PMI-ACP Exam Flashcards
A method used to communicate with business customers, developers, and testers before coding begins.
Team members with different perspectives (customer, development, testing) collaborating to write acceptance tests in advance of (before) implementing the corresponding functionality (coding).
Acceptance Test Driven Development
To focus on what is said and provide feedback to communicate understanding. After hearing what someone is saying to you, summarizing in your own words what they said, confirming what was stated to make sure everyone is on the same page.
Active Listening
A leadership style that helps teams to thrive and overcome challenges throughout a project. Includes learning to adapt your leadership style to the situation.
Adaptive Leadership
A method used to quickly place user stories into a comparable-sized group. A quick way to visualize your Product Backlog into groupings of relative sizes.
Affinity Estimation
To adapt the project plan continuously through retrospectives in order to maximize value creation during the planning process.
Agile Adaption
A statement that reflects Agile Philosophy that includes: individuals and interactions over processes and tools, working software over comprehensive documentation, customer collaboration over contract negotiation, and responding to changes over following a plan.
Agile Manifesto
To pass on and teach based on experience, knowledge, and skills to other individuals in the team or that work for the organization.
Agile Mentoring
A way to complete a goal effectively and efficiently. Examples of Agile Methodologies include XP, Scrum, and Lean.
Agile Methodologies
A workflow depiction of a process or system a team can review before it is turned into code. Stakeholders should understand the model.
Agile Modeling
The most important aspect of the Agile project. Planning happens at multiple levels such as strategic, release, iteration, and daily. Planning must happen up-front and can change throughout the project.
Agile Planning
To make use of the Agile principles through activities.
Agile Practices
A project that occurs based on the Agile Manifesto and Agile Principles.
Agile Projects
Symptoms of problems that affect Agile teams and projects.
Agile Smells
A space that allows team members to establish collaboration, communication, transparency, and visibility.
Agile Space
Themes used to help the team focus on the functions of iteration.
Agile Themes
To increase team morale with software or artifacts.
Agile Tooling
To develop possible solutions by studying the problem and its underlying need and to understand the information provided.
Analysis
After the deadline of iteration is reached, the team and stakeholders conduct a meeting for approval. Stakeholders approve the iteration if the backlog used supports the product increment.
Approved Iterations
Spikes that relate to any area of a system, technology, or application domain that is unknown.
Architectural Spikes
A process or work output Ex. Document, Code
Artifact
Exhibits continuous adaptation to the project and its processes with characteristics that include: mission focused, feature based, iterative, time-boxed, risk driven, and change tolerant.
ASD
These tools allow for efficient and strong testing. Examples: Peer Reviews, Periodical Code-Reviews, Refactoring, Unit Tests, Automatic and Manual Testing.
Automated Testing Tools
To work in a responsive way to deliver the products or services a customer needs and when they want the products or services.
Being Agile
An effective and efficient way of gathering ideas within a short period of time from a group.
Brainstorming
A chart used to display progress during and at the end of iteration. “Burning down” means the backlog will lessen throughout the iteration.
Burn-Down Chart
The rate of resources consumed by the team; also cost per iteration.
Burn Rate
A chart that displays completed functionality. Progress will trend upwards, as stories are completed. Only shows complete functions, it is not accurate at predicting or showing work-in-progress.
Burn-Up Chart
An acronym to measure the goals and mission of the project with each letter meaning: Criticality, Accessibility, Return, Vulnerability, Effect, and Recognizeability.
CARVER
A meeting conducted during an Agile project that consists of daily stand-up, iteration planning, iteration review, and iteration retrospective.
Ceremony
To change requirements that increase value to the customer.
Change
A document created during initiation that formally begins the project. The document includes the project’s justification, a summary level budget, major milestones, critical success factors, constraints, assumptions, and authorization to do it.
Charter
An individual involved but not committed to an Agile project.
Chicken
A team role that keeps the team focused on learning and the process.
Coach
A method of cooperation among individuals to achieve a common goal.
Collaboration
The entire team together is responsible for 100% of the code.
Collective Code Ownership
The entire team is physically present, working in one room.
Collocation
An issue solved through trend analysis because the issue is systematic.
Common Cause
To share smooth and transparent information of needs.
Command & Control
To meet regulations, rules, and standards.
Compliance
An environment for the team that is free of distractions and interruptions.
Cone of Silence
Disagreements in certain areas between individuals.
Conflict
An agreement made after a conflict.
Conflict Resolution
To ensure that self-assessment and process improvement occurs frequently to improve the product.
