TOPIC: Question - what if a team can complete more story points than expected?

Hello everyone, I saw this question and was wondering what would be the best answer:

A project team estimates that they should complete 30 story points in the current iteration. Partway through the iteration they realize that they will complete 50 story points at their current rate. The team should:
A. Shorten the iteration to meet the estimated velocity.
B. Continue to work with the estimated velocity.
C. Increase their estimated velocity.
D. Release members to meet the estimated velocity.

Would it make sense for the team to shorten this particular iteration upon finishing all 30 story points so they can start planning for the next iteration earlier? Thank you.

Hi VY

Was this question on your exam?

No, I saw it on a couple of websites that provide sample practice questions. I haven't taken the exam yet.

Thanks for confirming.

In my view it’s B

Thank you. But if the team is able to complete more, I guess that means let say the iteration is a 2-week timeframe, then the team can complete earlier than expected (e.g. 1.5 weeks instead of 2 weeks). Is my understanding correct? If that's the case, then shouldn't the team shorten the iteration to 1.5 weeks and start the next sprint earlier? Or else what would the team do with the extra time they have left from the sprint (e.g 0.5 weeks)?

There is often a lot of planning based on the sprints themselves so changing the length can have knock on effects.
If the team completes the iteration early there is always more to do whether that's pulling the next item from the prioritised backlog, value add tasks like refactoring, exploration spikes, or increasing automation, unit tests, documentation, etc