POPM Leadership for PI Planning Practice Question
A Business Owner is pushing to add a new, high-priority feature to the PI midway through the second day. What should the Product Manager recommend?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often suggest 'adding the feature to the next sprint' or 'working overtime,' failing to realize that SAFe requires a trade-off (removing equivalent scope) to maintain the integrity of the PI commitment.
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
✓
Advise the Business Owner to remove an equivalent amount of scope to maintain the team's commitment.
Introducing new scope mid-planning is highly disruptive and threatens the viability of the entire plan. The Product Manager must recommend a 'trade-off' approach, where existing work is removed to accommodate the new feature. This maintains the integrity of the commitment while honoring the new business request, ensuring the team remains focused on the highest value items without overwhelming their capacity or compromising their predictability.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Accept the feature and ask the teams to work longer hours to finish it.
Why it's wrong here
Asking teams to work longer hours is not sustainable and violates the principle of a sustainable work pace. It also doesn't fix the underlying issue of capacity. This approach leads to burnout and a decrease in quality, ultimately failing to deliver the desired value in the long run.
- ✗
Reject the feature entirely, citing that the planning session is almost over.
Why it's wrong here
While timing is tight, rejecting high-priority work without analysis ignores the potential business value. A leader should instead evaluate the trade-offs. Simply saying 'no' without a discussion on priorities and capacity impact is a failure to manage the backlog effectively in response to changing business needs.
- ✓
Advise the Business Owner to remove an equivalent amount of scope to maintain the team's commitment.
Why this is correct
This approach preserves the balance of capacity and demand. By requiring the removal of existing work for new additions, the Product Manager ensures the plan remains realistic and achievable. This negotiation makes the cost of the new request visible and keeps the teams committed to delivering real value.
- ✗
Tell the teams to just add the feature and see how far they can get.
Why it's wrong here
This creates 'scope creep' and ruins the integrity of the PI Objectives. If the feature is not prioritized as part of the formal plan, it will likely be incomplete, wasting effort. Commitment requires a clear scope; vague expectations lead to low-quality outcomes and missed goals.
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Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Scaled Agile exam blueprint
This POPM practice question is part of Courseiva's free Scaled Agile 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 POPM exam.