SSM Practice Test 25 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A team is struggling with meeting the Iteration Goal because they have too many 'carry-over' stories. What should the Scrum Master suggest?

Accepted Answer

Facilitate a root cause analysis to identify why stories are not being completed within the iteration.. The Scrum Master must help the team understand the root cause of the carry-over, such as poor estimation, scope creep, or technical debt. By analyzing these trends, the team can adjust their planning approach to be more realistic and focused. This helps the team become more predictable, which is essential for building confidence with stakeholders and delivering value consistently every single iteration.

Answer

Instruct the team to work longer hours to finish the carry-over stories.

Answer

Suggest the team stop taking on new stories until all carry-over stories are finished.

Answer

Update the Definition of Done to exclude testing for the carry-over stories.

Question 2

During an Iteration Retrospective, a Scrum Master notices that two senior developers dominate the conversation while newer team members remain silent. The team is about to vote on improvement actions. What is the most effective facilitation technique for the Scrum Master to use at this point?

Accepted Answer

Use a silent brainstorming or round-robin technique so every member contributes ideas before discussion and voting.. When dominant personalities overshadow quieter members, the Scrum Master should use a structured technique such as silent brainstorming or round-robin to ensure balanced participation. These methods surface ideas from everyone before discussion and voting, reducing the influence of the most vocal members. This approach preserves psychological safety, captures diverse perspectives, and leads to better improvement actions than simply asking senior developers to stop talking.

Answer

Postpone the vote and schedule a separate meeting with only the newer team members to gather their input.

Answer

Ask the senior developers to stop talking so the newer members can share their views.

Answer

Allow the senior developers to continue leading the discussion since their experience makes their input most valuable.

Question 3

During the first PI Planning event for a new Agile Release Train, a Scrum team's members are unsure how their team-level Scrum events connect to the ART's cadence. What should the Scrum Master emphasize to clarify how Scrum operates within SAFe?

Accepted Answer

Team iterations and ART events run on the same cadence so that team-level inspect-and-adapt feeds the ART's PI cadence.. SAFe preserves Scrum at the team level while adding ART-level alignment. Team iterations run on the same cadence as ART events, with the Program Increment containing several iterations. This nesting allows team-level inspect-and-adapt to feed the train's synchronization and Inspect and Adapt workshop. The Scrum Master clarifies this relationship so the team sees its Scrum events as part of, not replaced by, the ART's cadence.

Answer

The team's iterations should be replaced by ART-level cadence events so planning happens only at the Program Increment boundary.

Answer

The team should hold its Retrospective only at the end of each Program Increment to align with the ART's Inspect and Adapt workshop.

Answer

The team's Daily Stand-up should be merged into the ART's Scrum of Scrums so status is reported once at the ART level.

Question 4

A Scrum Master observes that during Iteration Planning, the team consistently commits to more work than they can complete, leading to unfinished stories at the end of the Iteration. Which action should the Scrum Master take to improve the team's planning?

Accepted Answer

Use the team's historical velocity and capacity as input, and facilitate a discussion to adjust the plan until it is realistic.. Overcommitment during Iteration Planning often stems from unrealistic forecasting. The Scrum Master should facilitate the use of historical velocity and capacity to help the team create a realistic plan. This builds the team's ability to forecast and own its commitments, rather than relying on external directives or structural changes that mask the problem.

Answer

Instruct the Product Owner to assign fewer stories to the team for the next Iteration.

Answer

Extend the Iteration length so the team has more time to finish the committed work.

Answer

Add a buffer of unplanned work to the Iteration backlog to absorb any overcommitment.

Question 5

An Agile Release Train is launching, and the teams are struggling to establish their first Team Backlogs because they are attempting to decompose all solution epics down to user stories before PI Planning. What is the primary role of the Scrum Master in addressing this anti-pattern?

Accepted Answer

Coach the team and Product Owner to apply Just-In-Time refinement, focusing story elaboration only on the upcoming iterations.. The Scrum Master must coach the team to embrace Just-In-Time refinement, explaining that only the top features for the upcoming Program Increment need detailed decomposition, leaving downstream work as higher-level backlog items. This approach prevents analysis paralysis and aligns with Lean principles of delaying decisions until the last responsible moment while maintaining team flow.

Answer

Escalate the issue to the Release Train Engineer to pause the PI Planning event until all backlogs are fully groomed.

Answer

Take over backlog refinement directly by writing all user stories for the team to ensure they meet the definition of ready.

