PMP Process — Managing Technical Aspects Practice Question
Your agile team has been consistently delivering high-quality increments. However, the product owner has been absent from the last two sprint reviews, and stakeholders are losing interest. What should you do as the scrum master?
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
✓
Speak with the product owner to understand the issue and emphasize the importance of their attendance.
The product owner's involvement is crucial in agile. The scrum master should facilitate a conversation with the product owner to understand the reason for absence and encourage participation. This is a coaching role.
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 stakeholders to provide feedback directly to the team instead of attending the review.
Why it's wrong here
Asking stakeholders to provide feedback directly to the team instead of attending the review fundamentally bypasses the Product Owner's (PO) accountability. The PO is the sole authority for the Product Backlog and represents stakeholder interests, processing feedback to prioritize work. This approach undermines the PO's role in managing product direction and could lead to unprioritized or conflicting demands on the development team, disrupting the structured feedback loop inherent in Scrum.
- ✓
Speak with the product owner to understand the issue and emphasize the importance of their attendance.
Why this is correct
As a Scrum Master, coaching the Product Owner on their accountabilities and the value of Scrum events is a core responsibility. Speaking with the PO to understand the specific reasons for their absence allows the Scrum Master to address underlying issues, such as time constraints or a misunderstanding of the Sprint Review's purpose. Emphasizing the event's importance for inspecting the increment and adapting the Product Backlog ensures the PO fulfills their role in maximizing product value and stakeholder collaboration.
- ✗
Continue the sprint reviews without the product owner, as the team can self-organize.
Why it's wrong here
Continuing Sprint Reviews without the Product Owner, despite the team's ability to self-organize, fundamentally undermines the event's purpose. The Product Owner is a critical participant, responsible for presenting the increment, discussing the Product Backlog status, and collaborating with stakeholders on future direction. Their absence renders the review ineffective for inspecting the product increment from a business value perspective and adapting the Product Backlog based on essential stakeholder feedback, hindering value delivery.
- ✗
Cancel sprint reviews until the product owner can attend.
Why it's wrong here
Canceling Sprint Reviews until the Product Owner can attend is a reactive and detrimental approach that disrupts the inspect-and-adapt cycle. The Scrum Master's role is to facilitate Scrum events and remove impediments, which includes coaching the Product Owner to ensure their participation, not to halt essential processes. Postponing or canceling without addressing the root cause of the PO's absence prevents the team from gathering timely feedback and adjusting the product direction, thereby hindering continuous improvement.
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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.