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December 04, 2024

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PMI AGILE CERTIFIED PRACTITIONER

(PMI-ACP)®

EXAMINATION CONTENT OUTLINE

NOVEMBER 2024

Project Management Institute, Inc.

For general information about the Certification Program, contact the Customer Care Service Center in your region. Find this information at

https://www.pmi.org/about/contact

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION 4 EXAM CONTENT OUTLINE 5 DOMAINS, TASKS, AND ENABLERS 6 Domain 1 Mindset – 28% 7 Domain 2 Leadership – 25% 8 Domain 3 Product – 19% 9 Domain 4 Delivery – 28 10 TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES 11 KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS 13 PMI-ACP ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS 14 TAKING THE EXAM 17 RETAKING THE EXAM 17 CONTINUING CERTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS (CCR) PROGRAM 17

INTRODUCTION

The Project Management Institute (PMI) offers a professional certification for agile practitioners, such as product owners, scrum masters, and agile project managers, titled PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI- ACP)®. The PMI-ACP® is developed by agile practitioners for agile practitioners seeking to enhance their agile skillset, knowledge and application across multiple agile frameworks and methodologies, increase team efficiency, deliver greater value to their organization and customers, and advance their career with a globally recognized certification.

PMI’s rigorous professional certification examination development processes align with certification industry best practices, such as those found in the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing1. PMI conducted a global practice analysis (GPA), which included both extensive market research and a job task analysis (JTA). The GPA identified market trends, needs and opportunities in agile, such as expanding the primary audience to include product development roles, realigning the professional experience requirements, and introducing credit for prior learning into the PMI-ACP Certification Program eligibility requirements.

The JTA identifies knowledge and task-driven guidelines to assess the practitioners’ proficiency and determines the level of criticality and frequency of the knowledge, tasks, and skills required to perform across industries. Industry wide standards in the role of an agile practitioner—that are, professionals who use agile principles, methods, and approaches when working on or facilitating agile teams, such as product owners, scrum masters, and agile project managers. Thus, the JTA validates the tasks and domains tested in the exam. Validation assures that the outcome of the exam is, in fact, appropriately measuring and evaluating the specific knowledge skills, and experience required to function as an agile practitioner. PMI-ACP® certification holders can be confident that their professional certification has been developed according to the best practices of test development and based upon input from the practitioners and experts who establish those standards.

The PMI-ACP examination is a vital part of the activities leading to earning a professional certification, thus it is imperative that the PMI-ACP examination reflect accurately the practices of an agile practitioner. All exam items have been written and extensively reviewed by subject matter experts qualified in agile practices. These items are mapped against the PMI-ACP Examination Content Outline (ECO) to ensure that an appropriate number of items are in place for a valid examination. Furthermore, PMI retained Alpine Testing Solutions to calibrate the global PMI-ACP Examination Content Outline (ECO.) Alpine Testing Solutions provides psychometric, test development, and credential management solutions to credentialing and educational programs. Candidates studying for the PMI-ACP examination should use the PMI-ACP ECO as a guide to the areas included in the examination. Candidates are encouraged to use the PMI® Authorized PMI-ACP® Exam Prep

(available on demand and instructor-led), PMI-ACP® Practice Exams, and PMI® Study Hall (all PMI prep materials will be available in September), and review resources such as the PMI® Agile Practice Guide listed on the PMI-ACP examination preparation page. PMI Authorized Training Providers are required to use the PMI® Authorized PMI-ACP® Exam Prep instructor and student materials to structure their training.

EXAM CONTENT OUTLINE

The following table identifies the proportion of questions from each domain that will appear on the examination.

Domain Percentage of

Items on Test

Domain I. Mindset 28%

Domain II. Leadership 25%

Domain III. Product 19%

Domain IV. Delivery 28%

TOTAL 100%

DOMAINS, TASKS, AND ENABLERS

In this document you will find the structure for the PMI-ACP ® Examination Content Outline (ECO.) On the following pages you will find the domains, tasks, and enablers as defined by the JTA.

