Some thoughts to hopefully help others pass. In many years of sitting technical and project related exams, this was the toughest exam I’ve sat. I’d much rather have been sitting my PMO again! I don’t say that to put you off, but just to make sure you go in with your eyes open. I have seen other people say this, as well as some of the other things I’ll say, so take heed and don’t underestimate it,
Real world experience will help a lot with this exam, as will doing exam questions from a variety of sources, the more vague the better! There’s very few questions where you’ll actually have to recall some particular fact or other about an Agile methodology.
What you need to know is how to apply those agile values and principles in real life scenarios. That’s where the practice exams come in handy. I used the Mike Griffiths book as my primary source, but also tried to read as many of the books from the recommended reading list. The benefit to this is you get a wide range of information and different people’s takes in how to apply Agile. The slight downside is that I sometimes felt I was getting too bogged down i the low level detail which started to cause some doubt and contradictions, but I think that’s down to me approaching it like a traditional “knowledge recall” exam.
I spent a long time reading each question and also highlighting key parts of the actual question to make sure I knew exactly what was being asked, what roles were doing what and what stage they were at. I learned that lesson by doing practice questions form a variety of places, which really make you disciplined about reading and re-reading the questions to make sure you don’t get caught out by rushing in or making assumptions.
Don’t get me wrong, you will have to make some assumptions based on each scenario, this is where real world experience will help and also where reading the question properly will help. Make sure you understand exactly what is being asked, what stage of the project they’re in and what assumptions you can/can’t make based on the information given. Also don't get too hung up on specific roles from the different methodologies - just make sure you understand what roles & responsibilities are of the team members, customer voice, stakeholders etc.
I was genuinely convinced I’d failed the exam but scored above target in all areas, so I’m delighted.
Good luck!
