PMI-ACP Lesson 12 Knowledge and Skills Nugget 3

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PMI® & ACP are the registered marks of Project Management Institute, Inc. Copyright 2014, Simplilearn, All rights reserved.
Knowledge and Skills: Part 3
PMI®—Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)®

● Recognize the project and quality standards for Agile projects
● List the principles of stakeholder management
● Explain Agile team motivation
● List the characters of Agile high performance teams
● Differentiate between distributed and collocated teams in Agile projects
● Describe Agile facilitation techniques and Agile participative leadership
methods
After completing
this lesson, you will
be able to:
Objectives

Extreme programming (XP) recommends creating a coding standard and enforcing the adherence to
it. All developers agree to adhere to these guidelines while programming. The guidelines should be as
follows:
● It should be beyond formatting.
● It should focus on consistency and consensus over perfection.
● It should have minimal set of standards to follow.
Project and Quality Standards for Agile Projects
Teams should also develop their standards of behavior which can be posted in the team room as a
visual radiator.!

Suppliers
Anyone who has a stake in the project is a
stakeholder. Anybody whose interest is positively
or negatively impacted by the project’s outcomes
or anybody who can impact the project positively
or negatively is a stakeholder.
Effective management of stakeholders can be one
of the most important determinants of project
success. Much of stakeholder management
requires effective communication.
Stakeholder Management
Employees
Management
Stakeholders
Customer/
Interested
Parties Partners
Competitors
Candidates for
Employment
Internal
Stakeholders
External
Stakeholders

The ten principles of stakeholder management are as follows:
Principles of Stakeholder Management

Agile Team Motivation
One of the Agile Principles states, “Build the team around motivated individuals; give them the
support and encouragement they need.”
An Agile leader needs to motivate the team. Some of the well-known motivation theories are as
follows:
● Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Needs
● Motivational Factors by Boehm
● Frederick Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory
● David McClelland Achievement Motivation Theory

Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of human needs is
depicted as a five level pyramid.
● The four lower levels represent the most
fundamental needs, what Maslow called ‘deficiency
needs’ or ‘d-needs’. They are physiological, safety,
love and belonging, and esteem.
● The fifth level is self-actualization where people
reach their full potential.
● Maslow indicates that the lower level needs have
to be satisfied before one can move on to the
higher tiers.
Agile Team Motivation—Maslow’s Theory

Frederick Herzberg established a theory on motivators based on the following two factors:
Agile Team Motivation—Frederick Herzberg's Theory
An Agile project team requires hygiene factors to establish a minimal level of team performance, but
establishing motivators determine if the team can achieve high performance.!
Motivators
These give satisfaction, arising from intrinsic
conditions of the job itself, such as
recognition, achievement, or personal
growth.
E.g., challenging work, recognition, and
responsibility.
Hygiene factors
These are necessary, but do not give
motivation; although the absence will result
in dissatisfaction.
E.g., status, job security, salary, fringe
benefits, and work conditions.

David McClelland's achievement motivation theory is based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
Agile Team Motivation—McClelland's Theory
Dominant Motivator Characteristics of the Person
Achievement
● Has a strong need to set and accomplish challenging goals.
● Takes calculated risks to accomplish goals.
● Likes to receive regular feedback on progress and achievements.
● Often likes to work alone.
Affiliation
● Wants to belong in the group.
● Wants to be liked, and will often go along with what the rest of the group wants to do.
● Favors collaboration over competition.
● Doesn't like high risk or uncertainty.
Power
● Wants to control and influence others.
● Likes to win arguments.
● Enjoys competition and winning.
● Enjoys status and recognition.
People with achievement motivator require challenging tasks, ones with affiliation require a cordial work
environment and the ones with dominant power motivator need to manage people and enjoy recognition.!

Agile Team Motivation—Boehm’s Theory
Possibility for growth
Work itself
Recognition
Boehm’s Team Motivators
Advancement
Technical supervision
Achievement
Relationship with peers
Relationship with
subordinates
Salary
Responsibility
Barry Boehm has created team motivational factors from his extensive project work.
He established the Theory W Software Project Management: Make Everyone a Winner.
His theory was supported by two principles: Plan the Flight and Fly the Plan, and Identify and Manage
Your Risks.
Boehm identified the following team motivators:

Building High-Performance Teams
High-performance teams (HPTs) is a concept within organization development referring to teams,
organizations, or virtual groups that are highly focused on their goals and achieve superior business
results. High-performance teams outperform all other similar teams and they also outperform
expectations, given their composition.
Composition of High-Performance Teams
It has people with right skills and motivation.
It is a committed team that has been effectively
empowered.
It has established trust.
It works at a sustainable pace to deliver high
quality software.
It reflects a consistent high velocity.
It factors in influences like capacity and support.

High-performance Agile teams would have the following characteristics:
Characteristics of High-Performance Agile Teams

Collocated teams work together in the same physical location. The characteristics of collocated teams
are as follows:
● Each team will have all the skills required.
● Teams in different locations work independently, but collaborate to coordinate their work.
Collaborating Collocated Teams
Team 1 Team 2

In distributed teams the team members work in geographically dispersed locations. The characteristics
of distributed teams are as follows:
● Individuals in different cities work together as one team.
● Each location has people with different skills.
● Forming collaborating collocated teams would not have sufficient depth of skills.
● It is more effective to leverage distributed teams.
Deliberately Distributed Teams
Team 1 Team 2Team 1 Team 2
Location 1 Location 2

