SSM Practice Test 2 — 10 Questions

Question 1

Which TWO of the following are true about the Scrum Master's role in the PI Planning event?

Accepted Answer

The Scrum Master facilitates the team's breakout sessions.. During PI Planning, the Scrum Master manages the team's breakouts, facilitates the estimation process, and keeps the team focused on their objectives and dependencies. Their contribution is crucial because PI Planning sets the vision and plan for the next several iterations. Without the Scrum Master's facilitation, the team would struggle to produce a realistic and aligned plan that fits into the broader ART schedule.

Answer

The Scrum Master defines the PI objectives for the team.

Answer

The Scrum Master is responsible for presenting the final PI objectives to the ART.

Answer

The Scrum Master acts as the decision-maker for all feature prioritization.

Question 2

During the System Demo for an ART whose Solution Train includes three ARTs, the Product Management representative from another ART notes that a dependency delivered by Team Beta was never integrated, so a Feature cannot be demonstrated. As the Scrum Master of Team Beta, what is the most appropriate immediate action?

Accepted Answer

Capture the integration gap as a Program-level impediment and immediately drive the integration so the Feature can be demonstrated at the next System Demo.. The System Demo is the ART's integrated inspect-and-adapt event, so a missing cross-team integration is a Program-level impediment rather than a local team matter. Surfacing it to the RTE and driving the integration restores transparency and lets the ART adapt. Deferring, isolating, or avoiding the demo all hide the problem and prevent the coordinated fix the dependency requires.

Answer

Ask the Release Train Engineer to move the Feature to the next PI and remove it from the current Program Board so the demo stays clean.

Answer

Direct the team to stop attending System Demos until the other ART has integrated its portion of the Solution.

Answer

Record the issue in the team's Retrospective board and address it only within Team Beta's own improvement backlog.

Question 3

After the Final Plan Review, the ART conducts a confidence vote. If the average confidence is only 2 fingers out of 5, what is the next step for the Scrum Master?

Accepted Answer

Facilitate further planning to address the concerns that led to the low vote.. A low confidence vote indicates that the ART does not believe the plan is achievable. This requires the ART to go back into a planning session to address the concerns. The Scrum Master supports this by helping the team identify the specific reasons for their low confidence and collaborating on plan adjustments.

Answer

Ask the team to reconsider their vote to ensure the event stays on schedule.

Answer

Escalate the low confidence to the Business Owners for immediate approval.

Answer

Document the low confidence as a risk and start Iteration 1.1 immediately.

Question 4

A Scrum Master is helping a new SAFe Scrum team understand why they still hold a Daily Stand-up even though the team is distributed across two time zones. A team member suggests replacing it with a weekly written update to save time. How should the Scrum Master respond?

Accepted Answer

Explain that the Daily Stand-up is kept in SAFe to inspect progress toward the Iteration Goal, synchronize the day's work, and surface impediments, and help the team run it effectively across time zones.. The Daily Stand-up remains a core team event in SAFe because it lets the team inspect progress toward the Iteration Goal, plan the day's work, and surface impediments. Distributed teams adapt how they run it, but removing it or making it weekly would break the daily feedback cycle and reduce the team's ability to self-organize.

Answer

Replace the Daily Stand-up with a weekly Scrum of Scrums so the team can coordinate through the ART instead.

Answer

Let the team decide, since SAFe leaves the format and frequency of team synchronization entirely to each team.

Answer

Agree, because distributed teams cannot benefit from synchronous inspection of progress toward the Iteration Goal.

Question 5

Successful PI Planning requires significant preparation. Which TWO areas are part of the 'Content Readiness' for this event? (Choose 2)

Accepted Answer

The Executive briefing on the current business context. Content Readiness ensures that the 'what' and 'why' of the upcoming PI are clear. This includes having a Program Backlog that is refined and prioritized, as well as Briefings for the vision, context, and any architectural changes. Without this readiness, teams will struggle to create meaningful plans during the breakout sessions.

