Free PMI-DASSM Practice Test

Disciplined Agile adopts design thinking because its human-centered approach fosters deep customer empathy, enabling teams to craft solutions that truly meet user needs and context.

A. Separates design and implementation, conflicting with cross-functional DA teams.
C. Aesthetic appeal is secondary to user value.
D. Design thinking does not rely on pre-packaged answers; it discovers novel fit-for-purpose options.

1. PMI. “Choose Your WoW”, 2020, p. 90: “Design thinking…helps teams empathize with users to create appropriate solutions.”

2. Brown, T. “Design Thinking”, Harvard Business Review, 2008, p. 87-92 (design thinking emphasizes empathy and desirability). DOI:10.1007/s13398-014-0173-7.

The coordination (daily) meeting’s explicit purpose in Disciplined Agile is to let team members quickly share progress, surface blockers, and plan the next 24 hours so that everyone remains synchronized; demos and backlog work occur in separate events.

A – The Product Demo/Review, not the coordination meeting, is used to show completed work. B – Stakeholder observation happens in the Review; daily coordination is internal to the team. C – Backlog refinement is a separate, on-going activity, not the aim of this meeting.

1. PMI. “Choose Your WoW!”, Ch. 13.4 Daily Coordination Meeting, pp. 219-220, 2019.

2. PMI. “Disciplined Agile Scrum Master Student Guide”, Lesson 5, Slide 8, 2021.

An epic is simply a very large user story—too big to be completed in a single iteration—and therefore requiring decomposition into multiple smaller stories across iterations.

A. After decomposition an epic becomes a collection, but the epic itself is the large story.
C. Describes story-mapping technique, not the definition of an epic.
D. Refers to entity-relationship modeling, unrelated to epics.

1. PMI, Agile Practice Guide, 2017, p. 56, para 4: “Epics are large user stories that cannot be completed in a single iteration.”

2. PMI / Ambler & Lines, Choose Your WoW! 2nd ed., 2023, §9.2, p. 239: defines epics as large stories later split into smaller ones.

The Product Owner is accountable for maximizing value produced by the team—i.e., ensuring the team builds the right product. They manage the Product Backlog, define acceptance criteria, and communicate vision and priorities so that delivered increments meet stakeholder needs.

A. Coordination is a facilitation duty shared with Scrum Master/Team Lead.
B. Team organization and self-management rest with the team, not the Product Owner.
C. Inspection (reviews, quality assurance) is a whole-team responsibility.

1. Ambler & Lines, “Choose Your WoW!”, 2019, p. 159, “Product Owner—Primary Responsibilities”.

2. Schwaber & Sutherland, “The Scrum Guide”, 2020, lines 48-56.

3. PMI, “Disciplined Agile Product Owner courseware”, Module 2, slide 11.

The purpose of the Iteration Demo (also called Iteration Review) is to present the working increment to stakeholders and receive their feedback on the product. This direct, frequent feedback loop validates that the team is delivering value and guides adjustment for the next iteration.

B. Daily stand-ups surface coordination issues, not formal stakeholder feedback.
C. Iteration planning sets goals for the upcoming sprint; feedback is assumed to be already gathered.
D. Retrospectives collect internal team learning on the process, not product feedback from stakeholders.

1. PMI, “Choose Your WoW!”, 2019, Sec. 7.3, p. 233: “The iteration review/demo provides an opportunity for stakeholders to give feedback on the working solution.”

2. PMI Agile Practice Guide, 2017, p. 53: “Sprint review: team demonstrates product increment and solicits feedback.”

3. DASSM Courseware v1.1, Module 4, p. 58.

All Disciplined Agile delivery life-cycles—Agile, Lean, Continuous Delivery, Exploratory, and Program—share three high-level phases: Inception (align & plan), Construction (produce consumable solution increments), and Transition (release & support), regardless of size or complexity.

A – “Inspiration” is not a phase defined in any DA life-cycle. D – “Modulation” is not a recognized DA phase.

1. Ambler & Lines. “Choose Your WoW!”, Fig. 2-1 ‘Delivery Life-Cycle Overview’, p. 19, 2019.

2. PMI. “Disciplined Agile Delivery Overview” courseware, Module 2, Slide 6, 2020.

Disciplined Agile recommends forming long-standing (stable) teams for work that will run for an extended period and demands sustained budgeting, monitoring, and continuous improvement. Long-standing teams reduce initiation/ shutdown costs, speed onboarding, and give more reliable velocity data for financial forecasting than temporary project teams or ad-hoc service groups.

B. Cross-functional describes skill breadth, not team longevity or cost-tracking efficiency.
C. Project teams are assembled only for the project’s duration, then disbanded—reintroducing overhead the question seeks to avoid.
D. Shared-services teams provide specialized, on-demand help; they are not dedicated to a single long-term endeavor.

1. Ambler, S.; Lines, M. “Choose Your WoW”, PMI Press, 2020, pp. 37-39 (section 2.2.1 Long-lived Teams).

2. PMI. “Disciplined Agile Senior Scrum Master (DASSM) Participant Guide”, v1.1, 2022, Module 3, slide 31.

The retrospective is a structured inspect-and-adapt event where the team reflects on its recent collaboration and delivery process, identifies improvement actions, and agrees on concrete experiments to enhance future teamwork and performance.

B – The Product Owner participates but the ceremony’s goal is team improvement, not evaluation by PO. C – Stakeholder requests are discussed during the Review; retrospectives do not prohibit new ideas. D – Backlog organization (story-mapping, prioritization) happens in refinement sessions, not in retrospectives.

1. PMI. “Choose Your WoW!”, Ch. 13.6 Retrospective, pp. 226-228, 2019.

2. PMI. “DASM Student Guide”, Lesson 6, Slide 14, 2021.

Disciplined Agile’s goal diagrams are intended to help teams select the process decisions that fit their unique situation. The framework explicitly instructs teams to start with the goal(s) that are most relevant to their immediate context (e.g., current phase, life-cycle, and challenges). This maximises practical value and avoids unnecessary analysis of goals that do not presently apply.

A. Lack of experience alone is not a selection criterion; relevance takes precedence.
B. Customer/stakeholder choices may overlook internal process needs; DA is team-driven.
C. “Easiest” goals may be irrelevant and provide little benefit; context alignment is key.

1. Ambler, S.W. & Lines, M. “Choose Your WoW!”, PMI Press, 2020, p. 17 (How to Use Goal Diagrams – start with those relevant to your context).

2. University of Calgary, Software Engineering 699 Lecture Notes (2021) – Disciplined Agile Goal-Driven Approach, slide 12 (“Select the goal most germane to your situation”).

A user story expresses functionality from the viewpoint of the person who will receive the value. The standard template “As a I want so that ” explicitly frames the requirement in the customer’s perspective, ensuring development stays focused on user value.

A. Fixes scope and discourages adaptive discovery; stories are intentionally negotiable.
B. Each story targets a single persona, not the needs of every user.
C. Product-owner expectations are captured in acceptance criteria, not in the story statement itself.

1. PMI, Agile Practice Guide, 2017, p. 56, para 2: “A user story is a short description of a feature told from the perspective of the person who desires the capability—usually a user or customer.”

2. PMI / Ambler & Lines, Choose Your WoW! 2nd ed., 2023, §9.2, p. 238: definition and template of user stories emphasizing customer viewpoint.