As the Developers start work during the Sprint, they realize they have selected too much work to finish in the Sprint. What should they do? (choose the best answer)

The Sprint Backlog is a forecast by the Developers about what functionality will be in the next Increment. It is not a fixed commitment. When the Developers realize they cannot complete all the selected work, they must act with transparency and collaboration. The correct action is to immediately work with the Product Owner to renegotiate the scope of the Sprint Backlog. This allows for a joint decision on which Product Backlog Items are least critical to achieving the Sprint Goal and can be moved out of the current Sprint. This upholds the Scrum values of focus, commitment (to the Sprint Goal), and openness, ensuring the team adapts to new information as soon as it emerges.

A. Handing off work disrupts the other team's Sprint and avoids addressing the forecasting issue within the original team. Each team is responsible for its own Sprint Backlog.
C. Waiting until the Sprint Review is too late. It violates the principle of transparency and prevents the team from adapting within the Sprint to maximize the value delivered.
D. Reducing the Definition of Done compromises quality, which is non-negotiable. It creates technical debt and results in an Increment that is not potentially releasable. ---

1. Schwaber

K.

& Sutherland

J. (2020). The Scrum Guide. Scrum.org.

Page 9

"Sprint Backlog" section: "If the work turns out to be different than they expected

they collaborate with the Product Owner to negotiate the scope of the Sprint Backlog within the Sprint without affecting the Sprint Goal." This directly supports answer B.

Page 7

"Developers" section: The Developers are accountable for "instilling quality by adhering to a Definition of Done." This directly refutes answer D.

2. Stray

V.

& Moe

N. B. (2020). Understanding coordination in a large-scale agile project. International Conference on Agile Software Development. Springer

Cham. (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49392-91)

This publication discusses inter-team dependencies and coordination. While not a direct quote

the principles outlined emphasize that simply handing off work (as in option A) is an anti-pattern that ignores proper dependency management and team autonomy. Each team plans and manages its own work.

3. Hohl

P.

Klünder

J.

van der Vliet

H.

& Gorschek

T. (2018). A survey of stakeholders’ perspectives on the definition of done in agile software development. In Product-Focused Software Process Improvement (pp. 3-19). Springer

Cham. (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03673-71)

This research emphasizes the Definition of Done as a crucial quality assurance mechanism. The findings support the conclusion that altering it to meet scope (Option D) undermines the integrity and value of the software development process.