TOPIC: Free PMI-ACP® Exam Sample Question of the Week

Two teams are working on different projects. Team A averages 20 points per iteration and team B averages 35.

What can be said about the performance of the two teams?

A. No comparison about performance can be made based solely on these figures
B. Team B is performing at nearly twice the productivity of Team A
C. Team A is performing at nearly twice the productivity of Team B
D. Team B has more team members resulting in higher productivity

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HINT: Since story points are used to ‘estimate’ and are not standardized, what comparison can you make between teams?

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Answer and Explanation:
The correct answer is A.

One should not compare the performance of the two agile teams based on individual team velocity. The size of a story point is unique for each team. One team might be pessimistic about their story points compared to another. Thus, it is impossible to say which team is more productive based on their velocity.

Details for each option:

A. Correct. The size of a story point is typically unique for each team. Each team's estimate is independent. As long as each team is consistent in how they estimate within the team, there is no issue. So it is not possible to accurately compare the performance of one team to another solely based on observed velocities.

B. Incorrect. The size of a story point is unique for each team. The teams' estimates are independent and cannot be compared with one another.

C. Incorrect. The size of a story point is unique for each team. The teams' estimates are independent and cannot be compared with one another.

D. Incorrect. It is not possible to determine the size of teams by comparing velocities. Story points, or whatever unit of measure is being used to determine relative size estimates, vary from team to team and therefore the size of a team or any other comparison between teams based solely on velocity is not valid.

Reference: Agile Practice Guide - First Edition, Project Management Institute Inc., 2017, 5.4.1 AGILE TEAMS MEASURE RESULTS

Agile Estimating and Planning, Mike Cohn, 2005, Velocity