owner weighs the value of both items and reorders the backlog so the most valuable work gets the capacity.
Card 09 of 25
A product owner wants to capture a customer’s need for mobile order tracking as one small, concise item that can be ordered in the product backlog and finished in a single sprint. Which format should be used?
Note on A
Correct: A user story is a short statement of a user need that can be ordered in the backlog and finished within one sprint.
Note on B
A use case describes detailed interactions and flows, which is more than a single small backlog item.
Note on C
An epic is too large to complete in one sprint and must be split into stories.
Note on D
An acceptance criterion defines when a story is done; it is not the item that captures the need.
Card 10 of 25
The finance department asks an agile team for a budget covering its entire 12-month product roadmap. What is the BEST response?
Note on A
Detailed bottom-up estimates for a year of features are unreliable when scope is expected to evolve.
Note on B
Correct: Agile teams give a high-level range for the roadmap and narrow it as iterations reveal more information.
Note on C
Agile work can be estimated; it is estimated coarsely first and refined over time.
Note on D
Waiting for fully defined scope contradicts adaptive planning and leaves finance without any figure.
Card 11 of 25
A Product Owner is ordering a Product Backlog for a payments product. Two items stand out: a regulatory compliance change with a fixed external deadline that also carries significant technical uncertainty, and a highly requested customer feature that promises the greatest near-term value. The team can deliver roughly one large item per sprint. How should the Product Owner order the backlog?
Note on A
Detailed estimates of every item delay the decision; the key facts about these two items are already known.
Note on B
Ordering is the Product Owner’s accountability across the whole backlog, not something split by component.
Note on C
Putting compliance last risks missing a fixed external deadline on work that is still uncertain.
Note on D
Correct: The compliance change has a fixed deadline and high uncertainty, so doing it first reduces risk early while there is still time to react.
Card 12 of 25
A team of four developers plans a two-week sprint with ten working days. Each developer is available eight hours per day, but one developer will be on leave for three days and the entire team will attend one day of training. The team’s historical capacity ratio is one story point for every eight hours of available team capacity. How many story points should the team plan for this sprint?
Note on A
Correct: Capacity is 4 x 10 x 8 = 320 hours, minus 24 hours of leave and 32 hours of training, leaving 264 hours, or 33 points at 8 hours per point.
Note on B
37 points leaves part of the known absences out of the capacity calculation.
Note on C
29 points subtracts more time than the leave and training actually remove.
Note on D
40 points assumes full gross capacity with no deductions for leave or training.
Card 13 of 25
A user story says “the search page should load fast,” and the team cannot tell how it would verify this. Which INVEST quality does the story fail?
Note on A
Correct: Fast is not measurable, so the team cannot write a test to confirm the story is done; the story fails Testable.
Note on B
The issue is not estimating the size of the work but verifying the result.
Note on C
Fast loading is likely valuable to users; value is not the problem here.
Note on D
Negotiable means details can be discussed; the problem is that the outcome cannot be checked.
Card 14 of 25
During a review of a team’s Kanban metrics, the team notices a work item has been blocked at the testing stage for several days while other items continue to be pulled into the same column. What is the most likely effect on cycle time and work in progress?
Note on A
Throughput may fall, but a blocked item’s cycle time grows rather than staying the same.
Note on B
Cycle time is elapsed time, so waiting counts even when nobody is actively working on the item.
Note on C
Correct: The blocked item keeps aging, so cycle time rises, and pulling new items into the column without finishing others raises WIP.
Note on D
Cycle time grows every day the item stays blocked, not only after the blocker is resolved.
Card 15 of 25
A team wants to forecast when all remaining work will be completed. How can a Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFD) help?
Note on A
Counting items per column gives a snapshot of current work, not a forecast of when the remaining work will finish.
Note on B
Band width shows how much work sits in a state, and the backlog band does not give cycle time.
Note on C
Correct: Extending the trend of the Done band toward the total scope gives a forecast of when the remaining work will be complete.
Note on D
The in-progress band helps spot bottlenecks, which is a different question from forecasting completion.
Card 16 of 25
A regulated product must satisfy external quality and safety standards, and auditors expect documented evidence that completed work meets those standards. How does a well-defined Definition of Done support regulatory compliance?
Note on A
A Definition of Done supports compliance but does not replace independent external audits.
Note on B
Schedule and cost baselines are not part of a Definition of Done.
Note on C
Acceptance criteria apply to individual items; the Definition of Done is the shared standard for every increment.
Note on D
Correct: A Definition of Done that includes the required quality and compliance checks makes every increment verifiable against the same agreed standard.
Card 17 of 25
At the end of a sprint the team reports an Increment, but testing reveals that the new code cannot be released without manual workarounds and undocumented environment fixes. The Product Owner wants the team to demonstrate a potentially shippable slice at the next Sprint Review. The Scrum Master should recommend that the team do what?
Note on A
Taking on less work may help a little but does not define what releasable means.
Note on B
Accepting an unreleasable increment hides the problem and builds technical debt.
Note on C
Correct: A stricter Definition of Done plus practices such as automated builds and tests makes each increment truly releasable.
Note on D
Extending a sprint breaks the fixed timebox and does not fix the underlying quality gap.
Card 18 of 25
A product owner writes the story “As a user, I want the whole billing module rebuilt.” The business analyst says it cannot be completed in one iteration. Which INVEST quality does the story fail?
Note on A
The story might be testable; the problem described is that it is too large to finish.
