CSM Practice Test 2 — 10 Questions

Question 1

An organization is transitioning from traditional project management to Scrum, and senior management is struggling to understand why Scrum Teams are self-organizing rather than assigned tasks by functional managers. As a Certified ScrumMaster, what is the best way to serve the organization in this situation?

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

Accepted Answer

Facilitate workshops for leadership to explain the empirical benefits of self-organization, servant leadership, and how psychological safety drives sustainable business value.. Coaching the organization toward self-organization requires active engagement with leadership to help them understand that Scrum shifts authority for how work gets done to the Scrum Team. True agility relies on intrinsic motivation and autonomy. By facilitating discussions and providing education on empirical process control, the ScrumMaster helps leadership transition from command-and-control to supportive servant leadership, ultimately building a healthier organizational ecosystem that enables Scrum Teams to deliver higher value safely and effectively.

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Escalate the managers' behavior to the executive sponsor and request that management be formally prohibited from talking directly to developers during sprints.

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Advise the developers to ignore management's task assignments and continue working autonomously without addressing the root cause of the misunderstanding.

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Rewrite the organization's human resources policies to strip functional managers of their authority over team members and establish strict reporting boundaries.

Question 2

During a Sprint Planning event, the Developers realize they have overcommitted and selected more items from the Product Backlog than they can realistically complete. What is the most appropriate action according to Scrum rules?

Accepted Answer

The Developers collaborate with the Product Owner to adjust the selected Product Backlog items, reducing the scope to fit their actual capacity.. The Developers are solely responsible for sizing and selecting work during Sprint Planning based on their capacity. If they realize an overcommitment, they must collaborate with the Product Owner to adjust the Sprint Backlog scope before the meeting ends. This protects team sustainability and ensures a realistic Sprint Goal can be achieved without compromising quality.

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The Scrum Master must unilaterally remove the lowest priority items from the Sprint Backlog to protect the team's velocity.

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The team must extend the length of the Sprint to accommodate the extra work without altering the Product Backlog item selection.

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The Product Owner cancels the Sprint immediately and calls an emergency planning session for the following morning.

Question 3

During the Sprint Retrospective, the team identifies that the Product Owner is consistently adding items to the Sprint Backlog mid-sprint. What is the correct way to address this?

Accepted Answer

The Scrum Master must facilitate a conversation about team focus.. The Sprint Backlog is the plan for the Sprint and should not be changed in a way that endangers the Sprint Goal. The Scrum Master must coach the Product Owner on the impact of changing the plan during the Sprint. This ensures that the team maintains a stable environment to meet their commitments and protects the integrity of the Scrum process.

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The Developers should just ignore the new items.

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The team should automatically increase their velocity.

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The Developers should charge the Product Owner for overtime.

Question 4

During a Sprint, a stakeholder approaches a developer directly and asks for a small urgent modification to a user story currently in progress. What is the most appropriate action for the developer to take?

Accepted Answer

Direct the stakeholder to discuss the request with the Product Owner so it can be evaluated, prioritized, and added to the Product Backlog.. The developer should direct the stakeholder to the Product Owner, who is exclusively accountable for managing product backlog items and their ordering. Developers must protect the Sprint Backlog from mid-Sprint scope changes introduced outside the Scrum Team to maintain focus on the Sprint Goal. Engaging directly without the Product Owner risks undermining team predictability and introduces unmanaged scope creep into the active iteration.

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Implement the modification immediately if it takes less than an hour to avoid unnecessary bureaucratic delay for the stakeholder.

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Bring the request to the next Daily Scrum so the entire Scrum Team can vote on whether to swap out an existing backlog item.

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Halt the current Sprint immediately, call an emergency Sprint Planning session, and rebuild the Sprint Backlog with the new requirement.

Question 5

An organization wants to adopt Scrum and asks who is responsible for helping employees and stakeholders understand and enact an empirical approach for complex work. Who serves this need?

Accepted Answer

The Scrum Master, by leading, training, and coaching the organization in its Scrum adoption.. The Scrum Master serves the organization by leading, training, and coaching it in Scrum adoption, helping employees and stakeholders understand and enact empiricism for complex work, and removing barriers between stakeholders and Scrum Teams. Product direction, delivery excellence, and optional external coaching do not carry this accountability.

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The Product Owner, by communicating the product vision and backlog priorities to stakeholders.