Continuous Improvement
To consistently examine a team member’s work. To build, and test the entire system.
Continuous Integration
To organize work with the goal of higher productivity and teamwork.
Coordination
To measure the cost spent on a project and its efficiency. Earned Value / Actual Cost = CPI
Cost Performance Index (CPI)
Teams that consist of members who can complete various functions to achieve a common goal. Team members are able to do more than one role in a project.
Cross-Functional Team
An adaptable approach that focuses on interaction between people and processes that consists of families that vary based on team size, system criticality, and project priorities.
Crystal Family
A chart that displays feature backlog, work-in-progress, and completed features.
Cumulative Flow Diagram
The end-user who determines and emphasizes business values.
Customer
To deliver the maximum customer value early in order to win customer loyalty and support.
Customer-Valued Prioritization
The time needed to complete a feature (user story). Work in progress / throughput.
Cycle Time
A brief meeting where the team shares the previous day’s achievements, plans to make achievements, obstacles, and how to overcome the obstacles.
Daily Stand Up
To postpone decisions to determine possibilities and make the decision when the most amount of knowledge is available.
Decide As Late As Possible
The qualities of a product backlog which include: detailed, estimate-able, emergent, and prioritized.
DEEP
A tangible or intangible object delivered to the customer. Ex. Document, Pamphlet, Report
Deliverables
To separate epics or large stories into smaller stories.
Disaggregation
The lack of satisfaction among workers such as, work conditions, salary, and management-employee relationships. Factors known as demotivators.
Dissatisfaction
To reach a deal through tactics so both parties receive the highest amount of value possible.
Distributive Negotiation
When work is complete, and meets the following criteria: complies, runs without errors, and passes predefined acceptance and regression tests.
Done
A system of voting where people receive a certain number of dots to vote on the options provided.
Dot Voting
A model that provides a comprehensive foundation for planning, managing, executing, and scaling agile and iterative software development projects based on nine principles that involve business needs/value, active user involvement, empowered teams, frequent delivery, integrated testing, and stakeholder collaboration.
Dynamic Systems Development Model (DSDM)
Earned Value Management, works well at iteration. It is a method to measure and communicate progress and trends at the current stage of the project.
Earned Value Management (EVM)
Stories that grow and change overtime as other stories reach completion in the backlog.
Emergent
An individual’s skill to lead and relate to other team members.
Emotional Intelligence
A large story that spans iterations, then disaggregated into smaller stories.
Epic Story
Defects reported after the delivery by the customer.
Escaped Defects
An individual chooses to behave in a particular way over other behaviors because of the expected results of the chosen behavior.
Expectancy Theory
To inquire how software works with the use of test subjects using the software and asking questions about the software.
Exploratory Testing
A team-manufactured persona that exaggerates to induce requirements a standard persona may miss.
Extreme Persona
A methodology in Agile with one-week iterations and paired development.
eXtreme Programming (XP)
A comprehensive model and list of features included in the system before the design work begins.
Feature-Driven Development (FDD)
A group of stories that deliver value to the customers.
Feature
Information or responses towards a product or project used to make improvements.
Feedback
A sequence of numbers used in Agile estimating, 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 20, 40, 100.
Fibonacci Sequence
Tasks must be finished in all iterations to meet the “Definition of Done” requirements as a way to track progress and allow frequent delivery.
Finish Tasks One by One
A root cause diagram. Useful in performing cause and effect analysis.
Fishbone Diagram
The root causes analysis technique that asks WHY five times. The problem is looked into deeper each time WHY is asked. Toyota developed this technique.
Five Whys
Assigned tasks prioritized for completion based on an estimated number of days. Top priorities are usually completed first.
Fixed Time Box
To stay on task, and is facilitated by the scrum master or coach.
Focus
To analyze forces that encourages or resists change.
Force Field Analysis
An action the customer must see and experience from a system, which will add value to the customer.
Functionality
To clean up the product backlog by removal of items, disaggregation of items, or estimation of items.
Grooming
Unwritten rules decided and followed by team members.
Ground Rules
A theory that states factors in the workplace create satisfaction and dissatisfaction in relation to the job.
Herzberg’s Hygiene Theory
Face-to-face communication that also includes non-verbal communication.
High-Bandwidth Communication
This team reaches maximum performance by creation of clear, detailed goals, open communication, accountability, empowerment, use of the participatory decision model, and the team consists of twelve dedicated members or less.
High Performing Team
The amount of time needed to complete an assignment without distractions or interruptions.
