The PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP) is PMI's agile certification. It proves you understand agile across many approaches — not just one framework — and can apply that knowledge to real team situations. Here's what the exam looks like and how to prepare for it.
Exam format
- 120 questions in 180 minutes.
- Mostly scenario-based: a situation on an agile team, and you choose the best response.
- Eligibility: 24 months of agile experience within the last 5 years and 21 hours of agile training — check pmi.org for the current details and alternative routes before applying.
The four domains
| Domain | Weight | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Mindset | 28% | Embracing the agile mindset: the Agile Manifesto and its principles, collaboration, continuous experimentation and improvement |
| Leadership | 25% | Leading and coaching an agile team: servant leadership, emotional intelligence, communication, negotiation and conflict |
| Product | 19% | Visualising work and managing value delivery: the backlog, prioritising by value, flow and value stream mapping |
| Delivery | 28% | Delivering value through incremental releases and built-in quality: XP practices, continuous integration, testing and quality assurance |
What to study
The PMI-ACP draws on many agile methods. Make sure you can recognise and explain:
- Scrum — accountabilities, events and artifacts.
- Kanban — visualising work, WIP limits, managing flow, cumulative flow diagrams.
- Lean — the seven wastes (such as partially done work, task switching and extra features), value stream mapping, "optimise the whole".
- XP — test-driven development, pair programming, continuous integration, refactoring, collective code ownership.
- Crystal — which method fits which team size and criticality.
- Agile estimation — story points, planning poker, relative sizing.
- Prioritisation — MoSCoW, Kano, cost of delay.
- Team dynamics — Tuckman's stages, servant leadership, the Shu-Ha-Ri model of learning.
A simple 6-week plan
- Week 1: Mindset — the Manifesto, the 12 principles, and why agile works.
- Week 2: Leadership — servant leadership, coaching and team development.
- Week 3: Product — backlog, value, user stories and prioritisation.
- Week 4: Delivery — flow, metrics, estimation and quality practices.
- Week 5: A full 120-question timed mock exam, then a deep review of every mistake.
- Week 6: Fix weak areas, take a second mock, and rest before exam day.
Tips for exam day
- When in doubt, choose the answer that best reflects agile values: collaboration, transparency, delivering value early and learning from feedback.
- Prefer answers where the team decides and the leader facilitates.
- Watch the exact wording of named concepts — the exam often tests whether you can tell two similar ideas apart.
Start practising free
- Free PMI-ACP chapters for every domain
- Free PMI-ACP practice questions and the PMI-ACP chapter test
- The free 120-question PMI-ACP mock exam
- PMI-ACP flashcards for every key term