SSM Practice Test 13 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A SAFe Scrum Master/Team Coach is supporting an Agile Team that is struggling with internal conflicts and low trust. The team often blames individuals for missed commitments and avoids open discussion during retrospectives. Which TWO actions should the Scrum Master take to improve the team's health? (Choose two.)

Choose an answer to begin — your selection is scored in the full session.

Accepted Answer

Facilitate a team-building session focused on psychological safety and shared norms, using techniques like working agreements and conflict resolution.. The Scrum Master should facilitate a team-building session on psychological safety and model constructive conflict. These actions directly build trust, establish shared norms, and teach the team how to engage in healthy disagreement. They address the root causes of blame and avoidance, empowering the team to improve their own dynamics. Punitive or avoidant measures would worsen the situation.

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Publicly reprimand the individuals who blame others, to set an example of acceptable behavior.

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Recommend that the team skip retrospectives until they can interact without conflict, to avoid further tension.

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Ask the Release Train Engineer to reassign the most vocal team members to other teams to reduce friction.

Question 2

During a SAFe PI Planning event, an Agile Team's Scrum Master / Team Coach observes that the team is hesitant to commit to Iteration Goals for the upcoming PI because they fear being blamed if they miss them. The team has a history of missed commitments. What should the Scrum Master do to support the team in making realistic commitments?

Accepted Answer

Facilitate a discussion about the team's past PI Objectives and help them identify the causes of missed commitments, then use that insight to set achievable objectives.. The Scrum Master / Team Coach should help the team learn from past PI Objectives and set achievable ones through facilitated reflection. This builds psychological safety and improves forecasting. Encouraging under-commitment, repeating objectives, or outsourcing commitment to the RTE all fail to address the team's fear and undermine ownership of PI Objectives.

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Ask the Release Train Engineer to set the team's PI Objectives based on program priorities so the team is not placed in a position of having to commit.

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Remind the team that PI Objectives are commitments and that missing them will be visible to management, so they should under-commit to be safe.

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Commit to the same objectives as the previous PI to demonstrate consistency, and tell the team that the Scrum Master will take responsibility for any misses.

Question 3

A SAFe Scrum Master / Team Coach is working with a team that has recently adopted SAFe. The team is struggling to understand how their role fits into the larger Agile Release Train. Which TWO actions should the Scrum Master / Team Coach take to help the team connect with the ART? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Facilitate the team's participation in PI Planning and help them prepare their iteration plans and objectives.. The Scrum Master / Team Coach helps the team connect with the ART by facilitating their participation in PI Planning and System Demos. These events provide the context for alignment, dependency management, and feedback across teams. Encouraging active involvement in these cadences builds the team's understanding of how their work contributes to the train's objectives and fosters collaboration.

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Ask the Release Train Engineer to assign the team a mentor from another team to explain SAFe.

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Instruct the team to focus solely on their own iteration goals and avoid distractions from other teams.

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Coach the team to establish and maintain their team board and information radiators for transparency.

Question 4

A SAFe Scrum Master / Team Coach is working with an Agile Team that has a strong technical lead who makes most of the technical decisions and often overrides the team's input during Iteration Planning. Other team members have stopped voicing opinions. What should the Scrum Master do to address this situation?

Accepted Answer

Speak with the technical lead privately to share observations about the team's reduced participation, and coach them on how to facilitate shared decision-making during planning.. The Scrum Master / Team Coach should address the imbalance through private coaching and by helping the technical lead facilitate broader participation. Public confrontation, escalation, or formalizing the lead's authority all fail to build a healthier team dynamic. Coaching the individual while modeling inclusive behaviors best supports self-management.

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Report the technical lead's behavior to the Release Train Engineer and request that the lead be removed from the team to restore balance.

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Assign the technical lead as the team's facilitator for all Iteration Planning sessions so they can formally own the decision-making process.

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During the next Iteration Planning, publicly ask other team members to challenge the technical lead's decisions to ensure all voices are heard.

Question 5

A newly formed Agile Team in a SAFe ART has a Scrum Master / Team Coach who notices that during the first two Iterations the team members look to the Scrum Master for direction on every technical decision and wait for permission before pulling work. The Scrum Master wants to establish the appropriate servant-leadership stance. Which action best demonstrates the Scrum Master / Team Coach role in this situation?

Accepted Answer

Coach the team on self-organization by asking questions that help them decide how to pull and manage work themselves.. A SAFe Scrum Master / Team Coach is a servant leader who builds the team's ability to self-organize. When members wait for direction, the coach uses questions and teaching rather than commands. Assigning work, escalating readiness, or permanently owning facilitation all reinforce dependency instead of developing the team's own decision-making capability.

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Take over facilitation of all team ceremonies and personally assign the Iteration Goals until the team matures.

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Escalate to the Release Train Engineer that the team is not yet ready to participate in the ART.

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Assign each developer a specific task every morning and verify completion before the next stand-up.

