Your agile team has been consistently meeting sprint commitments, but during a recent retrospective, team members admitted they have been padding estimates significantly to ensure they never miss a commitment. The team's capacity allows them to complete stories early, but they wait until late in the sprint to pull in additional work to avoid looking like they overcommitted. The product owner is frustrated because the team could be delivering more value. What should you do to address this behavior?

Question

Accepted Answer

The correct answer is A. Option A is correct because it addresses the underlying cultural issue of psychological safety—the team's behavior indicates fear of failure or punishment for not meeting commitments (ECO People Task 1.9). By creating a safe environment focused on learning rather than blame, and shifting language from 'commitment' to 'forecast,' you enable honest planning and optimize value delivery while building trust. Option C is incorrect because it treats the symptom (padding) rather than the cause (lack of safety), and imposing velocity targets from outside contradicts agile principles of team self-organization and self-management. This approach would likely increase gaming behavior and damage trust further rather than creating genuine improvement. Options B and D impose external controls rather than building intrinsic motivation and safety.

PMP Practice Question: People — Agile, Medium

More People Questions