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PRINCE2 Agile Foundation study materials
PRINCE2 Agile Foundation study resources

PRINCE2 Agile Foundation practice questions

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Question 1Agile concepts and why they are used

In which year was the Agile Manifesto published?

  1. 2001 Correct answer.
  2. 1995
  3. 2013
  4. 2008

Explanation

The Agile Manifesto was published in February 2001 by a group of software practitioners who set out four values and twelve principles for agile software development.

Question 2Agile concepts and why they are used

Which statement expresses one of the four values of the Agile Manifesto?

  1. Negotiating contracts is more valuable than collaborating with customers
  2. Working software is valued more highly than comprehensive documentation Correct answer.
  3. Following a detailed plan is valued more highly than responding to change
  4. Building processes and tools comes before individuals and interactions

Explanation

'Working software over comprehensive documentation' is one of the four Agile Manifesto values. The other three values favour individuals and interactions, customer collaboration and responding to change.

Question 3Agile concepts and why they are used

What is a timebox?

  1. A budget limit agreed with the customer at the start
  2. A deadline that may be extended whenever scope grows
  3. A fixed period in which work must be completed Correct answer.
  4. The total effort estimated for a product backlog item

Explanation

A timebox is a fixed and non-negotiable period of time. If the work is not finished when the timebox ends, scope is reduced or moved out rather than the timebox being extended.

Question 4Agile concepts and why they are used

What is the main purpose of a daily stand-up?

  1. To coordinate work and surface blockers quickly Correct answer.
  2. To record the hours each team member has worked
  3. To agree changes to the project budget
  4. To demonstrate completed features to stakeholders

Explanation

The daily stand-up is a short, frequent event where the team shares progress, plans the day and makes impediments visible so they can be removed quickly.

Question 5Agile concepts and why they are used

What is the purpose of a retrospective?

  1. To review how the team worked and agree changes Correct answer.
  2. To estimate the size of backlog items
  3. To show the customer the increment just built
  4. To plan the scope and content of the next release

Explanation

A retrospective is a regular team event at the end of an iteration in which the team inspects the way it worked and agrees improvements to apply next time.

Question 6Agile concepts and why they are used

In MoSCoW prioritisation, what does the 'S' stand for?

  1. Standard - work of average priority
  2. Should have - important but not vital Correct answer.
  3. Sized - work that has been estimated
  4. Sprint - work planned for the next iteration

Explanation

MoSCoW stands for Must have, Should have, Could have and Won't have this time. Should-have items are important and painful to lose, but a workaround exists, so they can be dropped if time runs short.

Question 7Agile concepts and why they are used

Why does a Kanban board use work-in-progress limits?

  1. To record the total number of items delivered
  2. To ensure that every item is the same size
  3. To expose bottlenecks and keep work flowing Correct answer.
  4. To require management approval before any new work starts

Explanation

Limiting work in progress exposes bottlenecks, reduces multitasking and encourages the team to finish items already started rather than continually starting new ones.

Question 8Agile concepts and why they are used

What best describes an incremental approach?

  1. Delivering the whole solution in a single release at the end
  2. Producing detailed documentation before any build starts
  3. Delivering the solution in usable slices, one by one Correct answer.
  4. Repeating the same analysis phase until it is perfect

Explanation

An incremental approach builds the solution in a series of usable slices, each of which adds to the functionality already delivered rather than delivering everything at the end.

Question 9Agile concepts and why they are used

Empirical process control rests on three pillars. Which set is correct?

  1. Analysis, design and build
  2. Planning, execution, monitoring and closure
  3. Transparency, inspection and adaptation Correct answer.
  4. Scope, cost and time

Explanation

Empirical control relies on transparency (agreed, visible facts), inspection (frequent review of those facts) and adaptation (adjusting when inspection reveals a deviation).

Question 10Agile concepts and why they are used

How does an agile leader best support a team?

