SSM Practice Test 19 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A Scrum Master is facilitating the team's preparation for the upcoming PI Planning event. The team needs to ensure they have the right inputs and readiness to create a realistic plan. Which TWO actions should the Scrum Master take to support the team? (Choose two.)

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

Accepted Answer

Ensure the team has reviewed the Program Vision and the top features in the Program Backlog before arriving at PI Planning.. Effective PI Planning preparation includes reviewing the Program Vision and Program Backlog features, and confirming the team's capacity, dependencies, and risks. These inputs enable the team to create realistic draft objectives and engage productively in breakout sessions. Pre-assigning work or requiring fully finalized stories undermines self-organization and the collaborative nature of the event.

Answer

Ask the Product Owner to finalize all team backlog stories with detailed acceptance criteria and estimates before PI Planning begins.

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Have the Scrum Master assign each team member their specific stories for the upcoming PI so that planning time can be used for estimation only.

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Instruct the team to prepare a detailed presentation of all completed work from the previous PI to share with stakeholders at the start of PI Planning.

Question 2

A Scrum Master is coaching a team that is new to Scrum within SAFe. The team keeps confusing which meetings belong to the team and which belong to the Agile Release Train. Which TWO events are ART-level events that the Scrum Master should distinguish from the team's own Scrum events? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Scrum of Scrums. SAFe adds train-level events on top of Scrum's team events. The Scrum of Scrums handles cross-team dependency coordination during the Iteration, and the Inspect and Adapt workshop closes the Program Increment with a system demo, metrics review, and problem-solving. Both involve the whole ART, unlike the team's own Iteration Planning, Daily Stand-up, and Retrospective.

Answer

Iteration Planning

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Iteration Retrospective

Answer

Daily Stand-up

Question 3

A newly formed Scrum team in a SAFe Agile Release Train has just completed its first iteration. During the iteration retrospective, several team members express confusion about who owns the decision on how much work to pull into the next iteration versus who decides the order of the work. The Scrum Master wants to clarify the boundary between the Product Owner and the team. Which statement best describes the correct responsibility split in SAFe?

Accepted Answer

The team decides how much work to pull into the iteration, while the Product Owner decides the order in which that work is built.. The Product Owner is accountable for the content and order of the Team Backlog, while the team self-manages how much work it can pull into an iteration. This separation preserves both value-driven prioritization and team autonomy. The Scrum Master clarifies this boundary when new teams confuse prioritization with capacity planning, which is common during early iterations in a SAFe environment.

Answer

The Release Train Engineer decides how much work each team pulls, and the Product Owner decides the order of the Team Backlog.

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The team decides both the order of the Team Backlog and how much work to pull into the iteration, with the Product Owner only providing feedback.

Answer

The Product Owner decides how many stories the team can complete, and the team decides the sequence in which those stories are built.

Question 4

At the start of a SAFe adoption, a Scrum Master is explaining the Scrum Master role to a team that previously reported to a project manager. A team member asks how the Scrum Master differs from the project manager they are used to. Which description best reflects the Scrum Master role in Scrum within SAFe?

Accepted Answer

The Scrum Master serves the team and the organization by coaching, facilitating events, removing impediments, and fostering self-management. In Scrum within SAFe, the Scrum Master is a servant leader and coach: facilitating team events, teaching Scrum, removing impediments, and helping both the team and the wider organization improve. The role does not own schedule, budget, or technical decisions, and it does not own backlog priority, which belongs to the Product Owner. The coaching and facilitation description is the only one consistent with self-managing teams.

Answer

The Scrum Master is the team's technical lead and makes architectural decisions when the team cannot reach consensus

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The Scrum Master owns the team's schedule and budget and is accountable for delivering the committed scope on time

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The Scrum Master represents the team's interests to stakeholders and owns the priority order of the Team Backlog

Question 5

A Scrum Master is supporting a newly formed SAFe team that has just started its first iteration. The team members keep asking the Scrum Master to assign tasks, prioritize the Team Backlog, and decide who will work on each story. Which action best reflects the Scrum Master's role when introducing Scrum in SAFe?

Accepted Answer

Coach the team to self-manage by facilitating events, teaching Scrum principles, and removing impediments.. Introducing Scrum in SAFe means coaching the team toward self-management rather than directing its work. The Scrum Master facilitates Scrum events, teaches Scrum and SAFe principles, and removes impediments, while the Product Owner owns backlog priority and the team owns how work is done. This builds the team-level agility that the Agile Release Train depends on.

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Escalate to the Release Train Engineer and ask them to direct the team's daily work until the team matures.

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Assign each story to a specific developer and update the Team Board daily to keep the team on track.

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Take ownership of the Team Backlog and reprioritize items each morning so the team always has clear direction.

Question 6

A Scrum Master is coaching a team that has adopted SAFe but still estimates and plans in a way that ignores the Program Increment. The team commits to iteration goals without considering the PI Objectives agreed at PI Planning, and it treats each iteration as independent. What should the Scrum Master emphasize to align the team with SAFe?

