POPM Practice Test 24 — 15 Questions

Question 1

During PI Execution, a Product Owner is preparing for the upcoming System Demo. What is the primary purpose of the System Demo in SAFe?

Accepted Answer

To demonstrate the integrated solution from all teams and gather feedback from stakeholders.. The System Demo occurs at the end of each iteration and showcases the integrated solution from all teams on the ART. It enables stakeholders to see working software, provide feedback, and assess progress toward PI Objectives. This feedback is essential for the ART to inspect and adapt, ensuring the solution meets business needs and technical requirements.

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To allow teams to showcase their individual team's work in isolation.

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To conduct a retrospective on the iteration's process improvements.

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To provide a formal status report to stakeholders on the ART's progress.

Question 2

During Iteration Execution, a Product Owner notices that a committed story cannot be completed because it depends on an interface that another team on the train has not yet delivered. The team can finish the rest of the iteration's work. What should the Product Owner do?

Accepted Answer

Collaborate with the other team and the Release Train Engineer to resolve the dependency before the end of the iteration.. The Product Owner should actively help remove impediments during Iteration Execution by coordinating with the dependent team and the Release Train Engineer. Marking work done without meeting the Definition of Done or waiting until the Iteration Review both reduce transparency and delay value. Removing the story and pulling from the Program Backlog bypasses proper prioritization, so collaboration is the correct first step.

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Wait until the Iteration Review and then ask the other team to explain why the dependency was missed.

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Mark the story as done and document the dependency as a known risk for the next iteration.

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Remove the story from the Team Backlog and ask the team to pull the next highest-priority item from the Program Backlog.

Question 3

Which primary responsibility does a Product Owner hold during PI Planning?

Accepted Answer

Prioritizing the Team Backlog and collaborating on PI Objectives.. During PI Planning, the PO plays a critical role in defining the scope and priorities for the team. They refine the team backlog, participate in breakout sessions to estimate effort, and confirm the team's PI objectives. This ensures that the team understands the business context and their specific contribution to the overall Program Increment goal, facilitating alignment and commitment across the entire Agile Release Train.

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Writing the system architecture documentation.

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Defining the team's PI Objectives and technical tasks.

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Managing the overall budget for the entire ART.

Question 4

A Product Manager is preparing for an upcoming PI Planning event and wants to ensure the Program Backlog is ready. Which two actions should she take to best prepare the Program Backlog for PI Planning? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Prioritize features based on WSJF to ensure the highest value items are at the top.. Prioritizing features with WSJF and ensuring features have clear acceptance criteria and are sized to fit within a PI are essential for a ready Program Backlog. These actions enable teams to plan effectively, commit to work, and deliver value. They align with SAFe guidance to prepare the backlog before PI Planning, ensuring the event is productive and focused on high-value items.

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Break down all features into user stories and tasks before PI Planning.

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Finalize all PI Objectives for the ART before PI Planning to save time.

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Assign each feature to a specific team before PI Planning to avoid conflicts.

Question 5

A Product Manager is defining Features for an upcoming Program Increment. The solution must comply with a new regulatory requirement that affects multiple teams on the ART. How should the Product Manager handle this to ensure the requirement is addressed without disrupting the teams' ability to deliver value?

Accepted Answer

Create a compliance Enabler Feature with clear acceptance criteria and prioritize it in the Program Backlog alongside business Features. Enabler Features are designed to carry architectural, infrastructure, and compliance work in SAFe. By creating a compliance Enabler Feature with clear acceptance criteria and prioritizing it in the Program Backlog, the Product Manager makes the regulatory work visible, estimable, and schedulable. This allows teams to plan capacity for it without hiding it inside unrelated Features or deferring it.

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Add the regulatory work as acceptance criteria to every existing Feature so teams handle it as they go

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Assign the entire regulatory requirement to a single team and let other teams continue unaffected

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Defer the regulatory work until after the PI to avoid impacting the current PI Objectives

Question 6

A Product Manager is finalizing the Vision and Program Backlog for an ART that includes teams working on a regulated medical device. The upcoming PI focuses on a new patient monitoring feature, but the PM knows that a regulatory submission must be completed mid-PI. Which action best prepares the ART for PI Planning?