  1. By assigning each task to the person best suited to it
  2. By reviewing every item of work before it is complete
  3. By setting individual performance targets for each person
  4. By removing blockers and letting the team plan its work Correct answer.

Explanation

Agile leadership is a service role: the leader removes impediments, shields the team from distraction and leaves decisions about how the work is done to the team.

Question 11Agile concepts and why they are used

A user story is written as 'As a <role> I want <feature> so that <benefit>'. Why is the benefit clause included?

  1. It explains the value behind the requirement Correct answer.
  2. It identifies which developer owns the story
  3. It states the acceptance criteria for testing
  4. It records the estimate in story points

Explanation

The 'so that' clause captures the business value or reason for the story, which helps the team prioritise it and make sensible trade-offs.

Question 12Agile concepts and why they are used

What does a team's velocity measure?

  1. The number of defects found in the last release
  2. The percentage of the budget spent so far
  3. The amount of work completed in an iteration Correct answer.
  4. The number of hours each person works per iteration

Explanation

Velocity measures how much backlog work a team completes in an iteration, expressed in whatever units the team uses for estimation, such as story points.

Question 13Agile concepts and why they are used

On a burn-down chart, the remaining-work line is above the ideal line at day six of a ten-day iteration and has flattened, while no scope was added. What does this most likely show?

  1. Progress is behind the ideal rate and has stalled Correct answer.
  2. The team has already delivered more than was planned
  3. The chart is being updated with incorrect data
  4. The team is ahead of plan and may finish early

Explanation

A burn-down chart plots work remaining against time, so a line above the ideal and flattening means the team is completing less work than planned and progress has slowed.

Question 14Agile concepts and why they are used

Why is a Definition of Done agreed?

  1. To list the activities that the team must never perform
  2. To give a shared standard for judging completion Correct answer.
  3. To fix the scope of the whole project
  4. To replace the need for acceptance criteria

Explanation

The Definition of Done is an explicit, agreed checklist of what must be true for an item to count as complete, which keeps quality consistent and prevents 'almost done' work.

Question 15Agile concepts and why they are used

Why do agile teams often estimate in story points rather than hours?

  1. Because they remove the need to estimate
  2. Because they are always more accurate than hours
  3. Because relative sizing avoids false precision Correct answer.
  4. Because they are required for fixed-price contracts

Explanation

Story points express relative size, which people judge more consistently than absolute hours and which avoids the false precision of detailed early estimates. They can later be translated into duration using the team's velocity.

Question 16Agile concepts and why they are used

What is the main benefit of continuous integration?

  1. It finds integration problems early and cheaply Correct answer.
  2. It guarantees that no defects reach the customer
  3. It removes the need for regression testing
  4. It allows developers to work without version control

Explanation

Continuous integration merges and builds changes frequently, so conflicts and test failures are found within hours rather than at the end of the project, when they are far more costly to fix.

Question 17Agile concepts and why they are used

What does a self-organising team do?

  1. It decides for itself how to carry out its work Correct answer.
  2. It works without an agreed goal or constraints
  3. It chooses which customers it will serve
  4. It sets its own budget without any sponsor approval

Explanation

A self-organising team plans and organises its own work within the goals and boundaries set by the wider project, which increases commitment and uses the team's knowledge of the detail.

Question 18Agile concepts and why they are used

A team faces a technical uncertainty that prevents it from estimating an item. What is an appropriate agile response?

  1. Escalate each task to the project board for a decision
  2. Run a short timeboxed investigation first Correct answer.
  3. Add the largest possible estimate and proceed
  4. Remove the item from the backlog permanently

Explanation

When too much is unknown to estimate or build confidently, a short timeboxed investigation (sometimes called a spike) buys the information needed before committing to delivery.

Question 19Agile concepts and why they are used

Why do agile approaches favour short iterations with frequent delivery?

  1. They remove the need for a product backlog
  2. They create fast feedback so wrong assumptions surface early Correct answer.
  3. They reduce the amount of testing that is needed
  4. They allow the full scope to be fixed at the very start of the project

Explanation

Short iterations that end in a usable increment create regular feedback points, so misunderstandings, defects and wrong requirements are discovered while changes are still cheap to make.

