Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) Agile Frameworks and Methodologies Syllabus

What is the purpose and timebox of the Daily Scrum?

A 15-minute, timeboxed event for the Developers to inspect progress toward the Sprint Goal and adapt the Sprint Backlog/plan for the next day. Held at the same time and place each working day.

What is the purpose of the Sprint Review?

To inspect the Increment and adapt the Product Backlog. The Scrum Team and stakeholders review what was accomplished and what changed, and collaborate on what to do next. Timebox: max 4 hours for a one-month Sprint.

What is the purpose of the Sprint Retrospective?

To plan ways to increase quality and effectiveness. The team inspects how the last Sprint went regarding individuals, interactions, processes, tools, and Definition of Done, and identifies improvements. Timebox: max 3 hours for a one-month Sprint.

What are the three Scrum artifacts and their respective commitments?

Product Backlog (commitment: Product Goal); Sprint Backlog (commitment: Sprint Goal); Increment (commitment: Definition of Done).

What is the Product Backlog?

An emergent, ordered list of everything that is known to be needed in the product. It is the single source of work for the Scrum Team, and its commitment is the Product Goal.

What does the Sprint Backlog contain?

The Sprint Goal (why), the set of Product Backlog items selected for the Sprint (what), and an actionable plan for delivering the Increment (how). It is created by and for the Developers.

What is an Increment in Scrum?

A concrete stepping stone toward the Product Goal; each Increment is additive to prior Increments and must be usable and meet the Definition of Done. Multiple Increments may be created within a Sprint.

What is timeboxing, and why is it used in agile?

Timeboxing fixes a maximum duration for an activity or event. It creates focus, limits scope creep, forces prioritization, enables predictable cadence, and ensures regular inspection points.

What does 'sustainable pace' mean in agile?

From the Agile Manifesto: sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely. Teams avoid overwork/burnout so productivity and quality are consistent over the long term.

What is the Kanban method, and what are its core practices?

An evolutionary, flow-based method that visualizes work and limits work in progress to improve flow. Core practices: visualize the workflow (Kanban board), limit WIP, manage flow, make policies explicit, implement feedback loops, and improve collaboratively/evolve experimentally.

Why does Kanban limit Work in Progress (WIP)?

Limiting WIP reduces multitasking and context switching, exposes bottlenecks, shortens cycle time, and creates a pull system where new work is started only when capacity is available.

Name several key Extreme Programming (XP) practices.

Pair programming, test-driven development (TDD), continuous integration, refactoring, simple design, collective code ownership, coding standards, small/frequent releases, sustainable pace (40-hour week), on-site customer, and the planning game.

What are the core values of Extreme Programming (XP)?

Communication, Simplicity, Feedback, Courage, and Respect.

What is pair programming and a key benefit?

Two programmers work together at one workstation: one writes code (driver) while the other reviews each line (navigator), switching roles. Benefits: continuous code review, higher quality, and knowledge sharing.

What is the central idea of Lean software development?

Maximize customer value while eliminating waste. It applies Lean manufacturing thinking to software, optimizing the whole value stream and delivering as fast as possible.

List the seven principles of Lean software development.

(1) Eliminate waste, (2) Amplify learning, (3) Decide as late as possible, (4) Deliver as fast as possible, (5) Empower the team, (6) Build integrity in, (7) Optimize the whole.

What are the seven wastes of Lean software development?

Partially done work, extra processes/processing, extra features (gold plating), task switching, waiting/delays, motion/handoffs, and defects.

What characterizes the Crystal family of methodologies?

Crystal (by Alistair Cockburn) is a family of lightweight, people-centric methodologies tailored by project size and criticality (color-coded: Clear, Yellow, Orange, Red, etc.). It emphasizes people, communication, and frequent delivery over rigid process.

What is Feature-Driven Development (FDD) and its five processes?

FDD is a model-driven, short-iteration method organized around client-valued features. Its five processes: (1) Develop an overall model, (2) Build a features list, (3) Plan by feature, (4) Design by feature, (5) Build by feature.

What is SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) at a high level?

A framework for applying lean-agile practices at enterprise scale across multiple teams, organizing teams into an Agile Release Train (ART) and coordinating work through Program Increment (PI) planning across portfolio, large solution, program, and team levels.

What is LeSS (Large-Scale Scrum)?

A scaling framework that applies regular Scrum principles to multiple teams (typically up to 8 teams) working on one product, with a single Product Owner and one shared Product Backlog, keeping overhead minimal.

What is Scrum of Scrums?

A scaling technique where representatives ('ambassadors') from multiple Scrum teams meet regularly (a scaled daily scrum) to coordinate work, integrate efforts, and surface and resolve cross-team dependencies and impediments.

What is the standard format/template of a user story?

"As a [type of user/role], I want [some goal/feature], so that [some benefit/reason]." It captures who, what, and why from the user's perspective.

What does the INVEST acronym describe for a good user story?

Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Small, and Testable.

What is backlog refinement (grooming)?

The ongoing activity of adding detail, estimates, and order to Product Backlog items: breaking down large items, clarifying and adding acceptance criteria, re-estimating, and re-prioritizing so items are ready for future Sprints.

