PMI-ACP

Exam Preparation Course

Introduction

Aaron MacDaniel, PMP, CSM, MBA

Lead Instructor - BetterPM.com 1
An Innate Images, LLC Company
 Changes in PMI-ACP® - Agile Practice Guide

The updated PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)® exam was launched on 26
March 2018, which synchronizes with terminology in the Agile Practice
Guide (released in September 2017). The previous exam content outline (based on
the most recent role delineation study from 2014) is still relevant and valid.

ACP candidates also can now choose to take the exam in five additional
languages — Arabic, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish (as well as
English). Exam Guidance tools, ACP Handbook and Exam Content Outline, are also
available in these additional languages

Reference:
https://www.pmi.org/certifications/types/agile-acp/exam-prep/changes
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 PMI-ACP® - Agile Practice Guide

⬥ The (PMI-ACP)® Agile Practice Guide goes beyond the software development
industry, because Agile has expanded into non-software development
environments such as manufacturing, education, healthcare etc.

⬥ This practice guide provides practical guidance to project leaders and team
members adapting to an agile approach in planning and executing projects.

⬥ The (PMI-ACP)® Agile Practice Guide is project focused and addresses project
selection, implementing agile, and organizational consideration for agile
projects.

⬥ Agile is referred to as an ‘Approach’ in this practice guide over some other used
terms such as a method, a practice, a technique, or a framework.

*Source: A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide ), 6th Edition (2017 Project Management
Institute, all rights reserved), Agile Practice Guide, page 1.

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 PMI-ACP® - Agile Practice Guide

⬥ The scope of the (PMI-ACP)® Agile Practice Guide is as follows:

In Scope Out of Scope

Implement agile approaches at a project or team Implementing agile throughout the organization or
level creating agile programs
Coverage of most popular agile approaches, as listed Coverage of niche approaches, company-specific
in Industry surveys methods, or incomplete life cycle techniques
Suitability factors to consider when choosing an agile Recommending or endorsing a particular approach/
approach and/ or practice practice
Mapping agile to PMBOK® Guide processes and Change or modifications of PMBOK® Guide processes
Knowledge Areas and/ or Knowledge Areas
Discussion on the use of agile beyond software Removal of software industry influence on agile
development approaches. (Note that software in included in this
practice guide even though the use of agile is growing
in many other industries beyond software.)
Guidance, techniques, and approaches to consider Prescriptive step-by-step instructions on how to
when implementing agile in projects or organizations implement agile in projects or organizations
Definitions of generally accepted terms New terms and/or definitions

*Source: A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide ), 6th Edition (2017 Project Management
Institute, all rights reserved), Agile Practice Guide, table 1-1, page 4.

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 PMI-ACP® - Agile Practice Guide

⬥ The structure of the (PMI-ACP)® Agile Practice Guide is as follows:

• Section 01 – Introduction
• Section 02 – An Introduction to Agile
• Section 03 – Life Cycle Selection
• Section 04 – Implementing Agile: Creating an Agile Environment
• Section 05 – Implementing Agile: Delivering in an Agile Environment
• Section 06 – Organizational Considerations for Project Agility
• Section 07 – A call to action
• Annexes, Appendixes, References, Bibliography and Glossary

*Source: A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide ), 6th Edition (2017 Project Management
Institute, all rights reserved), Agile Practice Guide, page 5

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 PMI-ACP® - Agile Practice Guide

⬥ Agile is considered a blanket term for many approaches. The (PMI-ACP)® Agile
Practice Guide provides the following diagram to explain.

Lean

Agile
ScrumBan
Kanban
Crystal
AUP

Scrum FDD
XP DSDM

*Source: A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide ), 6th Edition (2017 Project Management
Institute, all rights reserved), Agile Practice Guide, Figure 2-4, page 11

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 PMI-ACP® - Agile Practice Guide
⬥ The (PMI-ACP)® Agile Practice Guide refers to four types of life cycles
• Predictive life cycle
• Iterative life cycle
• Incremental life cycle
• Agile life cycle
Characteristics of these life cycles are:
Characteristics

Approach Requirements Activities Delivery Goal

Predictive Fixed Performed once for the Single delivery Manage cost
entire project
Iterative Dynamic Repeated until correct Single delivery Correctness of solution

