Answering: “Which approach is best for Scrum Teams in order to produce valuable Increments?” (PSPO I)

Scrum Teams produce valuable Increments best when each team owns functionality from start to finish. Component-based or layer-based work leads to partial results that cannot be used alone.

Exam Question

Which approach is best for Scrum Teams in order to produce valuable Increments?
(choose the best answer)
A. Each Scrum Team is accountable for developing functionality from beginning to end.
B. Each Developer works only on the component where they feel they can contribute.
C. Each Scrum Member works only as an independent layer of the system.
D. Each Scrum Team works on an independent set of components.

Correct Answer

A. Each Scrum Team is accountable for developing functionality from beginning to end.

Why This Is the Correct Answer

A valuable Increment has to be usable. That means it must work across every layer of the system, from the user interface down to the data. A Scrum Team that owns a feature end to end can design, build, test and integrate it within one Sprint. The Scrum Guide says the Scrum Team “is responsible for all product-related activities from stakeholder collaboration, verification, maintenance, operation, experimentation, research and development, and anything else that might be required.” Splitting responsibility by component or layer creates waiting and hand-offs, and delays the moment anyone can use or judge the work.

Why the Other Options Are Wrong

B. Each Developer works only on the component where they can contribute. This narrows people to specialties. Features stall when the one specialist is busy, and no one owns the whole outcome.

C. Each member works only on one independent layer. Layers alone deliver nothing usable. Integration becomes someone else’s problem late in the process.

D. Each team works on an independent set of components. Component teams need other teams to finish any user-facing feature. That adds dependencies to every Sprint.

Exam Tip

Words like “only”, “independent layer” and “component” in team-structure options are warning signs. The right answer usually describes end-to-end ownership.

Key Takeaways

• Usable Increments come from end-to-end feature work.
• The Scrum Team owns all product-related activities.
• Layer and component splits create hand-offs.