PMP · Question #1226
A project leader is assigned to a new project and is asked to assemble an effective five-member agile team. If the project leader has no restrictions, which team should they choose?
The correct answer is A. A team whose members have more general aptitudes and can collaborate on different tasks. A project leader needs to assemble an effective five-member agile team without restrictions.
Question
Options
- AA team whose members have more general aptitudes and can collaborate on different tasks
- BA team whose members work independently and are the best subject matter experts (SMES)
- CA team whose members have more general aptitudes but like to work individually
- DA team whose members have different skill sets and are spread out geographically
How the community answered
(54 responses)- A70% (38)
- B17% (9)
- C7% (4)
- D6% (3)
Why each option
A project leader needs to assemble an effective five-member agile team without restrictions.
An effective agile team benefits from members with general aptitudes (T-shaped skills) who can collaborate and cross-train on different tasks. This promotes flexibility, resilience, and shared ownership within the team, reducing dependencies and bottlenecks and improving overall team efficiency.
While individual SMEs are valuable, an agile team prioritizes collaboration and cross-functionality over independent work, which can create silos and single points of failure.
A team with general aptitudes is good, but if members prefer to work individually, it undermines the collaborative nature essential for agile success and self-organizing teams.
While diverse skill sets are beneficial, a geographically spread-out team, especially without prior experience or strong communication strategies, can introduce collaboration challenges, making it less ideal for an effective team if there are no restrictions.
Concept tested: Characteristics of effective agile teams
Topics
Community Discussion
9
Samuel O.Apr 4, 2026Confirmed A. Agile lives or dies on cross-functional collaboration and the ability to swarm on work together, which is exactly what general aptitudes give you. I have seen teams of rockstar SMEs fail because everyone wanted to work in their own silo and the handoffs killed our velocity. Option D is also a trap because even with no restrictions on hiring, a distributed team adds unnecessary communication friction that an agile team does not need.
Mei-Ling H.Apr 5, 2026Agree on A but careful with the wording in the stem, if it says "most" then cross-functional collaboration is the strongest match, not the only reason to pick general aptitudes over narrow SME skills.
Olusegun A.Apr 28, 2026A. Saw this on my exam last month, generalists win in agile.
Samuel O.Apr 30, 2026Agreed on A, and from what I have seen in the field the generalist approach only works if everyone is willing to step outside their lane, otherwise you end up with one person carrying the load while the rest hide behind the title.
Mei-Ling H.Apr 21, 2026Agree with A. Agile needs T-shaped generalists who collaborate, not solo experts.
Orla P.Apr 23, 2026Agree on A but the real testing center trap is they often pair T-shaped with something about self-organizing teams, so read the full stem before locking in.
Orla P.Mar 22, 2026Saw this one on my exam last month, and A is the clear pick because agile thrives on cross-functional collaboration where people can swarm on different tasks. I almost got distracted by D since distributed teams are common, but the generalist angle in A is what the PMI questions are really testing for.
Lena V.Apr 10, 2026B is the right call here. On the PMP exam, SMEs who can execute independently mean fewer bottlenecks and faster delivery, which is exactly what they want to see for an effective agile team.
Olusegun A.Apr 11, 2026A is correct. The exam is looking for cross-functional, self-organizing teams that collaborate to deliver value, not a collection of independent specialists working in silos.