• Domain: Defined as the high-level knowledge area that is essential to the practice of agile practitioners.

• Tasks: The underlying responsibilities of an agile practitioner within each domain area.

• Enablers: Illustrative examples of the work associated with the task. Please note that enablers are not meant to be an exhaustive list but rather offer a few examples to help demonstrate what the task encompasses.

Following is an example of the new task structure: Task statement Embrace agile mindset

• Identify the importance or risks of each of the classifications of different systems thinking

• Interpret the outline of agile suitability tools

• Integrate agile models based on needs (e.g., use case, team, project, organization)

The PMI-ACP® examination will consist of 100 scored items and 20 unscored (pre-test) items. The unscored items will not be identified and will be randomly distributed throughout the exam. The allocation of questions will be as follows: Enablers

Domain 1 Mindset – 28%

Agile practitioners should have a deep understanding of the agile mindset and principles and the ability to apply them in practice. They should be able to create an environment that fosters innovation, experimentation, and continuous learning. Additionally, they should be able to promote collaboration and teamwork, establish a shared vision and working agreements, and develop high-performing teams. They should also be able to use retrospective findings to improve the team and breakdown silos. Finally, agile practitioners should be able to evaluate the team's understanding of agile and tailor the approach accordingly, as well as identify the appropriate inter-team coordination approach.

Task

Experiment Early

• Build an increment of the product to validate solution and/or market need

• Create an environment to innovate, learn, and grow Task

Embrace Agile Mindset

• Use agile values and principles

• Apply the appropriate complexity method/domain to the complexity theory system (i.e. CAS, Stacey Matrix, Cynefin) to classify scenarios

• Identify the application and importance or risks of each complexity system theory given a specific scenario

• Interpret the output of agile suitability tools

• Integrate agile models based on needs (e.g., use case, team, project, organization) Task

Promote Collaborative Team Environment

• Establish team vision and working agreements

• Form and develop a high performing team

• Use retrospective findings to improve the team

• Use collaboration practices to breakdown silos

• Commit to the team’s decisions even in disagreement

• Evaluate the team’s understanding of agile to tailor the agile approach

• Identify the key factors to consider when determining the appropriate inter-team coordination

• approach (e.g., scrum of scrums, team of teams)

Task

Build Transparency

• Make status, progress, process, risks, impediments, and learning accessible to all (e.g., using information radiators)

• Establish a feedback loop for team

• Define communication strategies for co-located and distributed teams Task

Foster Psychological Safety

• Promote a no blame culture by encouraging objectivity

• Encourage dialogue over debate

• Solicit and provide constructive feedback. Act on it

• Encourage challenging the status quo

Task

Shorten Feedback Loops

• Include the stakeholders from day one

• Maximize value given a specific timeframe

• Use tools and techniques to shorten feedback (e.g., design thinking and lean startup)

Task 7 Embrace Change

• Promote a growth mindset to respond to change

• Embrace process adaptation by responding to changing requirements and priorities

• Encourage and model cross skills (e.g., generalizing specialists)

• Adapt to product needs based on the learning and feedback Domain 2 Leadership – 25%

Agile practitioners should possess the necessary skills and knowledge to effectively lead within an agile team. This includes a deep understanding of agile principles and methodologies and the ability to create a collaborative team environment that fosters innovation, learning, and growth. They should also be able to apply principles of systems thinking to classify scenarios and identify the importance or risks of each classification. Additionally, they should be able to interpret the output of agile suitability tools and integrate agile models based on needs. Other key skills include the ability to establish team vision and working agreements, form and develop high-performing teams, use retrospective findings to improve the team, and use collaboration practices to break down silos. They should also be committed to the team's decisions even in disagreement and be able to evaluate the team's understanding of agile to tailor the approach.