Question 20Agile concepts and why they are used

In Lean thinking, what is meant by 'waste'?

  1. Activity that uses resources but adds no customer value Correct answer.
  2. Work the customer has not yet paid for
  3. Time that the team spends in retrospectives and team meetings
  4. Documentation produced for regulatory reasons

Explanation

In Lean, waste (muda) is any activity that consumes effort or resource without creating value for the customer; the aim is to identify it and remove or reduce it.

Question 21Agile concepts and why they are used

Why does an agile team aim to be cross-functional?

  1. So that the team can deliver an increment without handoffs Correct answer.
  2. So that the team can avoid using specialist expertise
  3. So that each specialist owns their own component
  4. So that any team member can be replaced at very short notice

Explanation

A cross-functional team contains, or can quickly obtain, all the skills needed to take an item from idea to usable increment, which removes handoffs and the waiting time they create.

Question 22Agile concepts and why they are used

How does a flow-based approach such as Kanban differ from a timeboxed approach?

  1. Kanban does not allow work to be prioritised
  2. Kanban does not allow the amount of work in progress to be limited
  3. Kanban requires a fixed scope for every month
  4. Work is pulled continuously rather than in fixed iterations Correct answer.

Explanation

In flow-based approaches work items are pulled into the system as capacity allows, and progress is understood through throughput and cycle time rather than through iteration boundaries.

Question 23Agile concepts and why they are used

A fixed-date project is running late. Which action best reflects agile value-based prioritisation?

  1. Deliver all items but cut testing to save time
  2. Drop the lowest-value items and keep the highest-value ones Correct answer.
  3. Ask the team to work longer hours until every item is complete
  4. Move the delivery date and keep the agreed scope unchanged

Explanation

Agile delivery protects fixed constraints such as time, cost and quality and flexes scope instead, so the least valuable items are dropped and the highest-value work is still delivered on the date.

Question 24Agile concepts and why they are used

In an agile fixed-date, fixed-cost project, which element is normally allowed to vary?

  1. The quality standard applied to each increment
  2. The number of team members available each iteration
  3. The frequency of releases to the customer
  4. The scope of what is delivered by the agreed date Correct answer.

Explanation

When time, cost and quality are fixed, scope becomes the variable: the team delivers the highest-priority items first, and whatever is unfinished at the date is deferred to later.

Question 25Agile concepts and why they are used

Why is empirical process control preferred for complex product development?

  1. Because every step can be planned precisely in advance
  2. Because it removes the need for any planning
  3. Because decisions rest on observed results, not predictions Correct answer.
  4. Because it guarantees that the agreed scope will be delivered

Explanation

Product development is complex and unpredictable, so agile teams inspect real results frequently and adapt their plans to what they observe rather than relying on a detailed up-front prediction.

Question 26Agile concepts and why they are used

According to the Agile Manifesto, which of the following is valued more highly than comprehensive documentation?

  1. Fixed plans
  2. Working software Correct answer.
  3. Formal processes
  4. Detailed contracts

Explanation

The manifesto states that working software is valued over comprehensive documentation. Documentation is still useful, but it is not the primary measure of progress. The other items in the options relate to different value pairs, not to documentation.

Question 27Agile concepts and why they are used

What is the main purpose of timeboxing in an agile approach?

  1. To allow effort to be estimated in hours rather than story points
  2. To create a regular inspection point at which scope can be adjusted Correct answer.
  3. To guarantee that all agreed scope is delivered by the end date
  4. To remove the need for the team to plan its work in detail

Explanation

A timebox fixes an end date so that the team must deliver something usable by then, which forces scope to flex rather than the date. The fixed end point creates a predictable moment to inspect the product and adapt. Estimation units are a separate choice and are not determined by timeboxing.