Incremental Dynamic Performed once for a Frequent smaller Speed

given increments deliveries
Agile Dynamic Repeated until correct Frequent small Customer value via
deliveries frequent deliveries and
feedback
*Source: A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide ), 6th Edition (2017 Project Management
Institute, all rights reserved), Agile Practice Guide, Table 3.1, page 18

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 PMI-ACP® - Agile Practice Guide

⬥ Three generic Agile roles is introduced as follows:

Role Description

Cross functional team members Cross-functional teams consists of team members with all the skills
necessary to produce a working product. Cross-functional teams are
critical because they can deliver finished work in the shortest possible
time, with higher quality, without external dependencies.
Product owner The product owner is in charge for guiding the course of the product.
Product owners rank the work based on its value for the business. Product
owners work with their teams daily by providing product feedback and
setting direction on the next piece of functionality to be developed/
delivered.

A strong product ownership is a critical success factor for agile teams.

Without attention to the highest value for the customer, the agile team
may create features that are not appreciated, or otherwise not enough
valuable, therefore wasting effort.
Team facilitator The third role typically seen on agile teams is of a team facilitator, a
servant leader. This role may be called a project manager, scrum master,
project team lead, team coach or team facilitator.

*Source: A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide ), 6th Edition (2017 Project Management Institute, all rights
reserved), Agile Practice Guide, Table 4.2, page 41

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 PMI-ACP® - Agile Practice Guide
⬥ Recognition and emphasize on Agile teams, their attributes and team
compositions is seen under creating Agile environments.
Attribute Goal
Dedicated people • Increased focus and productivity
• Small teams (ideally fewer than ten people)
Cross-functional team • Develop and deliver often
members • Deliver finished value as an independent team
• Integrate all the work activities to deliver finished work
• Provide feedback from inside the team and from others, such as the product owner
Colocation or ability to • Better communication
manage any location • Improved team dynamics
challenges • Knowledge sharing
• Reduced cost of learning
• Able to commit to working with each other
Mixed team of • Specialists provide dedicated expertise and generalists provide flexibility of who does what
generalists and • Teams brings their specialist capabilities and often become generalizing specialists, with
specialists focus specialty plus breadth of experience across multiple skills
Stable work • Depend on each other to deliver
environment • Agreed-upon approach to the work
• Simplified team cost calculations
• Preservation and expansion of intellectual capital
*Source: A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide ), 6th Edition (2017 Project Management Institute, all
rights reserved), Agile Practice Guide, Table 4.1, page 40
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 PMI-ACP® - Agile Practice Guide

⬥ A project manager in an Agile environment shifts from being the leader and
center of a project to serving the team and management. Project managers are
considered servant leaders, encouraging the distribution of responsibilities to
the team. Servant leader responsibilities:
• Servant leader facilitate
• Servant leaders remove organizational impediments
• Servant leaders pave the way for others’ contribution

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 PMI-ACP® - Agile Practice Guide

⬥ Organizational Consideration for Project Agility section explains skills and

techniques for influencing Organizational Change Management that drives
agility.

• Drivers for change management in an agile context includes changes

associated with accelerated delivery and changes associated with agile
approaches.
• Following characteristics are listed under organization readiness supporting
agile principles
o Executive management’s willingness to change,
o Positive attitude towards change,
o Methods of project, program and portfolio management
o Mature level of talent management

*Source: A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide ), 6th Edition (2017 Project Management Institute, all
rights reserved), Agile Practice Guide, page 73
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 PMI-ACP® - Agile Practice Guide

⬥ (PMI-ACP)® Agile Practice Guide refers to an Agile PMOs with an goal to deliver
the right value, to the right audience, at the right time. An agile PMO therefore
is:-
• Value driven
• Invitation oriented
• Multidisciplinary

⬥ Some of the functions of an Agile PMO is:

• Drafting and implementing standards
• Personnel development
• Multi-project management
• Stakeholder management
• Team leader selections
• Carry out specialized tasks for project
*Source: A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide ), 6th Edition (2017 Project Management Institute, all
rights reserved), Agile Practice Guide, page 82
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