PMI-ACP Study Notes & Exam Cheat Sheet

1
PMI-ACP Study
Notes Exam Cheat Sheet
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3
1. Agile
Framework
? Wh
at is Agile
? A
gile Manifesto -Values and Principles

? Agile
Practices / Techniques
1.1 What is Agile?
Agile is a Philosophy that uses
organizational models based on people,
collaboration and shared values. Agile uses
rolling wave
planning iterative and incremental delivery
rapid and flexible response to change and open
communication
between teams, stakeholders, and customers.
1.2 Agile
Manifesto Agile
Manifesto is a public declaration of the
philosophy and principles of agile software
development, created in
February 2001 in Snowbird, Utah, USA.
1.3 Agile
Values


INDIVIDUALS AND INTERACTIONS OVER
PROCESSES AND TOOLS


WORKING SOFTWARE OVER
COMPREHENSIVE DOCUMENTATION


CUSTOMER
COLLABORATION OVER CONTRACT NEGOTIATION



RESPONDING TO CHANGE OVER FOLLOWING A
PLAN 1.4 Agile
Principles
1. Our highest priority is to
satisfy the customer through early and continuous
delivery of valuable software.
2. Welcome
changing requirements, even late in development.
Agile processes harness change for the

customer's competitive advantage.
3.
Deliver working software frequently, from a
couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a
preference to the
shorter timescale.
4.
Business people and developers must work
together daily throughout the project.
5.
Build projects around motivated
individuals. Give them the environment and
support they need, and trust
them to
get the job done.
6. The most efficient and
effective method of conveying information to and
within a development team is face-
to-fa
ce conversation.
7. Working software is the
primary measure of progress.
8. Agile
processes promote sustainable development. The
sponsors, developers, and users should be able to

maintain a constant pace indefinitely.
9.
Continuous attention to technical
excellence and good design enhances agility.
10.
Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount of
work not done--is essential.
11. The best
architectures, requirements, and designs emerge
from self-organizing teams.
12. At regular
intervals, the team reflects on how to become
more effective, then tunes and adjusts its
behavior
accordingly.








Page 3
? Agile methodologies ? Complex
Adaptive Systems
4
1.5 Agile
Methodologies Agil
e is an umbrella term that describes several
Agile methodologies. Examples include Scrum,
Extreme Programming
(XP), Crystal, Dynamic Systems Development
Method (DSDM Atern), Feature Driven Development
(FDD). Lean practices
have also emerged as a valuable Agile
methodology. The
various Agile methodologies share much of the
same philosophy, as well as many of the same
characteristics and
practices. But from an implementation
standpoint, each has its own recipe of practices,
terminology, and tactics.
1.6 Agile Practices / Techniques
Activities that
are the application of agile principles, some of
them are
1. Time-boxing

16. Product Backlog

31. Servant Leader

2. Retrospective
17
. Visualize Workflow
32. Self
-organization
3. Spike Solution

18. Wireframe

33.
Team Agreements
4. Planning Poker

19. Daily Stand-up

34. Release
Goals
5. Backlog Prioritization
20. Lim
it Work in Progress (WIP)
35. Release Plan
6. Progress
Elaboration
21. Project Chartering
36
. Task board
7. Minimal Marketable
22.
Osmotic Communication
37. Swarming

Features
23.
Test Driven Development (TDD)
38. Regression Test

8. Personas

24. Velocity

39. Minimum
Viable Product
9. Quality Assurance

25. Unit Testing

40. Last Responsible Moment

10. Refactoring

26. Test First Development
(LRM)

11. Relative Sizing
27.
Technical Debt
41.
Team contracts/Rules of
12. Product
Vision
28. Avoid Waste


engagement
13. Pair Programming

29. Short Iterations

42. Many more.
14. Story Mapping

30. Sprint Goals

15. User Stories








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5



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Page 5
6
2. Agile
Teams
? Agile
Teams
? Team
Brainstorming Techniques