Ideal Time
Functionality conveyed in small phases.
Incremental Delivery
To build upon the prior release of a goal, outcome, or product, not all requirements are met, but after all releases, the requirements will be met.
Incremental Project Releases
Artifacts used to help maintain transparency of a project status to team members and stakeholders.
Information Radiator
Information that is not transparent or useful to the team and stakeholders.
Information Refrigerator
Practice used to induce requirements from product, owners, users, and stakeholders.
Innovation Games
To reach an agreement collaboratively that creates more value for both parties by a win-win solution.
Integrative Negotiation
Face-to-Face communication
Interaction
Interest rate you will need to get in today’s money to receive a certain amount of money in the future. Used to determine potential profitability of project or investment.
Internal rate of return (IRR)
To inspect within, during a meeting with the Agile team to review practices, usually when a problem or issue occurs.
Intraspectives
Poor estimation that occurs at the beginning of iteration.
Intrinsic Schedule Flaw
The benefits of good user stories, which include: Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimate-able, Small, and Testable.
INVEST
Work cycle, Scrum uses 2-4 weeks, XP uses 1 week.
Iteration
Work to complete in a particular iteration.
Iteration Backlog
Iteration used to prepare the launch of software, and to test software.
Iteration H
Iteration to complete tasks before the development work occurs, for technical and architectural spikes and to gather requirements into the backlog.
Iteration 0
A meeting used in Scrum, the team discusses ways to improve after work is completed.
Iteration Retrospective
Used to minimize inventory cost by materials delivered before they are required.
Just-In-Time
Based on Japanese management philosophy, to continue improvement through small releases.
Kaizen
A signal used to advance transparency of work-in-progress, a new task can begin once a previous one is complete.
Kanban
A chart that shows workflow stages to locate work-in-progress.
Kanban Board
An analysis of product development and customer satisfaction based on needs fulfilled/not fulfilled vs. satisfaction/dissatisfaction. A prioritization technique that uses different categories.
Kano Analysis
To make decisions as late as possible in order to preserve all possible options.
Last Responsible Moment
To eliminate waste, an Agile method derived from manufacturing.
Lean Methodology
The law that limits work-in-progress efficiently with development of an appropriate cycle time.
Little’s Law
This team has a lack of trust, no accountability, fear of conflict, less commitment, and less attention to details and results.
Low Performing Team
This methodology focuses on the “Value Stream” to deliver value to customers. The goal is to eliminate waste by focusing on valuable features of a system and to deliver the value in small batches. Principles of Lean include: elimination of waste, amplify learning, to decide late as possible, deliver as fast as possible, empowerment of the team, to build in integrity, and to see the whole.
Lean Software Development (LSD)
This theory suggests the interdependent needs (motivators) of people based on five levels in this order: Physiological, Safety & Security, Social, Esteem, and Self-Actualization.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
To explain how a project will be completed successfully to stakeholders by use of real-world examples of systems and components. Used in XP. Represents shared technical vision.
System Metaphor
A product with only the essential features delivered to early adopters to receive feedback. Usually a module in a software.
Minimal Viable Product (MVP)
The smallest feature of a product that provides value to the end-user.
Minimal Marketing Feature (MMF)
To give fake money to business features in order to compare the relative priority of those features.
Monopoly Money
An analysis used to help stakeholders understand the importance of each requirement delivered. MoSCoW is the acronym for Must have, Should have, Could have, and Would like to have.
MoSCoW Analysis
To reach an agreement between two or more parties to resolve a conflict.
Negotiation
Anything opened to discussion.
Negotiable
Value of future money in today’s terms
Present Value/Net Present Value (NPV)
To communicate by sharing an environment.
Osmotic Communication
When developers work together in XP Practice
Pair Programming
Known as the 80/20 rule. For Agile projects, it means that 80% of all development should be spent on the top 20% of the features the customers need.
Pareto Principle
A storage place for ideas that distract from the main goal during a meeting.
Parking Lot
To have stakeholder’s involvement in decision making with techniques such as a simple vote.
Participatory Decision Models
A depiction of the customer of system with applicable details about usage.
Persona
When an employer faces the loss of a human resource through death, injury, or disability of an employee.
Personnel Loss
A committed individual impacted by the outcome.
Pig
Work cycle in smaller, quick iterations than traditional.
Plan-Do-Check-Act
To prioritize work and estimate effort required by creation of a release plan in XP.
Planning Game
A tool used to estimate team effort on user stories.
