Free PMI-ACP practice questions

A minimum viable product (MVP) is the smallest thing you can put in front of real customers to learn whether a key assumption holds, such as willingness to pay.

The question is whether clinics will pay, and the product owner wants an answer before a large investment. An MVP released to a few clinics tests that directly with real behaviour. Building everything first delays the learning; a survey and a business case produce opinions and estimates rather than evidence of paying customers.

1. Identify the uncertainty: will clinics pay?
2. Note the constraint: learn before investing months.
3. Pick the option that puts something real in front of clinics early.
4. Reject options that rely on opinions or delay learning.

Exam tip: Validate market need with something real users can use or buy, as early and cheaply as possible.

Coaching helps a person find their own answer through questions, building capability that they keep.

The developer already has the skill and only needs help applying it here, which is the situation coaching is for. Asking questions such as 'What workflow steps or data variations does this story contain?' lets the developer reach a split themselves. Splitting it for them or redirecting them to someone else solves today's story but builds nothing; a course is aimed at a skill gap that does not exist.

1. Note what the developer already knows: they have split stories before.
2. Identify the goal: build the developer's capability, not just fix this story.
3. Choose the approach that has the developer do the thinking.
4. Reject options where someone else solves the problem.

Exam tip: When the person already has the ability, coach with questions rather than giving the answer.

INVEST: good stories are Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Small and Testable.

A story that has to be released together with others is not independent. Coupled stories cannot be reordered freely, which limits the product owner's ability to prioritize. Negotiable, estimable and valuable describe other qualities the scenario does not question.

1. Find the flaw described: the story cannot ship without two others.
2. Match it to the INVEST letter about coupling between stories.
3. Check the other letters against the scenario and rule them out.

Exam tip: Stories that must ship together are not independent: split or recombine them so each can be ordered on its own.

Net promoter score (NPS) is a loyalty measure built from one question: how likely the customer is to recommend the product, on a 0-10 scale.

The question in the stem is the defining NPS question, and tracking it per release shows whether loyalty is moving. Customer effort score measures ease of a task, CSAT measures satisfaction with something specific, and Kano classifies features rather than tracking loyalty.

1. Note the wording: likelihood to recommend, on 0 to 10.
2. Match it to the measure built on exactly that question.
3. Rule out measures of ease, satisfaction with one interaction, and feature classification.

Exam tip: "How likely are you to recommend us?" on 0-10 is NPS; "how easy was it?" is customer effort; "how satisfied are you?" is CSAT.

A spike is a short, timeboxed investigation that reduces technical uncertainty so the team can estimate or decide.

The blocker is a technical unknown about the billing interface. A spike answers that question quickly and cheaply. A large estimate hides the risk, an architect's decision does not provide evidence, and postponing leaves the unknown in place.

1. Spot that the problem is a technical unknown, not a sizing disagreement.
2. Choose work that produces evidence about the unknown.
3. Keep that work small and timeboxed.
4. Size the story once the spike has answered the question.

Exam tip: Can't estimate because of a technical unknown? Run a timeboxed spike.