Accepted Answer

Iteration goals should directly support the team's PI Objectives, and the team should use its iteration cadence to make progress toward the Program Increment.. PI Objectives capture the outcomes the team commits to for the Program Increment, and iteration goals should ladder up to them. Keeping that linkage lets the team maintain a short feedback loop while still contributing to the train's shared commitments. The Scrum Master should coach the team to derive its iteration goals from the PI Objectives rather than planning each iteration in isolation.

Answer

The Scrum Master should personally translate the PI Objectives into iteration goals and present them to the team at each Iteration Planning event.

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The team should abandon PI Objectives and let the Product Owner define all priorities iteration by iteration based on the latest feedback.

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The team should adopt a quarterly release cadence and stop holding Iteration Planning so it can focus only on the Program Increment.

Question 7

A Scrum Master joins an ART where teams are running Iterations but nobody is coordinating cross-team dependencies, and risks are only discovered mid-Program Increment. The Release Train Engineer asks the Scrum Master to help establish the right forum. What should the Scrum Master recommend?

Accepted Answer

Establish the Scrum of Scrums so team representatives meet several times per week to coordinate dependencies, surface risks, and decide whether an ART Sync is needed.. SAFe addresses cross-team coordination with the Scrum of Scrums, where designated team representatives meet several times per week to manage dependencies, surface risks, and decide if an ART Sync is required. Establishing this forum gives the train continuous coordination rather than discovering risks late in the Program Increment.

Answer

Ask each Product Owner to email a weekly dependency list to the Release Train Engineer, who will resolve conflicts during the Inspect and Adapt workshop.

Answer

Add a second Daily Stand-up each afternoon where all teams join one call so every member hears every other team's progress.

Answer

Schedule a daily Program Increment status meeting led by the Release Train Engineer where teams report percentage complete on their PI Objectives.

Question 8

A Scrum Master is helping a newly formed SAFe team understand what it means to adopt Scrum at the team level within an Agile Release Train. Which two statements accurately describe the team-level Scrum implementation in SAFe? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

The team owns its Team Backlog and decides how much work to pull into each iteration based on its capacity.. Team-level Scrum in SAFe preserves self-management: the team owns its Team Backlog, pulls work based on capacity, and produces a potentially releasable Increment each iteration. These two statements reflect core Scrum behavior inside the ART. The other statements describe anti-patterns or role confusion that conflict with Scrum and with SAFe's shared cadence and accountability model.

Answer

The Product Owner reports to the Scrum Master so that priorities and team process stay aligned.

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The Scrum Master assigns tasks to team members to ensure the iteration goal is met.

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The team's iteration length is chosen by the Release Train Engineer and may vary per team to match their delivery needs.

Question 9

A newly formed SAFe team has just completed its first Iteration. During the Iteration Review, the Scrum Master notices that the team presented dozens of completed technical tasks rather than working, integrated product. The Product Owner is unsure whether any value was actually delivered to stakeholders. What should the Scrum Master do first to align the team with Scrum in SAFe?

Accepted Answer

Coach the team that the Iteration Review should inspect the Increment and gather feedback, so work should be demonstrated as integrated, potentially shippable functionality rather than task lists.. The Iteration Review exists so the team and stakeholders can inspect the actual Increment and adapt the Product Backlog. When a team presents tasks rather than integrated functionality, the event loses its ability to reveal whether value was delivered. The Scrum Master serves the team by coaching this distinction, helping the Product Owner gain real feedback and keeping the team aligned with Scrum's empirical approach inside the Agile Release Train.

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Replace the Iteration Review with a task-status meeting until the team matures enough to demonstrate integrated functionality.

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Ask the Release Train Engineer to add a System Demo so stakeholders can see integrated value on the ART cadence instead of at the team's Iteration Review.

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Instruct the Product Owner to reject the Increment and require the team to rebuild the demonstration for the next Iteration Review.

Question 10

During the first PI Planning event after introducing Scrum, a Scrum Master observes that a team is treating the iteration boundary as a hard checkpoint for demonstrating completed work to the Product Owner, and is skipping the continuous collaboration that Scrum recommends. The Scrum Master wants to explain why the team should not rely solely on the iteration review to validate work with the Product Owner. Which statement best reflects the SAFe and Scrum intent?

Accepted Answer

The Product Owner should be involved continuously during the iteration so the team can get early feedback and adjust, with the iteration review serving as a broader inspect-and-adapt event for stakeholders.. Scrum and SAFe both rely on short feedback loops, which means the Product Owner collaborates with the team continuously during the iteration, not only at the review. The iteration review remains a formal inspect-and-adapt event, but it is not the first time the Product Owner or stakeholders see the work. This continuous engagement reduces rework and keeps the increment aligned with value.

Answer

The iteration review is the only formal inspect-and-adapt point, so the team should minimize Product Owner involvement mid-iteration to avoid scope churn.