Agile can work on both distributed and collocated teams. However, the following aspects would work
differently in both the teams:
Distributed vs. Collocated Teams
Distributed Teams Collocated Teams
Formal logging of knowledge Issues resolved informally, in a timely manner
Structured use of processes Incidental interaction leads to productivity
Explicit role definition through tasks Meetings focused on strategic discussion
Exploiting technology for collaboration More collaborative technical system

Facilitation is enabling a discussion that aims to achieve a decision. Facilitation is particularly
important for visioning, requirements solicitation, and retrospectives. There are many techniques for
facilitating ideas and enabling team input.
Agile Facilitation Methods
● ‘Buy a Feature’ game helps the team in prioritizing features.
● ‘White Elephant Sizing’ is an estimation technique used for relative sizing and categorization
of user stories.
● ‘Product box’ encourages the team to identify the most important features for the product.
● ‘Spider web’ helps represent the relationships of a product with other products and
services.
Visioning
Requirements
● ‘Sailboat’ is a game used to identify the retrospective experiences as positive or negative.
● ‘Learning Matrix’ is used to identify what went well, what did not go well, ideas that can be
implemented and individuals who performed well.
Retrospectives

Participatory decision making is to involve the team in making the decisions. The objective of
participatory decision making is to provide the project community with specific practices to frame,
analyze, and make the myriad decisions that arise during a project.
The primary goals of participatory decision making are:
● to foster clear communication of goals and constraints;
● to liberate the untapped knowledge; and
● to harness the creativity and insights in the organization.
Agile Participatory Decision Making

There are three representative positions in the overall framework for participatory decision making.
Agile Participatory Decision Models
Input based Shared Collaboration Command
All the participants should
have the opportunity to
provide inputs in the
decision making process.
Participants are not only
consulted, but are actively
involved in arriving at the
decision.
The decision is made by a
senior leader or by a small
group of people. The team
members are informed
about the decision.

Quiz

QUIZ
a.
b.
c.
d.
Which of the following is not an example of project standard?
1
Team Coding standards
Code of Conduct
Data center failover
Definition of Done

QUIZ
a.
b.
c.
d.
Which of the following is not an example of project standard?
1
Answer: d.
Explanation: A data center failover would not be a standard activity or guideline.
Team Coding standards
Code of Conduct
Data center failover
Definition of Done

QUIZ
a.
b.
c.
d.
Maslow categorized four needs as ‘d-needs’ or deficiency needs, identify which of the
following is not a D-need.2
Self Actualization
Love/Friendship
Security
Esteem

QUIZ
a.
b.
c.
d.
Maslow categorized four needs as ‘d-needs’ or deficiency needs, identify which of the
following is not a D-need.2
Answer: b.
Explanation: The fourth d-need is physical. Self actualization is the fifth level and reflects a
person who is performing at their full potential.
Self Actualization
Love/Friendship
Security
Esteem

QUIZ
a.
b.
c.
d.
Which of the following is an example of a motivator in Herzberg’s theory?
3
Job Security
Challenging Work
Salary
Status

QUIZ
a.
b.
c.
d.
Which of the following is an example of a motivator in Herzberg’s theory?
3
Answer: c.
Explanation: Challenging work is a motivating factor.
Job Security
Challenging Work
Salary
Status

QUIZ
a.
b.
c.
d.
Which of the following is not a satisfactory reason to undertake command decision in a
participative decision making model?4
Decision makers cannot come to agreement on an issue
The team is not accessible for a decision that needs to be made expeditiously
A complex decision needs to be made
Insufficient time is available to get the entire team involved in reviewing a decision

QUIZ
a.
b.
c.
d.
Which of the following is not a satisfactory reason to undertake command decision in a
participative decision making model?4
Answer: d.
Explanation: Complex decisions are the best opportunities to engage the team to
participate.
Decision makers cannot come to agreement on an issue
The team is not accessible for a decision that needs to be made expeditiously
A complex decision needs to be made
Insufficient time is available to get the entire team involved in reviewing a decision

QUIZ
a.
b.
c.
d.
What does Barry Boehm’s ‘Theory W for software development’ refer to?
5
Workers need to be closely supervised and comprehensive systems of controls
developed.
Make Everyone A Winner
Increase employee loyalty to the company by providing a job for life with a strong
focus on the well-being of the employee.
Employees are ambitious, self-motivated and exercise self-control. Management
should foster an environment of trust to allow employees to develop.

QUIZ
a.
b.
c.
d.
What does Barry Boehm’s ‘Theory W for software development’ refer to?
5
Answer: c.
Explanation: Boehm emphasized making everyone a winner in his Theory. Option A is
Theory Y, option B is Theory X, and option D is Theory Z.
Workers need to be closely supervised and comprehensive systems of controls
developed.
Make Everyone A Winner
Increase employee loyalty to the company by providing a job for life with a strong
focus on the well-being of the employee.
Employees are ambitious, self-motivated and exercise self-control. Management
should foster an environment of trust to allow employees to develop.

● Extreme programming recommends creating a coding standard and
enforcing the adherence to it.
● Well-known motivation theories used in Agile are Abraham Maslow's
Hierarchy of Human Needs, Frederick Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory, David
McClelland Achievement Motivation Theory, and Motivational Factors by
Boehm.
● High-performance team is a concept within organization development
referring to teams, organizations, or virtual groups that are highly focused
on their goals and achieve superior business results.
● Agile facilitation is important for visioning, requirements solicitation, and
retrospectives.
● Participatory decision making is to involve the team in making the decisions.
It provides the project community with specific practices to frame, analyze,
and make the myriad decisions that arise during a project.
Summary
Here is a quick
recap of what was
covered in this
lesson:

PMI-ACP Lesson 12 Knowledge and Skills Nugget 3

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PMI-ACP Lesson 12 Knowledge and Skills Nugget 3