SCRUM Managing the Product Backlog 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A stakeholder demands a feature be built first, but the Product Owner disagrees. Who decides the ordering?
- The Product Owner (Correct answer)
- The stakeholder
- The Developers by majority vote
- The Scrum Master
Correct answer: The Product Owner
For the Product Owner to succeed, the whole organization must respect their decisions on backlog ordering.
Question 2: How should items be ordered in the Product Backlog?
- In a way that best achieves goals and maximizes value (Correct answer)
- Strictly alphabetically
- By the date they were created
- By which developer requested them
Correct answer: In a way that best achieves goals and maximizes value
Ordering reflects value, risk, dependencies, and the path to the Product Goal.
Question 3: What does it mean for a Product Backlog item to be 'ready'?
- It is refined enough to be selected in Sprint Planning (Correct answer)
- It has been coded and tested
- It has been released to production
- It has been removed from the backlog
Correct answer: It is refined enough to be selected in Sprint Planning
Items deemed ready can reasonably be 'Done' within one Sprint by the Developers.
Question 4: Who does the work of Product Backlog refinement?
- The Scrum Team, with the Product Owner and Developers collaborating (Correct answer)
- The Product Owner alone, in isolation
- The Scrum Master alone
- An outside business analyst only
Correct answer: The Scrum Team, with the Product Owner and Developers collaborating
The Developers who will do the work are responsible for the sizing, with the Product Owner influencing trade-offs.
Question 5: Estimates for Product Backlog items are provided by whom?
- The Developers (Correct answer)
- The Product Owner
- The Scrum Master
- The stakeholders
Correct answer: The Developers
The people who will perform the work, the Developers, are responsible for sizing.
Question 6: What happens to the Product Backlog as the product is used and the market changes?
- It continuously evolves to identify what makes the product useful (Correct answer)
- It is frozen to avoid scope creep
- It is archived and replaced yearly
- It stops changing after the first release
Correct answer: It continuously evolves to identify what makes the product useful
The backlog changes constantly to reflect new learning and a competitive environment.
Question 7: How does the Product Goal relate to individual Product Backlog items?
- Backlog items elaborate what fulfills the Product Goal (Correct answer)
- Each item replaces the Product Goal
- Backlog items are unrelated to the Product Goal
- The Product Goal lists every backlog item verbatim
Correct answer: Backlog items elaborate what fulfills the Product Goal
The Product Backlog defines the work needed to progress toward the Product Goal.
SCRUM Managing the Product Backlog 3
A stakeholder demands a feature be built first, but the Product Owner disagrees.
Who decides the ordering?