How should a Scrum Team handle technical debt during Sprint Planning?
- The team should secretly include technical debt work without informing the Product Owner
- Technical debt should never be addressed; all time should be spent on new features
- The Product Owner should prioritize technical debt items like any other Product Backlog item ✓
- Technical debt should be addressed outside of the Sprint
Correct answer: The Product Owner should prioritize technical debt items like any other Product Backlog item
In Scrum, the Product Backlog is the single ordered list of everything that might be needed in the product, and the Product Owner is accountable for its content and prioritization. Technical debt items should be represented as Product Backlog items and prioritized by the Product Owner against other work, which makes Option C correct. Option A is incorrect because transparency is a core Scrum value and the Development Team must never hide work from the Product Owner; doing so undermines trust and sprint planning integrity. Option B is incorrect because ignoring technical debt accumulates risk over time, degrades product quality, and conflicts with the Scrum principle of sustainable development. Option D is incorrect because work done outside the Sprint is not inspected at the Sprint Review and is not part of the defined Scrum process, making it unaccountable and unmeasurable.
Topic: · scrum, product backlog, technical debt, sprint planning