Inform the Product Owner so he/she can work with the vice president as they evaluate the request's urgency, determine if it warrants Sprint cancellation, decide on appropriate prioritization, and protect the team's focus while addressing business needs, and thus maintain the proper Scrum process and chain of communication.

Continuous Collaboration Between Developers and Product Owners

In Agile development, learning and adaptation are constant. When new information emerges:

1. Mandatory Negotiation Process
   • Developers must proactively communicate proposed changes.
   • Product Owners maintain final decision authority.
   • Both parties collaborate to assess the impact on: business value, timeline, and resource allocation.
2. Developer Responsibilities
   The development team should:
   • Surface concerns as soon as they're identified.
   • Provide data-driven rationale for changes.
   • Suggest alternative solutions.
   • Estimate impact on current Sprint commitments.
3. Product Owner Engagement
   Effective POs will:
   • Remain available for timely discussions.
   • Consider technical feedback seriously.
   • Make informed decisions balancing customer needs, business objectives, and technical feasibility.

Key Principle: Changes aren't made unilaterally — they're negotiated through transparent dialogue while respecting each role's expertise and responsibilities.

The best way to estimate Product Backlog Items (PBIs) is in story points, while Sprint Backlog Tasks are the smallest units of work and are typically allocated in hours

User stories, use cases, and features are higher-level items and are usually allocated in story points, not in hours.

However, story points are less effective at the Sprint level. During Sprint Planning, the goal is for the team to commit to a realistic amount of work. Abstract units like story points make this difficult, whereas hours provide a concrete way to gauge capacity and ensure feasibility.