Answer

Instruct the Product Manager to remove all epics from the program backlog until the team finishes writing their first stories.

Question 6

A SAFe Scrum Master / Team Coach notices that during Iteration Planning, the Product Owner dominates the conversation, and the developers rarely speak up. The team consistently commits to more work than they can finish. Which coaching approach best addresses both the imbalance and the overcommitment?

Accepted Answer

Facilitate the planning session to ensure all voices are heard and coach the team on using velocity and capacity to guide commitment.. The Scrum Master / Team Coach should facilitate effective Iteration Planning by ensuring all team members contribute and by coaching the team to use velocity and capacity to make realistic commitments. This addresses both the dominance of the Product Owner and the tendency to overcommit. It also builds the team's capability to self-manage and make data-informed decisions.

Answer

Allow the team to overcommit for one more iteration and then discuss the results in the retrospective.

Answer

Ask the Product Owner to leave the room during planning so the team can estimate freely.

Answer

Tell the Product Owner to reduce the number of stories in the Iteration to match the team's capacity.

Question 7

During the Inspect and Adapt (I&A) event, a Scrum Master for Team Alpha notices that the ART's quantitative metrics show a consistent trend of declining team velocity over the last three Program Increments, but the team members seem unaware of this data. What is the most appropriate first action for the Scrum Master to take?

Accepted Answer

Share the metrics with the team and facilitate a discussion to understand the underlying causes during the problem-solving workshop.. The correct action is to share the metrics with the team and facilitate a root-cause discussion during the problem-solving workshop. The I&A event is structured to review quantitative and qualitative data, then collaboratively identify improvement items. The Scrum Master facilitates this process, ensuring the team owns the analysis and subsequent actions.

Answer

Ignore the metrics because velocity is not a valid measure of team performance and focus on team morale instead.

Answer

Immediately escalate the declining velocity to the Release Train Engineer (RTE) and request a re-planning session.

Answer

Ask the team to work overtime in the next Iteration to bring the velocity back up to previous levels.

Question 8

A newly formed Agile Team has a member who consistently dominates discussions, dismisses others' ideas, and pushes the team toward their own technical preferences. Other members have gone quiet during team events. As the Scrum Master/Team Coach, what is the most appropriate first action?

Accepted Answer

Privately coach the dominant member on the impact of their behavior and co-create ground rules with the team for balanced participation.. The first move should be private coaching to raise awareness, paired with team-level working agreements that define how members engage. This treats the behavior as a system and relationship issue, preserves dignity, and builds durable self-management. Escalating to reassignment or public consequences skips the coaching step and risks deeper dysfunction.

Answer

Reassign the dominant member to a different Agile Team so the remaining members can collaborate without interference.

Answer

Raise the issue in the next Iteration Retrospective by naming the individual and asking the team to vote on consequences.

Answer

Take over facilitation of all team events and call on quieter members directly to ensure everyone speaks.

Question 9

During an early Iteration in a SAFe ART, a Scrum Master observes that the Product Owner is writing detailed technical designs into the Team Backlog items and telling the Developers exactly how to implement them. The Developers have stopped refining items and simply follow the instructions. What is the most appropriate action for the Scrum Master?

Accepted Answer

Coach the Product Owner to express backlog items as valuable outcomes with clear acceptance criteria, and coach the Developers to own the technical 'how' through refinement and self-management.. Scrum separates product direction from technical execution: the Product Owner maximizes value by defining outcomes and acceptance criteria, while the Developers decide how to build the Increment. Prescriptive technical designs from the Product Owner suppress self-management and refinement. The Scrum Master's leverage is coaching both roles on their accountabilities so the team can own the 'how' and adapt as it learns.

Answer

Advise the Product Owner to continue providing technical direction but require the Developers to estimate each design before implementation begins.

Answer

Escalate to the Release Train Engineer so the Product Owner can be replaced with someone who has a stronger technical background.

Answer

Suggest that the Developers bypass the Product Owner and pull items directly from the ART's Program Backlog to regain autonomy.

Question 10

A SAFe Scrum Master / Team Coach is helping a new Agile Team establish healthy working agreements during its first Iterations. The team keeps interrupting each other, skipping refinement, and letting Stories sit in progress for days. Which TWO actions best reflect the Scrum Master / Team Coach role in building the team's self-management? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Coach the team to create and own working agreements that define how they collaborate and limit work in progress.. Building self-management means helping the team define its own norms and reflect on its behaviors so improvements come from within. Coaching the team to own working agreements that limit work in progress and facilitating reflection on their impact both develop lasting capability. Imposing enforced rules, appointing an approver, or escalating for oversight all substitute external control for the team's own accountability.

