SSM Practice Test 22 — 15 Questions

Question 1

What is the primary reason the Scrum Master encourages the team to reserve capacity during the Innovation and Planning (IP) Iteration?

Accepted Answer

To allow for innovation, continuing education, and PI Planning preparation.. The IP Iteration provides a buffer for the ART and time for activities that are difficult to fit into a regular execution iteration. The Scrum Master must protect this time to ensure the ART remains healthy, teams can continue learning, and the upcoming PI Planning event is properly prepared.

Answer

To provide extra time to finish stories from the previous iteration.

Answer

To allow the Product Owner to add new features for immediate delivery.

Answer

To give the team a vacation before the next high-pressure PI begins.

Question 2

An Agile Team is struggling to complete their Stories within the Iteration due to persistent external dependencies on a separate subsystem team. How should the Scrum Master coach the team to address this systemic impediment?

Accepted Answer

Facilitate direct conversations and alignment sessions with the dependent team's Scrum Master and relevant stakeholders to map out interface dependencies.. The Scrum Master facilitates cross-team collaboration by engaging the System Architect and other Scrum Masters during the Agile Release Train sync events. This systemic impediment requires structural alignment and dependency mapping rather than internal pressure, ensuring the team can predictably deliver value in future iterations while fostering healthy organizational networks.

Answer

Escalate the blocked Stories directly to the Release Train Engineer to force the subsystem team to reallocate their capacity immediately.

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Advise the Product Owner to remove all dependent Stories from the Team Backlog until the external subsystem team completes their required work.

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Instruct the developers to build temporary stubs and bypass the subsystem team entirely to ensure their local iteration metrics remain green.

Question 3

Refer to the exhibit. Given the velocity fluctuations, what is the best topic for the team's next Retrospective?

Accepted Answer

Discuss why the velocity dropped in Iteration 3 and what caused the variation.. Velocity fluctuations are a signal for the team to investigate what factors hindered their consistency. By analyzing the dip in Iteration 3 and the subsequent recovery, the team can identify process bottlenecks or external dependencies that affected their performance. This investigation is essential for the team to become more predictable and to ensure they are accurately forecasting their capacity for future planning cycles.

Answer

Set a higher velocity target for the next iteration to encourage the team to work faster.

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Inform the team that their velocity is inconsistent and needs to stabilize immediately.

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Compare the team's velocity against other teams to ensure they are performing well.

Question 4

The Inspect and Adapt (I&A) event consists of three parts. Which THREE of the following are those parts? (Choose three.)

Accepted Answer

The PI System Demo.. The Inspect and Adapt event is a significant event held at the end of each PI. It consists of three distinct parts that ensure the ART is delivering value, meeting its commitments, and improving its processes. Understanding these parts helps the Scrum Master facilitate the team's participation effectively.

Answer

The Final Plan Review.

Answer

The Confidence Vote.

Question 5

Which THREE activities are essential components of the Inspect and Adapt (I&A) event?

Accepted Answer

PI System Demo. The Inspect and Adapt (I&A) event is a significant milestone at the end of every PI where the ART reviews progress and improves its process. It consists of three main parts: the PI System Demo (the final aggregate demo), Quantitative and Qualitative Measurement (reviewing metrics), and the Problem-Solving Workshop (structured root-cause analysis and improvement planning).

Answer

Confidence Vote

Answer

Draft Plan Review

Question 6

An Agile Team completes all their iteration backlog items two days before the end of the iteration. During the Iteration Planning meeting for the next cycle, the Product Owner asks why they didn't pull in extra work mid-iteration. How should the Scrum Master explain the team's action?

Accepted Answer

Pulling work mid-iteration risks the iteration goal, so the team focused on quality, testing, and technical debt.. Pulling new work mid-iteration destabilizes the iteration goal and disrupts focus. The Scrum Master should explain that finishing early allows the team to focus on technical debt, quality improvements, or helping other release train members rather than frantically pulling unrefined stories.

