A useful sign is whether the Developers need to ask the Product Owner questions at times other than the Daily Scrum. If they can reach the Product Owner whenever questions come up, the interaction is likely healthy.
Exam Question
What is the way to determine if the Product Owner is interacting with the Developers enough throughout a Sprint? (choose the best answer)
- A. Check the Daily Scrum reports to see whether the Product Owner was present at the majority of the Daily Scrum meetings.
- B. Observe whether the Product Owner is satisfied with the Increment at the Sprint Review.
- C. Observe whether the Developers need to ask the Product Owner questions at times other than during the Daily Scrum.
- D. Determine the percentage of time the Product Owner is required to be present with the Developers. Control whether the Product Owner’s average presence is around this figure.
Correct Answer
C. Observe whether the Developers need to ask the Product Owner questions at times other than during the Daily Scrum.
Why This Is the Correct Answer
The Product Owner helps the Developers understand Product Backlog items and clarifies scope as work progresses. The Scrum Guide notes that “scope may be clarified and renegotiated with the Product Owner as more is learned.” Questions come up throughout the Sprint, not on a schedule. Watching whether the Developers seek out and get answers when they need them shows how well the collaboration works in practice. Attendance counts and fixed percentages measure presence, not usefulness. A Product Owner can be in every meeting and still be unavailable when it matters, or rarely present yet answer quickly whenever asked.
Why the Other Options Are Wrong
A. Check whether the Product Owner attended most Daily Scrums. The Daily Scrum is the Developers’ event. Product Owner attendance there says little about collaboration.
B. See if the Product Owner is satisfied at the Sprint Review. Satisfaction at the end of the Sprint is too late and too indirect. It does not show how they worked together during the Sprint.
D. Set and control a required percentage of Product Owner presence. A fixed quota measures time spent, not value added. It also imposes control instead of letting the team work it out.
Exam Tip
When asked how to judge collaboration, prefer answers based on observing real interaction. Quotas and attendance logs are usually distractors.
Key Takeaways
- Product Owner collaboration happens throughout the Sprint.
- Attendance is not the same as availability.
- Observe how work actually flows rather than counting meetings.
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More PSM II exam questions
- What are two ways in which technical debt relates to velocity?
- A Scrum Team has been working together for nine Sprints. A new Product Owner comes in, unsure about his responsibilities. As the Scrum Master you have observed how the functional and business insights of the Developers have grown over the past Sprints. The Product Owner however is relatively new to the company and to the product. What are two activities you would direct the new Product Owner towards focusing on?
- During the Sprint Retrospective, the newest member of the Scrum Team says that his perspective and ideas have been ignored by the rest of the Developers throughout the Sprint. What three Scrum Values are touched here?
- The Scrum Master is a Servant Leader. How does a Scrum Master demonstrate Servant Leadership?
- You are working with multiple Scrum Teams that are working in the same code base. They suffer from coordination problems and mutual dependencies.” (PSM II)