IIBA IIBA-AAC Practice Test Questions, Exam Dumps

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IIBA-AAC IIBA Practice Test Questions and Exam Dumps

Question No 1:

After some debate the delivery team decides to use the product roadmap because it will help them:

A Align strategy to goals
B Maintain defined scope
C Keep the team on schedule
D Align increments with product vision

Correct answer: A

Explanation:

The product roadmap is a strategic tool used to align the overall direction of the product with the company's goals and vision. It serves as a high-level visual guide that outlines the product's major milestones, objectives, and upcoming features. The primary purpose of using a product roadmap is to ensure that the development team, stakeholders, and decision-makers are all on the same page regarding the future trajectory of the product.

Option A, "Align strategy to goals," is the most accurate answer. The product roadmap provides a clear and structured overview of how the product will evolve over time, helping teams align their work with the broader business goals. By following the roadmap, the delivery team can ensure that each step of the development process is contributing toward achieving strategic objectives, making this option the most fitting choice.

Option B, "Maintain defined scope," is not the primary role of the product roadmap. While the roadmap helps define high-level features and objectives, it is not specifically focused on maintaining scope. Scope management typically involves more detailed planning at the project level, such as in product backlogs or sprint planning, and the roadmap provides a broader strategic view. Therefore, Option B is not the best answer.

Option C, "Keep the team on schedule," while the roadmap does provide a timeline for when features or milestones are expected to be delivered, its main purpose is not to enforce strict adherence to the schedule. Keeping the team on schedule would generally be part of project management activities, which involves detailed task scheduling, risk management, and progress tracking. Thus, Option C is not the most accurate answer.

Option D, "Align increments with product vision," while closely related, is a more specific focus that deals with aligning individual features or iterations with the overall product vision. Although the roadmap helps with this alignment, its main purpose is to ensure strategic alignment with broader business goals. Aligning increments with the product vision is a result of executing the roadmap, but not its primary function.

To summarize, Option A: "Align strategy to goals" best captures the primary purpose of using the product roadmap, as it provides a clear path for ensuring that product development is directly contributing to achieving the business's strategic objectives.

Question No 2:

A team has been delivering a steady stream of small value increments towards a goal for 4 months, and has completed several solution components, with several still potentially doable.

The solution owner examines the reactions to the delivered components from customers, and decides which one(s) the team will do next. The solution owner is demonstrating:

A Adaptation to revised strategy
B Change in response to feedback and learning
C Action in response to activity
D Maintenance of solution alignment

Correct answer: B

Explanation:

In this scenario, the solution owner is observing customer reactions to the delivered components and then adjusting the team’s next steps based on that feedback. This process is an example of responding to feedback and learning. The solution owner is continuously learning from the customer reactions and using that information to influence decisions about which components to focus on next.

B. Change in response to feedback and learning is the correct answer because it describes the process of using feedback from customers to drive decision-making and adapt the development strategy accordingly. This approach is essential for improving the solution in iterative cycles, especially in agile environments where regular feedback and adjustment are integral to delivering customer value.

Now, let's review the other options:

A. Adaptation to revised strategy
This option focuses on adapting to a revised strategy, but in this case, the solution owner is not revising a broader strategy but adjusting based on specific feedback from customers. The solution owner is responding to feedback, which suggests change rather than a revision of strategy.

C. Action in response to activity
This option is too vague and doesn’t specifically address the core idea of learning and responding to feedback. While the team is acting, the key part of the scenario involves learning from customer feedback, which is not captured accurately by this option.

D. Maintenance of solution alignment
This option suggests that the solution owner is ensuring that the solution stays aligned with an existing plan or goal. While alignment is important, the key point here is the owner’s response to feedback to refine and adjust the solution, not merely maintaining alignment with the original plan.

Thus, the solution owner is demonstrating change in response to feedback and learning, making B the most appropriate choice.

