Strategic Planning Flashcards

A product owner wants a quick, relative way to rank 40 backlog items with stakeholders. Which technique fits best?

Answer: Dot voting (multi-voting)

Dot voting lets stakeholders quickly express relative priority across many items.

Payback period analysis tells a sponsor:

Answer: How long it will take to recover the initial investment

Payback period measures the time needed for returns to equal the initial investment.

Why might an agile team release smaller increments more frequently instead of one large release?

Answer: To start earning value earlier and reduce risk through early feedback

Frequent incremental releases deliver value sooner and surface problems early.

During iteration planning, what should guide which backlog items the team selects?

Answer: The iteration goal, backlog priority, and the team's capacity

Teams select the highest-priority items that support the iteration goal and fit their capacity.

An executive asks for a three-year detailed plan with exact feature dates. What is the most appropriate agile response?

Answer: Provide a high-level roadmap with themes, and explain detail will be refined over time

Agile offers a coarse long-range roadmap and progressively elaborates detail as the work nears.

What is the main purpose of a sprint (iteration) goal in strategic planning?

Answer: To give the team a focused objective that ties iteration work to broader product goals

An iteration goal connects the iteration's work to the product strategy and gives the team flexibility in how to reach it.

Which factor makes cost of delay a useful input for prioritization?

Answer: It quantifies the value lost for each period a feature is not delivered

Cost of delay expresses the economic impact of waiting, helping teams sequence work by urgency and value.