What should the agile practitioner do?

Agile principles emphasize just-in-time (JIT) planning and design, meaning work should not begin until it ' s pulled into the current sprint or iteration. According to the PMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 5.4 Iteration Planning) and Mike Griffiths (Chapter 6: Adaptive Planning), teams should focus on committed iteration work and avoid speculative work that is not yet planned or prioritized.

Designing item B early introduces unvalidated assumptions and risks rework if priorities or requirements change. Agile encourages deferring decisions until the last responsible moment to preserve flexibility.

Option A is correct: the team should wait until item B is formally planned before investing effort.

Option B violates agile principles by introducing premature work.

Option C and D suggest formal escalation that is unnecessary and not in the spirit of agile’s decentralized decision-making.