Answer

Write a detailed set of process rules and enforce them through daily compliance checks and status reporting.

Answer

Assign a senior developer to review every Story and approve it before the team can move it forward.

Answer

Escalate the team's immature behaviors to the Release Train Engineer and request closer management oversight.

Question 11

A Scrum Master is preparing to facilitate the Iteration Retrospective. The team has consistently identified the same improvement action for three Iterations but has not implemented it. What should the Scrum Master do first?

Accepted Answer

Facilitate a discussion to understand why the action has not been implemented and help the team create a specific, achievable plan.. The Scrum Master facilitates the Retrospective and helps the team improve its process. When an action is repeatedly identified but not implemented, the Scrum Master should guide the team to understand the reasons and create a specific, achievable plan. This respects the team's self-management and addresses the root cause, rather than escalating, removing, or assigning the action unilaterally.

Answer

Escalate the team's lack of progress to the Release Train Engineer and request that the action be tracked as a program risk.

Answer

Assign the action to a specific team member and require weekly status updates until it is completed.

Answer

Decide that the improvement action is no longer relevant and remove it from the team's improvement backlog.

Question 12

A Scrum Master is coaching a team that has just started using Scrum inside a SAFe Agile Release Train. The team complains that the Product Owner keeps changing the order of items in the Team Backlog mid-iteration, causing them to stop work and start new stories. The Scrum Master wants to explain the correct expectation for backlog changes during an iteration. Which statement best reflects SAFe and Scrum guidance?

Accepted Answer

Once an iteration begins, the team's selected stories should remain stable, and new priorities are generally applied to the next iteration unless the change is urgent enough to justify renegotiating scope.. The Product Owner owns backlog ordering, but the current iteration's scope should stay stable so the team can deliver a coherent increment. New priorities are normally applied to future iterations, and mid-iteration changes should be rare and explicitly negotiated with the team. This protects flow, limits work in progress, and keeps velocity and predictability meaningful across the ART.

Answer

The Release Train Engineer must approve any change to the Team Backlog during an iteration before the Product Owner can act.

Answer

The Product Owner may reorder the Team Backlog at any time, and the team should immediately switch to whichever item is now on top.

Answer

The team should abandon the iteration and immediately begin a new one whenever the Product Owner changes priorities.

Question 13

Which part of the Inspect and Adapt event involves the demonstration of all the work the Agile Release Train has accomplished over the entire Program Increment?

Accepted Answer

The PI System Demo. The PI System Demo is the first part of the Inspect and Adapt event. It is a high-level demonstration of the fully integrated system, showing all the features that have been completed during the PI. It is attended by stakeholders, Business Owners, and the entire train to celebrate success and gather final feedback.

Answer

The Team Demo

Answer

The Final Plan Review

Answer

The Solution Demo

Question 14

A Product Owner is struggling to prioritize the backlog because stakeholders keep adding urgent requests. What should the Scrum Master do?

Accepted Answer

Facilitate a session to clarify priorities and the impact of changing scope.. The Scrum Master must facilitate communication between the PO and stakeholders to clarify the impact of these changes. By educating stakeholders on the cost of switching contexts and the importance of the current iteration goal, the Scrum Master protects the team from constant disruption. This ensures the PO can focus on high-value delivery rather than being overwhelmed by constant, poorly prioritized requests.

Answer

Tell the stakeholders to stop talking to the Product Owner.

Answer

Ask the team to work on the urgent requests without informing the PO.

Answer

Accept all urgent requests to ensure stakeholders are satisfied.

Question 15

During PI Planning Team Breakout #1, a team realizes they cannot meet their draft objectives due to a hidden architectural dependency. What is the Scrum Master's best course of action?

Accepted Answer

Alert the Release Train Engineer to facilitate a conversation with the System Architect and the dependent team.. The Scrum Master is responsible for facilitating the removal of impediments during the PI Planning process. When a team discovers a dependency that threatens their plan, the Scrum Master must act as a bridge to other teams and leadership. This ensures that the technical planning remains realistic and that the final PI objectives are achievable based on the actual capacity and cross-team coordination.

Answer

Negotiate with Product Management to reduce Feature scope immediately.

Answer

Instruct the team to add the dependency to the Program Board and move on to the next objective.

Answer

Record the dependency as a risk in the ROAM board and proceed with the current plan.