Task

Empower Teams

• Establish an environment of trust (e.g., enable transparent communication)

• Motivate team members (e.g., to experiment and/or take risks)

• Coach and mentor team members

• Promote collective ownership of goals

• Recognize the differences between training, coaching, and mentoring and when to apply each approach

• Apply emotional intelligence techniques to support the team, increase empathy, resolve conflict and support positive influence

• Interpret non-verbal cues during team interaction

• Interpret the output of self-assessment tools and techniques to help teams develop their capabilities

Task

Facilitate Problem Resolution

• Investigate the root cause of problems (e.g., root cause analysis, Ishikawa)

• Determine the resolution strategies with the team that will add the most value

• Ensure the problems are resolved in a timely manner Task

Promote Knowledge Sharing

• Create environment to capture and share knowledge (e.g., Lessons Learned for continuous improvement, retrospectives, communities of practice)

• Leverage organizational knowledge assets (e.g., from other similar initiatives, people and processes)

• Allocate time for knowledge sharing and making required updates Task

Promote agile mindset principles and practices

• Create awareness around the agile values and principles

• Foster an environment for continuous improvement

• Recognize, reward, and encourage agile behavior

Task

Promote shared vision and purpose

• Define and ensure there is a common understanding of the purpose and vision with all stakeholders

• Ensure product is always aligned to the vision and organizational goals

• Continuously communicate the vision and purpose

Task

Facilitate conflict management

• Identify the root cause and the level of the conflict

• Promote collaborative approach to solve the conflict Domain 3 Product – 19%

Agile practitioners should have a deep understanding of agile methodologies, including (but not limited to): Scrum, Kanban, and Lean, and be able to apply them to project management and product development. They should have experience in product development, building product roadmaps, creating user stories, and managing product backlogs. They should have foundational technical knowledge and be able to work closely with development teams to understand technical requirements and constraints. Practitioners should have excellent communication skills and be able to effectively communicate with stakeholders, including customers, development teams, and executives. The candidate should have strong leadership skills and be able to lead cross-functional teams to deliver high-quality products. Additionally, they should be committed to continuous learning and be willing to stay up to date with the latest trends and best practices in agile project and product management and development. Task

Refine product backlog

• Clarify the backlog items

• Prioritize the backlog items with the customer/stakeholder

• Decompose the backlog items as needed

• Use tools and techniques to collectively size work Task

Manage increments

• Ensure increment is aligned with business priorities

• Define the increment goals

• Demonstrate increments of value for early feedback

• Measure the delivery of value

Task

Visualize work

• Educate work visualization techniques

• Establish a process to update the data/stats

• Continuously share information

Task

Manage value delivery

• Define what value will look like (e.g., success criteria, sustainability, security, privacy, regulatory, compliance)

• Ensure the value increments are optimized

• Ensure that the targeted results are achieved (e.g., Customer satisfaction, increase in sales)

Domain 4 Delivery – 28%

Agile practitioners should have the necessary skills and knowledge to effectively manage and deliver projects and products using agile approaches. The candidate should have strong communication and collaboration skills to work effectively with cross-functional teams. Experience in agile project management tools and techniques such as user stories, sprint planning, and retrospectives. Knowledge of agile development practices such as continuous integration, continuous delivery, and test-driven development. Familiarity with agile frameworks and methodologies, but not limited to, such as Scrum, Kanban, SAFe, and Lean. Ability to adapt to changing requirements and priorities in a fast-paced environment. Experience in using agile metrics to measure project progress and success. Seeking early feedback from internal and external customers to ensure alignment with their needs. Managing risks proactively to minimize impact on project and/or product delivery. Eliminating waste by focusing on delivering value to the customer. Performing continuous improvement to enhance project delivery and team performance. Engaging customers throughout the project to ensure their needs are met. Optimizing flow by focusing on delivering value quickly and efficiently. In addition, agile practitioners should also have a strong commitment to continuous learning and improvement and a passion for delivering high-quality products and services to customers.

