PSPO II

The Professional Scrum Product Owner II certification, commonly known as PSPO II, is Scrum.org’s medium level certification for Product Owner.
Those awarded with it are certified:

an advanced level of Product Ownership
an understanding of value maximization and delivery

BASIC INFO

Duration: 60 minutes
Questions: 40; multiple-choice, multi-select, true/false
Passing score: 85%
Number of certification holders: 1,000+

ABOUT THE QUESTIONS

In PSPO I, the questions deal with direct facts from the Scrum Guide. They focus on the very literal job of the Product Owner in Scrum. In contrast, PSPO II deals with more practical aspects of the Product Owner position. Several of the questions contain small case studies: they describe situations and ask you to identify the best approach to solving this is by applying concepts from Scrum and Evidence-Based Management.

The key areas that are addressed by the questions are:

Evidence-Based Management
Stakeholder management
Product Ownership in scaled environments
Value Maximization

Most of the questions with multi-select options, i.e. those where many answers are correct, will inform you how many answers to select. For example, they will state “(choose the best three answers)”. There are, however, also a few questions asking you to “(choose all that apply)”.

HOW TO PREPARE FOR PSPO II

PSPO II is an advanced exam and while it can be passed well without attending a dedicated PSPO-A training session, such a session may be helpful in getting a more well-connected overview of the Scrum framework. It will also allow you to revisit the different aspects of the role of the Product Owner.

Read the Scrum Guide multiple times until you are comfortable with its terminology and the concepts it describes. Special focus should be placed on the sections concerning the topics listed above. For a comprehensive analysis of the Scrum Guide, read The Scrum Guide Explained.

Review the Evidence-Based Management Guide several times until you are comfortable with the terminology, especially the idea of leading vs. lagging indicators and the four Key Value Areas (KVA).

To understand the role of the Product Owner more thoroughly, especially regarding what is and is not their job with regard to stakeholders, it is useful to review the Product Owner Stances. The posts provide an overview over common anti-patterns Product Owners may fall into, as well as better alternative stances for Scrum Masters to take. Furthermore, the Product Owner Maturity Model is helpful to review.

Use the practice quiz provided below.

PSPO II PRACTICE QUIZ

760

PSPO II

1 / 30

Which statement best describes the Key Value Area of Current Value (CV)? (Select the best answer.)

It seeks to quantify the organization’s ability to deliver new capabilities, products or services quickly.

It seeks to quantify the potential future value the organization could realize by meeting the needs of all potential customers perfectly.

It seeks to quantify the ability to deliver new capabilities that may more closely match the needs of the customer.

It seeks to quantify the value that the product is delivering to customers as this point.

2 / 30

Upper management approaches you for advice on the following situation: Two Products, A and B, are in different markets.
Product A generates high earnings for your organization and has a high ROI. The Current Value (CV) is high, but the Unrealized Value (UV) is low.
Product B is new, has low Current Value (CV) but high Unrealized Value (UV).
The Product Owner of both products compete for funding for further development. What is the best advice to give to the management? (Select the best answer.)

Invest significantly more in Product B, as it holds more opportunities for your organization.

Split the funding 50/50.

Split the funding based on revenue and ROI.

Invest significantly more in Product A, as it is the flagship product of your organization.

3 / 30

Which of the following is the best measure of whether an agile transformation is effective or not? (Select the best answer.)

The number of Scrum Teams.

The number of on-time, on-budget, and on-scope projects.

All provided answers are correct..

Average team velocity.

Customer outcomes.

4 / 30

Which of the following can help understand the market potential of a product? (Select the best answer.)

Usage Index

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Market Share trends

Revenue trends

All provided answers are correct.

5 / 30

Of the following stances of a Product Owner, which are considered preferred? (Select all that apply.)

The Visionary

The Decision Maker

The Subject Matter Expert

The Story Writer

The Collaborator

6 / 30

Which of the following is a benefit of applying Scrum? (Select the best answer.)

Increasing team velocity.

Managing team member utilization.

Ensuring on-time and in-scope delivery.

All provided answers are correct..

Managing risk.

7 / 30

What can help you improve product viability and business value? (Select the best answer.)

Improving the predictability of Development Team velocity.

Using Evidence-Based Management.

Ensuring no changes are made after project plan approval.

Monitoring Development Team member utilization.

8 / 30

Which of the following is a desired outcome of applying Evidence-Based Management (EBM)? (Select the best answer.)

Improving the Development Team’s velocity and predictability.

Continuously improve product viability and business value by ways of measuring delivered value and the ability to deliver value.

Identifying low performing teams and decide on training strategies.

Measuring team progress against the predefined project plan.

9 / 30

Which of the following types of measures is the most important one to a Product Owner? (Select the best answer.)

Measures reflecting changes to the business aspects of the product.

Measurements of the quantity of features being delivered.

Measurements on the utilization rate of the Development Team.

10 / 30

How is the role of the Product Owner affected when scaling Scrum? (Select all that apply.)

The Product Owner role can be scaled through delegation of responsibilities to the Development Team.

