Explanation
According to the PMBOK Guide, agile is an iterative, incremental, and adaptive approach to project management that values customer collaboration, feedback, and responsiveness to change. Agile projects deliver working software in small increments called iterations or sprints, and involve frequent communication and collaboration among the project team and the stakeholders. Agile projects also emphasize the importance of delivering value to the customer and meeting their needs and expectations.
In this question, the project manager is working on an agile project that is approaching its first release date, and the product will be supported by the operations team. The operations team is responsible for maintaining and operating the product after it is delivered to the customer, and ensuring its availability, reliability, and performance. To ensure proper support for the product, the project manager should take the following action:
Ensure the operations team has representation in the planning and review meetings and that there are support requirements in the backlog. The project manager should involve the operations team as a key stakeholder in the agile project, and ensure that they have a voice and a role in the planning and review meetings. The planning meetings are used to define and prioritize the product backlog, which is a list of features and requirements that the product should deliver. The review meetings are used to inspect and evaluate the product increment, which is the sum of all the product backlog items completed during a sprint. The project manager should ensure that the operations team has representation in these meetings, and that they can provide their input, feedback, and expectations for the product. The project manager should also ensure that there are support requirements in the product backlog, such as documentation, training, testing, deployment, etc., and that they are prioritized and delivered along with the product features. This will help to ensure the quality and usability of the product, and to facilitate the knowledge transfer and handover to the operations team.
The other options are not correct because they do not provide a valid way to ensure proper support for the product. Option A is wrong because it suggests that the projectmanager should engage an external consultancy to assemble supporting documents and coordinate the knowledge transfer, without involving the operations team in the agile project. This would be costly, inefficient, and ineffective, as it may not reflect the actual needs and expectations of the operations team, and may create a gap or a delay in the communication and collaboration. Option B is wrong because it implies that the project manager should create and prioritize a support manual on the product backlog, without ensuring the representation of the operations team in the planning and review meetings. This would be incomplete, inaccurate, and insufficient, as it may not capture the full scope and depth of the support requirements, and may not allow the operations team to inspect and evaluate the product increment. Option D is wrong because it assumes that the project manager should propose a workshop with the operations team to outline all requirements of the new software and how to properly support it, without ensuring that there are support requirements in the product backlog. This would be inconsistent, redundant, and risky, as it may not align with the agile principles and practices, and may not ensure the delivery and validation of the support requirements along with the product features. References:
PMBOK Guide, 6th edition, pages 206-207, 540-541
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