Scrum Master Certified (SMC) — Question 29

Suppose you are a Scrum Master on a project to design a metro rail system for a city. It has been brought to your attention that the Product Owner wants to change the Acceptance Criteria for one of the User Stories committed to for the current Sprint because the customer has changed a critical business requirement.
Which one of the following statements presents the best solution for such a situation?

Answer options

• A. You should direct the Scrum team to stop working on the current Sprint Backlog, and to start working on the latest business requirements.
• B. The Product Owner should add this requirement to the overall Prioritized Product Backlog, and the team would work on it in a future Sprint.
• C. You should tell the Product Owner to inform the stakeholders that this business requirement cannot be worked on as the Scrum Team has no bandwidth in the current Sprint.
• D. The Product Owner should cancel the current Sprint, and should start planning a new Sprint for the team to be able to develop the deliverable as per the latest business requirement.

Correct answer: B

Explanation

The correct answer is B, as it suggests that the Product Owner should add the new requirement to the Prioritized Product Backlog, allowing the Scrum Team to address it in a future Sprint. This approach respects the Sprint commitment and maintains the integrity of the current Sprint while ensuring that changes are documented and prioritized for future work. The other options either disrupt the current Sprint or dismiss the importance of the new requirement without proper prioritization.