SAFe Product Owner/Product Manager (POPM) Certification Practice Test

The correct response highlights a significant anti-pattern associated with backlog management in Agile practices. When teams do not dedicate sufficient time to refining the backlog, they risk entering new iterations with inadequately prepared user stories. This lack of preparedness can lead to confusion, unproductivity, and an inability to deliver value.

Prepared user stories are essential for teams as they provide clear acceptance criteria and ensure that everyone has a mutual understanding of what needs to be accomplished during the iteration. If stories are not refined, teams may find themselves struggling during the iterations, dealing with ambiguities or incomplete tasks, which ultimately impacts their ability to meet sprint goals.

The other options, while they may reflect issues that could emerge in team dynamics, do not directly correlate with the systematic negligence of backlog refinement. Arriving without progress or goals in a sync or iteration review points to broader communication or planning issues, whereas lacking improvement ideas during retrospectives tends to relate to reflective practice rather than the specific issue of backlog readiness. Thus, the emphasis on refining the backlog directly ties into the experience of having enough well-prepared user stories as teams embark on new iterations.