Product Increment

5 minutes 5 Questions

Product Increment is the sum of all the Product Backlog items completed during a Sprint and all previous Sprints. Ideally, the product increment should be in a usable condition regardless of whether the Product Owner decides to actually release it. It’s a step toward a vision or goal, providing tan…

Guide: Understanding Product Increment in Scrum Framework for PMI-ACP Exam

Product Increment is a crucial feature in the Scrum Framework.

What is Product Increment?

Product Increment in Scrum is the version of the product that showcases all the completed items from the Product Backlog after a Sprint cycle.

Why is it important?

The Product Increment is important for maintaining transparency in the development process and ensuring that a potentially releasable end product is achieved after each Sprint.

How does it work?

Following each Sprint, the team presents the Increment to stakeholders during the Sprint review. This allows for feedback, adaptations, and prioritization of new functionalities for future Sprints.

Exam Tips: Answering Questions on Product Increment

1. Understand the purpose: The Product Increment helps in achieving a potentially releasable product at the end of each Sprint. It validates the progress made during the Sprint and directs the team for future Sprint.
2. Significance in Scrum: It's vital to understand the role of Product Increment in the Scrum framework. It aids Transparency and alignment across the team and stakeholders.
3.Know the terms: Be familiar with related terms like Sprint, Sprint Backlog, Sprint Review, and so on. Questions may be framed using these terms, so a clear understanding will help you answer effectively.
4. Application-based questions: Be prepared for scenario-based questions that test your practical understanding of using Product Increment in a real project context.

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PMI-ACP - Product Increment Example Questions

Test your knowledge of Product Increment

Question 1

You have initiated a new project and you are tasked with ensuring that the Product Increments are provided frequently. Which of these actions will best help your team consistently deliver Product Increments?

Demand overtime from the team to produce more increments. Adopt iterative development and ensure each iteration produces a workable increment. Hire more team members without considering the team dynamics. Skip testing phases to deliver increments faster.

Correct Answer: Adopt iterative development and ensure each iteration produces a workable increment.

The best practice for consistently delivering product increments is to adopt iterative development and ensure each iteration produces a workable increment. This answer is the best because it leverages the principles of agile methodology, which emphasizes iterative development and incremental delivery of functional product parts, enhancing both flexibility and customer satisfaction. Now let's talk about why the other options are not the best choices. Demanding overtime from the team to produce more increments might seem effective in the short term, but it is not sustainable and can lead to burnout, causing productivity to drop in the long run. Skipping testing phases to deliver increments faster is a risky strategy because it could lead to poor product quality and setbacks if significant bugs are discovered later. As for hiring more team members without considering the team dynamics, that can lead to communication breakdowns and inefficient teamwork, thereby hindering, rather than promoting, the consistent delivery of product increments.

Question 2

The customer found a critical bug in a product increment that is set to release in two days. The team agreed that the bug needs to be fixed, but fixing it requires more than estimated time. What should be done?

Notify stakeholders of the bug's ramifications and delay the release until it is fixed. Release the product as planned and fix the bug in the next increment. Ignore the bug and release the product as planned. Ask the team to work overtime to fix the bug before the release.

Correct Answer: Notify stakeholders of the bug's ramifications and delay the release until it is fixed.

According to the Agile principles, the highest priority is to satisfy the customer through the early and continuous delivery of valuable software. Therefore, in the case of discovering a critical bug that could significantly affect the value of the product increment, it is essential to address this error before the release date. This approach of prioritizing quality over strict adherence to the planned release date aligns with Agile's emphasis on embracing change for the customer's competitive advantage. Releasing the product with a known critical bug, as suggested in two of the other answers, is not acceptable from an Agile point of view as it negatively impacts customer satisfaction and trust. On the other hand, asking the team to work overtime to fix the bug before release is against another key tenet of Agile, which promotes sustainable development and well-being of the team. The Agile approach encourages adjusting the scope or timeline based on the team's capacity, rather than forcing the team to overwork to meet an arbitrary deadline So, the recommended strategy in this scenario is to notify stakeholders of the bug's ramifications and delay the release until it is fixed, which is the best approach in order to deliver a quality product to the customer while maintaining a sustainable pace of work for the team.

Question 3

You are serving as the Scrum Master for a project. During the Sprint Review, the team showcased a Product Increment that was polished and without any visible defects. However, it fails to adequately address the user story it was intended for. As a scrum master, what is the most appropriate response?

Reassign the user story to a different team. Ignore the issue and move to the next user story. Discuss the situation with the team, point out the misalignment, and ensure the user story understanding in upcoming Sprints. Chastise the team for the poorly aligned product increment.

Correct Answer: Discuss the situation with the team, point out the misalignment, and ensure the user story understanding in upcoming Sprints.

The most appropriate response when the increment fails to address the intended user story is to discuss the issues with the team. This ensures alignment and comprehension for subsequent user stories. It's important to foster a learning environment in Scrum, not one of blame or punishment. Ignoring the issue or berating the team is counterproductive to the agile methodology, which prioritizes quick adaptability to mistakes or changes, and learning from them. Reassigning the user story disregards the team's capability to learn and improve. Hence, the correct approach is to communicate openly about the issue, reiterate the user story's importance, and make certain everyone understands it to avoid similar misalignment in future sprints.

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