Answer

Ensuring all team members are assigned to a specific Scrum team

Answer

Setting up the physical or virtual Program Board

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Finalizing the iteration-by-iteration plan for each team

Question 6

During the root cause analysis phase of the Problem-Solving Workshop, which TWO tools or techniques are most commonly recommended to help teams identify the source of an issue? (Choose 2)

Accepted Answer

The 5 Whys. SAFe recommends specific structured techniques for root cause analysis during the Inspect and Adapt event. The '5 Whys' is used to drill down into the cause-and-effect relationships, and the 'Fishbone (Ishikawa) Diagram' is used to categorize potential causes into groups like People, Process, Tools, and Environment to ensure a comprehensive view.

Answer

The Program Board

Answer

Pareto Analysis

Answer

Confidence Voting

Question 7

During a SAFe Team Sync (Daily Stand-up), a developer shares that they are blocked because a shared component owned by another Agile Team has not been updated. The Scrum Master notices the blocker is not on any team board. What should the Scrum Master do first to support the event?

Accepted Answer

Record the blocker and facilitate a brief after-event conversation with the relevant team members to route it through the appropriate ART coordination mechanism.. The Scrum Master supports the Team Sync by protecting its timebox and purpose while ensuring blockers become visible and are routed correctly. Capturing the dependency and facilitating a short follow-up after the event keeps the team synchronized, respects self-organization, and uses SAFe's ART coordination mechanisms to address cross-team impediments.

Answer

Add the blocker to the team's Iteration Backlog as a new user story and assign it to the developer so it is tracked.

Answer

Instruct the blocked developer to skip the remainder of the Team Sync and immediately contact the other team's Product Owner.

Answer

Ask the developer to resolve the blocker themselves by escalating directly to the Release Train Engineer during the Team Sync.

Question 8

A Scrum Master is facilitating the team's Iteration Review. The Product Owner is presenting the increment to stakeholders, but a stakeholder begins to challenge the team's technical design decisions. Which action should the Scrum Master take?

Accepted Answer

Redirect the conversation to the product outcomes and offer to schedule a separate technical discussion with the stakeholder after the review.. The Iteration Review is for inspecting the increment and collecting stakeholder feedback, not for resolving technical design debates. The Scrum Master should keep the event on track by redirecting the technical discussion to a separate forum. This preserves the event's purpose, respects the stakeholder's concern, and ensures the team still benefits from broader feedback.

Answer

Allow the technical debate to continue so that all concerns are transparently addressed.

Answer

End the Iteration Review early and reschedule it for a time when only supportive stakeholders can attend.

Answer

Ask the Product Owner to answer the stakeholder's technical questions since they own the product vision.

Question 9

How does the Scrum Master best support the System Demo at the end of each iteration?

Accepted Answer

Coordinate with the System Team to ensure the team's increment is integrated and ready.. The System Demo is the primary measure of ART progress, showing a fully integrated system increment. The Scrum Master's role is to ensure the team is prepared to contribute their part of the integrated demo. This involves coordinating with other teams and the System Team to ensure the 'Definition of Done' is met and the work is ready for stakeholders.

Answer

Demonstrate the team's completed User Stories to the Product Manager during the event.

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Write the script for the demo to ensure the team stays within the timebox.

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Cancel the team's participation if they have only completed 50% of their planned Stories.

Question 10

Which event serves as the primary mechanism for the team to synchronize and address blockers in SAFe?

Accepted Answer

Daily Stand-up. The Daily Stand-up is the dedicated event for team synchronization. By meeting daily for a brief period, the team communicates progress, identifies dependencies, and raises blockers. This regular cadence ensures that the team remains aligned, informed, and capable of addressing issues quickly, which is fundamental to maintaining flow and meeting the iteration objectives.

Answer

Iteration Planning

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Iteration Retrospective

Answer

System Demo