Professional Scrum Master Agile Product Management 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: An organization wants to scale Scrum across multiple teams working on the same product. What should guide Product Backlog management?
- Each team maintains a completely separate Product Backlog
- There is one Product Backlog per product, owned by one Product Owner (Correct answer)
- The Scrum Master creates sub-backlogs for each team to manage independently
- Management divides the Product Backlog evenly among teams at the start of each quarter
Correct answer: There is one Product Backlog per product, owned by one Product Owner
Even when multiple teams work on one product, there is a single Product Backlog and a single Product Owner to ensure alignment and coherent prioritization.
Question 2: What is the MOST important quality of a good Product Backlog item?
- It has a large story point estimate
- It is testable and contributes to the Product Goal (Correct answer)
- It was written by the development team
- It includes a detailed technical design
Correct answer: It is testable and contributes to the Product Goal
Good backlog items are testable, clearly understood, and contribute toward the product's goals.
Question 3: A Product Owner is struggling to say 'no' to stakeholders. What Agile principle should guide their behavior?
- Always accept all stakeholder requests to build trust
- The Product Owner should maximize value by making tough prioritization decisions, even when that means declining requests (Correct answer)
- Delegate all 'no' decisions to the Scrum Master
- Accept all requests but push them to the bottom of the backlog indefinitely
Correct answer: The Product Owner should maximize value by making tough prioritization decisions, even when that means declining requests
A Product Owner must be empowered to say no and make value-driven prioritization decisions to protect the team's focus and product integrity.
Question 4: Which technique BEST helps a Product Owner communicate a prioritized sequence of outcomes to stakeholders?
- A Gantt chart with fixed delivery dates
- An outcome-based roadmap showing goals and expected value over time (Correct answer)
- A detailed list of every feature in story point order
- A RACI matrix of stakeholder responsibilities
Correct answer: An outcome-based roadmap showing goals and expected value over time
Outcome-based roadmaps communicate strategic direction and value, while remaining flexible to change as learning occurs.
Question 5: What does the Scrum Guide say about who can cancel a Sprint?
- The development team by consensus vote
- The Scrum Master after consulting the team
- Only the Product Owner can cancel a Sprint (Correct answer)
- Management if the business priorities shift
Correct answer: Only the Product Owner can cancel a Sprint
Only the Product Owner has the authority to cancel a Sprint, typically when the Sprint Goal becomes obsolete.
Question 6: How should a Product Owner handle technical debt discovered during a Sprint?
- Ignore it since it is a developer concern, not a product concern
- Recognize it as a risk to future value and ensure it is visible in the Product Backlog for prioritization (Correct answer)
- Always make technical debt the top priority over all features
- Ask the Scrum Master to resolve it outside of Sprint Planning
Correct answer: Recognize it as a risk to future value and ensure it is visible in the Product Backlog for prioritization
Technical debt affects the team's ability to deliver value over time and should be visible to the Product Owner as part of backlog prioritization.
Question 7: A new product feature has been released but user adoption is low. What should a Product Owner do FIRST?
- Add more features to make the product more attractive
- Investigate why adoption is low using data and user feedback before making changes (Correct answer)
- Remove the feature immediately from the product
- Blame the marketing team for insufficient promotion
Correct answer: Investigate why adoption is low using data and user feedback before making changes
An empirical approach requires investigating root causes through data and feedback before deciding on the next action.
Professional Scrum Master Agile Product Management 4
An organization wants to scale Scrum across multiple teams working on the same product.
What should guide Product Backlog management?