Halfway through a Sprint the Developers accept that they will not finish most of the items they selected — the work was much larger than they thought. They ask the Product Owner to cancel the Sprint so they can start again with a realistic plan. Is that a proper use of cancellation?
Professional Scrum Master I, objective 1. Understanding and applying the Scrum framework medium
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The options
Correct No — a Sprint is cancelled when the Sprint Goal becomes obsolete, not when a forecast turns out to be optimistic
Correct. The remedy here is the ordinary one: the Developers adapt the Sprint Backlog and, if the Sprint Goal is threatened, renegotiate scope with the Product Owner. The Sprint runs to its end either way.
Not correct Yes — a plan that cannot be delivered makes the rest of the Sprint pointless
Wrong, and it treats the plan as the Sprint. The Sprint exists to pursue the Sprint Goal; the selected items are a forecast, and discovering that a forecast was wrong is the system working rather than failing.
Not correct Yes, provided the Scrum Master agrees that the Sprint is unsalvageable
Wrong on both counts. It is not a cancellation reason, and the Scrum Master has no authority to cancel a Sprint even when it is.
Not correct No — a Sprint may never be cancelled once it has started
Wrong in the other direction. Cancellation is real and available; it is simply reserved for an obsolete Sprint Goal and reserved to the Product Owner.
Why
The distinction the exam tests is between a Sprint Goal that has become pointless and a plan that has become wrong. Only the first is a cancellation. The second is handled inside the Sprint, every Sprint, by the mechanisms Scrum already provides: adapt the Sprint Backlog, renegotiate scope with the Product Owner, and let unfinished items return to the Product Backlog when the Sprint ends on time.
Where this comes from
- Cited
- Scrum Guide section The Sprint
- What it says
- A Sprint could be cancelled if the Sprint Goal becomes obsolete.
Practise this
Reading one question is not practice. The trainer will draw a set from objective 1 and space the ones you get wrong.
Practise Professional Scrum Master I
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