Accepted Answer

Document the regulatory milestone as a planning assumption in the Vision and Program Backlog, and flag its impact on feature sequencing before PI Planning.. The regulatory submission is a constraint that affects sequencing, capacity, and dependencies across the ART. Surfacing it as a planning assumption in the Vision and Program Backlog before PI Planning lets teams estimate and commit with full context. Delaying or delegating that communication produces plans that ignore a hard milestone and forces rework during the event.

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Ask the Release Train Engineer to add the submission to the ART's PI Objectives after PI Planning, once the teams have committed to their features.

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Wait until the Draft Plan review on day one of PI Planning to inform the teams about the regulatory deadline so they can react in real time.

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Add the regulatory submission as a nonfunctional requirement to each team's backlog so it is automatically estimated during PI Planning.

Question 7

A Product Manager is preparing for an upcoming PI Planning event. The ART's current PI Objectives are not achieving the expected business outcomes, and capacity data shows significant unused potential. The PM wants to ensure the next PI Planning is more effective. Which action best prepares the PM for PI Planning?

Accepted Answer

Conduct a market and customer analysis to update the ART's Vision and refine the Program Backlog with prioritized features before the event.. The correct answer emphasizes the PM's responsibility to own the Vision and Program Backlog. Before PI Planning, the PM should analyze market and customer needs to ensure the backlog reflects the highest-value work. This preparation directly enables teams to create meaningful PI Objectives that drive business outcomes, addressing the gap between current objectives and expected results.

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Delegate the preparation of PI Objectives to the Scrum Masters and focus on facilitating the PI Planning event itself.

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Ask the Release Train Engineer to increase the number of teams on the ART to improve capacity utilization.

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Schedule additional system demos during the PI to showcase progress and gather feedback from stakeholders.

Question 8

Which of the following is the most important factor for the Product Owner to consider when prioritizing work for the next iteration?

Accepted Answer

The business value of the stories relative to the PI objectives.. Business value is the primary driver for prioritization. The PO must ensure that the team is always working on what matters most to the stakeholders and the overall business objective. While technical debt and dependencies are important, they should be balanced against the value that the features provide. This alignment ensures that the team's efforts contribute directly to the success of the Program Increment.

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The team's personal preference for which stories they like to work on.

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The ease and speed with which the stories can be completed.

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The order in which the stories were submitted to the backlog.

Question 9

During PI Planning, the Product Manager is facilitating the development of the Program PI Objectives. Which two actions should the Product Manager take to ensure the objectives are effective? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Ensure each objective is specific, measurable, and aligned with the ART's vision and business goals.. Effective Program PI Objectives are specific, measurable, aligned with vision, and have assigned business value. The Product Manager should facilitate their creation, ensuring they are clear and valuable, and collaborate with Business Owners to assign business value. Writing objectives for teams or including stretch objectives as committed undermines ownership and accuracy, and there is no fixed number of objectives.

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Limit the number of Program PI Objectives to exactly five to maintain focus.

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Include every team's stretch objectives as committed Program PI Objectives to maximize value.

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Write all objectives on behalf of the teams to ensure consistency and avoid conflicts.

Question 10

A Product Owner (PO) is managing a backlog for a high-priority feature. The stakeholders are demanding immediate delivery of a low-value request that disrupts the planned Sprint Goal. How should the PO handle this?

Accepted Answer

Discuss the request with stakeholders, evaluate its value against the Sprint Goal, and negotiate adding it to the next Sprint if it is high priority.. The PO must protect the team's ability to achieve the Sprint Goal. By negotiating with stakeholders and re-evaluating the request against the current iteration's priorities, the PO ensures that value delivery remains aligned with the PI Objectives. This balance is critical for maintaining team velocity and stakeholder trust, ensuring that urgent but low-value requests do not undermine the agreed-upon commitment to the Program Increment's strategic goals.

