PMP People — Leading Projects Practice Question
You are leading an agile team that has experienced a drop in velocity over the last three sprints. The team attributes this to unclear requirements and frequent changes during the sprint. Which TWO actions would best address this?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to choose Option A (increasing sprint duration) thinking it gives more time for changes, but this violates the Scrum principle of time-boxed sprints and does not fix the requirement clarity issue.
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
✓
Reinforce the sprint rule that no new work can be added once the sprint has started
In Scrum, once a sprint begins, the team commits to a set of work; allowing new requirements to be introduced mid-sprint disrupts focus and velocity. This rule protects the team from scope creep and ensures they can deliver a potentially shippable increment. Option E is correct because unclear requirements and frequent changes often stem from poorly refined user stories; working with the product owner to improve acceptance criteria and story refinement before sprint planning reduces ambiguity and stabilizes velocity.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Increase sprint duration from two weeks to three weeks to allow more time
Why it's wrong here
Increasing sprint duration from two weeks to three weeks is counterproductive in an agile environment experiencing a performance drop. Longer sprints delay feedback loops, increase the risk of scope creep, and make it harder to inspect and adapt to emerging issues promptly. This approach merely postpones the inevitable confrontation with underlying problems rather than addressing their root causes, hindering continuous improvement.
- ✗
Replace underperforming team members with new ones
Why it's wrong here
Replacing team members is generally an extreme measure and often misdiagnoses the problem when an entire agile team experiences a performance drop. Agile principles emphasize self-organizing teams and process improvement, suggesting the issue is likely systemic rather than individual incompetence. Such a change would disrupt team dynamics, knowledge transfer, and trust, potentially worsening the overall situation and morale.
- ✗
Take over the role of product owner to ensure clarity
Why it's wrong here
As a Project Manager or Scrum Master, taking over the Product Owner's role directly contradicts the defined responsibilities within agile frameworks. The Product Owner is solely accountable for maximizing product value and managing the product backlog, while the PM/Scrum Master facilitates and coaches. Overstepping this boundary undermines the Product Owner's authority, creates a single point of failure, and disempowers the team's self-organization.
- ✓
Reinforce the sprint rule that no new work can be added once the sprint has started
Why this is correct
Reinforcing the sprint rule against adding new work once a sprint has begun is crucial for maintaining team focus and predictability. Unplanned scope injection disrupts the team's commitment to the sprint goal, jeopardizes the delivery of the committed increment, and makes accurate forecasting impossible. This action stabilizes the sprint backlog, allowing the team to concentrate on completing agreed-upon tasks and improving overall sprint success.
- ✓
Work with the product owner to improve user story refinement and acceptance criteria before sprint planning
Why this is correct
Collaborating with the Product Owner to enhance user story refinement and acceptance criteria before sprint planning is a highly effective strategy. Poorly defined requirements lead to misunderstandings, extensive rework, and quality issues during the sprint, directly impacting team performance. Ensuring stories are clear, testable, and meet a "Definition of Ready" proactively reduces impediments and significantly improves the team's efficiency and ability to deliver value.
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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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.