Fibonacci Sequence

Correct Answer: The team may be falling into the 'anchoring' cognitive bias where initial estimates influence subsequent estimates.

The question here relates to the common issues of Agile Scrum methodologies, particularly related to estimation. It's important in Scrum to create accurate estimates, but it's also difficult due to many variable factors. The statement 'The team has been using the Fibonacci sequence for estimation but the Product Owner feels the estimations are running too high' implies a cognitive or systematic problem rather than an issue with the Fibonacci sequence itself. It suggests the team may be falling into the 'anchoring' cognitive bias, where initial estimates influence subsequent estimates thus leading to higher overall estimates. This answer provides a plausible cause according to the Scrum Guide and Agile principles. The answer 'The team might be overestimating work purposefully to have less workload' can be incorrect unless there is evidence or behavior indicating such intent. Saying 'The Fibonacci sequence is incorrect and another estimating system should be used' isn't necessarily true as the Fibonacci sequence is widely accepted in the Agile community for complexity estimation purposes, the issue is more likely with how the team is applying it. The answer 'The user stories are too small and thus overestimated' assumes the problem lies in the size of user stories, however, the question doesn't provide any information about the actual size of user stories, and so it's an unlikely cause of overestimation.

Correct Answer: Re-estimate it with the next highest number in the Fibonacci series.

In Scrum, the Fibonacci sequence is used for story estimation because of its mathematical properties where each number is approximately 1.618 times greater than the one before it, which matches how our understanding of complexity grows. If the complexity of a user story increases substantially upon technical discussion, it means the initial estimation was not accurate. In this case, it's necessary to re-estimate it with the next highest number in the Fibonacci series. The other alternatives are not suitable for the following reasons: Keeping the initial estimation as it's not good to change would not reflect the real complexity of the task. Doubling the initial estimate doesn't conform to the Fibonacci series which is used in agile estimation processes. And setting it to the maximum number in the Fibonacci series used by the team could lead to an overestimation, affecting the team's planning and productivity adversely.

Correct Answer: 5

The correct answer is '5'. In the Agile methodology, story points are usually estimated using the Fibonacci sequence, which goes 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13 and so on. If after discussion the team agrees that the story is more complex than a 3-point story, the next number in the Fibonacci sequence would be 5. Hence, the new estimate for this story should be 5 points. Answers '2', '3' and '1' are incorrect as they are either the same as or less than the current story point estimate and do not reflect an increase in complexity.