Task

Seek early feedback

• Evaluate customer satisfaction

• Deliver work in small increments

• Collect and incorporate stakeholders’ feedback on a regular basis Task

Manage agile metrics

• Determine which metrics are appropriate for a given audience

• Radiate metrics across the relevant audience

• Review and analyze metrics

• Use metrics insights for decision making

Task

Manage impediments and risk

• Proactively identify risks and impediments

• Engage the team to find the most appropriate course of action

• Prioritize impediment removal and risk mitigation activities

• Monitor/control risks and impediments

• Use lessons learned to avoid risks/impediments recurrence Task

Recognize and eliminate waste

• Visualize the end-to-end flow of value in the system (e.g., value added, non-value added)

• Use metrics, tools and feedback loops to identify waste

• Prioritize waste reduction activities

• Iterate on identification and reduction of waste Task

Perform continuous improvements

• Obtain metrics and feedback to drive continuous improvements

• Implement improvement actions

• Evaluate the effectiveness of process improvement Task

Actively engage customers

• Identify and analyze customer and their needs

• Validate that iteration deliverables meet acceptance criteria

• Encourage collaboration between customer and team Task

Optimize flow

• Limit work-in-progress at all levels

• Shield team from interruptions (e.g., create team interfaces)

• Use metrics to analyze and improve flow

TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES

The examples illustrate the breadth of the tools and techniques, but are NOT meant to provide an exhaustive list in the agile landscape

Agile Analysis and

Design

Including but not limited to:

• product roadmap

• user stories/backlog

• story maps

• progressive elaboration wireframes

• chartering

• personas

• modeling

• workshops

• learning cycle plan

• collaboration games

Agile Estimation

• relative sizing/story points/T-shirt sizing wide band Delphi/planning poker

• affinity estimating

• ideal time

Communications

• information radiator team space agile tooling

• osmotic communications for co-located and/or distributed teams

• two-way communications (trustworthy, conversation driven)

• social media–based communication

• active listening

• brainstorming feedback methods

Metrics

• velocity/throughput/productivity cycle time

• lead time

• EVM for agile projects defect rate

• approved iterations

• work in progress

Planning, Monitoring,

and Adapting

• reviews Kanban board task board timeboxing

• iteration and release planning variance and trend analysis WIP limits

• daily synchronization meetings

• burn down/up charts cumulative flow diagrams backlog grooming/refinement

• product-feedback loop

Process Improvement

• Kaizen

• the Five WHYs

• retrospectives, intraspectives

• process tailoring/hybrid models

• value stream mapping

• control limits

• pre-mortem (rule setting, failure analysis)

• fishbone diagram analysis

Product Quality

• frequent verification and validation

• definition of done

• continuous integration

• testing, including exploratory and usability

Risk Management

• risk adjusted backlog

• risk burn down graphs

• risk-based spike

• architectural spike

Value-Based

Prioritization

• ROI/NPV/IRR

• compliance

• customer valued prioritization

• requirements reviews

• minimal viable product (MVP)

• minimal marketable feature (MMF)

• relative prioritization/ranking

• MoSCoW

• Kano analysis

KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS

POST JOB TASK ANALYSIS SURVEY OCTOBER 2023

PMI-ACP ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

To be eligible for the PMI-ACP certification, you need to meet the following certification program requirements, defined by the Global Practice Analysis:

Educational Background Professional Learning Professional Agile Experience Secondary diploma (high

school diploma, GED,

associate's degree or global

equivalent)

28 hours of formal

training in agile practices,

frameworks,

methodologies

(21 hours will be accepted

until 31 March 2025)

2 years of agile experience in past 5 years*

1 year agile experience and degree from Global

Accreditation Center (GAC) program

1 year agile experience and active 3rd party agile certification (current and earned more than 1 year ago)**

Active PMP® Certification

*Current PMI Certification holder’s (e.g. PgMP®) agile and hybrid experience will count towards experience requirements (experience must be within the past five years)

** Current agile certification that demonstrates knowledge of Agile approaches and principles

How to Record Your Professional Learning During the Application Process Use the section of the online application to record your formal training contact hours. Exam eligibility requirements include having a minimum of 28 hours* of formal learning based on agile approaches, tools and techniques included in the ECO. The coursework must be completed prior to submitting the application and should include proof of course completion.