? Five Dysfunctions of a Team

? Development
Mastery Models
?
Traditional vs. Agile

? Generalized Specialist
The core of Agile
is high performance teams. Agile teams are
Cross-functional and have all competencies needed
to accomplish the
work without depending on others not part of the
team. ? T
eam organized around the work
? Empowered
? Self-or
ganize / Self-managed
? Team pull s the task from queue
/backlog ?
Cross functional
? Intensely collaborative
An empowered team
is one that is both self-organization and
self-directing. In self-organizing, teams focus
on how the work
will be done in self-directing, they focus on
how team members will work together.
Self-organizing
teams choose how best to accomplish their work,
rather than being directed by others outside the
team. Agile
emphasizes the notion of generalizing specialist,
as opposed to role specialist. In other words,
anyone who is qual
ified for a role can undertake it. This practice
helps optimize the use of resources, since people
who can perform mu
ltiple jobs are able to switch from one role to
another as the demand arises. The practice allows
for more efficient
sharing of information and helps eliminate
circumstances where people in certain roles are
idle or overstretched at any
point in the project.
2.1 Team
Brainstorming Techniques
Agile teams use brainstorming to identify
options, solve issues, and improve their
processes. The three common
brainstorming techniques are free for
all, round robin, and quiet writing.
? Free
for all is an informal method in which
participants spontaneously shout out their ideas
and build on each
others suggestions.
? In
round robin, everyone takes a turn suggesting an
idea, or building on another idea that has been
raised. ?
In quiet writing, team members are given quiet
time to generate a list of ideas on their own
before sharing them.








Page 6
? Caves and Common ? Osmotic
Communication ? Information Radiator
? Swarming ? Six Thinking
Hats ? Collaboration Games
7
2.2 Five
Dysfunctions of a Team
1. Absence of Trust The fear of
being vulnerable with team members prevents the
building of trust within the team.
2. Fear of
Conflict The desire to preserve artificial
harmony stifles the occurrence of productive
ideological conflict.
3. Lack of Commitment The lack of
clarity or buy-in prevents team members from
making decisions they will stick to.
4. Avoidanc
e of Accountability The need to avoid
interpersonal discomfort prevents team members
from holding one
another accountable.
5. Inattent
ion to Results The pursuit of individual goals
and personal status erodes the focus on
collective success.
2.3 Five levels of conflict and resolution
Level 5 World
War (destroy the other, little or no language is
changed) Level 4
Crusade (protecting ones own group becomes the
focus, language is
ideological) Leve
l 3 Contest (winning trumps resolving, language
includes personal attacks)
Level 2 Disagreement (personal
protection, language is guarded and open to
interpretation)
Level 1 Problem
to solve (information sharing and collaboration,
language is open
and fact based) 2.
4 Developmental Mastery Model - Tuckman's
Stages of Group Development
According to Bruce Tuckman model, the
typical stages team follow in their formation is
Forming, Storming, Norming
and Performing.
Bruce Tuckmans team development model
provides a helpful explanation of how team
develops and suggests the
leadership appropriate at each stage. The
model includes four basic stages that Tuckman
refers to as forming, storming,
norming, and
performing.








Page 7
8
2.5 Class of
Service Classes
of service are a powerful way to make your
policies explicit around the service level for
certain type of work.
Assigning a class of service to a work item
can influence the work item visualization,
prioritization, impact on WIP, and
workflow. Classes
of service help the team to self-organize around
(Work selection and scheduling, Work distribution
and Making sure
the work capacity is distributed as decided)
Common classes
include ?
Urgent (or Expedite) - Prioritized over other
work ? Fi
xed Delivery Date - Needs to be completed on or
before a certain date
? Regular - Normal items,
increasingly urgent, pulled FIFO-style
? Defects
- Rework produced by bad quality (you want as
few of these as possible)
? Intangible - No tangible
business value now, but later paying off
technical debt 2.6
Scrum vs. Kanban


SCRUM


KANBAN

Fixed time-boxes


No time-boxes

Tasks are Estimated


No Tasks Estimates (optional)

Track velocity


Track flow (Queues,
WIP, Cycle time)
Scrum Master own the
process
Team
own the process
Cross-functional
teams prescribed
Cross-
functional teams optional. Specialist teams





allowed
Cannot add
items to ongoing Sprint
Can
add new items whenever capacity is available

Prescribes roles (PO, SM, Team)

Doesnt
prescribe any roles
A Scrum board is
reset between each sprint
A Kanban board is persistent








Page 8
9
3. Lean
Software Development
?
What is Lean
?
Lean Software Development Principles

? Just in Time
(JIT) 3.1 What
is Lean A
production practice that considers the
expenditure of resources for any goal other than
the creation of value for the
end customer to be wasteful, and thus
a target for elimination. Source
Wikipedia


Lean focuses on the
elimination of waste in a process
3.2 Lean
Software Development Principles
Lean development
is a translation of well-know and accepted lean
manufacturing practices to the software
development domain
. Mary and Tom Poppendieck identify seven
fundamental Lean principles
1. Eliminate
Waste
2. Optimize as whole
3. Delivery
fast
4. Amplify learning
5. Build Quality
In
6. Empower Team
7. Defer decision
Lean focuses on
the elimination of waste in a process. It is a
production practice that considers the
expenditure of res
ources for any goal other than the creation of
value for the end customer to be wasteful, and
thus a target for
elimination.








