POPM Product Owner and Product Management Roles Practice Question
Exhibit
Team A Velocity: 40 points/sprint. Current Backlog: 200 points. Feature X (50 points) is highly urgent. Business value: 100. Cost of Delay: 20 per sprint. Feature Y (20 points) has Business value: 30. Cost of Delay: 5 per sprint.
Based on the exhibit, which item should the Product Owner prioritize first to maximize economic value?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often choose features based purely on implementation cost or sheer size, ignoring economic urgency and the critical Cost of Delay metric emphasized in SAFe.
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
✓
Feature X because it has a higher Cost of Delay.
The Product Owner must prioritize based on the Cost of Delay (CoD) to ensure the highest economic value is delivered early. Since Feature X has a significantly higher CoD, delaying it results in greater economic loss compared to Feature Y. SAFe emphasizes using Weighted Shortest Job First (WSJF), and prioritizing high-value, high-delay-cost items ensures the ART maximizes value flow and responds effectively to business needs.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Feature Y because it is smaller and finishes faster.
Why it's wrong here
While smaller items improve flow, prioritizing based solely on size ignores the economic impact of the Cost of Delay. Feature Y has lower business value and a much lower CoD. By ignoring Feature X, the organization incurs significantly higher financial losses over time, which is a poor economic decision for the ART.
- ✓
Feature X because it has a higher Cost of Delay.
Why this is correct
Prioritizing by Cost of Delay ensures that the most impactful work is completed first. With a CoD of 20 per sprint, failing to deliver Feature X early results in significant economic loss. This approach aligns with the SAFe principle of delivering value in the shortest sustainable lead time by prioritizing economic outcomes.
- ✗
Both features simultaneously to distribute team capacity.
Why it's wrong here
Attempting to work on both features simultaneously increases context switching and reduces the overall flow of the team. SAFe advocates for focusing the team on completing one high-priority item at a time to achieve a 'done' state sooner, rather than having multiple items in a 'work in progress' state.
- ✗
Neither feature, until more capacity is added to the ART.
Why it's wrong here
Waiting for additional capacity is an inefficient way to manage value delivery. The PO must work with the existing team capacity to deliver the highest priority items immediately. Delaying delivery while waiting for resources is essentially stalling the product, which is counterproductive in an agile environment focused on continuous flow.
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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.