CAE Product Backlog Management 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A Product Owner discovers that two backlog items have overlapping scope. What is the BEST course of action?
- Delete the lower-priority item immediately
- Merge them into one item and re-estimate (Correct answer)
- Keep both and let the team decide during the sprint
- Escalate the conflict to the Scrum Master
Correct answer: Merge them into one item and re-estimate
Overlapping items should be merged to eliminate duplication and re-estimated to reflect the consolidated scope.
Question 2: Which metric best helps a Product Owner determine whether to split a large backlog item?
- The item's position in the backlog
- Whether the item can be completed within a single sprint (Correct answer)
- The number of stakeholders who requested it
- How long the item has been in the backlog
Correct answer: Whether the item can be completed within a single sprint
Items that cannot fit within a single sprint are typically too large and should be split into smaller deliverable pieces.
Question 3: During backlog refinement, the team realizes an item lacks enough detail to estimate. What should happen?
- Assign a default estimate of 8 story points
- Move it to the bottom of the backlog until details emerge
- Discuss and add acceptance criteria before estimating (Correct answer)
- Remove it from the backlog permanently
Correct answer: Discuss and add acceptance criteria before estimating
Adding acceptance criteria provides the shared understanding needed for accurate estimation before the item advances.
Question 4: A stakeholder insists a new feature be placed at the top of the backlog despite the Product Owner's objections. Who has final authority?
- The stakeholder, because they fund the project
- The Scrum Master, to maintain team focus
- The Product Owner, as the backlog is their responsibility (Correct answer)
- The development team, because they do the work
Correct answer: The Product Owner, as the backlog is their responsibility
The Product Owner holds sole authority over backlog ordering; stakeholders can provide input but cannot override that decision.
Question 5: What does 'backlog grooming' (refinement) primarily achieve?
- Reassigning items between team members
- Keeping upcoming items well-understood, estimated, and appropriately sized (Correct answer)
- Removing all low-priority items from the backlog
- Documenting completed work for stakeholders
Correct answer: Keeping upcoming items well-understood, estimated, and appropriately sized
Refinement ensures the top of the backlog is ready for sprint planning by clarifying, sizing, and splitting items as needed.
Question 6: An agile team uses relative sizing with story points. A new backlog item is estimated at 40 points while the team's sprint velocity is 30. This item is BEST described as:
- An epic that needs to be broken down (Correct answer)
- A well-sized user story
- A spike that needs investigation
- A technical debt item
Correct answer: An epic that needs to be broken down
Items larger than team velocity are epics and must be decomposed into smaller stories that fit within a sprint.
Question 7: Which statement about Product Backlog ordering is most accurate?
- Items are always ordered by the date they were added
- Ordering must follow a strict MoSCoW priority framework
- The Product Owner may use any criteria that maximizes value delivery (Correct answer)
- Items are ordered alphabetically by feature name
Correct answer: The Product Owner may use any criteria that maximizes value delivery
The Product Owner can use value, risk, dependencies, or any combination of factors—there is no mandated ordering method.
CAE Product Backlog Management 2
A Product Owner discovers that two backlog items have overlapping scope.
What is the BEST course of action?