Answering: “The Developers ask their Product Owner to re-order the Product Backlog. The team is waiting for an external supplier to deliver a component. Without that component there will not be enough work in the next Sprint to occupy the full team. As the Scrum Master, what advice would you give the Product Owner?” (PSPO I)

Remind the Product Owner that the Product Backlog is ordered for the flow of value, not to keep every Developer busy. The waiting component is a planning fact to work around, not a reason to reorder for utilization.

Exam Question

The Developers ask their Product Owner to re-order the Product Backlog. The team is waiting for an external supplier to deliver a component. Without that component, there will not be enough work in the next Sprint to occupy the full team. As the Scrum Master, what advice would you give the Product Owner?
(choose the best answer)
A. Tell the Product Owner to re-order the Product Backlog so the work involving the external component can be planned in a separate Sprint.
B. Remind the Product Owner that their primary concern is the flow of value reflected in the ordering of the Product Backlog.
C. Tell the Product Owner that the Product Backlog should be ordered to maximize utilization of the Developers.

Correct Answer

B. Remind the Product Owner that their primary concern is the flow of value reflected in the ordering of the Product Backlog.

Why This Is the Correct Answer

The Product Owner is accountable for maximizing value and for ordering the Product Backlog. The Developers can and should raise constraints, like an external supplier delay, because these affect what can be done. The Product Owner weighs that information, but the guiding question is still which order delivers the most value. If there is less work for the next Sprint, the Developers can use the capacity for refinement, technical improvements or learning instead of reordering the backlog purely to stay busy.

Why the Other Options Are Wrong

A. Re-order so the component work is planned in a separate Sprint. Planning whole Sprints around one component is a scheduling exercise that ignores value, and it does not solve the gap in the next Sprint.

C. Order the backlog to maximize utilization of the Developers. Scrum optimizes value, not busyness. Keeping everyone fully occupied can mean building lower-value items just to fill time.

Exam Tip

On the PSM and PSPO exams, “utilization” and “keeping everyone busy” are nearly always wrong answers. Look for the option about value.

Key Takeaways

• The Product Backlog is ordered to maximize value.
• Developers’ constraints inform ordering but do not dictate it.
• Spare capacity is not a problem to solve by reordering for utilization.