The Scrum Master observes the Product Owner struggling with ordering the Product Backlog. What is an appropriate action for the Scrum Master to take?…

The Scrum Master's role is to be a servant-leader and coach, ensuring Scrum is understood and enacted. When the Product Owner struggles, the Scrum Master should coach them on the underlying principles rather than doing the work for them or prescribing a specific solution. Reminding the Product Owner that the primary goal of ordering the Product Backlog is to maximize the value delivered by the Developers is the most appropriate coaching action. This empowers the Product Owner to improve their own skills and fulfill their accountabilities, reinforcing the principles of self-management and empiricism within the Scrum Team.

B. The Product Owner is solely accountable for ordering the Product Backlog. Assigning this task to the Developers undermines the Product Owner's role and accountability.

C. While implementation speed is a factor, ordering solely based on what is fastest can lead to delivering low-value features first, which contradicts the goal of maximizing value.

D. Sprints are fixed-length events and cannot be extended. This action violates a fundamental rule of the Scrum framework.

E. The Scrum Master is a coach, not a manager or a substitute Product Owner. Doing the work for the Product Owner hinders their growth and violates Scrum role boundaries.

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1. Schwaber

K.

& Sutherland

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

Page 5: "The Product Owner is accountable for maximizing the value of the product resulting from the work of the Scrum Team. [...] The Product Owner is also accountable for effective Product Backlog management

which includes: [...] Ordering Product Backlog items;"

Page 6: "The Scrum Master is accountable for establishing Scrum as defined in the Scrum Guide. They do this by helping everyone understand Scrum theory and practice [...] The Scrum Master serves the Product Owner in several ways

including: [...] Helping the Scrum Team understand the need for clear and concise Product Backlog items; Helping establish empirical product planning for a complex environment;"

2. Stray

V.

& Moe

N. B. (2020). Understanding the role of the scrum master. Journal of Systems and Software

170

110725. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2020.110725

Section 4.1

Table 2: This study identifies "Coach" as a primary role of the Scrum Master

which includes "coaching the product owner" and "teaching the team about agile principles." The action in option A is a direct application of this coaching responsibility.