PMP Business Environment — Strategy and Value Practice Question
An organization is transitioning from a traditional waterfall approach to agile. The project manager is tasked with leading a pilot agile project. During sprint planning, the product owner prioritizes features based on stakeholder feedback. However, the team is concerned that the prioritized features do not align with the organization's strategic goals. What should the project manager do?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates assume the product owner has absolute authority over priorities (Option C) or that any misalignment requires immediate escalation (Option D), when in fact the PM's role is to facilitate alignment through collaboration, not to override or bypass the product owner's decisions.
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
✓
Facilitate a meeting with the product owner and key stakeholders to realign priorities
The project manager's role in an agile transition includes ensuring alignment between the sprint backlog and the organization's strategic goals. By facilitating a meeting with the product owner and key stakeholders, the PM enables a collaborative re-prioritization that respects both stakeholder feedback and strategic objectives, which is a core agile principle of continuous stakeholder engagement.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Request a change to the project charter
Why it's wrong here
Requesting a change to the project charter is an overly drastic and inappropriate response when the core issue is a misalignment in operational prioritization of backlog items, not a fundamental shift in the project's strategic direction or authorized boundaries. The project charter establishes the high-level project purpose, objectives, and overall scope, providing authorization, but it is too high-level to address day-to-day prioritization conflicts effectively.
- ✓
Facilitate a meeting with the product owner and key stakeholders to realign priorities
Why this is correct
This is the most effective approach because it directly addresses the perceived misalignment by engaging the primary decision-maker (Product Owner) and those affected by the strategic goals (key stakeholders). Facilitating a collaborative discussion allows for transparent review of the backlog against strategic objectives, fostering shared understanding and enabling informed adjustments to prioritization. This ensures the team's efforts are focused on delivering maximum value aligned with organizational strategy.
- ✗
Tell the team to trust the product owner's decisions
Why it's wrong here
Simply telling the team to trust the Product Owner's decisions is dismissive and counterproductive. It ignores the team's valid concerns regarding strategic alignment and potential waste of effort, which can lead to decreased morale, disengagement, and a lack of ownership. A PMP's role involves facilitating communication and resolving conflicts, not suppressing legitimate concerns that impact project success and value delivery.
- ✗
Escalate the issue to the project sponsor
Why it's wrong here
Escalating directly to the project sponsor is premature and bypasses the appropriate channels for conflict resolution. The sponsor's role is typically for high-level strategic guidance and removing significant organizational impediments, not for immediate operational prioritization conflicts that can be resolved collaboratively at a lower level. The project manager should first attempt to resolve the issue directly with the Product Owner and relevant stakeholders before involving higher authority.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Introduction to the PMP Exam and Project Management Basics
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.
Key term
Scrum Methodology
Scrum is a lightweight process framework that helps teams deliver complex projects in small, iterative chunks called sprints.
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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.