POPM PI Execution Practice Question
During PI execution, a team realizes their current velocity will not allow them to complete all committed features. What is the most appropriate action for the Product Owner?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates mistakenly choose answers that suggest forcing the team to work overtime or arbitrarily cutting scope without consulting the team, missing the collaborative nature of Agile re-planning.
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
✓
Reprioritize the remaining backlog with the team to focus on the highest-value features.
The Product Owner must prioritize the remaining scope by collaborating with the team to identify value versus effort. By adjusting the scope rather than compromising quality, the PO ensures that the most critical business value is delivered within the PI. This practice maintains team predictability and builds stakeholder trust by providing transparency regarding progress, ultimately ensuring that the team focuses on the most high-impact work during the remaining time.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Ask the team to work overtime to ensure all features are finished as originally committed.
Why it's wrong here
Mandating overtime negatively impacts sustainable pace and team morale, leading to burnout and decreased quality. SAFe emphasizes a sustainable pace, and forcing extra hours contradicts the principle of built-in quality. The PO should instead collaborate to adjust the plan based on reality rather than forcing unrealistic expectations on the team.
- ✗
Increase the story points for all remaining items to make the velocity look better.
Why it's wrong here
Artificially inflating story points obscures the true team velocity and creates technical debt. This practice provides a false sense of security to stakeholders and makes future planning impossible. The PO and team must use accurate velocity data to make informed decisions about scope reduction instead of manipulating the underlying metrics.
- ✓
Reprioritize the remaining backlog with the team to focus on the highest-value features.
Why this is correct
Collaborating with the team to re-evaluate the backlog allows for scope adjustment based on current capacity. By focusing on the highest-value items, the PO ensures that the most critical business needs are met, even if lower-priority items are deferred. This transparent approach maintains alignment with stakeholder expectations during the execution phase.
- ✗
Instruct the team to stop updating the Kanban board so the progress appears complete.
Why it's wrong here
Hiding progress data prevents transparency and prevents the PO from making informed decisions. Effective PI execution requires visibility into work-in-progress to identify bottlenecks and address impediments promptly. Obfuscating board updates undermines the core inspect-and-adapt cycle essential for continuous improvement and successful delivery of committed program increments.
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.