Adding avery important item to Sprint

what happens if its not CEO but the PO itself ?

Does this addition of item impacts the Sprint Goal ? Does the PO aware about the consequences of adding it ? 

The reason PO and Dev Team work together is due to the Scrum Values.

• People personally commit to achieving the goals of the Scrum Team.
• The Scrum Team members have courage to do the right thing and work on tough problems.
• Everyone focuses on the work of the Sprint and the goals of the Scrum Team.
• The Scrum Team and its stakeholders agree to be open about all the work and the challenges with performing the work.
• Scrum Team members respect each other to be capable, independent people.

If the PO has determined that the current Sprint Goal is no longer valid, cancel the Sprint and start a new one immediately. What's the point in finishing unwanted work? Otherwise, the PO and Dev Team's motivation to alter the Sprint Backlog resides in their ability to live the values. So they gotta work together and have the courage to do the right thing.

The reason why this answer is correct is because it is up to the PO to make the final decision about the order of PBIs. If it is the PO itself, then Dev Team and PO collaborate about this situation, due to Dev Teams' ownership of Sprint Backlog, PO can not just throw new things in on its own.



Of course, PO can cancel the sprint if Sprint Goal is no longer valid, but what if it still is valid? There is a reason why as a team we commit to the Sprint Goal, but only forecast scope of the Sprint and explicit only that to not make changes that would endanger the Sprint Goal.

The CEO asks the Development Team to add a "very important" item to a Sprint that is in progress. What should the Development Team do?

In Scrum/Agile, work is never "pushed" to the Development Team.   Once the sprint starts, no one has the authority to make the Development Team work on items outside of their forecast.

From the Scrum Guide:

The Sprint Backlog... belongs solely to the Development Team.

No one can force the Development Team to work from a different set of requirements (than those identified from the Product Backlog).

Often when such a situation arises, there is a collaborative discussion between the PO and Dev Team around the value and urgency of the item.   There does not need to be a reason or fear of such a topic becoming contentious.

Ultimately though, it is solely up to the Development Team to decide if they wish to accept such a late-arriving item, regardless of it's critical-ness, and provided that it does not endanger the Sprint Goal.

and what happens if its not CEO but the PO itself ?

Wouldn’t a good Product Owner seek the opinion of the Development Team before deciding what is important that Sprint?

Thank you all for your thoughts