Question 6

An Agile Team in a SAFe ART has been consistently delivering value, but the Scrum Master / Team Coach notices that the team rarely interacts with other teams during the PI. As a result, dependencies are discovered late and cause delays. What should the Scrum Master do to improve cross-team collaboration?

Accepted Answer

Encourage team members to attend the ART Sync and use the Program Board during PI Planning to make dependencies visible and coordinate with other teams.. The Scrum Master / Team Coach should coach the team to use SAFe's built-in coordination mechanisms: the Program Board for visualizing dependencies and the ART Sync for addressing them. These tools foster direct cross-team collaboration. Delegating to the Product Owner, refusing dependent work, or adding redundant meetings all fail to improve the team's ability to coordinate effectively.

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Instruct the team to stop accepting any work that involves other teams until the ART improves its dependency management process.

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Ask the Product Owner to represent the team at all cross-team meetings so developers can stay focused on delivering Stories.

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Schedule daily cross-team stand-ups with all Scrum Masters in the ART to discuss dependencies, and require each team to report blockers to the RTE.

Question 7

During a PI Planning session, an Agile Team's Scrum Master notices that two team members are dominating the conversation and dismissing input from quieter members. The team is at risk of missing key dependencies with another team. As the Scrum Master / Team Coach, what is the most appropriate action to take?

Accepted Answer

Use a facilitation technique such as round-robin or silent brainstorming to ensure all members contribute, then explicitly ask the team to identify and record cross-team dependencies.. The Scrum Master / Team Coach facilitates effective team interactions, especially during critical events like PI Planning. Using inclusive facilitation techniques and prompting the team to identify dependencies keeps ownership with the team while ensuring all perspectives are heard. This approach addresses both the behavioral issue and the practical risk of missed dependencies, without taking over or ignoring the problem.

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Interrupt the dominant members and take over the discussion to ensure all voices are heard and dependencies are captured.

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Allow the conversation to continue as is, since the team is self-organizing and the Scrum Master should not intervene in team dynamics.

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Privately speak with the dominant members after the session and ask them to apologize to the team for their behavior.

Question 8

A Scrum Master / Team Coach is helping an Agile Team improve its collaboration with the Product Owner. The team complains that backlog items are unclear and priorities shift mid-Iteration. Which TWO actions best fulfill the Scrum Master / Team Coach role in this situation? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Coach the Product Owner and team on backlog refinement practices so items are ready before Iteration Planning.. The Scrum Master / Team Coach improves collaboration by coaching the Product Owner and team on backlog refinement and by facilitating a shared agreement on how scope changes are handled during an Iteration. These actions address unclear items and shifting priorities at their source. Directing the Product Owner, taking over refinement, or escalating for a replacement bypasses coaching and undermines the team's ownership and the Product Owner's accountability.

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Instruct the Product Owner to stop changing priorities and freeze the backlog for the entire Program Increment.

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Escalate to the Release Train Engineer that the Product Owner is not performing and request a replacement.

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Take over backlog refinement meetings and write the acceptance criteria for each story on behalf of the team.

Question 9

An Agile Team's Scrum Master / Team Coach observes that the team consistently treats the Iteration Retrospective as a status meeting, reviewing completed Stories and reporting metrics to the Product Owner instead of improving their process. The Scrum Master wants to correct this behavior and restore the ceremony's purpose. What should the Scrum Master / Team Coach do?

Accepted Answer

Teach the team the purpose of the Retrospective and facilitate it so they reflect on how they work and choose improvement actions.. The Iteration Retrospective is the team's dedicated time to inspect how it works and adapt its process. When it degrades into status reporting, the Scrum Master / Team Coach must re-teach its purpose and facilitate genuine reflection that produces improvement actions. Cancelling it, excluding the Product Owner, or delegating it to the RTE all fail to restore the team's ownership of continuous improvement.

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Ask the Product Owner to stop attending team ceremonies so the team can discuss process issues freely.

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Cancel the Retrospective and replace it with a metrics review so the team still has time to inspect progress.

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Report the team's process problems to the Release Train Engineer and let the RTE run the next Retrospective.

Question 10

Priya is the Scrum Master / Team Coach for the Payments Agile Team on an ART. During a mid-Iteration check-in, she notices the team has completed nine of ten planned Stories, but the last Story has been 'In Progress' for six days with no updates. Two engineers are actively working on it, yet neither has posted a comment or moved the card. The team's Kanban board in their Agile tooling shows the Story sitting in the 'Develop' column. What is the most effective action for Priya to take first?

Accepted Answer

Ask the two engineers directly what is blocking them and whether they need help removing an impediment.. A Story that sits In Progress without updates usually means the people doing the work are blocked, uncertain, or coordinating outside the board. The Scrum Master / Team Coach serves the team by surfacing and removing impediments, so a direct, non-judgmental conversation with the engineers is the fastest path to the real problem. Process changes, board edits, and escalations all skip that essential diagnostic step.

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Move the Story back to the 'To Do' column so the board reflects that it is not actually being worked on.