Question No 3:

The team decides a story is too big to do in one iteration. The correct technique to apply at this point is:

A MoSCoW approach
B Story decomposition
C Epic analysis
D Story partitioning

Correct answer: B

Explanation:

When a story is too large to be completed within a single iteration, the correct technique to apply is Story Decomposition. This process involves breaking down a large user story (often referred to as an epic) into smaller, more manageable parts, or sub-stories. These smaller parts are more suitable for completion within the time frame of a single iteration (sprint). By decomposing the large story, the team can tackle smaller tasks that are more specific and actionable, while still addressing the larger goal or requirement.

Here's why B (Story decomposition) is the correct answer:

B (Story decomposition):
This technique is designed for situations where the team identifies a story as too large or complex to be handled in one iteration. Decomposing the story into smaller user stories helps to make the work more manageable and ensures that each sub-story can be completed within an iteration. This process typically involves breaking down the epic into tasks that can be delivered incrementally, often focusing on delivering value in increments while progressively working towards the larger goal.

Let’s break down why the other options are not correct:

A (MoSCoW approach):
The MoSCoW approach is a prioritization technique used to categorize requirements into four categories: Must have, Should have, Could have, and Won’t have this time. While this method is useful for prioritizing features or tasks, it is not specifically used for breaking down large user stories into smaller tasks. Therefore, it’s not the correct choice for handling a large story that needs to be divided into smaller parts.

C (Epic analysis):
Epic analysis refers to the process of analyzing large user stories (epics) to understand their broader scope and objectives. While epic analysis can help in identifying and understanding the larger goals of the project, it doesn’t directly solve the problem of a story being too large to complete in one iteration. Instead, epic analysis is usually part of the process leading up to story decomposition.

D (Story partitioning):
Story partitioning is a term that might seem similar to story decomposition, but it's not the standard term used in Agile frameworks. Story partitioning could be interpreted as dividing a story into distinct tasks or features, but it is not commonly referred to as the main technique for breaking down large stories. Story decomposition is the more widely used and recognized term in Agile practices for this purpose.

In summary, when a story is too large to be completed in a single iteration, story decomposition is the correct technique to break it into smaller, more manageable parts, making it possible to complete within the time frame of an iteration.

Question No 4:

A team discovers that their accomplished deliverables are not impacting the goal strongly. They have several more iterations of similar work scheduled and are ready to execute, and they expect delivering this work will produce similar poor impacts. They choose to shift their delivery work to a different initiative while they assess the poorly performing work for other ways that would produce good results.

This shows that the team values which of the following things highest?

A Documenting solution outcomes
B Developing new processes
C Improving collaboration
D Responding to change

Correct answer: D

Explanation:

The scenario describes a situation where the team realizes that their deliverables are not having the expected impact on the goal and decides to shift focus to a different initiative while assessing the poorly performing work. This behavior highlights the team’s ability to be flexible and adapt to the situation, which is a key principle of Agile methodologies and values, especially under the Agile manifesto's focus on "responding to change over following a plan."

Now, let's examine each option:

A (Documenting solution outcomes):
While documenting outcomes can be important, the team’s decision to change course based on the assessment of poor performance indicates that they are prioritizing action and flexibility over mere documentation. Documenting outcomes is not the primary value in this scenario.
B (Developing new processes):
Although developing processes can be a focus for teams, the scenario is more about shifting efforts based on the actual performance of the work, rather than focusing on creating new processes. The decision to change initiatives suggests that adaptability is more important here than process development.
C (Improving collaboration):
Collaboration is indeed important for team success, but the situation described is more about adapting to change and course-correcting rather than working on collaborative practices. The team is making a tactical decision to change focus based on results, not primarily to improve collaboration.
D (Responding to change):
This is the most fitting answer. The team is responding to the poor impact of their deliverables by changing their approach and shifting focus to a different initiative. This reflects a high value on adaptability and responding to the evolving needs of the project or goal.

Thus, the correct answer is D: Responding to change, as it best reflects the team's highest value in this context.

Question No 5:

While discussing team norms, the team determines that within the Delivery Horizon, communication will be:

A Clear or reviewed
B Appropriate and planned
C Casual and as needed
D Consistent or scheduled

Correct answer: B

Explanation:

Team norms are the guidelines that a team establishes to ensure effective collaboration and success. Communication is a critical aspect of any project, and it is essential that the team sets clear expectations about how and when communication should happen, especially within the Delivery Horizon (the time frame during which the delivery of the project or product is taking place). Let's break down each of the options to understand why B is the most appropriate choice.

