SSM Supporting Team Events Practice Test 7 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A SAFe Scrum Master notices that the Daily Stand-up has become a status report to the Scrum Master, with each person speaking only when called upon. The team members are not coordinating their work or raising impediments to each other. What should the Scrum Master do to improve the event?

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

Accepted Answer

Remind the team that the Daily Stand-up is for the team to coordinate and self-organize, and coach them to talk to each other rather than to the Scrum Master.. The Daily Stand-up is a team event for synchronization and self-organization, not a status report to the Scrum Master or Product Owner. When the team directs all communication to the Scrum Master, the event loses its purpose. The Scrum Master should coach the team to speak to one another, raise impediments collaboratively, and plan their day. This restores ownership and helps the team coordinate work directly.

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Ask the Product Owner to attend every Daily Stand-up and assign tasks to team members based on the iteration backlog.

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Replace the Daily Stand-up with a written status update in the team's chat tool so that team members can read updates at their convenience.

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Start asking each team member detailed questions about their tasks to make the meeting more interactive and ensure the Scrum Master understands progress.

Question 2

A Scrum Master notices that the team's Iteration Review has become a one-way demonstration to stakeholders with little dialogue, and the team rarely receives actionable feedback. What should the Scrum Master do to improve the event?

Accepted Answer

Coach the team to frame the review around the Iteration Goals, invite targeted stakeholder questions, and use structured feedback techniques to elicit input.. The Iteration Review is an inspect-and-adapt event, so dialogue and feedback are essential. Framing the review around the Iteration Goals and using structured feedback techniques invites stakeholder participation and yields actionable input. The Scrum Master facilitates this improvement while keeping the team and Product Owner accountable for content and prioritization, rather than replacing the event or reassigning the demo.

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Limit the review to a strict demonstration with no questions so it finishes within the timebox.

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Replace the Iteration Review with a written status report sent to stakeholders before the end of the iteration.

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Ask the Product Owner to present the demo instead of the team so stakeholders feel more comfortable asking questions.

Question 3

An Agile Team is preparing for its Iteration Review. The Scrum Master wants to ensure the event fulfills its purpose in SAFe. Which two actions should the Scrum Master take to support the team during this event? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Help the team prepare a working, demonstrable increment and a clear narrative that connects the iteration's work to the Iteration Goals.. The Iteration Review exists so the team can demonstrate a working increment and stakeholders can inspect it and provide feedback that shapes the next iteration. The Scrum Master supports this by helping the team prepare a demonstrable increment tied to the Iteration Goals and by facilitating stakeholder engagement. The Scrum Master does not present on the team's behalf, approve stories, or convert the event into a release gate.

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Convert the Iteration Review into a formal sign-off gate where stakeholders approve the release before the team proceeds.

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Approve the final acceptance of each user story with stakeholders before the team demonstrates the increment.

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Present the team's velocity charts and burn-down metrics on behalf of the team to demonstrate progress to stakeholders.

Question 4

A Scrum Master is facilitating the Iteration Retrospective for a team that has consistently missed its Iteration Goals. The team is discouraged and reluctant to speak openly. Which TWO actions best support the team in this event? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Establish psychological safety by reinforcing that the Retrospective is a blame-free space and that the team owns its improvement actions.. The Scrum Master supports the Retrospective by creating a safe, blame-free environment and using a structured approach to uncover root causes and choose a few actionable experiments. These actions help a discouraged team speak honestly, learn from missed goals, and regain ownership of its improvement.

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Ask the Product Owner to attend and explain why the Iteration Goals were too ambitious so the team does not feel responsible.

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Document each team member's individual contributions to missed goals so accountability is clear.

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Reduce the number of Iteration Goals for the next Iteration so the team can experience success and rebuild confidence.

Question 5

A Scrum Master is facilitating the Iteration Review for a team that has just completed its first Iteration on a new Agile Release Train. Which two actions should the Scrum Master take to ensure the event effectively supports inspection and adaptation? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Facilitate a discussion where stakeholders provide feedback that informs backlog adaptation.. The Iteration Review is a cadence-based event where the team demonstrates a working increment that meets the Definition of Done and stakeholders provide feedback to adapt the backlog. The Scrum Master ensures these two actions occur by facilitating the demonstration and the feedback discussion, thereby enabling inspection and adaptation.

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Postpone the review until all planned stories for the Iteration are completed, even if it delays the event.

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Use the entire timebox to review the team's velocity and burn-down charts with stakeholders.

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Invite only the Product Owner and Scrum Master to keep the review focused and efficient.

