Module 1: PMI ACP EXAM www.whizlabs.com Copyright 2013 Page 1
Table of Contents Module 1: PMI ACP Exam... 3 Introduction... 3 Eligibility Criterion... 3 Exam Information... 3 PMI-ACP Exam Fees... 4 What is tested... 4 Course Content... 5 Reference books list... 7 www.whizlabs.com Copyright 2013 Page 2
Module 1: PMI ACP Exam Introduction The ACP certification is a new credential offered by PMI for people working in agile project management environments. Individuals obtaining this certification can demonstrate their level of skills in agile practices. The process of earning this credential involves satisfying PMI's eligibility criterion and passing a exam. The ACP certification carries a high level of professional standing and credibility as it requires a combination of agile education, experience on agile practices and examination on Agile practices. Eligibility Criterion Education Level Secondary degree (high school or equivalent) or higher General Project Experience 2,000 hours working on project teams. Must have been earned in the last 5 years. Agile Project Experience 1,500 hours working on Agile Project teams or in Agile methodologies. These hours are in addition to the 2,000 hours required in general project experience. These hours must have been earned in the last 3 years. Training in Agile Practices 21 contact hours; hours must be earned in Agile topics (This course takes care of this requirement) Examination Test knowledge of Agile fundamentals and ability to apply to basic project Maintenance 30 PDUs every 3 years in Agile project management Exam Information Exams are available at multiple Prometric locations around the world. You will have up to one year from the date your application is approved to take your exam. If you fail your exam, you are allowed to re-test twice within your one year eligibility period. You will need to provide 2 forms of identification upon arriving at the test center. All of your belongings, including your cell phone, etc., are placed in a locker and are not accessible during the exam. You will have 3 hours to complete 120 multiple-choice questions. Of the 120 questions, 20 questions are considered pre-test and are not scored. The split of exam questions will be: Agile tools and techniques - 50% of the exam questions Agile knowledge and skills - 50% of the exam questions There are no scheduled breaks during your exam and as such, the clock will continue even if you step away from the exam. www.whizlabs.com Copyright 2013 Page 3
Questions are provided one at a time and can either be answered, answered and marked, or left blank and marked for review. Upon submission of the exam, you will be asked to answer a survey prior to receiving your results. Upon completion of the survey, you will be notified as to whether you have passed or failed the exam The exam center will provide you with a paper copy of your results, including your proficiency level in each of the domains. Proficiency levels are: Proficient, Moderately Proficient and Below Proficient PMI-ACP Exam Fees The fee for computer-based test is $435 for members and $495 for non-member. On the other hand the re-examination fee is $335 for members and $395 for non-members. The membership for one year costs $119 plus a one-time $10 joining fee ($129 in all). The membership does provide some additional benefits, which includes the ability to freely download the PMI standards, access to the PMI online library, subscription to PMI publications like the PM Network, discounts to PMI events and conferences, etc. What is tested - Your knowledge of Agile practices - Your understanding of the terminology used to describe Agile - Your ability to apply established Agile practices - Your understanding of certain Agile methodologies - Your understanding of PMI s testing biases www.whizlabs.com Copyright 2013 Page 4
Course Content Tools and Techniques (50%) Category Description Communications Planning, monitoring and adaption Agile Estimation Agile analysis and design Product Quality Soft skills negotiation Value-based prioritization Risk management Metrics Value stream mapping Including but not limited to: Information Radiator, team space, agile tooling, osmotic communication for co-located and/or distributed teams, daily standups Including but not limited to: retrospectives, task/kanban boards, time-boxing, iteration and release planning, WIP limits, burn down/up charts, cumulative flow diagrams, process tailoring Including but not limited to: relative sizing/story points, wide band Delphi/planning poker, affinity estimating, ideal time Including but not limited to: product roadmap, user stories/backlog, story maps, progressive elaboration, wireframes, chartering, personas, agile modeling Including but not limited to: frequent verification and validation, test-driven development/test first development, definition of done, continuous integration Including but not limited to: emotional intelligence, collaboration, adaptive leadership, negotiation, conflict resolution, servant leadership Including but not limited to: return on investment (ROI)/net present value (NPV)/internal rate of return (IRR), compliance, customer valued prioritization, minimum marketable feature (MMF), relative prioritization/ranking Including but not limited to: risk-adjusted backlog, risk burn down graphs, risk based spike Including but not limited to: velocity, cycle time, earned value management (EVM) for agile projects, escaped defects Including but not limited to: value stream mapping www.whizlabs.com Copyright 2013 Page 5
Level 1 (18 knowledge/skills) 33% of exam - Active listening - Assessing and incorporating community and stakeholder values - Building empowered teams - Communications and management - Incremental delivery - Leadership tools and techniques - Problem-solving strategies, tools and techniques - Stakeholder management - Time, budget, and cost estimation - Agile Manifesto values and principles - Brainstorming techniques - Coaching and mentoring within teams - Feedback techniques for product (e.g.prototyping, simulation, demonstrations, evaluations) - Knowledge sharing - Prioritization - Project quality standards for Agile projects - Team motivation - Value-based decomposition and prioritization Level 2 (12 knowledge/skills) 12% of exam - Agile Frameworks and terminology - Business case development - Continuous improvement process - Facilitation methods - PMIs Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct - Self-assessment - Building high-performance teams - Colocation (geographic proximity)/distributed teams - Elements of project charter for an Agile project - Participatory decision models (e.g. input-based, shared collaboration, command) - Process analysis techniques - Value-based analysis www.whizlabs.com Copyright 2013 Page 6
Level 3 (13 knowledge/skills) 5% of exam - Agile contracting methods - Applying new Agile practices - Control limits for Agile projects - Globalization, culture, and team diversity - Principles of systems thinking (e.g. complex adaptive, chaos) - Variance and trend analysis - Vendor management - Agile project accounting principles - Compliance (organization) - Failure modes and alternatives - Agile games - Regulatory compliance - Variations in Agile methods and approaches Reference books list Unlike PMP, for PMI ACP there is no reference material provided by PMI. However, PMI has done a fantastic job of covering all the important concepts with the selection of 11 reference books (listed below). 1) Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great. Esther Derby, Diana Larsen, Ken Schwaber. 2) Agile Software Development: The Cooperative Game 2nd Edition. Alistair Cockburn. 3) The Software Project Manager s Bridge to Agility. Michele Sliger, Stacia Broderick. 4) Coaching Agile Teams. Lyssa Adkins. 5) Agile Project Management: Creating Innovative Products 2nd Edition. Jim Highsmith. 6) Becoming Agile:...in an imperfect world. Greg Smith, Ahmed Sidky. 7) Agile Estimating and Planning. Mike Cohn 8) The Art of Agile Development by James Shore 9) User Stories Applied: For Agile Software Development. Mike Cohn. 10) Agile Project Management with Scrum. Ken Schwaber. 11) Lean-Agile Software Development: Achieving Enterprise Agility. Alan Shalloway, Guy Beaver, James R. Trott. Note: Potential PMI-ACP candidates will need to reference all 11 books to pass the PMI-ACP exam, which is practically quite time consuming task. This reference material is an attempt to cover key concepts covered in these 11 books. While this can surely help in understanding the key concepts to clear PMI ACP exam, this is not a replacement for 11 books. If you want to further enhance your knowledge and be a real agile expert, it s advisable to read these books. www.whizlabs.com Copyright 2013 Page 7