A - Clear or reviewed:
While clarity in communication is certainly important, this option isn't specific enough to serve as a well-defined communication norm. Communication should not only be clear, but it should also be planned and structured to avoid confusion, particularly during crucial delivery phases. The term "reviewed" is somewhat ambiguous in this context, as it doesn’t provide any clear guidelines on when or how to communicate. For effective project management, a communication strategy needs to be more than just clear and reviewed—it needs to be appropriate and planned, considering the specific needs of the project.

B - Appropriate and planned:
This option is the most suitable because it provides clear guidance about what the team values in their communication within the Delivery Horizon. Communication should be appropriate (i.e., relevant and tailored to the needs of the project and team members) and planned (i.e., structured in advance to ensure it happens at the right times and through the right channels). By emphasizing planning, this approach ensures that communication aligns with project milestones and requirements, avoiding misunderstandings and ensuring everyone is on the same page. The term appropriate also implies that communication will be purposeful, which is vital in a project-focused environment.

C - Casual and as needed:
While casual communication may work for certain team interactions, it is generally not ideal in a project context, especially when discussing the Delivery Horizon. During critical project phases, communication needs to be more structured, purposeful, and planned, as casual communication might lead to missed details or misunderstandings. Additionally, the phrase "as needed" suggests a reactive rather than proactive approach, which could result in delays or confusion, especially when clarity and timely information exchange are crucial.

D - Consistent or scheduled:
While consistent communication is a valid and important norm for any team, it’s not as specific as appropriate and planned. Scheduled communication may work for regular check-ins, but it’s important to emphasize appropriateness as well as timing. Simply scheduling communication might not address the need for it to be relevant or targeted to the project’s needs. Without planning and making communication appropriate, consistency alone won’t ensure the effectiveness of the exchange, particularly in a complex project environment.

In project management, especially during critical delivery phases, communication should be appropriate to the project’s needs and planned so that it happens effectively and at the right times. B - Appropriate and planned emphasizes these factors, making it the most effective approach to team communication during the Delivery Horizon.

Question No 6:

While working at the strategy level, the team needs to ensure stakeholders actively support an environment for constructive communication, collaboration, and continuous improvement. They decide to use the following to achieve this goal?

A Product Roadmap
B Reviews
C Behavior driven development
D Release Plans

Correct answer: B

Explanation:

At the strategy level, fostering an environment that promotes constructive communication, collaboration, and continuous improvement is essential for the success of the project. The team needs to choose an approach that encourages active stakeholder involvement and feedback to continuously improve the project and adapt to evolving needs.

Breakdown of the Options:

A. Product Roadmap
A Product Roadmap is a strategic planning tool that outlines the vision, direction, priorities, and progress of a product over time. While it is valuable for aligning stakeholders on the product's long-term direction, it is not the best tool for fostering constructive communication or collaboration in an ongoing and dynamic way. A roadmap sets the vision, but does not directly drive engagement or continuous improvement in the day-to-day development process.
B. Reviews
Reviews (such as sprint reviews, project reviews, or retrospectives) are a key mechanism for ensuring that stakeholders are engaged in constructive communication. These regular, interactive meetings provide opportunities for stakeholders to give feedback, voice concerns, and collaborate on the direction of the product. Reviews allow the team to assess progress, discuss improvements, and make adjustments. This is the most suitable method for encouraging continuous improvement and collaboration throughout the lifecycle of the project.
C. Behavior driven development
Behavior Driven Development (BDD) is a software development technique that encourages collaboration between developers, testers, and non-technical stakeholders. While BDD promotes communication and collaboration, it focuses primarily on defining features and behavior through examples and scenarios. It is useful for ensuring shared understanding but does not directly address continuous improvement in the broader strategic sense.
D. Release Plans
Release Plans outline the schedule for delivering product increments or new releases. While they are important for planning and aligning stakeholders on what will be delivered and when, release plans are more focused on the timing of deliverables rather than the process of fostering collaboration and continuous improvement. Release plans alone do not directly promote constructive communication in the way that regular reviews can.