Question 6

During an Iteration Planning event, the team is struggling to estimate a complex enabler story and the discussion has become circular and lengthy. The Product Owner is becoming impatient because time is running short. What is the most appropriate action for the Scrum Master to take?

Accepted Answer

Suggest the team timebox the estimation discussion, capture any unresolved technical unknowns as a spike or research item, and move on to planning the rest of the iteration.. The best action is to keep the planning event productive by timeboxing the estimation debate and capturing unresolved technical uncertainty as a spike or research item. This respects the team's need to investigate, allows planning to continue within the available time, and supports the Product Owner's need for a usable iteration plan without the Scrum Master taking over estimation or scope decisions.

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Ask the Product Owner to remove the enabler story from the iteration and replace it with a simpler feature so the team can finish planning on time.

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End the estimation discussion immediately and instruct the team to simply accept the story without an estimate, since estimates are not required in Scrum.

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Provide the team with an estimate based on your own technical experience so the planning can proceed without further debate.

Question 7

During a team's Iteration Retrospective in a SAFe environment, one developer dominates the conversation, repeatedly interrupting others and steering the discussion toward a personal grievance about a colleague. The Scrum Master wants to ensure all voices are heard and the team stays focused on actionable improvements. What is the most appropriate first action for the Scrum Master?

Accepted Answer

Intervene by acknowledging the concern, then use a structured format such as round-robin or silent brainstorming to ensure balanced participation.. The Scrum Master owns the retrospective process and must ensure a safe, balanced environment where all team members can contribute. Using structured facilitation techniques such as round-robin or silent brainstorming directly addresses dominance and interpersonal tension while preserving the team's time for identifying actionable improvements. Escalating or ending the session prematurely avoids the Scrum Master's core responsibility to facilitate the event effectively.

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Report the developer's behavior to the Release Train Engineer and ask them to address it after the retrospective.

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End the Retrospective early and schedule a separate conflict-resolution session with the two developers involved.

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Allow the discussion to continue, then summarize the grievance and ask the team to vote on whether it should become an improvement item.

Question 8

A Scrum Master is preparing to facilitate the Iteration Retrospective for a team that has just finished its first Program Increment. The team is dispersed across two locations and has not yet established a regular retrospective rhythm. Which two actions best support an effective Retrospective in this context? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Ensure both locations have equal opportunity to contribute by using a shared digital board and alternating the facilitator role between sites.. For a distributed team new to retrospectives, ensuring balanced participation through shared digital tools and alternating facilitation builds inclusion and ownership. Using a structured format like Start-Stop-Continue with timeboxes provides a repeatable rhythm and keeps the event focused. These actions help the team inspect and adapt effectively across locations. Avoiding PI topics or recording for later viewing would weaken engagement, while having the RTE lead with prescribed improvements would undermine team self-management.

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Invite the Release Train Engineer to lead the Retrospective and provide an authoritative list of improvements for the team to implement.

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Focus the Retrospective solely on the team's internal processes, avoiding any discussion of program-level issues from the Program Increment.

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Schedule the Retrospective at a time that is convenient for the larger location and record it for the remote team to watch later.

Question 9

During an Iteration Review in SAFe, a stakeholder from another team questions whether a completed feature will integrate with their system. The team has not yet tested the integration. The Product Owner looks to the Scrum Master. What is the most appropriate action for the Scrum Master to take?

Accepted Answer

Facilitate a brief discussion between the team, the Product Owner, and the stakeholder to clarify the integration risk, then help the team decide how to address it, possibly by adding it to the backlog or scheduling a spike.. The Iteration Review is a feedback and transparency event, and the Scrum Master should help the team engage with stakeholder concerns rather than deflect or abruptly change course. Facilitating a focused conversation among the team, Product Owner, and stakeholder allows the risk to be understood and addressed appropriately. The team and Product Owner then decide whether to add a spike, a backlog item, or another action, keeping ownership with those accountable for the work.

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Instruct the team to stop the Iteration Review and immediately begin integration testing to resolve the stakeholder's concern.

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Ask the team to add the integration test to the next Iteration backlog and move on to the next agenda item.

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Tell the stakeholder that integration testing is outside the scope of the Iteration Review and suggest they raise it at the next System Demo.

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.

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

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

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

Question 11

A SAFe team is preparing for its first Iteration Review with stakeholders. The Product Owner plans to present all completed stories and then ask stakeholders for feedback. The Scrum Master notices the team has not prepared any working software demonstration and the backlog items are mostly technical enablers with no user-facing functionality. What is the most appropriate action for the Scrum Master?

