PMI-ACP practice question 22 of 35

At the retrospective, the burndown chart shows that the project is slightly behind schedule. The project team identifies an inexperienced software engineer as the source of reduced velocity. How should the project team address this issue?

Full set: 482 questions

Answer options

A: Suggest pair programming during the retrospective. Correct answer

B: Ask the product owner to re-prioritize the user stories at the next retrospective.

C: Re-estimate the story points with team members at the next iteration planning meeting.

D: Assign less complex user stories to the inexperienced software engineer at the next iteration planning meeting.

Correct Answer:

A. Suggest pair programming during the retrospective.

Explanation

Pair programming partners an inexperienced engineer with a skilled teammate, immediately raising quality, transferring knowledge, and improving velocity without reshuffling backlog or lowering story complexity. (PMI APG §4.6; Williams et al. 2000)

Why Incorrect

B. Re-prioritizing backlog does not solve the skill gap.
C. Re-estimation masks the capability issue instead of fixing it.
D. Assigning easier tasks limits learning and throttles throughput.

References

1. PMI. Agile Practice Guide, 2017, §4.6 “Technical Practices—Pair Programming,” p. 57.

2. Williams, L. et al. “Strengthening the Case for Pair Programming.” IEEE Software, 2000, p. 20. DOI:10.1109/52.877930

3. Stanford CS-E180 “Extreme Programming,” slide 14 (Knowledge sharing via pairing).

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