To achieve the goal of ensuring active support from stakeholders for an environment of constructive communication, collaboration, and continuous improvement, the most effective choice is B. Reviews. Reviews create the necessary space for stakeholders to actively participate, provide feedback, and drive continuous improvement.

Question No 7:

How can the team maintain understanding of the big picture without getting lost in the details?

A. Create a gantt chart
B. Refine their backlog
C. Create a story map
D. Fully elaborate user stories

Correct answer: C

Explanation:

In agile methodologies, it's important for the team to maintain a focus on the big picture while still addressing the details of individual user stories. This ensures that the team is aligned with the overall business value and goals of the initiative, rather than getting bogged down in the intricacies of individual tasks. Let's break down the options:

A. Create a gantt chart: Gantt charts are typically used in more traditional project management approaches, not agile ones. They focus on detailed scheduling and dependencies, which is not an effective way to keep an agile team focused on the big picture. Agile methodologies prioritize adaptability, collaboration, and delivering value incrementally, and gantt charts can often lead to excessive focus on timelines and details.
B. Refine their backlog: While refining the backlog is an important aspect of agile workflows, simply refining the backlog does not inherently keep the team focused on the big picture. Backlog refinement helps ensure that tasks are well-defined and prioritized, but without a clear understanding of how these tasks fit into the overall product or business goals, the team could still lose sight of the big picture.
C. Create a story map: A story map is a visual representation that organizes user stories according to the flow of activities or user journeys. This allows the team to see how individual pieces fit together to deliver the overall business value. It is an excellent tool for helping teams understand the big picture because it highlights the end-to-end flow of functionality while also showing dependencies between different tasks. By using story maps, teams can ensure they’re working toward delivering complete features rather than getting lost in isolated stories.
D. Fully elaborate user stories: While elaborating on user stories is important for clarity and detail, fully elaborating each story can actually shift focus too much toward the individual details, potentially making it harder for the team to see the overall flow and business value. Agile practices emphasize just enough detail at the right time, and the focus should remain on delivering value incrementally rather than overloading with excessive details from the start.

Conclusion: The most effective way for the team to maintain an understanding of the big picture without getting lost in the details is to create a story map. This tool helps visualize the overall user journey and the value each feature provides, ensuring that the team stays aligned with the broader goals while still delivering the necessary components incrementally.

Question No 8:

When decomposing stories, the concept of “breadth before depth” signifies progressively breaking down:

A. Estimates and resources required to accomplish the story
B. Backlog items to the lowest level of detail upfront
C. Business goals into user stories representing smaller increments of value
D. Tests to align with usable functionality delivered through each story

Correct answer: C

Explanation:

The concept of "breadth before depth" is a valuable approach when decomposing user stories in Agile practices. This principle suggests starting with high-level, broader stories and then progressively breaking them down into more detailed, smaller stories that represent incremental value. This method allows teams to focus on delivering functionality that has immediate business value, rather than diving deep into minute details too early.

C. Business goals into user stories representing smaller increments of value: "Breadth before depth" encourages breaking down the overall business goals into user stories that capture larger, general functionalities first. These stories are high-level and provide a broader perspective of the project. As work progresses, these stories are split into more specific tasks or user stories, which enables the team to manage the workload and deliver incremental value over time. It ensures that the team understands the big picture and the functionality that will directly benefit the user and the business, before getting into the smaller, granular details.

For example, instead of focusing on the intricate technical specifications or specific design details immediately, the team might begin by defining general user stories that represent larger business needs. Only after the broader stories are understood and prioritized do they move on to break them down further into smaller, more detailed stories that can be worked on in sprints.

The other options do not align with the "breadth before depth" concept:

A. Estimates and resources required to accomplish the story: While estimation is important in Agile, the "breadth before depth" principle focuses on breaking down stories into smaller, more manageable chunks of value, not necessarily estimating resources or time upfront.
B. Backlog items to the lowest level of detail upfront: This contradicts the idea of "breadth before depth," as it suggests going into detailed decomposition too early in the process. Instead, teams should break down the backlog items progressively, focusing on the broader elements first and detailing them as needed.
D. Tests to align with usable functionality delivered through each story: While testing is important, the "breadth before depth" principle is about the decomposition of user stories or backlog items, not specifically about how tests are structured or executed.

