CST Stakeholder Collaboration & Trust 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A Product Owner notices that a key stakeholder has stopped attending Sprint Reviews. What is the BEST first step?
- Remove them from the invite list since they clearly aren't interested
- Have a direct conversation to understand their concerns and re-engage them (Correct answer)
- Send a written summary of Sprint Reviews to replace their attendance
- Escalate to senior leadership to mandate their participation
Correct answer: Have a direct conversation to understand their concerns and re-engage them
Direct conversation surfaces root causes of disengagement and is the foundation of rebuilding stakeholder trust.
Question 2: During a Sprint Review, a stakeholder demands a feature that was not in the Sprint Goal. How should the Scrum Team respond?
- Immediately add the feature to the current Sprint to satisfy the stakeholder
- Acknowledge the request, add it to the Product Backlog for prioritization, and continue the review (Correct answer)
- Tell the stakeholder to wait until the next quarterly planning cycle
- Have the Scrum Master override the request to protect the team
Correct answer: Acknowledge the request, add it to the Product Backlog for prioritization, and continue the review
Requests outside the Sprint Goal are captured in the Product Backlog and prioritized by the Product Owner, not added mid-Sprint.
Question 3: Which behavior MOST undermines trust between a Scrum Team and its stakeholders?
- Sharing both successes and failures openly during Sprint Reviews
- Consistently understating velocity to create a buffer (Correct answer)
- Inviting stakeholders to observe Daily Scrums when relevant
- Releasing potentially shippable increments every Sprint
Correct answer: Consistently understating velocity to create a buffer
Deliberately hiding true capacity is a form of deception that erodes the transparency Scrum depends on for trust.
Question 4: A CST is coaching a team whose stakeholders frequently bypass the Product Owner and directly task developers. What should the CST advise?
- Allow it, since stakeholders have authority over the team
- Have developers accept the work but secretly track it separately
- Coach the Product Owner to hold firm boundaries and route all requests through the backlog (Correct answer)
- Remove those stakeholders from future Sprint events
Correct answer: Coach the Product Owner to hold firm boundaries and route all requests through the backlog
The Product Owner is solely responsible for managing the backlog; bypassing this role disrupts accountability and Sprint planning.
Question 5: What does 'managing stakeholder expectations' mean in a Scrum context?
- Promising stakeholders everything they request to keep them satisfied
- Limiting what stakeholders can see to avoid confusion
- Maintaining ongoing transparency about progress, impediments, and trade-offs (Correct answer)
- Delegating all stakeholder communication to the Scrum Master
Correct answer: Maintaining ongoing transparency about progress, impediments, and trade-offs
Scrum manages expectations through continuous transparency, not promises or information filters.
Question 6: A stakeholder insists on attending every Daily Scrum to monitor progress. What is the MOST appropriate guidance?
- Allow them to participate and answer questions from the team
- Welcome them as an observer but remind them the event is for the Developers (Correct answer)
- Cancel Daily Scrums until the stakeholder's concerns are addressed elsewhere
- Have the Scrum Master report Daily Scrum outcomes to the stakeholder instead
Correct answer: Welcome them as an observer but remind them the event is for the Developers
Stakeholders may observe the Daily Scrum but should not participate, as it is designed for Developers to plan their day.
Question 7: Which practice BEST enables long-term trust with stakeholders in Scrum?
- Delivering a large release after six months of accumulated work
- Providing frequent, working increments that demonstrate real progress (Correct answer)
- Sharing detailed Gantt charts showing the full delivery timeline
- Promising a fixed scope delivery by a set date
Correct answer: Providing frequent, working increments that demonstrate real progress
Frequent delivery of working increments gives stakeholders concrete evidence of progress, which is the foundation of sustained trust.
CST Stakeholder Collaboration & Trust 2
A Product Owner notices that a key stakeholder has stopped attending Sprint Reviews.
What is the BEST first step?