Planning Poker
To maximize value through incremental work in order to gain competitive advantage.
Positive Value
Team members asked to define reasons of a project’s failure and to identify causes of failure missed in previous analyses.
Pre-Mortem
A way to calculate the time value of money.
Present Value
To perfect agile processes for a particular project and environment.
Process Tailoring
The effectiveness of production, usually measured with output per unit of input.
Productivity
The difference between the planned and actual performance.
Productivity Variation
The known features for a project.
Product Backlog
An artifact that displays planned project functionality.
Product Road Map
A document that describes what the product is, who will use the product, why the product will be used, and how the product supports the strategy of a company.
Product Vision
A statement that defines the purpose and value of the product.
Product Vision Statement
The role of a team member that writes the code, a role used in XP.
Programmer
An approach for planning that occurs in cycles instead of upfront, which happens frequently.
Progressive Elaboration
An enterprise planned and designed to create a product, service, or result.
Project
Project Management Professional credential.
PMP
A model used to perfect requirements.
Prototyping
Descriptive data used for analysis.
Qualitative
The specifications and requirements of product or service measured against the standard product or service in the industry.
Quality
Numerical data used for analysis.
Quantitative
To adjust working code to improve functionality and conservation.
Refactoring
A list of all user stories and features ordered by highest priority to the lowest priority.
Relative Prioritization
To estimate the size of a story in comparison with another story.
Relative Sizing
Iteration outcomes delivered to customers (end-users).
Release
A document that describes the timeline of a product release.
Release Plan
Requirements are in the form of user stories, and collected at a high level to estimate a budget.
Requirements at a High Level
A model to rate each feature with the calculation of weighted formula defined by the team.
Requirements Prioritization Model
To review the requirements so they fulfill the needs and priorities of stakeholders.
Requirements Review
The return an organization makes on an investment, usually expressed as a percentage.
Return on investment (ROI)
The uncertainty of an unwanted outcome related to the project. Considered anti-value.
Risk
A product backlog adjusted to help balance the risk and value factors of product.
Risk-Adjusted Backlog
This spike helps the team remove major risks, and if the spike fails every approach possible, the project is defined as “fast failure”.
Risk-Based Spike
A chart that displays risk and success with feature vs. time.
Risk Burn Down
To analyze the consequences of the risk if they occur based on their probability.
Risk Impact
The likelihood that the risk will occur.
Risk Probability
How much the risk’s consequences will influence the success or failure of a project. Risk Probability (%) x Risk Impact ($) = Risk Severity
Risk Severity
A person’s description that includes their function in an Agile project.
Role
To divide the planning phase into stages.
Rolling Wave Planning
To investigate beyond the symptoms of the problem and to understand the root cause of the problem.
Root Cause Analysis
A diagram that correlates different factors and the symptom.
Root Cause Diagram
The feeling of workers when their needs are fulfilled. Known as motivators.
Satisfaction
The ratio of earned value to planned value. EV/PV=SPI.
Schedule Performance Index
The uncontrolled changes or growth in a project’s scope which goes beyond the initial agreement.
Scope Creep
A popular Agile methodology.
Scrum
Meetings used to organize large projects with scrum masters from different teams.
Scrum of Scrums
The leader that helps the team to follow Scrum methodology.
Scum Master
This cycle tends to be long and requires a lot of advanced planning.
Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
This team has the capability to make their own decisions, empowerment, mutual accountability, and collective ownership of a project, which leads them to be more productive and efficient.
Self-Directing Team
Naturally formed teams that interact with minimal management supervision.
Self-Organizing Team
Leaders collaborate with the team and do anything the team does when needed.
Servant Leadership
Originated in Japan as a way to understand learning and mastery, Shu – obeying the rules, Ha - consciously moving away from the rules, and Ri – consciously finding an individual path.
Shu-Ha-Ri Model
Work that is isolated.
Silo
Communication used conveniently to receive instant feedback, ideas, and requirements from a particular community.
Social Media-Based Communication
A cause that occurs once because of special reasons.
Special Cause
This occurs when requirements for the specification are incomplete or conflicting.
Specification Breakdown
An experiment that helps a team answer, a particular question and determine future actions.
Spike
A consistent iteration that lasts from one week to one month in order to measure velocity in Scrum.
Sprint
A document that explains sprint goals, tasks, and requirements and how the tasks will reach completion.
Sprint Plan
A team-member meeting that occurs after each sprint to evaluate the product and process to improve efficiency and effectiveness.