Name common backlog prioritization techniques.

MoSCoW (Must, Should, Could, Won't have), Kano model, value vs. effort/cost-benefit ranking, WSJF (Weighted Shortest Job First), and the 100-point (cumulative voting) method.

What does MoSCoW stand for in prioritization?

Must have, Should have, Could have, and Won't have (this time). It classifies requirements by necessity to focus delivery on the highest-priority items.

Name common agile estimation techniques.

Planning Poker, story points (relative sizing), T-shirt sizing (S/M/L/XL), affinity estimation/grouping, the Fibonacci-like scale (1,2,3,5,8,13,...), and wideband Delphi.

What are story points, and how do they differ from time-based estimates?

Story points are a unitless, relative measure of the overall effort/size/complexity/uncertainty of a backlog item, compared to other items. Unlike hours, they are not tied to calendar time and account for difficulty and risk, not just duration.

What is velocity, and how is it used in planning?

Velocity is the amount of work (typically story points) a team completes per iteration, averaged over recent Sprints. It is used to forecast how much the team can take on and how many iterations remain to finish the backlog.

Distinguish release planning from iteration (Sprint) planning.

Release planning is longer-range: it maps which features/backlog items will be delivered across multiple iterations toward a release goal/date. Iteration planning is short-range: the team selects and plans the specific work for a single upcoming iteration.

What is an information radiator?

A large, highly visible display of project information (e.g., task board, burndown/burnup chart, Kanban board, impediment list) placed where the team and stakeholders can see it, providing transparency without anyone having to ask.

What is the difference between a burndown chart and a burnup chart?

A burndown chart shows remaining work (sloping down to zero over time). A burnup chart shows completed work rising toward a total scope line, making scope changes visible because the scope line can move.

Define the key flow metrics: cycle time, lead time, throughput, and WIP.

Cycle time: time from when work starts to when it's done. Lead time: time from request/commitment to delivery. Throughput: number of items completed per unit of time. WIP: number of items in progress at a given time.

What is Little's Law and its formula?

Little's Law relates flow metrics: Average Cycle Time = Average WIP / Average Throughput. It shows that reducing WIP (with throughput constant) reduces cycle time.

What is a cumulative flow diagram (CFD) used for?

A CFD plots the number of work items in each workflow state over time as stacked bands. It visualizes WIP, approximate cycle time, throughput, and bottlenecks (a widening band signals a bottleneck/queue buildup).

What is continuous improvement (kaizen) in agile, and where is it primarily practiced?

Kaizen is the philosophy of ongoing, incremental improvement. In agile it is primarily practiced through the Sprint Retrospective, where the team regularly inspects its process and commits to small, actionable improvements.

What is the purpose and typical format of a retrospective?

To inspect and adapt the team's process. A common format: set the stage, gather data (what went well, what didn't), generate insights (why), decide what to do (actionable improvements), and close. The aim is concrete improvement actions for the next iteration.

What is the Definition of Ready (DoR)?

A shared checklist of criteria a backlog item must meet before it can be pulled into a Sprint (e.g., clearly described, acceptance criteria defined, estimated, no blocking dependencies, small enough). It ensures items are well understood before work begins.

What is the Definition of Done (DoD)?

A formal, shared checklist of quality criteria an Increment must satisfy to be considered complete and potentially releasable (e.g., coded, tested, integrated, documented, reviewed). In Scrum it is the commitment for the Increment and creates transparency.

Contrast the Definition of Ready with the Definition of Done.

DoR is the entry criteria applied to a backlog item before work starts (it's ready to be worked). DoD is the exit criteria applied to completed work before it's considered done (it's truly finished and shippable).

What is technical debt?

The implied future cost (extra rework) incurred by choosing an easy/quick solution now instead of a better approach that would take longer. Like financial debt, it accrues 'interest' as it makes future changes slower and riskier.

How do agile teams manage and reduce technical debt?

By making it visible (a debt backlog/register), refactoring continuously, maintaining a strong Definition of Done, automated testing and continuous integration, and allocating capacity each iteration to pay it down before it compounds.

What is refactoring and why is it important for managing technical debt?

Refactoring is improving the internal structure of code without changing its external behavior. It keeps the codebase clean and maintainable, steadily paying down technical debt so the system stays easy to change.

In agile estimation, why is Planning Poker effective?

Team members estimate simultaneously using cards (often Fibonacci values), avoiding anchoring bias. Divergent estimates trigger discussion that surfaces hidden assumptions and shared understanding, producing a more accurate consensus estimate.

What is the role of the customer/product feedback in distinguishing agile from predictive approaches?

Agile builds in frequent customer collaboration and feedback at the end of each iteration to inspect and adapt the product. Predictive gathers requirements up front and typically obtains customer feedback mainly at the end, limiting the chance to course-correct.

What is a self-organizing (self-managing) team, a key agile concept?

A team that decides internally how to accomplish its work rather than being directed by others outside the team. They choose who does what and how, which increases ownership, motivation, and responsiveness.