PMP · Question #323
A project team has recently completed the initial sprint for developing an automated payroll system for a company. The project manager has scheduled a sprint planning meeting with the product owner an
The correct answer is B. Sprint goal D. Product backlog. For a productive sprint planning meeting, the project manager needs a clear product backlog, which lists all prioritized work, and a defined sprint goal, which outlines the objective for the upcoming sprint.
Question
A project team has recently completed the initial sprint for developing an automated payroll system for a company. The project manager has scheduled a sprint planning meeting with the product owner and team members to discuss which features should be worked on next. Which two pieces of information does the project manager need in order to make this meeting productive and effective? (Choose two.)
Options
- ACompany mission and vision
- BSprint goal
- CSprint charter
- DProduct backlog
- EBurndown chart
How the community answered
(16 responses)- B81% (13)
- C6% (1)
- E13% (2)
Why each option
For a productive sprint planning meeting, the project manager needs a clear product backlog, which lists all prioritized work, and a defined sprint goal, which outlines the objective for the upcoming sprint.
Company mission and vision are high-level strategic guides, but they are too broad for the detailed, tactical planning of individual sprints.
The Sprint Goal is essential as it defines the single objective for the sprint, guiding the team's selection of Product Backlog Items and fostering coherence and focus during the sprint.
A sprint charter is not a standard Scrum artifact or a required input for sprint planning; it's a general project management term not specific to sprint-level planning.
The Product Backlog is the single source of truth for all work to be done on the product. In sprint planning, the team pulls items from the top of this prioritized backlog to form the Sprint Backlog, based on the Sprint Goal and their capacity.
A burndown chart tracks remaining work in a sprint or release and is used for monitoring progress *during* or *after* a sprint, not as an input for planning the *next* sprint.
Concept tested: Agile Sprint Planning inputs (Scrum)
Source: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/boards/sprints/define-sprint
Topics
Community Discussion
5
Bao N.Apr 9, 2026Confirmed B and D on multiple practice sets. The sprint goal sets the focus for what the upcoming sprint needs to achieve, and the product backlog is what you actually pull work from during planning. A trips people up because mission and vision sound important, but they are way too high level for sprint planning. C is a distractor since there is no formal artifact called a sprint charter, and E, the burndown chart, is for tracking progress mid-sprint, not for deciding what to work on next.
Viktor S.Apr 7, 2026A is the right call here because the sprint planning meeting is fundamentally about aligning the next chunk of work with where the organization is headed, and you cannot prioritize features intelligently without the company mission and vision as your north star. The whole point of an automated payroll system is that it serves business objectives, so the PM needs that strategic context to guide the conversation with the product owner.
Bao N.Apr 7, 2026Actually B and D are the correct picks here. Sprint planning is tactical and focused on the backlog items for the upcoming sprint, so the project manager needs the prioritized product backlog and the team's available capacity, not the high-level mission and vision which belong in earlier roadmap and product vision discussions.
Anjali D.Mar 25, 2026Our study group circled B and D pretty hard, since sprint planning basically lives or dies on having a clear sprint goal and a prioritized product backlog to pull from. A few folks pushed back on D, arguing the backlog should already be groomed before you walk in, so it's more of a prerequisite than something you bring to the meeting itself. I actually think E deserves more love than it's getting in our thread, because the burndown chart from the sprint that just ended tells you exactly how much work the team realistically burns through, which directly shapes how much you commit to next time
Bao N.Mar 26, 2026B and D are correct because sprint planning requires the sprint goal to anchor the conversation and the prioritized backlog to pull work from, even if some grooming happened beforehand. On E, the prior sprint's burndown is useful context but velocity from completed sprints is what actually guides commitment, not the chart itself.