What action is a scrum master encouraged to take when product owners become overly demanding?

The role of the Scrum Master is to facilitate communication and collaboration between the team and the product owner. When a product owner becomes overly demanding, it can create resentment or stress within the team. In this situation, helping the team manage the product owner’s expectations is crucial. This involves clarifying priorities, ensuring that the team understands the rationale behind certain demands, and communicating what is realistically achievable within the given time frame.

By taking this action, the Scrum Master can ensure that the team remains focused, maintains morale, and understands the product owner’s vision without being overwhelmed by excessive demands. Moreover, this approach fosters a positive relationship between the product owner and the development team, allowing for more effective collaboration and ultimately leading to better project outcomes.

The other options do not address the underlying issue effectively. Supporting all demands may lead to burnout and decreased team productivity, while ignoring demands could result in misalignment and missed deliverables. Encouraging the team to validate all demands may create unnecessary friction and could overwhelm the team with constant scrutiny of every request. Therefore, helping the team to manage the product owner’s expectations is the most effective and constructive action for a Scrum Master to take.