What should the agile practitioner do?

Agile teams operate on the principle of inspect and adapt. According to the PMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 5.6 Retrospectives) and PMBOK® Guide 6th Edition (Section 3.7), retrospectives are designed for experimentation and safe failure. Teams should be encouraged to try new process improvements and assess their impact. If the result is not positive, it’s an opportunity for collective learning—not for blame.

Mike Griffiths states in his PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book (Chapter 7: Continuous Improvement) that leaders should foster a culture of experimentation, where teams are praised for trying new approaches, even if they fail. This maintains psychological safety and continuous learning.

Thus, Option A is correct: Commending the attempt and facilitating a team discussion to explore alternatives is consistent with agile values and promotes team maturity.