Release Planning Meeting

Correct Answer: Recommend that the product owner prioritizes the items and then the team can forecast on the high priority items based on their velocity.

The best course of action when a product owner wants to add more items to the next release but the team isn't confident they can complete them, would be to advise the product owner to prioritize these items. Then, the team can forecast the high-priority items based on their work velocity, which is the amount of work they can reliably deliver in one sprint. This ensures the team isn't overloaded and productivity isn't sacrificed. The other options are flawed: ignoring the product owner's request defeats the purpose of the Scrum framework that embraces changes and emphasizes collaboration. Telling the team to work overtime is not sustainable in the long run and might lead to burnout or lower quality of work. Planning to add all items disregards the team's capacity, thereby risking team morale, and the quality and timeliness of deliverables.

Correct Answer: Re-estimate the remaining work including the new story and adjust the release plan accordingly.

In Scrum methodology, it is not uncommon to discover previously overlooked User Stories during a Release Planning Meeting. The key is to adapt and plan accordingly. Therefore the correct action here would be to 'Re-estimate the remaining work including the new story and adjust the release plan accordingly'. Reasons why other options are wrong: 1) 'Ignore the missed user story and continue with the existing plan': This option disregards the innate flexibility central to Scrum methodology. Ignoring a critical User Story could lead to an incomplete product or solution, undermining the value the team is trying to deliver. 2) 'Add the missed story without adjusting the existing plan': This option might lead to work overload and unrealistic expectations, and could compromise the quality of the product. It's important to re-adjust the plan whenever a new element is added 3) 'Reschedule the Release Planning Meeting': This is not necessary when just a single user story has been missed. It would be more efficient to adjust the plan and continue the ongoing Meeting. Rescheduling should happen under exceptional circumstances. However, this situation doesn't qualify as one.

Correct Answer: Discuss the issue with the Product Owner and the team to potentially break down the user story into smaller, manageable pieces

In Scrum, if a team member is concerned about the workload of a user story, it is not appropriate to ignore these concerns or insist that the work must be done as it is - this is not in keeping with the collaborative and flexible nature of Scrum. Nor is it appropriate to remove a user story from the release plan without discussing it with the Product Owner - this undermines the role of the Product Owner and could negatively impact the product. Additionally, asking a team member to work overtime to handle a large workload is not an sustainable solution and may lead to burnout. The most appropriate option is to discuss the concern with the Product Owner and the team. Possibly the user story may be too large and can be broken down into smaller, more manageable pieces. This approach addresses the concern in a collaborative and pragmatic way, which is consistent with the principles of Scrum.