Accepted Answer

Coach the team to demonstrate the working enablers and their impact, and invite stakeholders to give feedback on the technical direction and upcoming functionality.. The Iteration Review is an inspect-and-adapt event where the team demonstrates the working increment and collects stakeholder feedback. Even when the increment consists mainly of technical enablers, the Scrum Master should coach the team to present that work meaningfully and invite feedback on technical direction. Canceling the event, fabricating user stories at the last minute, or excluding stakeholders all undermine transparency and the purpose of the review.

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Replace the Iteration Review with a technical deep-dive session for the architects and skip stakeholder involvement.

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Ask the Product Owner to create last-minute user stories and have developers implement them quickly before the review.

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Instruct the Product Owner to cancel the Iteration Review because there is no user-facing functionality to demonstrate.

Question 12

A Scrum Master notices that the team's Team Sync consistently runs long because members dive into detailed problem-solving. The Scrum Master wants to support the event while preserving its purpose. What is the best action?

Accepted Answer

Facilitate the team in keeping the Team Sync focused on progress toward the Iteration Goals and park detailed topics for a follow-up after the event.. The Scrum Master supports the Team Sync by helping the team keep it timeboxed and focused on progress toward the Iteration Goals, while parking detailed problem-solving for a follow-up. This preserves the event's purpose, respects the value of deeper discussions, and reinforces the team's self-management.

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Cancel the Team Sync and replace it with a weekly problem-solving meeting until the team learns to be concise.

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Allow the extended discussions because they are valuable and reschedule the team's other meetings to accommodate them.

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Ask each team member to submit a written status update before the Team Sync so the meeting can be shorter.

Question 13

A SAFe Scrum Master is facilitating the Team Sync (a SAFe event replacing the Daily Stand-up in some contexts) for a distributed team. The team members are in three time zones, and the meeting often runs long because two team members engage in detailed problem-solving. What is the most effective action for the Scrum Master to take?

Accepted Answer

Interrupt the two team members and ask them to take the detailed discussion offline or into a separate focused session after the Team Sync, so the whole team can finish the synchronization.. The Team Sync is a timeboxed event for synchronization, and the Scrum Master protects that timebox while fostering collaboration. When two members dive into detailed problem-solving, the most effective action is to redirect that conversation to a separate session so the whole team can complete its synchronization. This keeps the event focused, respects all participants' time, and still allows the technical issue to be resolved.

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Ask the two team members to stop discussing the issue entirely and focus only on their individual task updates.

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Extend the Team Sync by 15 minutes to accommodate the problem-solving, and ask the other team members to wait.

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Allow the problem-solving to continue so that the team can resolve the issue immediately, since the team is distributed and ad hoc conversations are difficult.

Question 14

A Scrum Master notices that during Iteration Planning, the Agile Team consistently accepts more work than it can finish, and the Iteration Goals are rarely met. The Product Owner is frustrated and asks the Scrum Master to force the team to commit to fewer stories. What is the most appropriate action for the Scrum Master?

Accepted Answer

Facilitate a discussion with the team and Product Owner about capacity, past velocity, and why commitments are missed, then help the team adjust its own forecasting.. When a team consistently over-commits, the Scrum Master facilitates a data-informed conversation with the team and Product Owner about capacity, past velocity, and the reasons commitments are missed. This preserves the team's ownership of its forecast while improving transparency and alignment. Imposing caps, dismissing concerns, or manipulating velocity all fail to address the root causes and undermine self-management or data integrity.

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Tell the Product Owner that over-commitment is normal and that the team will improve on its own without any facilitation.

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Reduce the team's velocity target in the team's metrics so the gap between planned and completed work appears smaller.

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Set a hard cap on the number of stories the team can pull and enforce it during every Iteration Planning session.

Question 15

A Scrum Master notices that the team's Daily Stand-up consistently runs over 15 minutes because members dive into detailed problem-solving. The Scrum Master wants to keep the event timeboxed and focused on coordination. What is the most appropriate action?

Accepted Answer

Let the current stand-up finish, then coach the team on timeboxing and suggest moving detailed discussions to a follow-up 'after-party'.. The Daily Stand-up is a timeboxed event for coordination, not detailed problem-solving. The Scrum Master should coach the team to respect the timebox and move deeper discussions to a follow-up. Allowing overruns, canceling the event, or taking over facilitation all fail to build the team's self-management skills. Coaching after the event preserves the current flow and addresses the root cause.

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Take over facilitation of the Daily Stand-up and strictly cut off anyone who speaks longer than one minute.

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Cancel the Daily Stand-up and replace it with a weekly status meeting to reduce meeting fatigue.

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Allow the detailed discussions to continue because problem-solving is more valuable than adhering to a timebox.