APM Product Backlog Management and Prioritization 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A product owner notices the backlog has grown to 300 items with no clear priorities. What is the BEST first step?
- Add more items to cover all possible features
- Archive old items and stop accepting new ones
- Conduct a backlog refinement session to prioritize and remove low-value items (Correct answer)
- Delegate backlog management to the development team
Correct answer: Conduct a backlog refinement session to prioritize and remove low-value items
Backlog refinement sessions help the team collaboratively prioritize, clarify, and remove low-value items to keep the backlog manageable and actionable.
Question 2: In the WSJF (Weighted Shortest Job First) prioritization model, which factor is NOT part of the Cost of Delay calculation?
- User-business value
- Time criticality
- Risk reduction and opportunity enablement
- Job size (story points) (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Job size (story points)
WSJF divides Cost of Delay (user-business value + time criticality + risk reduction) by job duration; job size itself is the denominator, not part of Cost of Delay.
Question 3: Which statement BEST describes a 'ready' backlog item before sprint planning?
- It has been assigned to a specific developer
- It is small enough to complete in one sprint, has clear acceptance criteria, and is estimated (Correct answer)
- It has been approved by all stakeholders
- It has at least five sub-tasks defined
Correct answer: It is small enough to complete in one sprint, has clear acceptance criteria, and is estimated
A 'ready' item follows the INVEST criteria — it must be sized for a sprint, have acceptance criteria, and be estimated so the team can commit to it.
Question 4: A stakeholder insists on adding a feature to the current sprint mid-sprint. What should the product owner do?
- Add it immediately to respect the stakeholder's authority
- Add it to the product backlog and consider it for a future sprint (Correct answer)
- Pause the sprint and re-plan from scratch
- Remove another feature without team discussion
Correct answer: Add it to the product backlog and consider it for a future sprint
Agile protects sprint scope; new requests go to the backlog and are evaluated for future sprints during planning, preserving the current sprint's commitment.
Question 5: What is the primary difference between a product roadmap and a product backlog?
- A roadmap lists all user stories; a backlog lists epics only
- A roadmap communicates strategic direction and timelines; a backlog is the ordered list of work items (Correct answer)
- A roadmap is owned by engineering; a backlog is owned by marketing
- A roadmap is updated daily; a backlog is updated annually
Correct answer: A roadmap communicates strategic direction and timelines; a backlog is the ordered list of work items
The roadmap is a strategic communication artifact showing direction and timing, while the backlog is the tactical, ordered list of work for the development team.
Question 6: When using story mapping, what does the 'walking skeleton' represent?
- A list of all bugs found during testing
- The minimum end-to-end slice of functionality that delivers user value (Correct answer)
- The complete feature set for the final release
- A backlog of technical debt items
Correct answer: The minimum end-to-end slice of functionality that delivers user value
A walking skeleton is the thinnest possible end-to-end implementation that exercises all major architectural components and delivers a basic user journey.
Question 7: Which Agile technique helps teams split large backlog items (epics) into smaller, deliverable stories?
- Velocity tracking
- Story splitting (Correct answer)
- Release burndown charting
- Dependency mapping
Correct answer: Story splitting
Story splitting techniques — such as splitting by workflow step, data variation, or acceptance criteria — break epics into sprint-sized user stories.
APM Product Backlog Management and Prioritization 2
A product owner notices the backlog has grown to 300 items with no clear priorities.
What is the BEST first step?