PMP practice question 33 of 35

A product owner who possesses a strong technical background has been actively involved with the project team for several years. The product owner has been quite vocal about the expected duration of the work. As a result, the project team has ceased providing development estimates to avoid causing any dissatisfaction with the product owner. What should the project manager do?

Domain People

Answer options

A: Conduct a meeting with the project team and the product owner to reset the ground rules for providing estimates. Correct answer

B: Ask the project team to send the estimates via email and not to discuss them during planning meetings.

C: Facilitate the meetings and ask the project team for the estimates.

D: Meet with the product owner and project team separately to find a compromise.

Correct Answer:

A. Conduct a meeting with the project team and the product owner to reset the ground rules for providing estimates.

Explanation

In Agile frameworks, the development team is solely responsible for estimating the effort required to deliver backlog items, while the Product Owner prioritizes the work. The scenario describes a breakdown in team dynamics and psychological safety, where the Product Owner is overstepping their role. The project manager (acting as a servant leader) must address this by bringing the team and Product Owner together to review and reset the team charter and ground rules. This collaborative approach restores role clarity, ensures the team regains autonomy over estimation, and fosters a safe environment for open communication without fear of conflict.

Why Incorrect

B. This promotes conflict avoidance, reduces transparency, and violates Agile principles of face-to-face communication and collaborative sprint planning.
C. Simply asking for estimates ignores the root cause of the team's silence, which is a lack of psychological safety and role confusion caused by the Product Owner.
D. Meeting separately creates silos, reduces transparency, and undermines the Agile principle of resolving conflicts collaboratively as a unified, self-organizing team.

References

1. Project Management Institute (PMI). (2017). Agile Practice Guide. Section 4.3.2 (Servant Leadership Responsibilities) and Section 5.1 (Team Composition/Roles), pp. 35, 40-41.

2. Project Management Institute (PMI). (2021). A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) – Seventh Edition. Section 2.2 (Team Performance Domain - Ground Rules and Psychological Safety), pp. 17-18.

3. Schwaber, K., & Sutherland, J. (2020). The Scrum Guide. Section: The Scrum Team (Developers are responsible for sizing/estimating).

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