Value-based Prioritization

Correct Answer: Discourage the team from picking the easy item first and advise on valuing items based on potential ROI

In Agile Scrum, it's not always about just ease of implementation. Factors like return on investment (ROI) also play a significant role in prioritizing features. The Scrum Master should guide the team in being disciplined about prioritizing tasks based on value, not just based on ease of implementation. Hence, 'Discouraging the team from picking the easy item first and advising on valuing items based on potential ROI' is the correct route 'Suggesting the team to develop the less effort feature first' can lead to a quick win, but might not be strategically best if the feature's value is much lower. 'Insisting the team to tackle the more complex feature first despite the effort required' might not necessarily be the best approach either, unless that feature has a much higher return on investment and is strategically important. 'Asking the team to work on both features at the same time' might not be practical. The idea in Scrum is to work on a small set of features to completion. This ensures a product increment is always potentially shippable and provides the ability to release value to customers at the end of each sprint.

Correct Answer: Facilitate a discussion with the Product Owner and team to weigh the long-term strategic value against the short-term business value, and come to a consensus decision.

The best approach is to facilitate a discussion with the Product Owner and the team to weigh the long-term strategic value against the short-term business value, and come to a consensus decision. As a Scrum Master, your role is to coach and guide the team, not to make decisions for them. Prioritizing only the long-term vision or only the immediate business value may not lead to the best outcome. The decision should not be escalated to senior management, as it is within the scope of the Scrum Team to make product decisions collaboratively. The Scrum Master should encourage the team to consider both aspects and find a solution that balances the short-term and long-term goals.

Correct Answer: The team might be focusing on activities not aligned with value-based prioritization

The most probable reason why the Scrum Team is always busy but stakeholders are discontent with value delivery could be that 'The team might be focusing on activities not aligned with value-based prioritization'. Scrum teams follow value-based prioritization to ensure they are always working on the tasks providing the most value. If they focus on other activities, they may be busy, but not delivering as much value as expected. The other options 'Stakeholders have unreasonable expectations', 'The team is inefficient and unable to deliver', and 'The Scrum Master is not managing properly' could be reasons, but those assume errors or inadequacies in the stakeholders, team or Scrum Master. The original question does not provide enough evidence to assume these issues, making them less probable reasons.