An agile team is delivering a customer-facing mobile application using two-week sprints. After six sprints, velocity has been stable at 40 story points per sprint, but customer satisfaction scores are declining. Analysis shows that while features are being delivered on schedule, they often require significant rework in subsequent sprints after user feedback. The product owner has been accepting all stories that meet the acceptance criteria at sprint reviews. Technical debt is accumulating, and the team's Definition of Done includes unit testing and code review but no user validation. What is the BEST approach to improve customer satisfaction?

Question

Accepted Answer

The correct answer is B. Option B is correct because it addresses the root cause of customer dissatisfaction by shifting quality left and incorporating customer validation into the development process itself. Strengthening the Definition of Done to include user validation ensures that 'done' means customer-ready, not just technically complete. This aligns with agile principles of customer collaboration and delivering value. The approach also engages the product owner in creating feedback loops that prevent building the wrong thing in the first place. Option A is incorrect because hardening sprints are a waterfall anti-pattern in agile; they indicate that quality isn't being built in during regular sprints. Additionally, reducing velocity doesn't solve the problem of building features that don't meet customer needs—it just delivers fewer misaligned features. The issue isn't time but validation approach. Options C and D also miss the fundamental issue of incorporating customer feedback earlier.

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