Question 28Agile concepts and why they are used

What is the main purpose of a daily stand-up in an agile team?

  1. To inspect progress towards the goal and adapt the day's plan Correct answer.
  2. To review the product backlog with the customer
  3. To report progress to the project manager and update the plan
  4. To demonstrate completed work to stakeholders

Explanation

The stand-up is a short, frequent event in which the team inspects its progress towards the iteration goal and adjusts its plan for the day. It is a team activity for co-ordination, not a reporting session to a manager. Demonstrating completed work belongs to a review event, which happens less often.

Question 29Agile concepts and why they are used

A team displays a large, hand-drawn progress chart on the office wall where anyone passing can see it. Why does it do this?

  1. To make progress visible at a glance and support self-management Correct answer.
  2. To allow earned value to be calculated
  3. To replace the need for any conversation within the team
  4. To provide evidence for the end-of-stage gate review

Explanation

This is an information radiator: information is pushed out to everyone rather than pulled by request. It lets the team see its own state without asking and lets others stay informed without interrupting. It complements conversation rather than replacing it.

Question 30Agile concepts and why they are used

A team holds a retrospective at the end of every iteration. What is its primary purpose?

  1. To identify improvements to the team's way of working and agree actions Correct answer.
  2. To celebrate success and report status to senior management
  3. To agree the scope of the next iteration with the customer
  4. To confirm that each item meets the Definition of Done

Explanation

A retrospective is the team's inspect-and-adapt event for its process, producing agreed improvements rather than product decisions. Scope for the next iteration is agreed in planning. Checking against the Definition of Done happens continuously as work is completed.

Question 31Agile concepts and why they are used

A team introduces a Definition of Ready. What does it give the team?

  1. A list of the tests that must pass before an item is accepted
  2. Shared criteria an item must meet before it can be brought into an iteration Correct answer.
  3. An agreement on how many items may be in progress at once
  4. A record of the technical standards the team must follow

Explanation

A Definition of Ready describes the state an item should be in before the team commits to it, for example clear, estimated and testable. It protects the iteration from work that cannot yet be completed. Acceptance criteria and the Definition of Done cover a different point in the lifecycle.

Question 32Agile concepts and why they are used

A team repeatedly takes design shortcuts in order to hit its iteration goals. What is the most likely long-term consequence?

  1. The team will need fewer regression tests as the code matures
  2. Velocity will steadily rise as the code becomes familiar
  3. The Definition of Done will no longer be needed
  4. The cost of future changes will rise as the code becomes harder to modify Correct answer.

Explanation

Shortcuts create technical debt: the product still works but becomes more expensive and risky to change. Like financial debt, the interest is paid every time the code is touched. Making the debt visible and repaying it deliberately is the agile response.

Question 33Agile concepts and why they are used

Why do agile teams refactor continuously rather than in one large phase at the end?

  1. Small continuous improvements keep the design simple and reduce breakage risk Correct answer.
  2. Refactoring removes the need for automated tests
  3. Refactoring is a fast way to add new features
  4. Stakeholders must approve each refactoring change

Explanation

Refactoring improves internal structure without changing behaviour, and doing it in small steps keeps the change safe and cheap to verify. A large refactoring phase is risky because much untested change accumulates. Automated tests are what make continuous refactoring safe, so they are needed more, not less.

Question 34Agile concepts and why they are used

What is the main benefit an agile team expects from pair programming?

  1. It allows the team to skip the daily stand-up
  2. It removes the need for a Definition of Done
  3. Continuous code review while writing, plus shared knowledge Correct answer.
  4. It halves the total effort needed to build a feature

Explanation

Two people at one workstation review each other's work as it is produced, so defects are caught early and understanding spreads across the team. The aim is quality and shared ownership, not a reduction in total effort.

Question 35Agile concepts and why they are used

In test-driven development, why is the test written before the code?

  1. So that the test can be deleted once the code works
  2. To let testers take responsibility for the design
  3. To make manual regression testing unnecessary
  4. To clarify required behaviour first and prove the code satisfies it Correct answer.

