PMP Practice Exam Question

Your team is developing a new mobile application. During a sprint review, it was identified that the integration of a third-party payment gateway might not be as straightforward as initially thought, posing a significant risk to the project timeline. As a project manager, what is the most appropriate approach to address this risk?

A) Proceed with the current plan without changes, and deal with any issues as they arise during integration.

B) Conduct a thorough risk analysis and create a detailed risk mitigation plan before proceeding with the integration.

C) Replace the third-party payment gateway with a simpler alternative to avoid integration complexities.

D) Work collaboratively with the team to develop a spike to investigate and resolve the integration complexities.

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Best Answer: D) Work collaboratively with the team to develop a spike to investigate and resolve the integration complexities.

Explanation:

The correct answer is D because it aligns with Agile principles of collaboration, empirical process control, and iterative problem-solving. In Agile, a 'spike' is a specific type of user story that is used to research, investigate, or explore uncertainties or complex tasks in a project. In this scenario, dedicating time and resources to a spike focused on the payment gateway integration will allow the team to gain a better understanding of the challenges and develop a more informed solution.

Option A, proceeding without changes, ignores the identified risk and goes against the Agile principle of responding to change and continuously adapting the plan based on feedback and new information.

Option B, conducting a thorough risk analysis and creating a detailed mitigation plan, is more aligned with traditional project management approaches. While risk analysis is important in Agile, it is typically done in a more iterative and less formal way, integrated with the development process rather than as a separate extensive planning exercise.

Option C, replacing the payment gateway with a simpler alternative, might seem like a quick solution but may not be feasible or desirable based on the project requirements or stakeholder expectations. This approach could also lead to compromises in functionality or quality.

Option D is the best approach in this context. By using a spike, the team can dedicate a time-boxed period to explore the integration challenges. This approach allows them to experiment, learn, and adapt their approach based on empirical findings, which is at the core of Agile methodologies. Once the spike is completed, the team will be better equipped to handle the integration, having reduced the uncertainty and risk associated with this aspect of the project.