PMP Practice Questions #126
You are in the third iteration of your project, and your Product Owner is encountering a significant challenge with backlog prioritization. Initially, there was a clear agreement on the product vision and roadmap. However, conflicting opinions among key stakeholders regarding the importance of various features have now resulted in a stalemate. As the Project Manager, how can you assist the Product Owner in this situation?
A) Show your servant leadership skills and take the responsibility of prioritizing the backlog items from the Product Owner.
B) Arrange a prioritization workshop, start the workshop with working agreements on decision-making, and employ facilitation techniques to reach an agreement on prioritization.
C) Advise the Product Owner to categorize the features into Must Have, Should Have, Could Have, and Won’t Have, and share this categorization later with stakeholders to communicate the priorities.
D) Tell the Product Owner to prioritize using the Business Value of the features and then share this prioritization with stakeholders.
Analysis
In managing a project’s backlog prioritization challenge, it is crucial to consider the roles and responsibilities. The Product Owner faces difficulties due to conflicting stakeholder opinions on feature importance, leading to a decision-making deadlock. This scenario highlights the necessity for the Project Manager to facilitate a solution that respects Agile roles, enhances collaboration, and ensures adherence to the project’s goals and Agile principles.
Analysis of Options
Option A: Show your servant leadership skills and take the responsibility of prioritizing the backlog items from the Product Owner. This proposal introduces a nuanced challenge and advocates for the Project Manager to overstep the boundary of roles, a move contrary to the essence of servant leadership. Servant leadership, as practised by a Project Manager, focuses on facilitating team success by removing obstacles, resolving issues, and managing dependencies, not by taking over core functions of other roles. Servant leadership is context-dependent and in the realm of backlog prioritization, the expertise and authority lie with the Product Owner. Hence, this option, despite its appeal through the mention of servant leadership, is not advisable as it misconstrues the application of servant leadership within an Agile project’s context.
Option B: Arrange a prioritization workshop, start the workshop with working agreements on decision-making, and employ facilitation techniques to reach an agreement on prioritization. Organizing a prioritization workshop with working agreements on decision-making and employing facilitation techniques is an effective way to engage stakeholders in a constructive dialogue. This approach fosters collaboration, leveraging collective expertise, and ensuring that prioritization reflects the project’s goals and stakeholders’ consensus. The essence of servant leadership in this context is not about overtly assuming control or dictating but about facilitating a conducive environment where all voices are heard, and collective wisdom is harnessed. Here, the Project Manager assists the Product Owner not by usurping their role but by leveraging their own skills in facilitation to navigate through the complexities of divergent stakeholder opinions. Through such workshops, the Project Manager, without directly engaging in the act of prioritization, plays a pivotal role in ensuring that the process is inclusive, transparent, and aligned with the project’s overarching goals.
Option C: Advise the Product Owner to categorize the features into Must Have, Should Have, Could Have, and Won’t Have, and share this categorization later with stakeholders to communicate the priorities. Advising the Product Owner to categorize features using the MoSCoW method and then communicate these priorities to stakeholders may help in structuring the prioritization process. However, this option falls short by not actively involving stakeholders in the decision-making process, which is essential for achieving buy-in and understanding among all parties involved.
Option D: Tell the Product Owner to prioritize using the Business Value of the features and then share this prioritization with stakeholders. Recommending that the Product Owner prioritize features based on business value and share this with stakeholders is a practical approach. Nonetheless, similar to Option C, it lacks the engagement and collaborative aspect of involving stakeholders in the prioritization process directly, which can lead to misunderstandings or lack of alignment.
Conclusion: Option B stands out as the most appropriate action for the Project Manager to assist the Product Owner. It directly addresses the stalemate caused by conflicting opinions among stakeholders by facilitating a collaborative environment where priorities can be discussed and agreed upon. This option emphasizes the importance of communication, stakeholder engagement, and consensus-building in Agile project management, ensuring that the project remains aligned with its goals while respecting the Agile roles and framework.
PMP Exam Content Outline Mapping
| Domain | Task |
|---|---|
| Process | Task 8: Plan and manage scope |
| People | Task 1: Manage conflict |
| People | Task 9: Collaborate with stakeholders |
| People | Task 10: Build shared understanding |
Topics Covered
- Stakeholder Engagement
- Backlog Prioritization
- Meeting Facilitation