Explanation

Writing the test first forces the team to state the expected behaviour precisely before any solution exists. The code is then written only until that test passes, which keeps the design minimal and provides immediate proof of correctness.

Question 36Agile concepts and why they are used

Why does an agile team agree a single goal for each iteration?

  1. To provide senior management with a forecast of the release date
  2. To give the team one shared focus that guides its day-to-day decisions Correct answer.
  3. To fix the scope so no changes can be made during the iteration
  4. To allow individual team members to be assigned separate objectives

Explanation

An iteration goal expresses the purpose of the timebox in business terms, so the team can make trade-offs together as new information appears. It keeps attention on an outcome rather than a list of tasks. Individual objectives and release forecasting are different concerns.

Question 37Agile concepts and why they are used

A team member is blocked by a dependency on another department. How does a leader with a servant-leadership style best respond?

  1. Reassign the work to someone outside the blockage
  2. Escalate the dependency to the project board for a decision
  3. Help remove the blocker and let the team decide how to proceed Correct answer.
  4. Record the delay as a risk and continue with other work

Explanation

Servant leadership means the leader's job is to remove impediments and create conditions in which the team can perform, while leaving the how to the team. Escalation may sometimes be necessary, but the first instinct is to serve the team's need.

Question 38Agile concepts and why they are used

An item is added to the backlog in January, work on it starts in March and it is delivered in April. Which statement is correct?

  1. Lead time runs from March to April; cycle time runs from January to April
  2. Both lead time and cycle time run from March to April
  3. Both lead time and cycle time run from January to April
  4. Lead time runs from January to April; cycle time runs from March to April Correct answer.

Explanation

Lead time measures from the moment the item is requested or added to the backlog until it is delivered, so it includes the waiting period. Cycle time measures only from when work actually starts until it is finished. The difference between the two is the time the item spent queuing.

Question 39Agile concepts and why they are used

On a cumulative flow diagram the band representing work in progress widens steadily over several weeks while the completed band grows only slowly. What does this indicate?

  1. The team has too few items in progress and should take on more
  2. Work is arriving faster than it is being finished, so queues are building Correct answer.
  3. Cycle time is falling because more work is now visible
  4. Throughput is increasing and delivery will happen sooner

Explanation

A widening in-progress band shows that items are entering that state faster than they leave it, so a queue is accumulating. Queues increase the time an item spends waiting, which pushes cycle time up rather than down. The usual response is to limit work in progress and finish before starting more.

Question 40Agile concepts and why they are used

Why do agile teams prefer to slice work into thin end-to-end features rather than into technical layers?

  1. Because feature slices need no integration work
  2. Because technical layers cannot be tested
  3. Because slices by layer cannot be estimated
  4. Because a thin end-to-end slice can be delivered and validated early Correct answer.

Explanation

A thin vertical slice produces something that actually works for a user, so it can be demonstrated, tested and judged early. Layer-by-layer work delivers nothing usable until every layer is complete, which delays feedback and increases risk. Integration is still needed, but it happens continuously rather than at the end.

Question 41The PRINCE2 Agile approach: blending PRINCE2 with agile

In PRINCE2 Agile, how are the seven PRINCE2 principles treated?

  1. They are replaced by a set of agile principles
  2. They remain unchanged and are always applied Correct answer.
  3. They become optional once a Scrum team is established
  4. They are applied only to the directing level of the project

Explanation

PRINCE2 Agile blends agile delivery practices with PRINCE2 but leaves the seven principles intact; they are the constant element that must never be tailored away. Agile techniques change how the principles are applied, not whether they apply.

Question 42The PRINCE2 Agile approach: blending PRINCE2 with agile

How many sliders does the Agilometer contain?

  1. Eight
  2. Six Correct answer.
  3. Four
  4. Five

Explanation

The Agilometer is a tool with six sliders used to assess how suited a project's environment is to agile ways of working: flexibility of what is delivered, acceptance of agile, ease of communication, team size, team skill level and ability to work iteratively.