Answer

The team took an unauthorized vacation for the remaining two days of the iteration.

Answer

The Scrum Master forbade the team from doing any work once the initial stories were completed.

Answer

The team should have pulled in 20 more user stories immediately without refinement.

Question 7

Which of these is the most appropriate purpose of the Iteration Review?

Accepted Answer

To demonstrate the working software to stakeholders and gather their feedback.. The Iteration Review is a collaborative event for the team to show their work to stakeholders, gather feedback, and adjust the backlog. It serves as a vital feedback loop that ensures the team is building the right product for the customer. Without this event, the team risks spending time on features that do not align with user needs or current business priorities.

Answer

To provide a status update to management on how many stories were finished.

Answer

To identify process improvements for the team's internal way of working.

Answer

To discuss and resolve all technical blockers encountered during the iteration.

Question 8

An Agile Release Train (ART) is transitioning to SAFe. The Scrum Master notices that the team is struggling to align their local sprint goals with the overall Program Increment (PI) objectives. What is the most effective way for the Scrum Master to facilitate this alignment?

Accepted Answer

Facilitate a session to map team stories and iteration goals directly to PI objectives.. Effective alignment in SAFe requires the Scrum Master to coach the team on connecting their daily work to the broader PI objectives established during PI Planning. By ensuring the team understands how their stories contribute to the ART's business value, the Scrum Master fosters transparency and shared accountability. This alignment is critical because it ensures that autonomous Scrum teams remain synchronized with the train's strategic goals and deliver consistent value.

Answer

Mandate that the Product Owner dictates exactly how the team writes their iteration goals.

Answer

Encourage the team to prioritize their own local technical debt tasks over PI objectives.

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Advise the team to ignore the PI objectives and focus solely on velocity metrics.

Question 9

What is the primary purpose of the Scrum Master facilitating the Team Sync (Daily Stand-up) in SAFe?

Accepted Answer

To allow the team to synchronize their work and identify any new impediments.. The Team Sync is a key event for synchronization and alignment. While it traditionally answers the three questions, its primary SAFe purpose is to allow the team to coordinate their efforts, identify impediments, and adjust their plan to ensure they meet the Iteration goals. It is a meeting for the team, facilitated by the Scrum Master.

Answer

To provide a detailed status report to the Product Owner and the Scrum Master.

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To assign new tasks to team members based on their current progress and skill sets.

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To review the technical design of the current Story to ensure it meets the definition of done.

Question 10

During an Iteration Retrospective, the Agile Team agrees on an improvement action to pair-program on all complex stories in the next iteration. Two iterations later, the Scrum Master observes that the practice was abandoned after the first week and the same quality issues have returned. What should the Scrum Master do to support the team's improvement process?

Accepted Answer

Bring the observation to the next retrospective and facilitate a discussion about what made the action hard to sustain, then help the team adjust or replace it.. Retrospective actions are experiments, and some will not survive contact with reality. The Scrum Master supports continuous improvement by helping the team inspect why an action did not stick and adapt it in the next retrospective. This keeps ownership with the team, avoids coercion or escalation, and turns a failed action into a learning opportunity that strengthens the team's ability to improve how it works.

Answer

Reinstate pair programming immediately by mandating it in the team's working agreements and monitoring compliance daily.

Answer

Document the abandoned action in the team's metrics dashboard so stakeholders can see that the team failed to improve.

Answer

Escalate to the Release Train Engineer that the team is not following its own retrospective actions so the RTE can intervene.

Question 11

During the Scrum of Scrums (SoS) meeting, a representative from Team Delta reports that they are blocked by an external vendor's API change that was not anticipated. The representative asks for help from other teams. As the Scrum Master facilitating the SoS, what is the most appropriate action?

Accepted Answer

Ask the representative to provide details and facilitate a discussion to identify which team can help resolve the dependency.. The Scrum of Scrums is a key ART event for coordinating and resolving cross-team dependencies. When an impediment is raised, the Scrum Master should facilitate a discussion to engage other teams in finding a solution. This collaborative approach leverages the ART's collective knowledge and maintains alignment, rather than escalating prematurely or deferring the issue.

