SSM Practice Test 9 — 10 Questions

Question 1

How does the Scrum Master support the Product Owner (PO) during the preparation for PI Planning?

Accepted Answer

By ensuring the Team Backlog is refined and that the team understands the upcoming priorities.. The Scrum Master and Product Owner have a symbiotic relationship. While the PO focuses on content and value, the Scrum Master ensures the process is followed and the backlog is healthy. Supporting the PO in refinement and ensuring the team is prepared helps the entire Agile Release Train have a more successful and efficient planning event.

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By writing the technical acceptance criteria for all the Features in the Program Backlog.

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By selecting the Business Value scores for the team's PI Objectives before the event starts.

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By acting as the primary point of contact for all stakeholder requests to keep the PO focused.

Question 2

An Agile Team's Scrum Master/Team Coach notices that the team relies on them to assign tasks, resolve every technical disagreement, and decide when a Story is done. The team meets its Iteration Goals, but members rarely challenge each other or improve their process. What should the coach do to develop a more self-managing team?

Accepted Answer

Gradually shift decision-making to the team by using coaching questions, reinforcing their Definition of Done, and letting them resolve technical disagreements themselves.. A team that depends on the coach for task assignment, conflict resolution, and completion decisions is not self-managing, even if it hits goals. The coach should deliberately transfer ownership through questioning, a clear Definition of Done, and space for the team to resolve technical debates. This grows capability and reduces the coach as a bottleneck.

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Ask the Release Train Engineer to attend team events and take over facilitation so the team learns from an external authority.

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Introduce a formal RACI matrix that defines exactly who decides each type of task, then enforce it during Daily Stand-up.

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Continue assigning tasks and resolving disagreements because the team is meeting its Iteration Goals and the current approach is working.

Question 3

You are the Scrum Master for Team Beta in an ART that runs three-week sprints, but the System Demo occurs every two weeks at the end of each sprint's second week. Team Beta's latest increment is only partially integrated with Team Gamma's API, though both teams have completed their committed stories. During the System Demo, the Product Manager asks why the end-to-end customer journey cannot be shown. What should you do first?

Accepted Answer

Explain that the System Demo shows the integrated solution from all teams, and facilitate a discussion about the integration gap as an impediment.. The System Demo is an ART-level event that demonstrates the integrated solution from all teams every two weeks. When integration is incomplete, the Scrum Master should ensure the gap is visible and treated as an impediment, not hidden or bypassed. This maintains transparency and allows the ART to inspect and adapt, which is the core purpose of the event.

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Cancel the System Demo for this iteration and schedule a special integration session with Team Gamma instead.

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Request that Team Beta's Product Owner present only the stories that are fully integrated with Team Gamma's API.

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Ask Team Gamma to delay the demo until their API is fully integrated with Team Beta's increment.

Question 4

What is the primary role of the Scrum Master in the ART's Scrum of Scrums?

Accepted Answer

Sharing impediments and dependencies that affect the team's ability to deliver.. The Scrum Master is the representative of the team in the Scrum of Scrums. They should focus on identifying blockers and dependencies that impact the team's ability to meet the PI objectives. By sharing these openly and collaborating with other Scrum Masters, they ensure that issues are escalated or resolved before they become train-wide impediments that delay the entire release schedule.

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Reporting on each team member's daily attendance and hours worked.

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Assigning tasks to other teams to ensure the program gets done on time.

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Acting as the lead architect for all solution components.

Question 5

What is the role of the Scrum Master during the Inspect and Adapt (I&A) event?

Accepted Answer

Facilitating the team's participation and helping them identify systemic improvements.. During the Inspect and Adapt, the Scrum Master supports the team in presenting their results and identifying systemic improvement opportunities. They act as a facilitator, ensuring the team's voice is heard in the ART-level discussion. This helps the entire program learn from past mistakes and successes, which is vital for the long-term agility and success of the release train.

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Representing the team to defend their performance against criticism.

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Writing the final report for executive leadership on behalf of the team.

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Directing the team on what to say during the PI System Demo.

