PMP Tutorial › Module 5 › Lesson 9

Agile & Hybrid Delivery for PMP

About half the PMP exam reflects agile or hybrid ways of working. This lesson covers the agile mindset, the Scrum framework, other agile approaches, scaling, and how to combine approaches with hybrid delivery and tailoring.

In this lesson

The agile mindset

The Agile Manifesto values: individuals and interactions over processes and tools; working software over documentation; customer collaboration over contract negotiation; responding to change over following a plan. Agile favours short feedback loops, incremental value, and empowered, self-organising teams.

The Scrum framework

Scrum is the most common agile framework — know it cold.

  • Roles (accountabilities): Product Owner (owns and prioritises the backlog, maximises value), Scrum Master (servant leader, coaches the team, removes impediments), Developers (build the increment).
  • Events: the Sprint (a fixed time-box, 1–4 weeks), Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum (15 min), Sprint Review (demo the increment to stakeholders), Sprint Retrospective (improve how the team works).
  • Artifacts & commitments: Product Backlog → Product Goal; Sprint Backlog → Sprint Goal; Increment → Definition of Done.
Exam cue: the Scrum Master never assigns work or commands the team — they facilitate and remove blockers. Scope changes go through the Product Owner and the backlog, not mid-sprint demands.

Kanban, XP, Lean & scaling

  • Kanban: visualise the workflow, limit work in progress (WIP), and optimise flow. Continuous, no fixed sprints.
  • Extreme Programming (XP): engineering practices — pair programming, TDD, continuous integration, refactoring.
  • Lean: maximise value, eliminate waste, deliver fast.
  • Scaling frameworks: SAFe, LeSS, Scrum of Scrums — coordinate many agile teams on one large product.

Agile metrics

  • Velocity — story points completed per sprint (for forecasting, not comparing teams).
  • Burndown chart — work remaining over time; burnup chart — work completed vs scope.
  • Cumulative flow diagram — work in each state; reveals bottlenecks.
  • Lead time & cycle time — Kanban flow measures.

Hybrid & tailoring

Hybrid deliberately blends predictive and agile — for example, fixed up-front planning for regulated, well-understood components and agile iterations for evolving features. The right mix depends on uncertainty, stakeholder needs, team maturity, and organisational culture. Tailoring is the discipline of choosing that mix — there is no universally correct approach, and the best exam answers adapt sensibly to the scenario.

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