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Because SAFe replaces the Scrum review with the System Demo, the team should wait until the end of the PI to show anything to the Product Owner.

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The team should involve the Release Train Engineer instead of the Product Owner during the iteration, since the RTE owns value delivery across the train.

Question 11

An organization is introducing Scrum inside SAFe. A team's manager tells the Scrum Master that the manager will assign tasks daily to each developer to keep utilization high. Which Scrum principle should the Scrum Master use to explain why this conflicts with the team's self-managing design?

Accepted Answer

Scrum teams are self-managing and decide among themselves how to accomplish their work, so a manager assigning individual tasks undermines the team's ownership of its plan.. Scrum teams are self-managing: they decide how to convert Product Backlog items into an Increment. When a manager assigns daily tasks, the team loses ownership of its plan, impediments stay hidden, and the empirical loop of inspect-and-adapt weakens. The Scrum Master should coach the manager and the team on self-management as a core Scrum principle that SAFe preserves at the team level.

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Task assignment is acceptable as long as the manager records each assignment in the team's Kanban board so the work remains transparent.

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The manager should assign tasks only during the Daily Scrum, because that event is designed for the Scrum Master to redistribute work across team members.

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Scrum requires a dedicated project manager to allocate tasks each day so that the team can maintain a predictable velocity.

Question 12

A Scrum Master is introducing Scrum to a team that is new to SAFe and wants to clarify how the team-level events fit the broader cadence. Which two statements accurately describe how Scrum is applied within SAFe? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

The team keeps the Scrum events, and their cadence is aligned to the iteration and the PI cadence of the Agile Release Train.. In SAFe, teams keep the Scrum events but align their cadence to the iteration and the Program Increment, and the Scrum Master serves as a servant leader who facilitates events, coaches Agile practices, and helps remove impediments. Backlog ownership stays with the Product Owner, the Iteration Review is retained alongside the System Demo, and Iteration Goals are set by the team.

Answer

The team's Iteration Review is replaced by the System Demo, so the team no longer inspects its own increment.

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The Scrum Master owns the Team Backlog and prioritizes user stories for the team during Iteration Planning.

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The Scrum Master sets the team's Iteration Goals and reports them to the Release Train Engineer on the team's behalf.

Question 13

A Scrum Master is helping a team new to SAFe understand which Scrum events occur within each Iteration and how they connect to ART cadence. Which TWO statements accurately describe this relationship? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

The Retrospective occurs at the end of each Iteration, and the ART may also hold an Inspect and Adapt event at the end of a Program Increment to address systemic issues.. Scrum events run at the team level inside each Iteration, while PI Planning and the Inspect and Adapt event operate on the ART cadence across a Program Increment. The Iteration Review and System Demo are distinct feedback loops, and the team Retrospective is complemented rather than replaced by the ART-level Inspect and Adapt. Recognizing both cadences helps a new team understand how local Scrum practices connect to train-wide alignment.

Answer

An Iteration is the same length as a Program Increment, so the team holds one Iteration Review per PI and no Retrospective until the PI ends.

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The Daily Scrum should be replaced by the ART's Scrum of Scrums, because coordinating dependencies is more valuable than the team's daily inspection.

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The Iteration Review and the System Demo are the same event, so a team that attends the System Demo does not need to hold its own Iteration Review.

Question 14

A Scrum Master on an Agile Release Train notices that their team consistently completes all its planned stories but the System Demo keeps revealing integration defects with other teams. The team argues that its own Definition of Done is satisfied. What should the Scrum Master do first?

Accepted Answer

Ask the team to add the integration criteria required for the System Demo to its Definition of Done and coach them to verify those criteria each iteration.. When the System Demo repeatedly reveals integration defects, the team's Definition of Done is likely too narrow for the integrated increment the train must show. Coaching the team to include integration criteria in its Definition of Done addresses the root cause and helps the team verify those criteria every iteration, improving flow and reducing late surprises.

Answer

Recommend that the team stop participating in the System Demo until the other teams improve their own quality practices.

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Instruct the team to add a hardening iteration at the end of the Program Increment to fix all integration defects before the Inspect and Adapt.

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Escalate to the Release Train Engineer and ask that the team's stories be marked complete only after the System Demo passes.

Question 15

During PI Planning, a Scrum Master notices that their team is not identifying any dependencies on other teams, despite working on a complex multi-team Feature. What should the Scrum Master do?

Accepted Answer

Ask probing questions about how the team's work interacts with other components of the system.. In SAFe, the Scrum Master plays a critical role during PI Planning by facilitating the identification of dependencies and risks. Cross-team coordination is vital for the success of the Agile Release Train. By prompting the team to look beyond their own backlog, the Scrum Master ensures that the Program Board accurately reflects the reality of the delivery plan.

Answer

Contact the Release Train Engineer to have them review the team's plan for missing dependencies.

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Wait until the Draft Plan Review to see if other teams identify dependencies on your team.

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Document the lack of dependencies as a 'Risk' on the ROAM board for the train to manage.