PSPO II Certification

PSPO II Certification deals with more practical aspects of the Product Owner role. You have 60 minutes to answer 40 multi-choice questions, the content though is mostly focused on the practical application of Scrum and the ways of maximizing product value. Several of the questions contain small case studies, they describe situations and ask you to identify the best approach to solving this by applying concepts from Scrum and Evidence-Based Management.

PSPO II Certification Focus Areas

The Professional Scrum Product Owner II (PSPO II or PSPO 2) assessment includes questions from the following key Focus Areas

Exam Details

  • Fee: $250 USD per attempt
  • Passing score: 85%
  • Time limit: 60 minutes
  • Number of Questions: 40
  • Format: Multiple Choice, Multiple Answer

Tips and Tricks for PSPO II Certification Preparation

PSPO II is an advanced level Product Owner assessment the most significant emphasis will be on Focus Areas listed under Managing Products with Agility followed by Focus Areas from Evolving the Agile Organization. PSPO II Certification Exam can be divided into 3 main areas

  1. Scrum Knowledge — including working on scale, responsibilities, and interactions with stakeholders; 
  2. Product Knowledge — how to maximize value, backlog management, and metrics; 
  3. Practical Application — questions based on real-life scenarios focus on working with stakeholders and with the Scrum Team.

Tips for Certification Preparation

  • PSPO II Quick Reference Guide and PSPO II Practice Tests – Click Here
  • Learn about Product market fit, Business strategy, Relationships with stakeholders and customers, Kanban methodology, Product Backlog management, Metrics, Working in Scale, Nexus Guide, Scrum Guide, Empirical Management, ROI, and Measuring value.
  • Review the Evidence-Based Management Guide several times until you are comfortable with the terminology, especially the idea of leading vs. lagging indicators, maximizing product value, and the four Key Value Areas (KVA).
  • Review Product Ownership: the knowledge, techniques, and practical examples shared in the book are very useful during the exam.
  • Familiarize yourself with Product Vision, Product Strategy, Product Management, Minimal Viable Product, Business Strategy, Managing Stakeholders & Customers, and Value.

Become familiar with topics that the Product Owner must master at

  • How do the product owners get from the product vision to the product strategy and goal?
  • How do product owners create a system to help them figure out what the customer thinks is worth developing? And how do Product Owners involve stakeholders and Scrum Team members in this process?
  • How do product owners achieve alignment among team members in managing and refining the product backlog?
  • How do product owners deal with the order in the product backlog? What frameworks help product owners ensure the Scrum team is always working on the most valuable work?
  • How do product owners deal with estimates, forecasts, and release planning?
  • How do product managers deal with the expectations of stakeholders?

Tips on answering questions

  • Read questions and answers very carefully, every word matters — you can be tricked easily (look out for words like: “must”, “can’t”, “may”, and “might”).
  • When answering, look for the best alternative, instead of trying to find the best answer. The context of questions is very often not clear enough.
  • There is enough time to answer questions — don’t rush, take your time. It took me about 30 minutes to go through all questions, and review provided answers.

Preferred Product Owner Stances

Stances of Product Owner by Robbin Schuurman

  • The Visionary
    • Champion the future state, possibilities, goals, and chances
    • Communicate the product vision, strategy, and Product Goal
    • Understand value and pricing models
  • The Customer Representative
    • Focus on understanding customer problems, pains, and opportunities
    • Get into the mindset of the customer, placing yourself in their world, understanding their needs
    • Deliver value by connecting product features to customer outcomes
  • The Decision Maker
    • Focus on making better decisions
    • Navigate conflicting customer feedback
  • The Collaborator
    • Seek collaboration with stakeholders and the Scrum Team
    • Work beyond the Scrum Team including contracts, finance, budgeting, and governance in an agile way
  • The Influencer
    • Lead the stakeholders, customers, and Scrum Team, to move in the right direction and to change their minds, when necessary
    • Learn how to create a stakeholder management strategy
  • The Experimenter
    • Focus on innovation through experiments, hypotheses, tests, learnings, data, and validation of value
    • Understand the Product Owner’s role in a scaled environment

Misunderstood Product Owner Stances

Articles

Purchase via UDEMY: PSPO II Practice Exams Click Here for UDEMY or TechAgilist Paid Membership.

Disclaimer: Professional Scrum™, Professional Scrum Master, PSM, PSM I,  Professional Scrum Product Owner, PSPO, PSPO I, Scrum Open, etc. is the protected brand of Scrum.org. Our content and practice exams are neither endorsed by nor affiliated with Scrum.org. All the content related to Scrum Guide is taken from scrumguides.org and is under the Attribution ShareAlike license of Creative Commons. Further information is accessible at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode and also described in summary form at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/.

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