An agile team must implement mandated changes to key government products within six months. What should the team lead do next?

The correct answer is to define high-level epics for the requirements and start backlog grooming sessions. This is the most appropriate next step in an agile context for a new, mandated project with a tight deadline. Defining high-level epics provides an initial understanding of the large-scale requirements without getting bogged down in excessive detail, which is crucial given the six-month timeframe. Starting backlog grooming sessions immediately allows the team to refine these epics into smaller, actionable stories, estimate them, and begin prioritizing, ensuring that the most valuable work is tackled first. Developing a project charter and SOW (Statement of Work) is more aligned with traditional project management and less with agile practices, especially for an internal team. Writing only stories for the next sprint and postponing epics is premature; the team needs an overarching view of the work before diving into individual sprint planning. Creating all necessary stories and adding them to the backlog is inefficient and often leads to wasted effort, as requirements can change. Agile emphasizes progressive elaboration.