There is only one Product Backlog for each Product.

There may be multiple Product Owners.

Each Product must have a Product Owner. One Product Owner may own multiple products.

11 / 30

Which Key Value Area (KVA) is impacted by the Development Team members’ need to switch between tasks and the frequency of them being iterrupted? (Select the best answer.)

Current Value

Ability to Innovate

Time to Market

Unrealized Value

12 / 30

Direct interaction with the customers of the product is an effective way for the Product Owner to assess value.

FALSE

TRUE

13 / 30

Business value improvement is a desired outcome of adopting Scrum.

TRUE

FALSE

14 / 30

Paul the Product Owner notices sales of his product declining. He also learns that the competitor’s product is increasing in sales. Which Key Value Area (KVA) can assist Paul to analyze the situation and decide on next steps? (Select the best two answers.)

Current Value

Time to Market

Unrealized Value

Ability to Innovate

15 / 30

Which of the following measures may be helpful in identifying an organization’s improvement potential regarding ability to respond to change? (Select all that apply.)

Technical Debt

Cycle time

Revenue per employee

Velocity

16 / 30

Which of the following actions can improve your organization’s Ability to Innovate (A2I)? (Select the best answer.)

Co-locating the team members.

Ensuring your teams’ cross-functionality of skills.

All provided answers are correct..

Setting days where there are no meetings outside of the Scrum events.Defining days where no meetings may take place. (Scrum events excluded)

17 / 30

To seize a newly emerged market opportunity, value delivery has to speed up at least temporarily.
Managers are proposing mandatory overtime, others adding new freelance staff, yet others lowering the definition of “Done”.
What is the most appropriate action to take in this situation? (Select the best answer.)

All provided answers are correct..

Work with HR to increase the number of staff.

Analyze and optimize the Development Team’s utilization rates.

Analyze the entire production process and identify bottlenecks slowing value delivery down. Do this using Value Stream Mapping (VSM).

Let management mandate overtime but let them define a duration.

18 / 30

Your product is the market leader in its field and you are constantly releasing new features. Customers have noted recently that they cannot adopt the new features as fast as they are being delivered. At the same time your Development Team has noted that the level of technical debt has been rising. What is the best approach in this situation? (Select the best answer.)

Reduce the frequency of releases.

Assist the customer in more quickly adopting the new features. Add support staff if necessary.

Invest time in reducing technical debt. Doing so is not unreasonably risky at the moment and it will lead to more long term stability of the system and the development speed.

19 / 30

When value is measured infrequently, what type of indicator does it become?

Lagging

Leading

20 / 30

Given the current velocity of the Development Team, the Product Owner projects the remaining items to be completed within six Sprints. Will the project deliver the desired impact after these six Sprints? (Select the best answer.)

Yes

We do not know.

21 / 30

Team A has an average velocity of 25. Team B has an average velocity of 36. Which team is delivering more value? (Chosoe the best answer.)

Team A

It’s not possible to determine that with the data provided.

Team B

22 / 30

Which Key Value Areas (KVA) should you focus on if your recent releases have mostly consisted of minor changes and bug fixes? (Select the best two answers.)

Unrealized Value

Ability to Innovate

Current Value

Time to Market

23 / 30

The Product Owner has the final decision on whether or not an Increment is “Done”.

FALSE

TRUE

24 / 30

Which of the following describes a desired and realistic outcome of adopting Scrum? (Select the best answer.)

Maximization of predictability.

Decrease in non-value-adding waste.

Eliminiation of business risk exposure.

All provided answers are correct..

25 / 30

Experimentation can help a Product Owner to: (Select all that apply.)

Reduce waste.

Have complete certainty as to the future success of a product.

Make decisions on whether to invest and build something.

Understand the Product/Market fit and business viability of a product.

26 / 30

Product A has a high user satisfaction score and high market share.
Product B has a low user satisfaction score and low market share, but also few competitors with significant market share in the growing market.

Considering the two products are in two different markets, which product should receive more funding for further development. (Select the best answer.)

Product A

Product B

27 / 30

Which of the following measurements may help in understanding why a release is failing to generate the expected revenue? (Select the best answer.)

Innovation Rate

Lead Time

Usage Index

Release Frequency

28 / 30

How can the use of personas assist in making product decisions? (Select the best answer.)

They can help understand market potential.

They are useful in formulating a hypothesis about expected value.

All provided answers are correct.

They help understand the needs of customers.

29 / 30

Which statement best describes the Sprint Review? (Select the best answer.)

An opportunity for the Product Owner to evaluate the results of the Development Team.

A demonstration of functionality completed in the Sprint.

An inspection of all of the work done in the Sprint by the Development Team.

An opportunity to inspect the Increment and adapt the Product Backlog.

30 / 30

Which Key Value Area (KVA) is impacted by the need to support multiple versions of a product, which requires significant time. (Select the best answer.)

Revenue per Employee

Ability to Innovation

Cycle Time

All provided answers are correct.

Velocity

Your score is