CAPM Agile Frameworks and Methodologies Practice Question
During Sprint Planning, the Product Owner proposes a user story that is too large to fit in one Sprint. What should the team do?
⚠ Common exam trap
PMI often tests the misconception that the Product Owner alone decides story size or that the team should simply reject or accept oversized stories, but the correct Scrum practice is collaborative decomposition during Sprint Planning.
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
✓
Collaboratively break down the story into smaller, sprint-sized stories.
In Scrum, user stories that are too large (often called 'epics') must be decomposed into smaller, sprint-sized stories during Sprint Planning. The Product Owner and Development Team collaboratively break down the story to ensure each piece can be completed within a single Sprint, maintaining the Sprint Goal and timebox. This aligns with the Agile principle of sustainable pace and the Scrum Guide's emphasis on the Development Team's self-organization to determine how to deliver the Product Backlog items.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Collaboratively break down the story into smaller, sprint-sized stories.
Why this is correct
Splitting an oversized story into smaller sprint-sized items lets the team deliver value within one Sprint while preserving the Product Owner's intent. This collaborative refinement satisfies the Sprint timebox constraint that the original story violates.
- ✗
Reject the story and ask for a smaller one.
Why it's wrong here
Outright rejection stalls the Product Owner without improving the backlog, whereas the team should collaboratively split the story into smaller, independently valuable items. Rejecting feels tempting as a firm defence of Sprint capacity, and it would be right only if the Product Owner refused all refinement and the item stayed unsplittable.
- ✗
Accept the story and work overtime to complete it.
Why it's wrong here
Planning overtime as a completion strategy contradicts sustainable pace and still cannot make an oversized story fit the Sprint timebox. It is tempting because teams often absorb extra work this way, but the correct response is splitting the story during backlog refinement so each piece meets the Definition of Done.
- ✗
Accept the story and commit to completing it in the Sprint.
Why it's wrong here
Committing to an oversized story guarantees the Sprint Goal is missed and violates the Scrum rule that selected Product Backlog Items be achievable within the Sprint. Acceptance feels tempting because it avoids conflict with the Product Owner, yet the correct action is splitting the story into smaller items during refinement.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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.