POPM Leadership for PI Planning Practice Question
An Agile Release Train is conducting its first PI Planning event. During the draft plan review, management observes that multiple teams have unresolved cross-team dependencies that threaten their proposed objectives. Which TWO leadership behaviors are critical to support the teams in resolving this challenge? (Choose two.)
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often select 'provide a solution' or 'reassign tasks,' forgetting that the leader's role is to facilitate the discussion and empower teams to solve the problem themselves during the planning phase.
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
✓
Facilitate cross-team discussions during the management review and problem-solving meeting to realign dependencies and adjust priorities.
Leadership must actively facilitate cross-team collaboration and empower teams to negotiate realistic adjustments during PI Planning. Unresolved dependencies threaten the entire Program Increment and require active executive intervention to clear roadblocks. By fostering a transparent environment, leaders help teams synchronize their plans and establish reliable commitments without relying on top-down escalation channels.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Facilitate cross-team discussions during the management review and problem-solving meeting to realign dependencies and adjust priorities.
Why this is correct
The management review and problem-solving meeting is specifically designed for leadership and teams to address cross-team roadblocks collaboratively. Bringing stakeholders together allows rapid decision-making regarding scope trade-offs and sequencing adjustments. This intervention ensures that dependent teams can commit to realistic objectives before final plan review begins on the second day.
- ✗
Instruct the affected teams to work independently and resolve their integration conflicts retroactively during the execution phase.
Why it's wrong here
Leaving critical cross-team dependencies unresolved until execution guarantees integration failures and missed PI commitments. SAFe emphasizes identifying and addressing risks and dependencies upfront during PI planning to ensure architectural integrity. Waiting until the iteration phase to discover blocking issues severely undermines predictability and team trust.
- ✗
Advise the Agile Teams to drop all cross-functional features that rely on external suppliers to simplify their immediate planning scope.
Why it's wrong here
Dropping features arbitrarily because of dependencies sacrifices strategic business value and ignores real market needs. Instead of avoiding complex integration work, leaders should help facilitate supplier engagement and interface agreements. Strategic features often require multi-team collaboration, making dependency management a core capability rather than something to bypass.
- ✓
Empower the teams to negotiate scope adjustments and sequence dependencies realistically during the planning breakouts.
Why this is correct
Empowering teams to negotiate directly fosters self-organization and ensures that delivery plans reflect ground-level technical realities. When teams collaborate on interface requirements and timing, they build mutual accountability and trust. Leadership support during these negotiations helps break deadlocks when priority conflicts arise across different value streams.
- ✗
Escalate the dependency issues directly to the enterprise executive board and pause PI Planning until a new architecture is designed.
Why it's wrong here
Escalating routine planning dependencies to executive boards halts momentum and undermines team autonomy within the Agile Release Train. PI planning provides the exact forum needed to resolve these operational adjustments locally. Executives should support problem-solving sessions rather than disrupting the entire planning cadence for standard integration challenges.
Visual reference
About these practice questions
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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.