CAE Agile Principles & Mindset 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: The Agile Manifesto values 'responding to change' over what?
- Following a plan (Correct answer)
- Customer collaboration
- Working software
- Individual interactions
Correct answer: Following a plan
The fourth Agile Manifesto value explicitly prioritizes responding to change over following a plan.
Question 2: Which Agile principle emphasizes that business people and developers must work together daily throughout a project?
- Principle 4 (Correct answer)
- Principle 3
- Principle 6
- Principle 1
Correct answer: Principle 4
Agile Principle 4 states that business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.
Question 3: An Agile team is under pressure to skip the retrospective. What is the BEST response?
- Advocate for keeping the retrospective as it drives continuous improvement (Correct answer)
- Skip it this sprint but double it next sprint
- Replace it with a written survey
- Let the team decide without management input
Correct answer: Advocate for keeping the retrospective as it drives continuous improvement
Retrospectives are a core Agile practice enabling continuous improvement, and skipping them undermines the inspect-and-adapt cycle.
Question 4: What does 'sustainable pace' mean in an Agile context?
- Teams work at a rate they can maintain indefinitely without burnout (Correct answer)
- Teams sprint as fast as possible for short bursts
- Management sets a fixed deadline and the team scales to meet it
- Teams only work 40 hours per week regardless of project needs
Correct answer: Teams work at a rate they can maintain indefinitely without burnout
Agile Principle 8 calls for sponsors, developers, and users to maintain a constant, sustainable pace indefinitely.
Question 5: A product owner wants to add a large feature mid-sprint without removing anything. How should an Agile team respond?
- Explain the impact on the sprint goal and negotiate scope or defer to the next sprint (Correct answer)
- Accept the feature and extend the sprint length
- Reject the request outright without discussion
- Immediately start working on the new feature
Correct answer: Explain the impact on the sprint goal and negotiate scope or defer to the next sprint
Agile teams protect the sprint goal while welcoming change through transparent communication and negotiation, not unilateral acceptance or rejection.
Question 6: Which mindset shift is MOST central to adopting Agile?
- From output-focused to outcome-focused delivery (Correct answer)
- From iterative to waterfall planning
- From team collaboration to individual performance
- From customer feedback to internal review
Correct answer: From output-focused to outcome-focused delivery
Agile focuses on delivering value and outcomes rather than simply completing tasks or producing outputs.
Question 7: Which of the following BEST illustrates the Agile principle of 'simplicity — the art of maximizing work not done'?
- Building only the features customers actually need rather than speculative functionality (Correct answer)
- Reducing team size to minimize communication overhead
- Simplifying the codebase by removing tests
- Eliminating daily standups to save time
Correct answer: Building only the features customers actually need rather than speculative functionality
Simplicity in Agile means avoiding unnecessary features or work that doesn't directly deliver customer value.
CAE Agile Principles & Mindset 2
The Agile Manifesto values 'responding to change' over what?