Question 43The PRINCE2 Agile approach: blending PRINCE2 with agile

When time and cost are fixed on an agile project, which aspect does PRINCE2 Agile recommend flexing?

  1. Scope Correct answer.
  2. The business case
  3. The project mandate
  4. Tolerances

Explanation

PRINCE2 Agile favours fixing time and cost and flexing scope within agreed tolerances, with the scope prioritised so that lower-value features can be deferred or dropped. This keeps the investment predictable while allowing the delivered content to change.

Question 44The PRINCE2 Agile approach: blending PRINCE2 with agile

In a delivery using Scrum, which role typically represents the customer's interests and orders the product backlog?

  1. Product Owner Correct answer.
  2. Project Assurance
  3. Development team
  4. Scrum Master

Explanation

The Product Owner is the Scrum role that owns and orders the product backlog and acts as the voice of the customer, which maps closely to PRINCE2's senior user interests. The Scrum Master and development team serve different purposes.

Question 45The PRINCE2 Agile approach: blending PRINCE2 with agile

The 'definition of done' most directly supports which PRINCE2 theme?

  1. Risk
  2. Quality Correct answer.
  3. Plans
  4. Organization

Explanation

The definition of done states the criteria a product must meet before it is considered complete, which is a quality control mechanism. In PRINCE2 terms it complements product descriptions and quality criteria.

Question 46The PRINCE2 Agile approach: blending PRINCE2 with agile

Which cycle is central to the Lean Startup approach used in PRINCE2 Agile?

  1. Plan, do, check, act
  2. Build, measure, learn Correct answer.
  3. Initiate, deliver, close
  4. Sense, respond, adapt

Explanation

Lean Startup uses a build-measure-learn cycle to test ideas quickly with minimum viable products and to pivot or persevere based on evidence. PRINCE2 Agile draws on this to reduce the risk of building the wrong thing.

Question 47The PRINCE2 Agile approach: blending PRINCE2 with agile

In Kanban, what is the primary purpose of a work-in-progress limit?

  1. To record which products are complete
  2. To cap the number of people in the team
  3. To set the length of each iteration
  4. To expose bottlenecks and improve flow Correct answer.

Explanation

Limiting work in progress forces the team to finish work before starting more, which makes bottlenecks visible and improves the flow of value. It is a flow-control technique, not a staffing or scheduling rule.

Question 48The PRINCE2 Agile approach: blending PRINCE2 with agile

What is the main purpose of a daily stand-up in an agile delivery?

  1. To synchronise the team and flag blockers Correct answer.
  2. To approve changes to the business case
  3. To produce the next stage plan
  4. To report tolerance breaches to the project board

Explanation

A daily stand-up is a short, frequent coordination event that lets the team share progress, plan the day and surface impediments so they can be removed quickly. It is a team-level event, not a governance reporting forum.

Question 49The PRINCE2 Agile approach: blending PRINCE2 with agile

What is the primary purpose of the Agilometer?

  1. To assess how suitable a project is for agile working Correct answer.
  2. To calculate the cost of a release
  3. To rank items in the product backlog
  4. To measure the velocity of the delivery team

Explanation

The Agilometer assesses six aspects of the project environment to judge how well suited it is to agile working, and its results guide how much tailoring is sensible. It is a suitability assessment, not a performance metric.

Question 50The PRINCE2 Agile approach: blending PRINCE2 with agile

The Cynefin framework is used in PRINCE2 Agile to classify what?

  1. products by their agreed level of quality
  2. team members by their level of delegated decision-making authority
  3. problems by whether cause and effect are clear Correct answer.
  4. risks by their likelihood and impact

Explanation

Cynefin distinguishes simple, complicated, complex and chaotic situations according to how clear cause and effect are, which helps decide whether a predictive or an empirical approach fits. Agile ways of working suit the complex domain, where probing and adapting are needed.