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Add a new team policy requiring daily written status comments on every In Progress Story.

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Escalate to the Release Train Engineer so the ART can be informed of a delivery risk at the next PO Sync.

Question 11

A SAFe Scrum Master/Team Coach notices that the Agile Team's Iteration Retrospective has become a status meeting where members report what they did rather than reflecting on how to improve. Which action should the Scrum Master take to restore the retrospective's purpose?

Accepted Answer

Introduce a structured retrospective format that focuses on team interactions and process, and coach the team to avoid status reporting.. The Scrum Master should introduce a structured retrospective format that focuses on team interactions and process, and coach the team away from status reporting. This restores the retrospective's purpose as a tool for inspect-and-adapt, fosters psychological safety, and helps the team improve how they work together. Other actions either avoid the problem or dilute the retrospective's intent.

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Allow the team to continue as they are, since status updates can be useful for transparency.

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Ask the Product Owner to attend and lead the retrospective to ensure it stays focused on business value.

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Cancel the retrospective and replace it with a working session to catch up on delayed Stories.

Question 12

A Scrum Master / Team Coach is supporting an Agile Team whose members consistently bypass the team's working agreements, arriving late to events and skipping refinement sessions. The team's Iteration Goals are slipping. Which TWO actions are most appropriate for the Scrum Master / Team Coach in this situation? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Model the expected behaviors yourself by arriving early and prepared to every event, and coach individual team members privately about the impact of their absence.. Coaching a team back to its working agreements happens through the team's own inspection forums and through modeling and private coaching, not through escalation or imposed rules. Raising the pattern in the Iteration Retrospective lets the team choose to change or recommit, while modeling behavior and coaching individuals addresses specific gaps with respect for the people involved. Both actions build durable self-management.

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Rewrite the team's working agreements yourself with stricter rules and present them as non-negotiable so the team has clear boundaries.

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Document each missed agreement and submit the record to the team's functional manager so attendance expectations can be enforced through performance management.

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Suspend the team's refinement sessions until attendance improves, so the team experiences the consequences of skipping them.

Question 13

Elena has just been named Scrum Master / Team Coach for the Checkout Agile Team. In her first week, the Product Owner asks her to also decide the acceptance criteria for upcoming Stories and to approve the team's work before it is demonstrated at the System Demo. Which response reflects the Scrum Master / Team Coach role?

Accepted Answer

Decline both tasks and explain that the Product Owner owns content decisions while the team owns how the work is done.. In SAFe, the Product Owner owns content decisions such as acceptance criteria, and the team owns how the work is done and demonstrates its own results. The Scrum Master / Team Coach serves both by clarifying these boundaries rather than absorbing tasks that belong elsewhere. Accepting either task would create a gatekeeper role and erode the team's ownership of quality and delivery.

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Accept the approval task but decline the acceptance-criteria task, since the coach must protect the System Demo's integrity.

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Accept the acceptance-criteria task but decline the approval task, since only the team can approve its own work.

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Accept both tasks, since the coach is ultimately accountable for the quality of what the team delivers.

Question 14

The Search Agile Team has a strong technical lead who answers nearly every question during team events, and quieter members rarely speak. The team still meets its Iteration Goals, so no one has raised a concern. As the Scrum Master / Team Coach, what should you do?

Accepted Answer

Raise the observation with the team and facilitate techniques that widen participation, such as structured turn-taking or silent brainstorming.. A team can hit its goals while still leaving value on the table because a few voices dominate. The Scrum Master / Team Coach surfaces that pattern to the team and introduces facilitation techniques that broaden participation, such as structured turn-taking or silent brainstorming. This keeps ownership with the team and uses the lead's expertise without letting it crowd out other input.

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Ask the technical lead privately to stop answering questions so other members are forced to contribute.

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Leave it alone, since the team is delivering and the Retrospective is the only place where team dynamics should be discussed.

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Reassign facilitation of all team events to the technical lead so the team sees a consistent style.

Question 15

A Scrum Master / Team Coach notices that during Iteration Retrospectives the same two outspoken members dominate the discussion while others stay silent, and the resulting improvement items rarely address the team's real impediments. Which action best demonstrates the Scrum Master / Team Coach role?

Accepted Answer

Redesign the retrospective format with structured techniques such as silent brainstorming, round-robin sharing, and dot voting so all members contribute and items are prioritized by the team.. The Scrum Master / Team Coach improves retrospectives by changing how the conversation is structured, not by limiting speakers, replacing the event, or importing authority. Techniques such as silent brainstorming, round-robin sharing, and dot voting equalize airtime and let the team prioritize its own improvement items. That directly addresses both the dominance pattern and the shallow improvements the team has been producing.

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Ask the outspoken members to stop contributing so much so that quieter members have room to speak during the retrospective.

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Report the participation imbalance to the Release Train Engineer and ask the RTE to attend the next retrospective to keep the discussion balanced.

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Replace the retrospective with a written survey so team members can submit feedback anonymously and the coach can compile the improvement items.