PMP Practice: Obtain Stakeholder Agreement on Scope

In agile environments, the sprint planning session is a collaborative event where the product owner and development team negotiate what can be accomplished within the sprint. When new work is introduced during sprint planning that threatens the established sprint goal or capacity, the project manager should facilitate a discussion to explore options. This includes understanding the business value of the new stories, assessing their definition and readiness, and determining whether the sprint goal needs adjustment or if these stories should be deferred. The team and product owner need to reach consensus on what is achievable and valuable. Since Dante is present and engaged, and the team has legitimate concerns about story readiness and sprint capacity, facilitated dialogue is the appropriate first step to resolve the competing priorities collaboratively.

**Why not B:** While deferring to the next sprint may ultimately be the outcome, this decision should emerge from collaborative discussion rather than being made unilaterally by the project manager. The product owner has expressed urgency, and the team needs clarity now during sprint planning, not a postponed decision.

**Why not C:** This approach introduces unnecessary bureaucracy and delays resolution. Agile teams are empowered to make sprint commitment decisions collaboratively without requiring sponsor approval for backlog priority changes. Escalation would be premature when the people who need to reach agreement are already present in the sprint planning session.

**Why not D:** While estimation may be part of the discussion, jumping straight to sizing exercises before clarifying whether the stories are sufficiently defined or whether they should replace or complement the existing sprint goal puts the cart before the horse. The team has already flagged that the stories are not well-defined, making estimation premature and potentially wasteful.