Page 9
? Value Stream Mapping (VSM)
? Theory of Constraints (TOC)
? Kaizen
10


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Page 10
11
4. References
1. Manif
esto for Agile Software Development Principles
behind the Agile Manifesto from
www.agilemanifesto.org
2. PMI-ACP Practitioner FAQs
http//www.pmi.org//media/Files/PDF/Certification
/PMI-ACP_Practitioner_FAQ_March2012.ashx
3. An
introduction to the Cynefin Framework by Dave
Snowden http//cognitive-edge.com/ Cynefin
Framework. https//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynefin_F
ramework 4.
Essential Scrum A Practical Guide to the Most
Popular Agile Process, by Kenneth S. Rubin
Publisher Addison-Wesley Professional.
5. Integr
ating Agile Development in the Real World, by
Peter Schuh, Published December 2nd 2004 by
Cengage Learning.
6. Adaptive Engineering of Large
Software Projects with Distributed/Outsourced
Teams by Jeff Sutherland, Anton Viktorov Jack
Blount,
http//www.necsi.edu/events/iccs6/papers/ee66
37fd0a1f958002d8f242162b.pdf
7. Agile Principles and
Values, by Jeff Sutherland, http//msdn.microsoft.
com/en-us/library/dd997578(vvs.100).aspx,
accessed on May 02, 2013.
8. Source The Agile Impact
Report http//media.rallydev.com/events/pdf/Agil
e-Impact-Report.pdf, accessed on July 11, 2013.
9. Hohe
Mut Restaurant Photo by Nicholas Durin,
http//www.snow-forecast.com/resorts/Obergurgl/pho
tos/11805, accessed on May 05, 2013.
10. "Manifes
to for Agile Software Development",
http//www.agilemanifesto.org/ access on April
20, 2013. 11.
"Principles behind the Agile Manifesto",
accessed on April 20, 2013, http//www.agilemanife
sto.org/principles.html.
12. Adaptive Engineering of Large
Software Projects with Distributed/Outsourced
Teams by Jeff Sutherland, Anton Viktorov Jack
Blount. 13.
Source Agile Project Management Creating
Innovative Products, Second Edition By Jim
Highsmith Publisher Addison-Wesley Professional
14. Agile
Estimating and planning, by Mike Cohn,
publisher Prentice Hall Pub. Date November 01,
2005 15. Moo
re, Geoffrey A. Crossing the Chasm Marketing and
Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream
Customers. New York HarperBusiness, 1991.
16. How To
Make Your Project Not Suck by Using an Agile
Project Charter by Michael Lant,
http//michaellant.com/2010/05/18/how-to-make-your
-project-not-suck/
17. Story Maps, Jeff Patton,
http//www.AgileProductDesign.com.
18. "The
Scrum Guide, the definitive guide to scrum The
rules of the game" by Ken Schwaber and Jeff
Sutherland 19.
Extreme Programming Explained, Kent Beck
(Addison Wesley 2000).
20. The Art of Agile Development,
James Shore and Shane Warden, 2008 OReilly
Media, Inc. 21.
Extreme Programming Explained Embrace Change,
Second Edition by Kent Beck, Addison-Wesley
Professional. 22.
Extreme Programming Explained 1st Edition
by Kent Beck, 1999
23. Jeffries, Ron. Essential XP Card,
Conversation, and Confirmation. XP Magazine
(August 30, 2001).
24. User Stories Applied For Agile
Software Development, by Mike Cohn, Publisher
Addison-Wesley Professional.
25. INVEST in Good Stories, and
SMART Tasks, Bill Wake http//xp123.com/articles/i
nvest-in-good-stories-and-smart-tasks.
26. "The
Scrum Guide, the definitive guide to scrum The
rules of the game" by Ken Schwaber and Jeff
Sutherland 27.
User Stories, Epics and Themes by Mike Cohn,
accessed on July 10, 2013, http//www.mountaingoat
software.com/blog/stories-epics-and-themes.
28. Essentia
l Scrum A Practical Guide to the Most Popular
Agile Process, by Kenneth S. Rubin Publisher
Addison-Wesley Professional.
