PMP Process — Managing Technical Aspects Practice Question
A project team is developing a new software feature. During a sprint review, the product owner requests a change that would increase the scope significantly. The team has already committed to the current sprint backlog. What is the BEST course of action for the project manager?
⚠ Common exam trap
PMI often tests the misconception that the product owner's request must be immediately accommodated to maintain stakeholder satisfaction, leading candidates to choose Option A, but the correct agile practice is to protect the sprint commitment and funnel all changes through the product backlog for future prioritization.
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
✓
Ask the product owner to prioritize the change and add it to the product backlog for a future sprint.
In agile, the sprint backlog is a commitment for the current iteration. Adding a significant scope change mid-sprint violates the sprint goal and destabilizes the team's velocity. The correct action is to capture the change in the product backlog and prioritize it for a future sprint, preserving the integrity of the current sprint and allowing the product owner to manage the product backlog as the single source of truth for requirements.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Add the change to the current sprint to satisfy the product owner.
Why it's wrong here
Adding new work to an in-progress sprint directly violates the sprint commitment, which is a core agile principle ensuring team focus and predictability. This practice introduces scope creep, disrupts the team's planned work, and significantly increases the risk of failing to deliver the committed sprint goal. It can lead to decreased team morale, rushed work, and ultimately, delays in delivering value.
- ✓
Ask the product owner to prioritize the change and add it to the product backlog for a future sprint.
Why this is correct
This is the most appropriate agile approach. It respects the sprint commitment by allowing the development team to complete their current work without interruption. By adding the change to the product backlog, the Product Owner can properly assess its value, prioritize it against other features, and ensure it is refined and prepared for a future sprint, maintaining the integrity of the agile process and delivering value systematically.
- ✗
Proceed with the change but extend the sprint duration.
Why it's wrong here
Extending the sprint duration is an anti-pattern in agile frameworks like Scrum, which emphasize fixed-length sprints to establish a predictable rhythm and facilitate continuous learning and adaptation. While it might seem to accommodate the change, it undermines the sprint's timebox, reduces predictability, and masks underlying issues with planning or scope management. New changes should be handled via the product backlog, not by altering the sprint's fundamental structure.
- ✗
Ignore the request until the next project phase.
Why it's wrong here
Ignoring a stakeholder request is detrimental to project success and stakeholder satisfaction. Agile principles advocate for continuous engagement and feedback, ensuring that valuable changes are identified and evaluated promptly. Dismissing the request outright can lead to missed opportunities for value creation, erode trust with the Product Owner, and potentially result in the development of a product that does not meet evolving user needs or market demands.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Introduction to the PMP Exam and Project Management Basics
Key term
Scrum Methodology
Scrum is a lightweight process framework that helps teams deliver complex projects in small, iterative chunks called sprints.
Key term
Sprint Planning
Sprint Planning is a time-boxed meeting at the start of a Scrum sprint where the team decides what work they can deliver and how they will do it.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This PMP 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 PMP exam.