Sprint Retrospective
A meeting that occurs after each sprint to show the product or process to stakeholders for approval and to receive feedback.
Sprint Review
An individual with an interest in the outcome.
Stakeholder
To ensure stakeholders remain informed and that the achievement of their needs are met.
Stakeholder Management
A curved test used to measure knowledge and understanding, but constructed so the same test-taker will perform similarly each time.
Standardized Test
An index card that displays the user story.
Story Card
A prioritization tool that backlogged stories made smaller and organized by user functionality.
Story Map
A unit of measurement to estimate the difficulty of a user story.
Story Point
A maintainable pace of work that is intense yet steady.
Sustainability
When multiple team members focus collectively on resolving a specific impediment. Two or more team members focus on one user story.
Swarming
A model originated in Japan to describe a team with values that include self-organization, empowered to make decisions, belief in vision and success, a committed team, trust, participatory decision making, consensus-driven, and construction disagreement.
Tabaka’s Model
The smaller jobs to fulfill a user story, usually divided among team members.
Tasks
A group of individuals charged with the responsibility of delivery and value of a project.
Team
Team members function in a way that is collaborative to complete tasks and reach a common goal, mostly achieved with strong communication.
Teamwork
A team that is empowered has collaboration, responsibility, and self-sufficiency.
Team Empowerment
Formation happens when a team creates ground rules and processes to build bonds and shared goals.
Team Formation
When the team discusses the requirements that will fulfill the customer’s needs.
Team Participation
An area for team members to collocate, usually a physical location, in some cases a virtual location is created.
Team Space
The number of story points completed during iteration, and used to determine the planned capacity.
Team Velocity
Technical decisions a team chooses to not implement currently, but must do so or face difficulty in the future.
Technical Debt
A written acceptance test for a module with the code built to pass the tests in order to ensure correct performance.
Test-Driven Development (TDD)
Explains acceptance test to the customers then consistently measures the product against the test and records results for the team. (XP Role)
Tester
A group of stories, iteration, or release’s idea determined by the customer and the team agrees with the idea.
Theme
To set a fixed delivery date for a project or release.
Time-boxing
A role in XP that measures the team’s progress, and communicates the measurements to the team.
Tracker
A top-down approach that consists of long cycles, heavy planning, and minimal customer involvement.
Traditional Management
To show everyone’s involvement and progress to the entire team.
Transparency
This analysis provides trends that will occur in the future to help control and implement continuous improvement.
Trend Analysis
To allow communication between parties so their concerns and perspectives are given for effective feedback.
Two-Way Communication
These tests are used for continuous feedback to achieve quality improvement and assurance.
Unit Testing
An exploratory test which uses a test subject to understand the usability of software.
Usability Testing
The active involvement of users in the development cycle of a project so team members can receive feedback about the user’s requirements.
Users Involvement
At least one business requirement that increases the value for the user.
User Story
The way to make sure that the product is acceptable to the customer.
Validation
The worth of a product, project, or service.
Value
To allow the PO or customer determine which function to implement first based on the value it delivers.
Value-Based Prioritization
To realize the values needed to deliver a project.
Value-Driven Delivery
A tool used to analyze a chain of processes with the desired outcome of eliminating waste. The set of activities that the team has performed.
Value Stream Mapping
The measurement of how far apart data is from each other. Understand tends over time.
Variance
The total number of features that a team delivers in iteration.
Velocity
To ensure the product meets requirements and specifications.
Verification
A geographically distributed group that does not meet physically.
Virtual Team
The team’s work and progress must be transparent to all stakeholders.
Visibility
A space where the team can work and collaborate effectively.
War Room
Resistant to change that requires heavy planning and sequential, traditional approach.
Waterfall
An estimation technique for user stories. The PO presents user stories & discusses challenges. Each story’s estimates plotted, and then the team comes to an agreement on the range of points.
Wide-Band Delphi Estimating
To limit work-in-progress so a team can do the following: maintain focus on completing work, maintaining quality, and delivering value.
WIP Limits
A lightweight non-functional UI design that shows the customer the vital elements and how they will interact before coding.
Wireframe
Work-In-Progress- Stories that have started, which are displayed in workflows to show progress and what still needs to be completed.
WIP
A series of phases or stages the team has agreed to execute for a project.
Workflow
A method that allows customers to score (total 100 points) different features of a product.
100-Point Method
Occurs when what one person described is often different from how another interpreted it.
Gulf of Evanluation
Agile practice to address inaccurate estimation that reduces story size and makes estimation more accurate and development easier.
Splitting Stories