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An external agile coach, because Scrum adoption always requires outside expertise.

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The Developers, by demonstrating working software and technical excellence during each Sprint.

Question 6

Refer to the exhibit. A newly appointed Scrum Master reviews this configuration summary for the Sprint Review event. Which element represents a violation of official Scrum principles?

Accepted Answer

Restricting the primary activity solely to demonstrating the completed increment without collaborative discussion on backlog adaptation.. The Sprint Review is a collaborative working session where the Scrum Team and stakeholders inspect the outcome of the Sprint and discuss future adaptations. While the timebox of up to 4 hours for a 1-month sprint is correct and the attendee list is fully compliant, treating the event merely as a one-way demonstration rather than a collaborative working session violates its spirit.

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Allowing external quality auditors and invited stakeholders to attend and provide direct feedback to the Scrum Team.

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Allocating a 4-hour maximum timebox for a standard one-month Sprint duration as defined in the configuration.

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Requiring the presence of both the Product Owner and the Developers alongside stakeholders during the review session.

Question 7

A ScrumMaster is helping an organization improve its definition of 'Done' across multiple product lines to ensure enterprise compliance and quality standards. Which TWO actions demonstrate effective service to the organization? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Facilitate cross-team alignment sessions to ensure that individual team definitions of Done meet or exceed broader organizational compliance and quality baselines.. Serving the organization involves establishing transparent quality standards and fostering collaboration across boundaries. By helping teams align their definition of 'Done' with organizational quality policies, the ScrumMaster ensures compliance while respecting team autonomy. Collaborating with other Scrum Masters scales these practices enterprise-wide, creating consistency without imposing bureaucratic mandates. This dual focus on systemic quality and cross-team alignment helps the wider organization achieve predictable, high-value product delivery.

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Enforce a rigid, standardized definition of Done dictated by the PMO across all teams without allowing localized team adaptations.

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Take full personal accountability for auditing every completed product backlog item to guarantee absolute adherence to the definition of Done.

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Advocate for the elimination of all quality checks so teams can focus exclusively on maximizing velocity and delivering features faster.

Question 8

A Product Owner is consistently late in providing clarifications to the Developers, causing delays in their work. What is the most appropriate way for the Scrum Master to serve the Product Owner in this situation?

Accepted Answer

Coach the Product Owner on the importance of timely collaboration and help them establish a reliable cadence for answering questions.. The Scrum Master serves the Product Owner by coaching them on effective collaboration with the Developers. Helping the Product Owner establish a reliable cadence for clarifications ensures the Developers can maintain flow and deliver value. This approach addresses the root cause without undermining the Product Owner's authority or escalating prematurely.

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Escalate the Product Owner's delays to their manager to enforce timely responses.

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Suggest that the Developers start attending all Product Owner meetings to get answers immediately.

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Ask the Developers to proceed with their best assumptions and not wait for the Product Owner.

Question 9

A Product Owner is struggling to define the 'Definition of Done'. How can the Scrum Master assist?

Accepted Answer

Facilitate a collaborative session with the Developers and the Product Owner.. The Scrum Master facilitates the creation of a 'Definition of Done' by guiding the team, including the Product Owner, through a shared understanding of quality. The Product Owner provides the 'what' and 'why' from a market perspective, while the Developers define the technical constraints. By bringing these groups together, the Scrum Master ensures a common standard is established that protects the product's quality and ensures transparency for all stakeholders involved.

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Define the 'Definition of Done' alone and present it to the team.

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Ask the organization to define the standard for all teams.

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Ignore the 'Definition of Done' and focus on finishing the backlog items.

Question 10

A Scrum Team is struggling to deliver a potentially releasable Increment each Sprint because the Developers keep discovering integration issues late. The Scrum Master wants to help the team improve. According to Scrum, what is the most appropriate action for the Scrum Master to take?

Accepted Answer

Coach the Developers to improve their Definition of Done and self-manage their integration practices.. The Scrum Master serves the Scrum Team by coaching it in self-management and helping it improve its practices. When integration issues arise, the most appropriate action is to guide the Developers to enhance their Definition of Done and take ownership of their integration approach. This fosters continuous improvement and aligns with Scrum's empirical nature.

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Ask the Product Owner to add a backlog item for fixing integration issues in the next Sprint.

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Instruct the Developers to adopt continuous integration and automated testing immediately.

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Escalate the problem to management so they can allocate additional resources to the team.