Coaching the Product Owner on Stable Sprint Goals
In a Scrum team, the product owner frequently changes priorities within a sprint, causing the team to abandon work mid-task. The team is becoming demotivated. What should the scrum master do?
Quick Answer
Coaching the product owner is correct because it matches the Scrum Master's actual mandate: a servant leader who protects the team's process and educates stakeholders on Scrum principles, rather than a manager who can simply override the product owner's decisions. Once a sprint backlog is committed to at sprint planning, it represents an agreement about what the team will focus on for that sprint, and repeatedly overriding it mid-sprint defeats the purpose of having a sprint boundary at all; it prevents the team from achieving flow, undermines the sprint goal, and erodes morale, which is exactly what's happening here. The Scrum Master's job isn't to block the product owner from ever changing direction, since the product owner does hold ultimate authority over the backlog; it's to help the product owner understand the cost of doing so mid-sprint and reinforce that new priorities belong in the next sprint planning session rather than dropped in unpredictably. This preserves both the product owner's authority over what gets built and the team's ability to protect their committed work. On future questions, whenever a scenario shows someone violating a Scrum principle out of good intentions rather than malice, the correct response is almost always coaching and reinforcing the framework, not escalation or unilateral correction by the Scrum Master.
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse the Product Owner's authority over the Product Backlog with the ability to change the Sprint Backlog mid-sprint, leading them to incorrectly accept the changes (Option C) instead of recognizing the Scrum Master's duty to enforce the sprint boundary.
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 impact of changing priorities mid-sprint and reinforce the sprint backlog agreement
The Scrum Master's primary role is to coach the Product Owner and the team on Scrum principles, including the importance of a stable Sprint Backlog. Changing priorities mid-sprint violates the Sprint Goal and undermines team focus, leading to demotivation. By reinforcing the Sprint Backlog agreement, the Scrum Master protects the team from disruption while respecting the Product Owner's authority outside the sprint.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Escalate the issue to the project sponsor to overrule the product owner
Why it's wrong here
Escalation should be after coaching and within the Scrum framework.
- ✗
Shorten the sprint length to two or three days to accommodate frequent changes
Why it's wrong here
Shorter sprints may increase overhead and still not address the root cause.
- ✗
Accept the changes as the product owner has authority over priorities
Why it's wrong here
The scrum master should protect the sprint goal and ensure stability.
- ✓
Coach the product owner on the impact of changing priorities mid-sprint and reinforce the sprint backlog agreement
Why this is correct
Coaching aligns with the scrum master's role as a servant leader and process guardian.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Leading Teams and Empowering Team Members
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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Same concept, more angles
1 more way this is tested on PMP
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Variation 1. In a Scrum team, the product owner frequently changes priorities during the sprint, causing the team to lose focus. The team has raised this concern in the retrospective. What should the scrum master do?
medium- ✓ A.Coach the product owner on the importance of stable sprint goals.
- B.Allow the changes if they add value, and adjust the sprint backlog.
- C.Update the definition of done to accommodate changes.
- D.Escalate the issue to the project sponsor.
Why A: The Scrum Master is responsible for ensuring the Scrum framework is followed. Changing priorities mid-sprint violates the principle of a stable Sprint Goal, which protects the team from disruption and allows them to deliver a potentially releasable increment. Coaching the Product Owner on this principle directly addresses the root cause without bypassing Scrum rules or escalating prematurely.
JA
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.