CAPM Practice: Explain when it is appropriate to use an adaptive approach

Adaptive project cost management uses time-box and budget-envelope approaches: fix the time and cost, let scope flex. Teams estimate work using relative sizing (story points), measure velocity (how much they complete per iteration), and forecast how much can be delivered within the budget. The product owner decides which backlog items to prioritize — ensuring the most valuable work is delivered first. When budget is reached, the product has the highest-value features.

**Why not A:** While fixing cost and flexing scope is part of adaptive cost management, this answer is too narrow. It only addresses one dimension (scope flexibility) without mentioning relative sizing, velocity-based forecasting, or the product owner's role in prioritization — all essential elements of how adaptive projects manage costs.

**Why not C:** Claiming that adaptive projects cannot plan costs is factually incorrect and would undermine executive confidence. Adaptive approaches do plan costs effectively through time-boxed budgets, velocity forecasting, and incremental funding — they simply approach it differently than predictive methods.

**Why not D:** While this answer contains accurate techniques (relative sizing, velocity-based forecasting), it describes only the estimation mechanism without explaining the broader framework. The best answer acknowledges both the budget-envelope approach and these estimation techniques together.