PMP · Question #310
A senior business stakeholder with many years of experience is pressuring an agile team to deliver most of the promised functionality to the customer 18 months in the future as opposed to multiple, in
The correct answer is B. Work with the stakeholder to understand what the concerns are while, at the same time,. When a senior stakeholder pushes for a big-bang delivery instead of incremental releases, the project lead must first engage the stakeholder to understand their underlying concerns while reiterating the benefits of agile's approach.
Question
Options
- AWork with the agile team to schedule the incremental deliveries to enable delivery of business
- BWork with the stakeholder to understand what the concerns are while, at the same time,
- CSchedule meetings with the customer to determine their ability to support multiple incremental
- DProvide details of the concern to the agile team and adjust their goals and release plans to
How the community answered
(18 responses)- A17% (3)
- B72% (13)
- C6% (1)
- D6% (1)
Why each option
When a senior stakeholder pushes for a big-bang delivery instead of incremental releases, the project lead must first engage the stakeholder to understand their underlying concerns while reiterating the benefits of agile's approach.
Simply scheduling incremental deliveries without addressing the stakeholder's concerns will likely lead to continued resistance or disengagement from that key individual.
The project lead should first engage the stakeholder to understand the root cause of their preference for a single large delivery, as there may be valid business concerns driving this. Simultaneously, the lead should communicate the benefits of incremental deliveries, such as early value realization, continuous feedback, and reduced risk, to help the stakeholder align with agile principles.
While customer input is valuable, the immediate conflict is with the stakeholder; addressing their concerns directly is the priority before involving the customer, as the stakeholder might represent the customer's interests or have other strategic reasons.
Adjusting goals and release plans immediately without understanding the stakeholder's reasons or discussing the benefits of the current approach is premature and gives in to pressure without proper evaluation.
Concept tested: Managing stakeholder expectations and agile principles
Source: https://www.pmi.org/pmbok-guide-standards/foundational/agile-practice-guide
Topics
Community Discussion
5
Brenda K.Mar 30, 2026B is the answer, and this one is a 30-second pick if you read the stem carefully. The stakeholder is pushing back on incremental delivery, so your job as the project lead is to get to the root of that resistance before changing any plans. A and D both jump straight into rearranging work without addressing the real issue, and C unnecessarily drags the customer into an internal disagreement. Flag A and D as traps if you are short on time, because they look actionable but skip the stakeholder conversation that agile principles demand.
Fatima Z.Apr 6, 2026Confirmed B on exam. Talk first, fix second, that is the agile way.
Lena V.Mar 16, 2026B is correct but the option text is cut off. What exactly is the second half?
Fatima Z.Mar 17, 2026B is right and the cut-off piece is something like "create an automated schedule for applying updates", which is the ADF giveaway because ADF lives for automated pipelines and scheduled triggers.
Prof. SaraMar 6, 2026B is correct because agile demands early and frequent stakeholder engagement, so you cannot let a senior stakeholder sit in a silo for 18 months. Option A is the tempting trap because scheduling the incremental deliveries sounds like the proactive, agile thing to do, but it ignores the root problem entirely. You have to address the stakeholder's resistance head on by understanding their concerns, and then work to educate them on how incremental delivery actually de-risks the project. The wording on B is frustratingly truncated on these dumps, but the logic of engaging the resistive stakeholder first always maps to the