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Add the request to the current Sprint backlog immediately to satisfy the stakeholders.

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Defer the request to the next PI planning session for evaluation.

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Ask the Scrum Master to force the team to accept the new work.

Question 11

Refer to the exhibit. The burndown chart is stagnant with 15 tasks remaining and 2 days left. What should the PO do?

Accepted Answer

Help the team prioritize the most critical tasks and de-scope the rest.. The PO needs to help the team focus on the most important work and possibly de-scope the rest. A stagnant burndown indicates that the team is likely stuck or overwhelmed. By facilitating a conversation about which tasks are truly essential to the sprint goal, the PO helps the team achieve the most valuable outcomes in the remaining time, preventing the team from failing to deliver any value by trying to do everything.

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Ask the team to work 24 hours a day until the tasks are done.

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Ignore the chart and hope the team finishes everything.

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Ask the team to manually mark the tasks as finished in the system.

Question 12

What is the most appropriate action for a leader if a team expresses low confidence during the vote?

Accepted Answer

Identify the specific issues causing the low confidence and work to resolve them.. Low confidence is a vital signal that the team feels the plan is unsustainable or unrealistic. A leader must immediately stop the proceedings and facilitate an open discussion to understand the root cause. By listening without judgement, the leader can help the team identify the specific bottlenecks or risks and then provide the support or scope adjustments needed to bring the plan back to a state where the team can commit.

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Ask them to vote again after explaining the importance of showing a united front.

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Accept the low confidence and proceed, as it provides a realistic view of potential failures.

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Delegate the resolution to the team and rejoin when they have a better plan.

Question 13

A Product Owner on an ART is preparing for an upcoming PI Planning event. The team's backlog contains several features that are only partially defined. What is the most appropriate action for the Product Owner to take before PI Planning?

Accepted Answer

Refine the top features with acceptance criteria and enough detail for the team to estimate and plan them during PI Planning.. Features that teams cannot understand or estimate will stall PI Planning. The Product Owner prepares by refining the highest-priority features with acceptance criteria and enough detail for estimation. This lets the team slice stories and build a realistic plan, while still allowing collaborative refinement during the event itself.

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Move all partially defined features to the bottom of the Program Backlog so the team only plans fully defined work.

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Ask the System Architect to write detailed technical designs for every feature so the team can estimate them without further discussion.

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Wait until the team starts planning during PI Planning and define the features interactively with the developers as they estimate.

Question 14

At the end of PI Planning, the confidence vote reveals that two teams have low confidence (2 out of 5). The Product Manager and Release Train Engineer are concerned. What should leadership do first to address the low confidence?

Accepted Answer

Ask the teams to identify the specific concerns and work with them to adjust the plan or remove impediments.. Addressing low confidence starts with understanding the teams' concerns and collaboratively adjusting the plan or removing impediments. This approach aligns with SAFe's principles of team empowerment and continuous improvement, and it helps ensure a more realistic and committed plan.

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Escalate to senior management to apply pressure on the teams to meet their commitments.

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Accept the low confidence and proceed, as confidence votes are not binding and plans can be adjusted later.

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Instruct the teams to increase their confidence by committing to work overtime if necessary.

Question 15

During Iteration Execution, a Product Owner notices that the team's cumulative flow diagram shows the 'In Progress' column growing steadily while 'Done' remains flat. The team insists they are working hard. What is the most likely issue, and what should the PO do first?

Accepted Answer

Work items are too large; the PO should facilitate splitting stories into smaller, independently deliverable slices.. A cumulative flow diagram with a widening 'In Progress' band and flat 'Done' indicates that work is starting but not finishing, a classic sign of stories that are too large or have hidden dependencies. The Product Owner should first help the team break down work into smaller, independently deliverable pieces so they can complete items within the iteration, improving flow and reducing WIP.

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The team is over-committed; the PO should remove a feature from the Iteration Backlog.

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The Definition of Done is too strict; the PO should relax it to allow more items to be marked done.

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The team lacks technical skills; the PO should arrange training during the iteration.