What should the Product Owner bring to Sprint Planning?

• A. A business objective for the upcoming Sprint and related Product Backlog items
• B. The final code for the Increment
• C. The sprint backlog fully detailed
• D. The Developers' tasks assigned

Answer: (A)

The main thing being tested is the Product Owner’s role in Sprint Planning: to articulate a clear objective for the upcoming sprint and identify the highest-priority backlog items that will help achieve that objective. By presenting a concrete Sprint Goal and the related Product Backlog items, along with acceptance criteria and the business value of completing them, the Product Owner gives the Developers a focused direction and a basis for forecasting what can be accomplished in the sprint. The team can then select items they believe they can deliver to meet the goal.

Bringing the final code for the Increment isn’t appropriate at Sprint Planning because the Increment isn’t complete yet; development happens during the sprint to produce a potentially shippable Increment. The sprint backlog isn’t something the Product Owner fully details in advance; it’s the Developers’ plan for how to deliver the chosen backlog items during the sprint, created during planning. And tasks shouldn’t be assigned top-down to Developers; Scrum emphasizes self-organization, with the team collectively deciding and breaking down work as needed to meet the Sprint Goal.