Pair programmingis aproven agile techniquefor improving quality, sharing knowledge, and ramping up less experienced developers. ThePMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 5.5: Quality and Engineering Practices)andMike Griffiths' PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book (Chapter 3: Team Performance)recommend using pair programming to improve team cohesion and performance when skill gaps are affecting velocity.
* Option Ais correct: pair programming supports learning and improves delivery quality.
* Option Bmisuses the retrospective-it's not for backlog prioritization.
* Option Cmay be helpful, butestimation changesdon't directly address the skill gap.
* Option Dmay reduce risk short-term but doesn't help the team improve or grow.

Explanation

The correct answer is C - Risk-value quadrant. This technique is a prioritization matrix that helps teams identify and rank backlog items by evaluating their business value against their risk. This ensures early delivery of high-value and high-risk features, supporting fail-fast learning and reducing uncertainty.
From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:
"The risk-value matrix helps prioritize features by plotting them based on business value and implementation risk. High-value/high-risk items are often addressed first." (PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 3.4 - Prioritization Techniques) Mike Griffiths emphasizes:
"The risk-value quadrant is a powerful tool to guide agile prioritization. It ensures the most valuable and uncertain items are tackled early to deliver insights quickly." (Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 3 - Value-Driven Delivery) Incorrect options:
* A is used for estimation, not prioritization.
* B is a scheduling concept, not a prioritization method.
* D refers to story quality (Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Small, Testable), not prioritization.