Which of the following two actions should the Scrum Master support?

In the Sprint Planning meeting, the Product Owner and the Development Team were unable to reach a clear understanding about the highest order Product Backlog items. Because of this, the Development Team couldn’t figure out how many Product Backlog items it could forecast for the upcoming Sprint. They were able to agree on a Sprint Goal, however.

Which of the following two actions should the Scrum Master support? (Choose two.)
A . Cancel the Sprint. Send the entire team to an advanced Scrum training and then start a new Sprint.
B . Forecast the most likely Product Backlog items to meet the goal and create a Sprint Backlog based on a likely initial design and plan. Once the time-box for the Sprint Planning meeting is over, start the Sprint and continue to analyze, decompose, and create additional functionality during the Sprint.
C . Continue the Sprint Planning meeting past its time-box until an adequate number of Product Backlog items are well enough understood for the Development Team to make a complete forecast. Then start the Sprint.
D . Discuss in the upcoming Sprint Retrospective why this happened and what changes will make it less likely to recur.
E . Ask everyone to take as much time as needed to analyze the Product Backlog first, and then reconvene another Sprint Planning meeting.

View Answer

Answer: B,D

Explanation:

According to the Scrum Guide1, the Sprint Planning meeting has a time-box of eight hours or less for

a one-month Sprint. The Scrum Master ensures that the meeting is time-boxed and keeps the Scrum Team focused on the objective. If the Development Team cannot forecast how many Product Backlog items it can complete, it should still start the Sprint and work on the most likely items to meet the Sprint Goal. The Sprint Backlog can be updated throughout the Sprint as more is learned. The Scrum Master should also support the team to discuss the reasons for the lack of clarity in the Product Backlog items and how to prevent it from happening again in the next Sprint Retrospective.

Reference: Scrum Guide