Note on B
Correct: Rebuilding a whole module cannot be completed in one iteration, so the story is not small enough.
Note on C
The story’s dependence on other stories is not the issue raised.
Note on D
Negotiability is not the issue; the size of the story is.
Card 19 of 25
Three sprints into a release, an agile team consistently spends roughly 30 percent of each sprint’s capacity on unplanned production support. The team completed 24 of the 36 story points it committed to, and the product owner asks why velocity has dropped. What is the most appropriate action for the team to take?
Note on A
Hiding support work makes the numbers look better but misleads stakeholders about real capacity.
Note on B
Inflating point values corrupts the data the team relies on to forecast.
Note on C
Overtime treats a recurring capacity loss as a one-off and is not sustainable.
Note on D
Correct: Showing the recurring support load openly and planning with the reduced capacity gives the product owner an honest forecast.
Card 20 of 25
At sprint planning, the team selects a backlog item that has a clear description, a size estimate, and a prioritization rationale, but no acceptance criteria. The product owner says the criteria can be written during the sprint. Does the item meet the Definition of Ready?
Note on A
Being estimated and prioritized is not enough; the team also needs to know how the item will be accepted.
Note on B
Breaking items into tasks usually happens during or after planning, not as a readiness condition.
Note on C
Writing criteria after the sprint starts means the team commits to work without knowing how it will be judged.
Note on D
Correct: Acceptance criteria are a typical Definition of Ready condition, and without them the team cannot confirm what done looks like for the item.
Card 21 of 25
During a regulatory audit, the auditor challenges the delivery team’s records: a user story was marked Done even though no acceptance criteria had ever been documented for it. The increment satisfied every shared quality check in the team’s Definition of Done, and the Product Owner validated the result with the stakeholders. What corrective action should the project manager recommend?
Note on A
Acceptance criteria are owned by the Product Owner, and a Scrum Master writing them into an audit log does not fix ownership or traceability.
Note on B
The Definition of Done is a shared standard for all increments, so story-specific criteria do not belong there.
Note on C
Correct: The Product Owner owns acceptance criteria, so documenting them closes the traceability gap the auditor found.
Note on D
The increment met the Definition of Done and was validated, so pulling it back adds rework without fixing the missing record.
Card 22 of 25
A team is deciding how to size its backlog items. One member argues that estimating in hours is more accurate because hours are precise, while another prefers story points. Why do agile teams generally prefer relative estimation?
Note on A
Story points do not convert directly to hours; velocity is used to forecast how much work fits in a period.
Note on B
Precision is not accuracy; detailed hour estimates are often wrong when work is uncertain.
Note on C
Correct: Comparing items to each other is quicker and tends to be more reliable than absolute hour estimates when uncertainty is high.
Note on D
Relative estimates still need revisiting when scope or understanding changes.
Card 23 of 25
During the most recent iteration, an agile project team experiences a sudden, massive spike in throughput. The product owner wants to permanently increase future iteration forecasts based on this new data. What is the most significant risk of this decision?
Note on A
Correct: A single spike is likely an outlier, and basing future forecasts on it assumes a pace the team probably cannot sustain.
Note on B
Raising forecasts does not lower velocity by itself; the risk is overcommitting against unrealistic numbers.
Note on C
One optimistic forecast does not create a permanent bottleneck; the issue is unreliable planning.
Note on D
The concern is whether the forecast is realistic, not whether a rule of agile estimation is broken.
Card 24 of 25
An agile team’s velocity over the last four sprints has been highly erratic, recording 15, 34, 12, and 41 story points due to changing technical dependencies. When forecasting capacity for the next iteration, what is the most appropriate approach for the project manager to recommend?
Note on A
Planning to the best sprint on record sets the team up to overcommit, given how erratic the data are.
Note on B
A plain average of erratic numbers hides the variation, and calling it definitive overstates its reliability.
Note on C
Dropping the extremes discards real information about variability, which is the main feature of this data.
Note on D
Correct: With highly variable velocity, a conservative forecast that reflects the spread of past results is more honest than any single number.
Card 25 of 25
A newly appointed Product Owner insists that all user stories for a twelve-month project must be fully detailed, estimated, and finalized before the first iteration begins. The development team objects, stating that this approach prevents them from adapting to customer feedback. Which agile anti-pattern is the Product Owner exhibiting?
Note on A
The scenario is about how the backlog is handled, not about spreading management duties among developers.
Note on B
The Product Owner is preventing change, not allowing it to alter a schedule.
Note on C
Correct: Fully detailing a year of stories up front treats the backlog like a fixed specification and removes room to adapt to feedback.
Note on D
The Definition of Done and acceptance testing are not at issue in this scenario.
Done 0
Refinement and tracking, briefly
Is backlog grooming the same as backlog refinement?
Yes. Refinement is the term the Scrum Guide uses now; grooming is the older name and is still common in tools and job postings. Teams that switch names rarely change anything else about the meeting, which is fine, because the name was never the problem.
Who takes part in refinement?
The product owner and the developers, with stakeholders or subject matter experts invited when an item needs what they know. Scrum does not prescribe a format or a fixed meeting, so teams decide when and how often.
Can a burndown chart go up?
Yes, when work is added or re-estimated during the iteration. A burnup chart draws scope on its own line, so it shows scope growth without disguising it as lost progress.
Where do story point estimates come from?
From relative sizing sessions such as planning poker, where developers compare each item with a reference story they already agree on. The roles behind those sessions are on business analysis roles and stakeholder communication and agile fit and frameworks.