Question 6

During Iteration Planning, an Agile Team is struggling to commit to a realistic set of Stories because team members want to pad their estimates to account for unpredictable interruptions. How should the Scrum Master coach the team?

Accepted Answer

Coach the team to calculate true available capacity by subtracting routine overhead and meetings, ensuring commitments reflect realistic throughput.. The Scrum Master facilitates predictable delivery by coaching the team to use historical velocity and actual capacity rather than inflated estimates. By establishing transparent capacity planning that accounts for routine overhead, the Scrum Master helps the team build trust with stakeholders through reliable commitments aligned with SAFe principles.

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Mandate that all story estimates be reduced by fifty percent to force the team into accepting a higher workload during the upcoming iteration.

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Take over the estimation process directly to eliminate emotional debates and ensure the velocity metrics remain consistent for management reporting.

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Advise the Product Owner to remove all uncertain backlog items so the team only works on trivial tasks with zero risk of interruption.

Question 7

What is the role of the Product Owner in the daily Stand-up?

Accepted Answer

To listen to the team and answer questions about requirements.. The Product Owner is a key participant in the Stand-up, providing clarity on priorities and requirements. Their presence ensures that the team remains aligned with the business goals as they make daily decisions. This is important because it prevents misalignment and ensures that the work being done during the iteration remains consistent with the goals established in the PI planning process.

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To report their daily status to the team members.

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To direct the team on exactly how to write their code.

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To evaluate the team members' individual productivity.

Question 8

During PI Planning, a team identifies a significant dependency on another team that is not available until the second iteration of the PI. How should the Scrum Master handle this?

Accepted Answer

Document the dependency on the Program Board and coordinate with the other team.. Effective dependency management is a key Scrum Master responsibility. The Scrum Master must ensure the dependency is documented on the Program Board and communicated to the other team's Scrum Master immediately. By raising this early, the teams can negotiate a solution, such as rearranging the order of work, creating a mock, or adjusting their plans, ensuring that the dependency does not become a blocker that halts progress later in the PI.

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Ignore the dependency and hope the other team completes their work.

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Ask the Product Owner to remove the story from the plan entirely.

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Instruct the team to build a placeholder component themselves.

Question 9

An Agile Team in a SAFe portfolio is experiencing severe friction between developers and testers, leading to delayed story completions at the end of every Iteration. What is the primary responsibility of the Scrum Master / Team Coach in addressing this specific team dynamic?

Accepted Answer

Facilitate targeted problem-solving discussions and retrospectives to help the team co-create working agreements that foster cross-functional collaboration and built-in quality.. The Scrum Master facilitates an environment of high trust and collaboration by coaching the team through conflict resolution and process improvements. By actively coaching team members to break down functional silos and adopt built-in quality practices, the Scrum Master helps the group achieve predictable flow and shared accountability for the Iteration Goal, which is essential for successful Agile Release Train execution.

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Escalate the personnel conflict directly to the Release Train Engineer to initiate formal corrective action plans for the resistant team members.

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Reassign the testing tasks to senior developers temporarily to bypass the bottleneck and ensure the current iteration stories meet the Definition of Done.

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Adjust the Team Backlog priorities to isolate developers from testing dependencies until the next Program Increment planning event occurs.

Question 10

During Iteration Planning, an Agile Team attempts to commit to a scope of work that significantly exceeds their historical velocity. What is the primary responsibility of the Scrum Master in this situation?

Accepted Answer

Facilitate a transparent capacity discussion, helping the team negotiate a realistic scope based on historical velocity and upcoming time off.. The Scrum Master protects the team from burnout and ensures realistic commitments by coaching them to balance demand against capacity. By guiding the team toward sustainable pacing, the Scrum Master promotes reliable execution and prevents the quality degradation associated with overburdened iterations.

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Override the team's concerns and mandate the acceptance of the complete backlog scope to satisfy stakeholder expectations for the Program Increment.

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Redefine the acceptance criteria for all selected Stories to make the implementation faster without consulting the Product Owner.

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Cancel the Iteration Planning event immediately and refer the prioritization conflict to the Release Train Engineer for final resolution.