29. Lean-Agile Software
Development Achieving Enterprise Agility By
Alan Shallowly Guy Beaver James R. Trott,
Publisher Addison-Wesley Professional, 2009
30. Essentia
l Scrum A Practical Guide to the Most Popular
Agile Process, by Kenneth S. Rubin Publisher
Addison-Wesley Professional.
31. Problem detection and
resolution, PMI-ACP exam prep by Mike Griffiths
32. Kanban
vs Scrum, A practical Guide by Henrik Kniberg,
accessed on December 09, 2014, http//www.slidesha
re.net/ RossC0/kanban-vs-scrum
33. In 1981, Barry Boehm drew
the first version of what Steve McConnell (1998)
later called the cone of uncertainty.
34. Agile Estimating
and Planning by Mike Cohn, Prentice Hall, 2005.
35. Source
http//www.gettingagile.com/2008/07/04/affinity-es
timating-a-how-to/, accessed on June 22, 2013.
36. Agile
modeling, Scott Ambler, Source
http//www.agilemodeling.com.
37. Photo Source
http//www.xconomy.com/national/2013/03/08/what-ma
kes-an-app-awesome-a-case-study-with-mokriya-craig
slist. 38. A
gile Testing A Practical Guide for Testers and
Agile Teams, by Lisa Crispin Janet Gregory
Publisher Addison-Wesley Professional
39. Agile
testing, Google tech talks, http//youtu.be/bqrOnI
ECCSg, accessed on May 3, 2013
40. Agile testing, nine
principles and six concrete practices for Testing
on Agile Teams, Elisabeth Hendrickson
41. Test-dri
ven development concepts, taxonomy, and future
direction, Janzen, D. and Saiedian, H., 2005.
42. Derby,
E., Diana, L. (2006). Agile retrospective
Making good team great. Dallas, Texas The
Pragmatic Bookself.
43. The Power of Retrospectives, accessed
on July 12, 2013 http//www.kruchten.org/agilevanc
ouver/presentation_slides/Retrospective.pdf
44. Ries,
Eric (August 3, 2009). "Minimum Viable Product a
guide". 2. Wikipedia
45. PM network magazine December, 2012
by Matt Alderton.
46. Earned value and Agile reporting by
Anthony Cabri, Mike Griffiths, Quadrus
development Inc. 4
7. What is risk management, PMBOK 5th
Edition and Managing Successful projects with
PRINCE2 48.
"The Software Project Managers Bridge to
Agility" by Michele Sliger, Stacia
Broderick 49.
Osmotic communication, Alistair Cockburn,
source http//alistair.cockburn.us/Osmoticcommun
ication 50.
Value stream mapping Lean-Agile Software
Development Achieving Enterprise Agility By
Alan Shalloway Guy Beaver James R. Trott
51. Shu H
Ri, Martin Fowler http//martinfowler.com/bliki/Sh
uHaRi.html 52.
Evaluation of Agile triangle, Agile Project
Management Creating Innovative Products, Second
Edition By Jim Highsmith Publisher
Addison-Wesley Professional
53. Agile modeling, Scott Ambler,
Source http//www.agilemodeling.com/
54. Wirefram
e photo Source http//www.xconomy.com/national/20
13/03/08/what-makes-an-app-awesome-a-case-study-wi
th-mokriya-craigslist/
55. Adaptive leadership 1. Heifetz,
Grashow Linsky (2009). The practice of adaptive
leadership Tools and tactics for changing your
organization and the world. USA Harvard
Bus
iness Review Press.
56. Adaptive leadership 2. Heifetz
Laurie (2003). The leader as teacher creating
the learning organization. Ivey Business Journal
Improving the practice of management, p.
1-9
. 57. Adapt
ive leadership 3. Obolensky (2009). Complex
adaptive leadership embracing paradox and
uncertainty. Gower Publication Company
58. Yesterda
ys weather, Martin Fowler, http//martinfowler.co
m/bliki/YesterdaysWeather.html
59. Innovation Games Creating
Breakthrough Products Through Collaborative Play
by Luke Hohmann Published by Addison-Wesley
Professional, 2006








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