PMP · Question #1065
A customer support team has planned short, iterative cycles for working on customer-reported issues. Recently, there was a surge of high-priority issues that disrupted the original plan, and the team'
The correct answer is B. Agile Kanban approach. For a customer support team facing a surge of high-priority, unpredictable issues that disrupt planned iterative cycles, the Kanban approach is best suited for managing workflow, limiting work in progress, and adapting to changing priorities.
Question
A customer support team has planned short, iterative cycles for working on customer-reported issues. Recently, there was a surge of high-priority issues that disrupted the original plan, and the team's manager is finding it difficult to manage the progress. Which approach should the project manager suggest using?
Options
- AAgile Scrum approach
- BAgile Kanban approach
- CSpiral approach
- DRapid application development approach
How the community answered
(20 responses)- A10% (2)
- B85% (17)
- D5% (1)
Why each option
For a customer support team facing a surge of high-priority, unpredictable issues that disrupt planned iterative cycles, the Kanban approach is best suited for managing workflow, limiting work in progress, and adapting to changing priorities.
Scrum uses fixed-length sprints and planned backlogs, which would be difficult to maintain and frequently disrupted by a "surge of high-priority issues" requiring immediate attention.
The Kanban approach is ideal for managing unpredictable workflows, such as customer support issues, because it focuses on visualizing work, limiting work-in-progress, and continuous flow without fixed iterations. This allows for flexible prioritization of incoming high-priority tasks, making it highly adaptable to a constantly changing queue of urgent issues.
The Spiral approach is a risk-driven methodology typically used for large, complex projects with significant uncertainty in requirements, not for managing a steady stream of operational support issues.
Rapid Application Development (RAD) focuses on rapid prototyping and iterative development of software applications, which is not the primary concern for a customer support team managing incoming issues.
Concept tested: Agile methodologies application (Kanban)
Source: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/devops/plan/kanban/kanban-basics
Topics
Community Discussion
5
Samuel O.Apr 4, 2026B is correct. I ran into this same situation when our support queue blew up last year, and Kanban was the right call because it handles incoming priority work through continuous flow instead of forcing everything into fixed iterations like Scrum does.
Ingrid P.Apr 5, 2026Agreed on B, and the key exam trigger to flashcard here is incoming priority work with continuous flow equals Kanban, whereas fixed iterations or timeboxed sprints equals Scrum.
Ingrid P.Apr 11, 2026Confirmed B on exam last week. The Kanban giveaway is the surge of high-priority issues disrupting planned iterative cycles, since Kanban handles continuous flow and reprioritization without the fixed sprint commitments that Scrum enforces. The stem phrase "finding it difficult to manage the progress" points to needing work-in-progress limits and a visible board rather than another planning framework. Worth a flashcard on the Kanban versus Scrum distinction when the trigger is unpredictable incoming work. One thing I am still sorting out for my own recall: does anyone know if the PMP exam consistently treats Kanban as
Anjali D.Mar 20, 2026Going with C since Spiral handles risk-heavy disruptions better than Agile variants.
Samuel O.Mar 23, 2026Actually B is the right call here. In practice you reach for Spiral when early risk identification and prototyping matter most, not just because something is risk-heavy, and that distinction is exactly what the stem is testing.