Certified Agile Service Manager Cheat Sheet 2026

The 30 highest-yield Certified Agile Service Manager facts, distilled from real exam questions. Print it, save it as a PDF, or study it here — free, no sign-up.

1. What is the primary purpose of a retrospective in Agile Service Management? → To reflect on processes and identify improvements
2. Which Agile estimation technique uses relative sizing with a non-linear number sequence? → Planning Poker
3. A product is known as one that offers early adopters enough hope for the future. → A minimal Viable Product
4. What does the Kanban metric 'throughput' measure? → The number of work items completed per unit of time
5. In Agile Service Management, which practice involves breaking large service requests into smaller, deliverable increments to provide continuous value? → Iterative delivery
6. Which Agile practice most directly supports knowledge management in an IT service context? → Maintaining a living, collaboratively updated wiki or knowledge base
7. In Agile process design, 'definition of done' (DoD) serves as: → A checklist confirming a work item meets agreed quality and completion criteria
8. The tenth Agile principle defines simplicity as: → The art of maximizing the amount of work not done
9. What is the term for the ordered list of service improvements, incidents, and requests that an Agile service team draws work from? → Service backlog
10. In Agile retrospectives, which technique involves team members categorizing observations into 'What went well,' 'What didn't go well,' and 'What to improve'? → Start-Stop-Continue
11. Which metric BEST indicates that an agile process improvement initiative is reducing waste? → Decrease in lead time from request to delivery
12. In Agile SM, why is it important to baseline metrics before implementing improvements? → To establish a reference point so improvement can be measured objectively
13. What is the purpose of establishing Work-In-Progress (WIP) limits in Agile service teams? → To prevent context switching and improve flow by capping concurrent tasks
14. An Agile process design team wants to prioritize which process improvements to tackle first. Which framework best supports this prioritization? → MoSCoW prioritization based on value and urgency
15. When a CSI team uses A/B testing in service management, they are primarily: → Empirically evaluating which of two service approaches delivers better outcomes
16. Which feedback mechanism provides the MOST timely data for agile process improvement decisions? → Real-time service dashboards with automated alerting
17. In the context of Agile Service Management, what does the principle 'welcome changing requirements, even late in development' primarily support? → Competitive advantage through adaptability
18. The Lean concept of 'Jidoka' (autonomation) in software development is best represented by: → Automated tests that halt the build pipeline when defects are detected
19. Which of the following BEST describes an 'increment' in Agile Service Management? → A potentially deliverable piece of value produced at the end of a sprint
20. In Agile, what is a 'spike' used for? → A time-boxed research task to reduce uncertainty before committing to work
21. Which organizational structure best supports the integration of ITSM, Lean, and DevOps by breaking down silos between development and operations? → Cross-functional product teams with end-to-end ownership
22. Which Scrum event is most critical for driving continuous service improvement in Scrum for Service Management? → Sprint Retrospective
23. In Agile Service Management, what is an 'incident' as defined by ITSM frameworks? → An unplanned interruption or reduction in quality of an IT service
24. What role does customer feedback play in prioritizing Agile CSI initiatives? → It directly informs which improvements deliver the most value and should be prioritized
25. Why should Agile Service Managers share performance metrics openly with customers and stakeholders? → To build trust through transparency and enable informed collaboration
26. Which approach to change management aligns best with Agile Service Management? → Lightweight peer review with automated testing for standard changes
27. In integrating ITSM and DevOps, 'toil' — as defined by Google SRE — refers to: → Manual, repetitive, automatable operational work that scales with service growth
28. What distinguishes a lightweight process from a heavyweight process in agile service management? → Lightweight processes focus on essential steps and minimize bureaucratic overhead
29. Which of the following BEST describes a 'Sprint Goal' in service management? → A single objective that gives the team focus and flexibility during the Sprint
30. In Scrum for Service Management, what happens to incomplete service improvement items at the end of a Sprint? → They return to the Service Backlog for re-prioritization by the Product Owner