PMP Process — Managing Technical Aspects Practice Question
In an agile project, the team's velocity has been declining over the last three sprints. The team is delivering fewer story points each sprint. The product owner is concerned about the release date. What should the Scrum Master do first?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common misconception is that the Scrum Master should directly intervene with schedule or scope changes, rather than facilitating the team's own problem-solving process through the retrospective.
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 retrospective focused on identifying root causes of the declining velocity
The Scrum Master's first responsibility is to facilitate the team's inspection and adaptation process. Declining velocity is a symptom of underlying issues (e.g., technical debt, poor estimation, or process inefficiencies). A retrospective focused on root causes allows the team to identify and address these issues empirically, which is the core agile principle for continuous improvement. Only after understanding the cause can the team and Product Owner make informed decisions about scope or schedule.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Ask the product owner to descope some features to meet the release date
Why it's wrong here
While adjusting scope is a valid strategy for managing project constraints, proposing descoping features at this stage is premature. The immediate priority for a Scrum Master or project manager is to understand why velocity is declining, not to immediately reduce the work. Without root cause analysis, descoping might only mask systemic issues, leading to recurring problems in future sprints and failing to address the underlying performance issues.
- ✓
Facilitate a retrospective focused on identifying root causes of the declining velocity
Why this is correct
Facilitating a retrospective is the most appropriate first step in an agile context when velocity declines. This dedicated event allows the entire team to collaboratively inspect their processes, tools, and interactions to identify the underlying causes of the decreased performance. By understanding the root causes, the team can then formulate actionable improvements, embodying the "inspect and adapt" principle fundamental to agile methodologies and fostering continuous improvement.
- ✗
Add more story points to the next sprint to compensate for the loss
Why it's wrong here
Adding more story points to the next sprint is a counterproductive approach that misunderstands the purpose of velocity. Velocity is an output metric reflecting the team's capacity and performance, not an input to be arbitrarily increased. Forcing more work onto a team already experiencing declining velocity will likely lead to increased stress, burnout, lower quality, and further decreases in actual throughput, exacerbating the underlying issues rather than resolving them.
- ✗
Extend the sprint duration to give the team more time
Why it's wrong here
Extending the sprint duration is a significant deviation from established agile practices and should not be a first response to declining velocity. Fixed-length sprints provide a consistent rhythm, facilitate planning, and enable predictable forecasting. Changing the sprint length without understanding the root cause of the decline merely postpones the problem and disrupts the team's cadence, potentially masking inefficiencies rather than addressing them through inspection and adaptation.
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