POPM Leadership for PI Planning Practice Question
Exhibit
TEAM_CAPACITY: { 'TEAM_A': 40, 'TEAM_B': 30, 'TEAM_C': 50 }; FEATURE_DEMAND: { 'FEATURE_X': 45, 'FEATURE_Y': 35, 'FEATURE_Z': 40 }; TOTAL_CAPACITY: 120; TOTAL_DEMAND: 120;Refer to the exhibit. Although Total Capacity equals Total Demand, the team-level distribution is skewed. What should leadership do?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates tend to choose options involving management mandates or arbitrary reassignments. They overlook that SAFe emphasizes team negotiation and self-organization to resolve bottlenecks rather than top-down command and control.
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 a negotiation between the teams to redistribute work according to their specific capacities.
Even when total capacity aligns with demand, the specific distribution often creates bottlenecks. Leadership must facilitate a discussion to rebalance the load or adjust the scope. Simply assuming it will work because the totals align ignores the reality of specialized skills and dependencies. By identifying these misalignments early, leadership can help teams redistribute the work or negotiate changes that ensure all teams have a balanced and realistic plan.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Force the teams to work in a cross-functional way to balance the load regardless of skill sets.
Why it's wrong here
While cross-functional training is a goal, forcing it during PI Planning without proper preparation can lead to quality issues and delays. Teams need specialized skills to complete specific tasks, and simply mandating cross-functionality without the necessary expertise will not solve the capacity mismatch effectively.
- ✓
Facilitate a negotiation between the teams to redistribute work according to their specific capacities.
Why this is correct
Redistributing work based on real team capacity is essential for a successful PI. By facilitating this negotiation, leadership ensures that no single team is overloaded while another is underutilized. This balancing act is critical for maintaining the flow of work and achieving the objectives across the entire train.
- ✗
Accept the plan as is, because the total capacity matches the total demand.
Why it's wrong here
Accepting the plan without addressing the distribution mismatch will lead to failure. If a team is assigned work that exceeds its specific capacity, it will miss its targets, causing a domino effect that impacts the entire program. Total numbers do not account for individual team constraints.
- ✗
Direct the Product Manager to remove all features until the total demand is below capacity.
Why it's wrong here
Removing features is a last resort, not a first step. Before cutting scope, leadership should explore if the work can be moved to teams with available capacity. Only after all redistribution options have been exhausted should the PM consider reducing the scope to ensure the plan remains feasible.
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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.