PMI-ACP Knowledge And Skills: Level 2

[PMI-ACP® Exam Study Notes] Level 2 PMI-ACP® Knowledge And Skills group is one of the three Knowledge and Skills groups for the PMI-ACP® exam. The “Knowledge And Skills” accounts for a total of 50% of all the questions to be found on the exam paper. According to the PMI-ACP® exam content outline, Level 2 Knowledge and Skills includes 12 knowledge / skills.

PMI-ACP® Exam Importance: around 14 questions (~12% of all questions)

PMI-ACP® Exam : Level 2 Knowledge And Skills

• 12 knowledge / skills (Level 2) for the PMI-ACP® Exam with around 0-2 questions on each knowledge / skills (in alphabetical order):
  • Agile frameworks and terminology
    • SCRUM
      • meetings: Sprint Planning, Sprint Review, Sprint Retrospective, Daily Scrum
      • roles: Product Owner (i/c product backlog), Scrum Master, Members (Developers)
      • artifacts: Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog, Burn-down Charts
      • characteristics: everything time-boxed, short sprint (= iteration) around 2-4 weeks, self-managing team, potentially shippable increments
    • Extreme Programming (XP)
      • meetings: Release Planning, Iteration Planning, Daily Stand Up
      • roles: Tracker, Customer, Programmer, Coach, Manager, Tester
      • artifacts: Vision, User Story, Customer Test, Release Plan, Metaphor (System of Names), Iteration Plan, Coding Standard, Unit Test, Production Code, Build
      • values: simplicity, communication, feedback, courage
      • key practices: planning game, small releases, customer acceptance tests, simple design, pair programming, test-driven development, refactoring, continuous integration, collective code ownership, coding standards, system metaphor and sustainable pace
      • characteristics: disciplined, frequent interval around 1-3 weeks, for software only
    • Lean Software Development
      • artifacts: Kanban Board
      • principles: eliminating waste, amplifying learning (continuous improvement), deferring commitment, delivering fast, respecting people / empowering the team, building quality in, optimizing the whole
      • characteristics: focus on value stream, just-in-time, work-in-process (WIP) limits
    • Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM)
      • for planning, managing, executing, and scaling agile and iterative software development projects
      • “fitness for business purpose” as the primary criteria for delivery and acceptance
      • 80% of the system that can be deployed in 20% of the time
    • Feature Driven Development (FDD)
      • model-driven, short iterations, design by feature – build by feature, features need to be “useful in the eyes of the client”
    • Crystal
      • lightweight, adaptable, a family of methodologies to be tailored based on team size, system criticality and project priorities
  • Building high-performance teams
    • a team is “a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable” ~Jon Katzenbach and Douglas Smith
    • establish the team – vision, mission, values, goals, ground rules
    • maximize performance by
      • clear and realistic goals
      • building trust
      • open and honest communication – even in case of disputes or conflicts
      • taking ownership, empowered, self-organizing
      • coaching and mentoring
      • choose teammates with complementary skills to perform all tasks
      • sense of belonging (identity)
      • limiting each team to have 12 members or below, break down the team if needed
      • make decisions through consensus (participatory decision model)
      • full-time, dedicated members
    • low performing teams are:
      • absence of trust
      • fear of conflict
      • lack of commitment
      • avoidance of accountability
      • inattention to results
  • Business case development
    • to justify the project for the resources and capital investment
    • includes: high-level requirements, resource needs, funding sources, timeline, risks and opportunities, expected returns (early benefits realization opportunities), assumptions and recommendations, etc.
    • states values in terms of IRR, ROI, NPV, etc.
  • Co-location (geographic proximity)/distributed teams
    • co-location: ideal for team communication and performance
      • Caves and common
        • caves – private spaces for private calls or quiet time
        • common – the common space to work together
      • Osmotic Communication
        • pick up on things unintentionally through overhearing others’ conversations
      • Tacit Knowledge
        • tacit knowledge is unwritten collective group knowledge
        • since documentations are not encouraged, co-located teams can share tacit knowledge more readily
    • distributed teams:
      • distributed teams making use of Agile project management have greater chance of success owing to the nature of Agile projects (e.g. close collaboration, short iterations)
      • meet in person face-to-face at least at the kick-off of the project (better also for the first and second iterations)
      • tools that helps communication
        • make use of video conferencing (webcams)
        • interactive whiteboards
        • web-based collaboration
        • pull-based information sharing websites (wikis)
        • instant messaging / chat for effective communication
      • maintain a metaphor of the project / goal
      • intensify facilitation through asking more questions, repeating others’ views, etc.
  • Continuous improvement processes
    • processes are continually evaluated (with feedback from process/team) and improved for performance / value gains (to reduce wastes)
    • an ongoing approach to enhance project output / approach
      • continuous process improvement – plan, develop, evaluate, learn
      • continuous product improvement – review and improve the product incrementally
    • responsible by the whole team
  • Elements of a project charter for an Agile project
    • the 1st document for the project
    • a formal document to authorize the official kickoff of the project with barely sufficient information
      • Background, objectives, vision (why) and mission (what), stakeholders of the project
      • Preliminary direction, scope
      • High-level budget, timeline
      • High-level risk and constraints
      • Communication plan
      • Success criteria
    • Agile charters address more about the “How” instead of “What” of the project
    • can make use of the Project Elevator Statement
      • For – (target customers)
      • who – (need to do what)
      • , the – (product / service)
      • is a – (product category)
      • that – (key benefits)
      • . Unlike – (competitive products)
      • , we – (primary differentiation)
    • progressive elaborated
  • Facilitation methods
    • used to run effective workshops and meetings
    • need to establish goals, rules, timing and assist all participants to have equal opportunities to voice their opinion
  • Participatory decision models
    • encourage / empower team members to participate in organizational decision-making process
    • trying to reach a consensus rather than imposing a top-down decision
    • Agile encourages team / stakeholder participation in decision making by
      • simple voting
      • thumbs up / down / sideways
      • Jim Highsmith’s Decision Spectrum – express feeling of a decision on a spectrum ranging from “in favour”, “OK with reservation” to “veto” to help them express their concerns / feelings
      • fist-of-five voting – give 1 to 5 fingers (1 – totally support, 5 – object completely)
  • PMI’s Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct
    • emphasizes on responsibility, respect, fairness and honesty
    • around 1 – 2 questions on the PMI-ACP® Exam
  • Process analysis techniques
    • a process is a series of actions or steps taken in order to turn certain inputs into particular outputs
    • process analysis is to closely study the process actions to improve performance and eliminate wastes and bottlenecks by making use of process mapping tools
      • closely related to process tailoring and principles of system thinking
  • Self assessment
    • self assessment is the continuous improvement process on the people (individual and team)
    • through self assessment, rooms for improvement are identified and action plans are created to implement them
      • Tabaka’s model for high-performing team
        • self-organization
        • empowered to make decision
        • belief in vision and success
        • committed team
        • trust each other
        • participatory decision making
        • consensus-driven
        • construction disagreement
  • Value-based analysis
    • Agile projects emphasize on early delivery of value
    • Agile project, processes, backlog/feature priorities can be analyzed and compared based on the net value generated
    • affects every aspect of project decisions / processes

Summary: PMI-ACP® Exam Level 2 Knowledge And Skills

This PMI-ACP® Exam Study notes covers 12 knowledge and skills from the Level 2 group of Knowledge and Skills for the PMI-ACP® exam syllabus. This group is less important for the PMI-ACP® exam as it accounts for 12% of all the exam questions. Agile frameworks and terminology should be the emphasis here.