CAE Stakeholder Engagement 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which of the following BEST describes a 'resistant' stakeholder in the power/interest grid analysis?
- A stakeholder with low power and low interest who rarely participates
- A stakeholder actively working against the project's success
- A stakeholder who needs more information before committing support
- A stakeholder satisfied with current processes who fears change (Correct answer)
Correct answer: A stakeholder satisfied with current processes who fears change
Resistant stakeholders often oppose change because they are comfortable with the status quo and need targeted change management strategies.
Question 2: What is 'stakeholder empathy mapping' used for in agile?
- Tracking stakeholder time spent in meetings
- Understanding stakeholder feelings, needs, and motivations to improve engagement (Correct answer)
- Mapping stakeholder locations for in-person visit planning
- Assigning emotional labor tasks to team members
Correct answer: Understanding stakeholder feelings, needs, and motivations to improve engagement
Empathy mapping helps teams understand what stakeholders think, feel, say, and do, enabling more effective communication and collaboration.
Question 3: During a sprint review, a stakeholder demands a feature that contradicts another stakeholder's earlier request. Who should resolve this conflict?
- The development team votes on which feature to implement
- The scrum master enforces the original request
- The product owner prioritizes and makes the final backlog decision (Correct answer)
- Both stakeholders negotiate directly with the team
Correct answer: The product owner prioritizes and makes the final backlog decision
The product owner is responsible for managing competing stakeholder needs and prioritizing the backlog to maximize overall value.
Question 4: Which statement about 'minimal viable engagement' with low-power, low-interest stakeholders is TRUE?
- They should receive the same engagement as high-priority stakeholders
- They can be completely ignored throughout the project
- They should be monitored and given general updates without heavy time investment (Correct answer)
- They should be added to all sprint ceremonies
Correct answer: They should be monitored and given general updates without heavy time investment
Low-power, low-interest stakeholders need light-touch monitoring and occasional updates, freeing the team to focus engagement energy where it matters most.
Question 5: An agile team is co-located with key stakeholders. What is the PRIMARY advantage of this arrangement?
- Stakeholders can directly modify the sprint backlog
- Faster feedback loops and richer collaboration through face-to-face interaction (Correct answer)
- Eliminating the need for sprint reviews
- Stakeholders can attend daily scrums and add agenda items
Correct answer: Faster feedback loops and richer collaboration through face-to-face interaction
Physical co-location enables rapid, informal feedback and osmotic communication, dramatically shortening feedback cycles.
Question 6: What does 'managing up' mean in the context of stakeholder engagement?
- Escalating every small decision to senior leadership
- Proactively communicating progress, risks, and needs to executive stakeholders (Correct answer)
- Asking stakeholders to take on team tasks
- Updating status reports upward through a hierarchical chain
Correct answer: Proactively communicating progress, risks, and needs to executive stakeholders
Managing up involves keeping executive stakeholders informed and aligned so they can remove obstacles and provide strategic support.
Question 7: A product owner wants to run a 'stakeholder workshop' to refine the product backlog. What is the MAIN benefit?
- Transferring backlog ownership to stakeholders
- Gaining shared understanding and collaborative input to improve backlog quality (Correct answer)
- Reducing the number of sprint reviews needed
- Allowing stakeholders to estimate story points
Correct answer: Gaining shared understanding and collaborative input to improve backlog quality
Collaborative backlog workshops surface diverse perspectives and domain knowledge, resulting in a higher-quality, better-prioritized backlog.
CAE Stakeholder Engagement 3
Which of the following BEST describes a 'resistant' stakeholder in the power/interest grid analysis?