POPM PI Planning Preparation Practice Question
A Product Manager is preparing for PI Planning and wants to ensure the ART has the right inputs to create a meaningful draft plan. Which two actions should the Product Manager take before the event? (Choose two.)
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse preparation inputs with planning outputs, such as finalized PI Objectives or fixed team assignments.
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
✓
Provide a prioritized Program Backlog with enough detail for teams to estimate and identify dependencies.
The Vision and the prioritized Program Backlog are essential pre-PI inputs. The Vision provides strategic context, and the backlog supplies the features teams estimate and sequence. Together they let the ART build a draft plan that reflects business priorities and surfaces dependencies. Pre-writing objectives, assigning features, or locking schedules removes the team ownership and flexibility that PI Planning requires.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Provide a prioritized Program Backlog with enough detail for teams to estimate and identify dependencies.
Why this is correct
The Program Backlog is the source of features that teams plan into iterations during PI Planning. A prioritized, reasonably detailed backlog lets teams estimate, slice stories, and surface cross-team dependencies. If the backlog is stale or too vague, the draft plan will be unreliable and the ART will spend the event clarifying instead of planning.
- ✗
Lock the iteration schedule and capacity numbers for every team so planning is predictable.
Why it's wrong here
Locking schedules and capacity before PI Planning prevents teams from adjusting for dependencies, risks, and local realities. Capacity is an input teams use, but it must be validated and refined during planning. The Product Manager prepares context and priorities, not fixed schedules that the ART cannot adapt.
- ✓
Ensure the Vision is updated and can be articulated in a way that connects the upcoming PI to the broader solution direction.
Why this is correct
The Vision is a primary input to PI Planning because it gives teams the context for prioritization and trade-offs. An updated, clearly articulated Vision helps the ART understand how the PI's work advances the solution. Without it, teams may optimize locally and produce a plan that does not support the intended business outcomes.
- ✗
Assign each feature to a specific team so there is no debate about ownership during PI Planning.
Why it's wrong here
Feature assignment is a planning outcome, not a pre-event input. Teams need the freedom to negotiate dependencies and capacity during PI Planning, and premature assignment can create artificial constraints. The Product Manager should prioritize features and clarify intent, then let teams determine who does what during the event.
- ✗
Finalize all team PI Objectives so the ART can approve them during the Draft Plan review on day one.
Why it's wrong here
PI Objectives are drafted by teams during PI Planning, not finalized beforehand by the Product Manager. Pre-writing them removes team ownership and prevents the collaborative commitment that PI Planning is designed to create. The Product Manager may influence objectives through priorities, but the teams must draft and own them.
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JA
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.