Question No 9:

The delivery team is in a meeting identifying cycle time improvement opportunities for delivery of the final product. They decide to apply the following technique:

A. Backlog management
B. Value stream mapping
C. Story decomposition
D. Story mapping

Correct answer: B

Explanation:

In this scenario, the team is focused on identifying opportunities to improve the cycle time for delivering the final product. Cycle time refers to the amount of time it takes for a product or feature to move from one stage to another within the delivery pipeline. The aim is to identify inefficiencies or bottlenecks in the workflow and apply improvements to reduce the time it takes to deliver the product to customers.

A. Backlog management

Backlog management is the process of prioritizing, organizing, and managing the work in a backlog, but it does not directly focus on improving cycle time. While backlog management ensures that the most valuable tasks are worked on, it does not specifically address the flow of work or where delays may occur in the cycle time.

B. Value stream mapping

Value stream mapping is the correct answer because it is a technique specifically designed to identify areas of improvement in a process by mapping out the entire workflow. In this case, value stream mapping would help the team visualize the current state of the delivery process, identify steps that add value, and uncover steps that create waste or delay. The goal of value stream mapping is to improve efficiency, streamline processes, and reduce cycle time by eliminating bottlenecks and non-value-adding activities. This technique aligns perfectly with the goal of improving cycle time.

C. Story decomposition

Story decomposition involves breaking down larger user stories into smaller, more manageable pieces. While this technique can help teams make progress more efficiently by focusing on smaller deliverables, it does not directly address the overall cycle time. Story decomposition can, however, indirectly help with cycle time by making individual tasks easier to complete, but it is not primarily focused on the entire workflow or delivery process.

D. Story mapping

Story mapping is a technique used to visualize the product backlog in a way that aligns work with the user journey or experience. While story mapping is helpful for organizing and prioritizing work from the user's perspective, it does not directly target cycle time improvement. It is more about understanding the structure of the product and the user’s needs, rather than directly optimizing process flow or delivery speed.

In summary, value stream mapping is the best technique for identifying cycle time improvement opportunities because it focuses on visualizing and analyzing the entire flow of the process, which is critical for finding areas to reduce delays and improve efficiency. Thus, the correct answer is B.

Question No 10:

The team members are discussing the level of effort that different backlog items are likely to require, and how much effort is available for the next sprint. This is an example of the principle:

A. Analyze to determine what is valuable
B. Understand what is doable
C. Respect for individuals
D. Get real using examples

Correct answer: B

Explanation:

The principle being demonstrated in this scenario is "Understand what is doable". In Agile frameworks, particularly Scrum, teams often hold discussions during sprint planning sessions or backlog refinement meetings to assess the level of effort required for various backlog items (user stories). The focus of these discussions is to ensure that the team understands how much work can realistically be accomplished in the upcoming sprint based on the team's capacity, past performance, and available resources. By evaluating the level of effort and comparing it to the available capacity for the sprint, the team can make an informed decision about which items to prioritize for completion.

Here’s a breakdown of why the other options are less relevant:

A. Analyze to determine what is valuable: This principle focuses on identifying and prioritizing work that brings the most value to the customer or business. While understanding the value of backlog items is crucial, the scenario is more about assessing the team's ability to complete tasks within the given sprint, not about evaluating value.
C. Respect for individuals: This principle emphasizes creating a collaborative and supportive environment where the skills, experiences, and perspectives of team members are valued. While important, it doesn’t directly relate to the task of assessing effort or sprint capacity in this case.
D. Get real using examples: This principle encourages teams to ground their planning and decision-making in real, tangible examples, typically through user stories or actual scenarios. While it can be useful for refining backlog items, the core focus here is about understanding the capacity to perform work, which is more aligned with B.

In summary, the discussion around estimating effort and determining what is doable in the next sprint is best described by the principle "B. Understand what is doable." This ensures that the team has a realistic understanding of their capacity and avoids overcommitting to more work than they can handle.