POPM Product Owner and Product Management Roles Practice Question
A Product Owner (PO) is managing a backlog for a high-priority feature. The stakeholders are demanding immediate delivery of a low-value request that disrupts the planned Sprint Goal. How should the PO handle this?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates frequently choose to immediately add the request to the current Sprint to satisfy stakeholders, which violates the Sprint Goal and the PO's responsibility to protect the team's focus.
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
✓
Discuss the request with stakeholders, evaluate its value against the Sprint Goal, and negotiate adding it to the next Sprint if it is high priority.
The PO must protect the team's ability to achieve the Sprint Goal. By negotiating with stakeholders and re-evaluating the request against the current iteration's priorities, the PO ensures that value delivery remains aligned with the PI Objectives. This balance is critical for maintaining team velocity and stakeholder trust, ensuring that urgent but low-value requests do not undermine the agreed-upon commitment to the Program Increment's strategic goals.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Add the request to the current Sprint backlog immediately to satisfy the stakeholders.
Why it's wrong here
Adding unplanned work mid-sprint disrupts the team's focus and jeopardizes the Sprint Goal. This reactive behavior leads to context switching and reduces overall throughput. The PO must prioritize the established commitments while managing stakeholder expectations through transparent communication regarding current capacity and existing priority alignment.
- ✗
Defer the request to the next PI planning session for evaluation.
Why it's wrong here
Waiting for the next PI planning session is too slow for business agility. The PO should manage the backlog continuously, evaluating new requests against current priorities in the next refinement session. Deferral without assessment ignores the possibility that the request might be important enough to displace existing lower-priority backlog items.
- ✓
Discuss the request with stakeholders, evaluate its value against the Sprint Goal, and negotiate adding it to the next Sprint if it is high priority.
Why this is correct
This approach respects the current Sprint Goal while remaining responsive to stakeholder needs. By negotiating and planning the work for the next iteration, the PO maintains team stability. This aligns with SAFe principles, ensuring that the team remains focused on committed objectives while still adapting to changing business needs effectively.
- ✗
Ask the Scrum Master to force the team to accept the new work.
Why it's wrong here
The Scrum Master should not force work onto the team. The PO is responsible for backlog prioritization and negotiation. Forcing work undermines the team's self-organization and commitment, which are essential for high-performance Agile teams. Such actions destroy the collaborative culture required to sustain continuous delivery and consistent team velocity.
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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.