POPM PI Execution Practice Question
During the third iteration of a Program Increment, the Product Manager notices that two teams are consistently pulling work from the same shared capacity pool, causing overcommitment and missed iteration goals. Which action should the Product Manager take to address this at the ART level?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is assuming that the Product Manager should directly reassign work or that the Product Owner can resolve cross-team capacity issues alone, when the correct path is to engage the Release Train Engineer and the Scrum of Scrums.
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
✓
Escalate to the Release Train Engineer to facilitate a capacity reallocation discussion at the next Scrum of Scrums.
During PI Execution, capacity conflicts that span teams are best resolved through the ART's built-in synchronization mechanisms. The Release Train Engineer facilitates the Scrum of Scrums, where teams can transparently discuss dependencies, capacity, and impediments. Escalating there enables a collaborative reallocation of shared capacity, aligning with SAFe's principle of applying cadence and synchronization to manage variability.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Wait until the next PI Planning session to renegotiate capacity and avoid disrupting the current PI.
Why it's wrong here
Delaying action until the next PI Planning allows the overcommitment to persist, causing continued missed goals and eroding trust. PI Execution requires real-time course correction through events like the Scrum of Scrums. Waiting is a passive approach that fails to address the immediate impediment affecting the ART's ability to deliver value.
- ✗
Direct both teams to stop pulling work from the shared capacity pool and instead create separate team-specific backlogs.
Why it's wrong here
This is an overreaction that undermines the ART's ability to optimize flow across teams. Shared capacity is often intentional and beneficial; the issue is coordination, not the existence of the pool. Unilaterally splitting backlogs would create silos and ignore the root cause of the overcommitment, which is a planning and synchronization problem.
- ✓
Escalate to the Release Train Engineer to facilitate a capacity reallocation discussion at the next Scrum of Scrums.
Why this is correct
The Release Train Engineer owns the Scrum of Scrums and is responsible for facilitating cross-team coordination and removing impediments. Bringing the capacity conflict there allows teams to transparently renegotiate shared capacity and adjust plans collaboratively, which is the appropriate ART-level corrective action during PI Execution.
- ✗
Ask the Product Owners of both teams to reprioritize their team backlogs independently to reduce overlap.
Why it's wrong here
Independent reprioritization without cross-team coordination may worsen the conflict because each Product Owner lacks visibility into the other team's commitments. The problem is systemic and requires a facilitated ART-level conversation, not isolated backlog adjustments that could lead to further misalignment and duplicated effort.
Visual reference
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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.