CAPM Agile Frameworks and Methodologies Practice Question
A Scrum team has a stable velocity of 30 story points per sprint. The Product Owner requests that the team deliver 50 story points in the next sprint to meet a market deadline. What is the best course of action for the Scrum Master?
⚠ Common exam trap
CAPM often tests the misconception that a Scrum Master should accommodate stakeholder pressure by directing the team to work harder or altering Scrum events, when the correct answer is always to coach, make capacity transparent, and negotiate scope or timeline.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Coach the Product Owner on the team's capacity and discuss options such as scope reduction or deadline extension.
A Scrum Master serves the team and organization by coaching rather than commanding. When a Product Owner requests more than the team's demonstrated velocity, the correct response is to make the capacity constraint transparent and collaborate on trade-offs — reducing scope, extending the deadline, or reprioritizing the backlog. This preserves sustainable pace and empirical planning rather than forcing an unsustainable commitment.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Coach the Product Owner on the team's capacity and discuss options such as scope reduction or deadline extension.
Why this is correct
A stable velocity of 30 story points means 50 is unachievable without sacrificing quality or predictability. Coaching the Product Owner to reduce scope or extend the deadline respects the team's empirical capacity rather than imposing an arbitrary target.
- ✗
Instruct the Development Team to work overtime to meet the request.
Why it's wrong here
Overtime does not raise a team's sustainable velocity; it distorts the empirical data the Product Owner relies on and risks burnout, while the 50-point target still exceeds capacity. It tempts because overtime can absorb a genuine short-term spike, but a stable 30-point velocity makes this a forecasting problem, not a capacity one.
- ✗
Remove the Sprint Retrospective to free up time for development.
Why it's wrong here
Cancelling the retrospective removes the team's inspection and adaptation event, yet velocity stays capped by past throughput, so the 50-point target remains unmet. Retrospectives are dropped only under genuine time pressure where process improvement is deprioritised, not to manufacture extra capacity.
- ✗
Add two extra days to the Sprint to allow more work.
Why it's wrong here
Sprints are fixed-length timeboxes; extending one to two extra days breaks the cadence that makes velocity comparable across sprints and invalidates the empirical baseline. It tempts because adding time does add capacity, but that belongs to replanning scope or the next sprint, not stretching the current Sprint.
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Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official PMI exam blueprint
This CAPM practice question is part of Courseiva's free PMI certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the CAPM exam.