Customer Collaboration

5 minutes 5 Questions

Adaptive planning emphasizes the importance of customer collaboration. It places customers at the forefront and encourages constant interaction with them to understand their evolving needs and expectations better. It implies that instead of being rigid in planning, teams should adapt their plans ba…

Guide: Customer Collaboration in PMI-ACP Adaptive Planning

Customer collaboration is a critical aspect of PMI-ACP adaptive planning.

Why it is important: This technique prioritizes people and interactions over processes and tools, and believes in addressing and involving the customer throughout the project. It's about focusing on creating a working relationship and developing solutions to meet the customer's evolving requirements.
What it is: Customer collaboration involves regular communication with the client about the progress of the proposed solution, adjusting to changes, and getting their feedback. This helps in making any required adjustments and in keeping projects on track toward business goals.
How it works: Regular meetings, discussions, and reviewing and incorporating feedback into the development process are some of the ways customer collaboration works. Changes, when required, are willingly incorporated to meet customer satisfaction.
Exam Tips: Answering Questions on Customer Collaboration: When answering exam questions, always remember the Agile principles and values. Understand that customer collaboration is not about insisting on what was initially planned, but about adjusting to changes to meet the customer's satisfaction.
In multiple-choice questions, look for answers that show flexibility and emphasize continuous customer interaction. Remember to review and understand the rationale behind the 'incorrect' options too, this can provide deeper insight into the Agile mindset. Tip: Always choose the answer that reflects the greatest degree of collaboration and responsiveness to change.

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PMI-ACP - Customer Collaboration Example Questions

Test your knowledge of Customer Collaboration

Question 1

During a sprint review, the customer is unhappy with the output, even though it aligns with the acceptance criteria. The customer feels the product does not match their vision. What should you, as a project manager, do?

Arrange a session with the customer to understand their vision better. Adjust the user stories or success criteria accordingly. Redo the entire product according to the customer's new vision. Tell the customer that they have to accept the product as it is since it meets the acceptance criteria. Delegate the responsibility of meeting the customer's vision to the development team.

Correct Answer: Arrange a session with the customer to understand their vision better. Adjust the user stories or success criteria accordingly.

In agile project management, the goal is to meet the needs and expectations of the customer. If the customer is unhappy with the outcome, even though it meets the agreed upon acceptance criteria, it implies a gap between their expectation and the actual output. Therefore, the best course of action is to arrange a session with the customer to better understand their vision and to adjust the user stories or success criteria accordingly. This approach aligns with the agile philosophy of customer collaboration and responding to change. The other options are less optimal: Re-doing the entire product according to the customer's new vision may lead to unnecessary costs and delays – especially if the changes can be integrated within the existing creativity. Telling the customer to accept the product as it meets the acceptance criteria disregards their dissatisfaction and may harm the customer relationship. Delegating the responsibility to the development team doesn't address the communication gap between project manager and the customer – it is the project manager's role to ensure that the team's work aligns with the customer's vision.

Question 2

You have just completed a sprint demo with your team and stakeholders. Despite meeting all the acceptance criteria, the customer is not satisfied. What should you do next?

Cancel the project. Ask for specific feedback from the customer and involve them in planning adjustments to the work in the upcoming sprint. Ask the customer to pay extra for any changes. Start the next sprint without making any adjustments. Assert that the customer should not be involved in the development process. Blame your team for not delivering what the customer wants.

Correct Answer: Ask for specific feedback from the customer and involve them in planning adjustments to the work in the upcoming sprint.

Customer collaboration is key in Agile Project Management. The correct approach is to ask the customer for specific feedback about their concerns and involve them in planning adjustments to address those concerns during the upcoming sprint.

Question 3

During an Agile project, your team has been unable to respond to customer feedback quickly due to which, a backlog of unaddressed customer requests is building up. What should you do to manage this effectively?

Ask the customer to stop providing feedback until the backlog is cleared. Ignore the backlog and continue with the current work. Foster a culture of openness and discuss internally to understand the bottlenecks and find ways to address them efficiently. Cancel all customer feedback sessions to focus on the backlog.

Correct Answer: Foster a culture of openness and discuss internally to understand the bottlenecks and find ways to address them efficiently.

The best approach in an Agile project is one that encourages collaboration and problem-solving, which aligns with the first answer - fostering a culture of openness and discussing internally to understand the bottlenecks and address them efficiently. This approach allows for an understanding of the causes of the backlog and a creation of a plan to tackle it. The second answer, which suggests canceling all customer feedback sessions, disregards the value that customer feedback brings in an Agile environment. The third answer, asking the customer to stop providing feedback, will deprive the project of fresh perspectives and potential improvements. The fourth answer, ignoring the backlog, contradicts the Agile principle of 'continuous improvement', as ignoring issues rather than addressing them can lead to bigger problems down the line.

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