Answer

Instruct Team Delta to wait until the next PI Planning to address the vendor dependency with the ART.

Answer

Record the impediment on the program board and ask the RTE to escalate it to the Business Owners.

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Advise Team Delta to work around the vendor issue by descoping the affected feature for the current sprint.

Question 12

An Agile Team in a SAFe environment has a new developer who consistently interrupts others during the Daily Stand-up with lengthy technical explanations. The team's stand-up is now lasting 30 minutes, and some members are disengaged. As the Scrum Master / Team Coach, what should you do first?

Accepted Answer

Speak with the new developer privately to explain the purpose of the Daily Stand-up and coach them on concise communication.. The Scrum Master / Team Coach should first coach the new developer privately on the purpose and timebox of the Daily Stand-up. This approach respects the individual, addresses the specific behavior, and reinforces team norms without public embarrassment or drastic process changes.

Answer

Ask the team to vote on whether the new developer should be allowed to speak during stand-ups.

Answer

Change the Daily Stand-up to a written format to avoid interruptions and save time.

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During the next stand-up, remind the entire team that the Daily Stand-up is timeboxed to 15 minutes and cut off anyone who speaks too long.

Question 13

When a team struggles to meet their Definition of Done (DoD) because of external infrastructure dependencies, what should the Scrum Master do?

Accepted Answer

Escalate the dependency to the RTE to find a systemic solution.. The Scrum Master's role is to ensure the team can succeed and maintain quality. If external factors prevent the team from meeting their DoD, the Scrum Master must escalate the issue to the Release Train Engineer to seek help. Ignoring the issue or lowering the standard compromises the team's quality and the integrity of the integrated system increment.

Answer

Adjust the Definition of Done to exclude those infrastructure items.

Answer

Ask the team to work overtime to manually handle the infrastructure needs.

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Ignore the DoD and focus only on completing the user stories.

Question 14

An Agile Team's Iteration Retrospective consistently runs over its one-hour timebox, and the team often leaves without agreeing on improvement actions. The Scrum Master wants to improve the event's effectiveness without reducing its value. What is the best action to take?

Accepted Answer

Structure the retrospective with clear phases, timebox each phase, and reserve the final portion for selecting one or two improvement actions.. When a retrospective consistently overruns and fails to produce actions, the Scrum Master should improve its structure rather than shorten or merge it. Timeboxing each phase and reserving the final portion for selecting one or two improvement actions ensures the team covers the necessary ground and leaves with commitments. This preserves the event's value while addressing both the overrun and the lack of outcomes, and it keeps ownership with the team.

Answer

Ask the Product Owner to attend and prioritize the improvement items so the team can focus on the highest-value actions.

Answer

Reduce the retrospective to 30 minutes to force the team to focus on only the most critical issues.

Answer

Move the retrospective to the end of the iteration and combine it with the Iteration Review to save time.

Question 15

A SAFe Scrum Master / Team Coach notices that the team's Product Owner frequently makes technical decisions during Iteration Planning, such as choosing database schemas, while developers stay silent. The team's velocity has dropped because the PO's decisions often require rework. What is the most appropriate action for the Scrum Master / Team Coach?

Accepted Answer

Privately coach the Product Owner on avoiding technical decisions and help the team establish clear decision boundaries.. The Scrum Master / Team Coach is a servant leader who coaches the team and PO on their respective roles. Privately coaching the PO on focusing on value and helping the team clarify technical decision boundaries directly addresses the root cause. It respects the PO's role while empowering developers, and avoids public embarrassment or premature escalation.

Answer

During the next Iteration Planning, publicly remind the Product Owner that technical decisions belong to the developers.

Answer

Escalate the issue to the Release Train Engineer and ask them to instruct the Product Owner to stop making technical decisions.

Answer

Ask the developers to challenge the Product Owner's technical decisions during planning to assert their expertise.