Learning course hours should cover agile related topics as detailed in the Exam Content Outline above and may include content on, but not limited to agile mindset, collaborative team environments, embracing change, knowledge sharing, team-centric leadership, value delivery, and agile metrics. The learning course hours must come from quality sources defined as:

• Aligns to the exam content outline.

• Includes experiential exercises to assure ample practice.

• Balances subject matter expertise with test-wise content (i.e. practice exams).

• Provides an end of course assessment and certificate of completion.

*Please note that PMI will accept 21-hour courses to be submitted in the application until 31 March 2025. It is recommended that candidates supplement their exam preparation with PMI Study Hall™ How to Record Your Third-Party Agile Certifications During the Application Process

If you have an agile certification in Scrum, SAFe or other agile certifications, PMI will credit you 12 months towards the 2 years of agile experience requirement. Agile certifications (held for a year) that that demonstrates knowledge of Agile approaches and principles will be accepted. Use the section of the online application to upload and record your third-party agile certification and then will proceed to enter two years of agile experience the application. How Other PMI Certifications will be included in the Application Process Current PMI Certification holders’ (e.g. PgMP®, PMP®) agile and hybrid experience will count towards experience requirements (experience must be within the past five years) and will be included in the PMI-ACP application. Candidates will no longer have to write in their experience previously collected.

PMI-ACP EXAM INFORMATION

The PMI-ACP examination is comprised of 120 multiple-choice items, multiple response, drag-and-drop-style items, and exhibits. Of the 120 questions, 20 are considered pretest questions. Pretest questions do not affect the score and are used in examinations as an effective and legitimate way to test the validity of future examination questions. All questions are placed randomly throughout the examination. No. of Scored Questions

No. of Pretest (Unscored)

Questions

Total Examination

Questions

100

120

The allotted time to complete the PMI-ACP pilot examination is 3 hours. Final time for the production exam will be established after the pilot examination is completed. It may take some certification candidates less than the allotted 3 hours to complete the examination. For the PMI-ACP exam, there is a 10-minute break in the exam. The break will appear after completion of questions 1–60 and after you have reviewed all your answers. Please note, once you review your responses and start your break, you will not be able to return to the questions from the previous exam section. The examination is preceded by a tutorial and followed by a survey, both of which are optional, and take 5 to 15 minutes to complete. The time used to complete the tutorial and survey is not included in the examination time of 3 hours.

Allotted Exam Time

3 hours

TAKING THE EXAM

The PMI-ACP is available to take in person at a center and proctored online. Online proctored exams will require system tests and an extensive check in process. Please allow for time prior to your exam to ensure you complete these processes.

• For in person test center and availability (recommended) please make sure to review test centers near you by visiting: https://www.pearsonvue.com/us/en/pmi.html

• For testing online via OnVue online proctored please make sure you review, and complete necessary system checks by visiting: https://www.pearsonvue.com/us/en/pmi/onvue.html RETAKING THE EXAM

If you do not pass the exam on your first attempt, we encourage you to continue studying and then retake the exam. You may take the examination up to three times within the 1-year eligibility period. After three attempts, you must wait 1 year from the date of your last examination before you can reapply for the certification. This policy is designed to uphold exam security and reduce the overexposure of examination questions to individual candidates. However, during this 1-year waiting period, you are welcome to apply for any other PMI certification. If your 1-year eligibility period expires without passing the examination, you must reapply for the certification. CONTINUING CERTIFICATION

REQUIREMENTS (CCR) PROGRAM

Once you have successfully earned your PMI-ACP certification, maintain your certification by completing 30 professional development units (PDUs) every 3 years. For details on the CCR Program and instructions on how to earn and track PDUs in CCR, please review the CCR Handbook by visiting https://www.pmi.org/certifications/certification-resources/maintain

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