A portfolio manager has drawn up a spreadsheet ranking every requested feature by projected revenue and tells the Scrum Team to build them in that order. The Product Owner believes two of the top five items will not be used by the customers she has spoken to. Who is accountable for maximising the value of the product?
Professional Scrum Master I, objective 3. Managing products with agility medium
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Treat it as a good draft rather than as settled fact, and read the source below before you rely on it. It is not used in mock exams here — only questions a person has signed for are.
The options
Not correct The portfolio manager, because value is a commercial judgement and the manager holds the budget
Wrong, and it is the arrangement most organisations actually run. Holding the budget is not the same as holding the accountability; Scrum names one person for maximising product value and it is not a funding role.
Not correct The Developers, since they are closest to the work and know what can realistically be built
Wrong. The Developers decide how much they can take on and how it gets built, but what is worth building next is not their call.
Correct The Product Owner, who is accountable for maximising the value of the product resulting from the work of the Scrum Team
Correct. The accountability is stated for one person, and the spreadsheet is an input to her decision rather than a replacement for it — she is free to use it, argue with it, or set it aside.
Not correct The Scrum Master, who should protect the team from the manager and decide the order
Wrong. A Scrum Master helps the organisation understand why ordering sits with the Product Owner and may coach both parties through the conversation, but never takes the decision over.
Why
Value in Scrum is not a committee outcome — it is an accountability, and accountabilities are held by one named person so there is always someone to ask. The Product Owner may be handed forecasts, models and revenue rankings by anyone, and how she reaches her decision may vary widely across organisations. What does not vary is who answers for the result. In the exam room, a question about who decides what is valuable has exactly one answer whatever the org chart says.
Where this comes from
- Cited
- Scrum Guide section Product Owner
- What it says
- The Product Owner is accountable for maximizing the value of the product resulting from the work of the Scrum Team.
Practise this
Reading one question is not practice. The trainer will draw a set from objective 3 and space the ones you get wrong.
Practise Professional Scrum Master I
More questions on this objective
- It is the last afternoon of the Sprint. Three of the eight selected items are coded and demonstrable on a laptop, but they have not been through the automated regression suite the Definition of Done requires. The Product Owner suggests showing them at tomorrow's Sprint Review anyway, marked as "pending test". What does Scrum say? machine-checked
- A new Scrum Master is asked by a director where in Scrum the organisation gets to see whether the last four weeks of work were worth anything, and what should change as a result. Which event is she describing? machine-checked
- A Scrum Team spent a Sprint building a bulk-import feature. It meets the Definition of Done, it is usable, and it was released on day nine. At the Sprint Review the stakeholders explain that since the Sprint began their largest customer has moved to a different data format, and nobody will use the feature. What does Scrum say about this Sprint, and what happens now? machine-checked
- A delivery manager introduces a quarterly target: every Scrum Team must raise its velocity by fifteen per cent, and team performance reviews will cite the number. Within two Sprints the team's story point totals have risen and no more working software is reaching users than before. What is the most accurate statement about this measure? machine-checked
- A Scrum Team is agreeing what it will actually put in front of stakeholders at the end of each Sprint. Which TWO of the following statements about the Increment are true in Scrum? machine-checked
- On day six of a two-week Sprint, a Done item fixes a checkout bug that has been costing sales daily. The Product Owner wants it in production this afternoon. A release manager objects that nothing ships before it has been shown at the Sprint Review on day ten. Who is right? machine-checked