On day six of a two-week Sprint a payment fix meets the Definition of Done and the Product Owner judges that customers need it now rather than in nine days. The release engineer says nothing can ship until the Sprint Review on day ten. What does Scrum say?
Professional Scrum Master I, objective 3. Managing products with agility medium
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The options
Correct An Increment may be delivered to stakeholders before the end of the Sprint, so the fix can go out on day six
Correct. Once work meets the Definition of Done an Increment exists, and Scrum places no waiting period between that moment and delivering it to the people who need it.
Not correct The fix must wait for the Sprint Review, where the sum of the Sprint's Increments is presented to stakeholders
Wrong, and it is tempting because the sum of the Increments really is presented at the Sprint Review. Presenting the work and releasing it are separate things; the Review inspects, it does not authorise.
Not correct The fix may go out early only if the Scrum Team first cancels the Sprint and starts a new one
Wrong. Cancellation is for a Sprint Goal that has become obsolete, and it is the Product Owner's authority alone. Nothing about an early release requires or justifies it.
Not correct The fix may go out early only if the Developers agree unanimously to break the Sprint boundary
Wrong. Releasing mid-Sprint breaks nothing — the Sprint is a container for the work and its events, not a hold on delivery — and release timing is not a Developer vote.
Why
The Sprint is a timebox for inspection and adaptation, not an embargo on value. The moment an item meets the Definition of Done an Increment is born, and Scrum explicitly allows it to reach stakeholders before the Sprint ends. The mechanism worth carrying: the Sprint boundary governs when the team inspects and re-plans, while the Definition of Done governs when something is releasable.
Where this comes from
- Cited
- Scrum Guide section Increment
- What it says
- However, an Increment may be delivered to stakeholders prior to the end of the Sprint.
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
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- 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