PMP · Question #823
An agile team has started a new project. When should the project manager organize their first team retrospective?
The correct answer is B. When the team reaches a major milestone.. The first team retrospective should be organized after reaching a major milestone, such as the end of an iteration or sprint, to allow the team to reflect and adapt early in the project lifecycle. This provides an opportunity for continuous improvement and process adjustment.
Question
Options
- AWhen more than a few weeks have passed.
- BWhen the team reaches a major milestone.
- CWhen the team completes a release of a monumental increment.
- DWhen the work is progressing well through the team.
How the community answered
(29 responses)- A3% (1)
- B90% (26)
- C7% (2)
Why each option
The first team retrospective should be organized after reaching a major milestone, such as the end of an iteration or sprint, to allow the team to reflect and adapt early in the project lifecycle. This provides an opportunity for continuous improvement and process adjustment.
Waiting until "more than a few weeks have passed" is too vague and might delay the crucial feedback loop necessary for an agile team to identify and address initial challenges promptly.
Organizing the first team retrospective when the team reaches a major milestone, such as the end of the first sprint or iteration, is crucial for establishing a cadence of continuous improvement from the project's outset. This allows the team to reflect on their initial processes, identify what went well, what could be improved, and create actionable items for the next period, embedding inspect-and-adapt principles early.
Waiting for a "release of a monumental increment" is often too long in an agile context, as retrospectives are meant to be frequent events (e.g., after each sprint) to facilitate timely adjustments, not just at large product releases.
Waiting until "the work is progressing well" misses the opportunity to proactively identify potential issues or areas for improvement early on, and assumes that "well" means perfectly, which is rarely the case even for successful teams.
Concept tested: Agile retrospective timing and purpose
Source: https://www.scrum.org/resources/what-is-a-retrospective
Topics
Community Discussion
6
Mei-Ling H.Jul 5, 2026Confirmed B on exam last week. The key qualifier here is "major milestone," because retrospectives in agile are timeboxed events that should occur at meaningful inspection points, not just at the end of a release or project. Option C is the trap because "monumental increment" sounds important, but you do not wait for a massive deliverable to hold a retrospective. Option A is also wrong since waiting "more than a few weeks" defeats the purpose of frequent agile feedback loops.
Brenda K.Jun 29, 2026Leaned A first but milestone trumps a time box, flag and move on.
Ingrid P.Jul 1, 2026Agreed on milestone priority, but worth a card on the distinction between milestone-based and timebox-based scheduling since both terms show up as distractors and the recall interval on that pair should be short.
Olusegun A.Jul 5, 2026B is correct because retrospectives in agile are timeboxed events tied to iteration or milestone boundaries, not delayed until something goes wrong. The other options either defer the retrospective too long or tie it to subjective conditions that defeat the purpose of continuous improvement. PMBOK 7 emphasizes regular reflections at planned intervals so the team can inspect and adapt before problems compound. One thing I want to nail down: does the exam always treat a milestone as the trigger, or is there flexibility if the team is using a pure sprint-based cadence where the end of each iteration serves the same function?
Ingrid P.Jul 5, 2026Hit B on my exam last week, kept wanting C but major milestone is the trigger.
Brenda K.Jul 8, 2026Seconded B, and a heads up, do not overthink the milestone wording because they will try to bait you with minor phase completions that look like triggers.