CAE Sprint Planning & Estimation 3

Question 1

What does 'capacity' refer to in the context of sprint planning?

Accepted Answer

The actual availability of team members in hours or days for the upcoming sprint

Answer

Capacity accounts for each team member's available time after subtracting vacations, meetings, and other obligations.

Question 2

In Planning Poker, what happens when team members reveal wildly different estimates for the same story?

Accepted Answer

The team discusses the reasoning behind divergent estimates before re-estimating

Answer

Divergent estimates signal different understandings of the work; discussion surfaces assumptions and leads to better shared understanding.

Question 3

Which of the following is NOT a valid input to sprint planning?

Accepted Answer

The project manager's personal task assignments

Answer

Sprint planning is driven by backlog, velocity, and team capacity — not by individual task assignments from outside the team.

Question 4

What is a 'spike' in agile planning, and when is it used during sprint planning discussions?

Accepted Answer

A spike is a time-boxed research task used to reduce uncertainty before estimating an item

Answer

Spikes are used when a story is too uncertain to estimate reliably; the spike produces knowledge, not a shippable feature.

Question 5

A team consistently completes only 60% of its sprint commitment. Which practice would BEST help address this during planning?

Accepted Answer

Reduce the sprint commitment to align with demonstrated capacity

Answer

Consistently incomplete sprints indicate overcommitment; right-sizing commitments to actual capacity improves predictability.

(CAE) Certified Agile Essentials Specialist Practice Test