CSM Practice Test 5 — 25 Questions

Question 1

At the start of Sprint Planning, the Product Owner presents a set of high-priority items, but the Developers realize they lack sufficient clarity on user expectations to commit to a realistic Sprint Goal. What is the best course of action?

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

Accepted Answer

Collaborate with the Product Owner during Sprint Planning to clarify the items, negotiate scope, and formulate a viable Sprint Goal.. Sprint Planning requires a clear understanding of the proposed work and its value. If items lack clarity, the Developers must collaborate with the Product Owner during the event to refine them, or adjust the scope. While Product Backlog refinement is ongoing, the team cannot plan effectively with ambiguous requirements, necessitating immediate real-time clarification.

Answer

Proceed with planning by guessing the missing requirements to avoid delaying the start of the new Sprint cycle.

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Refuse to pull the items into the Sprint and demand that the Product Owner rewrite them alone before the next daily meeting.

Answer

Permanently remove all Sprint Planning events from future iterations and replace them with continuous on-demand kanban flow.

Question 2

Which THREE of the following are valid ways a Scrum Master serves the organization by improving the Scrum implementation? (Choose three)

Accepted Answer

Leading the organizational transformation to Scrum.. The Scrum Master is an agent of change, responsible for the adoption of Scrum. This requires deep organizational knowledge and the ability to influence processes at scale. By focusing on education, process improvement, and structural change, the Scrum Master helps the organization move from traditional, siloed thinking toward a more agile, value-driven culture that supports the effectiveness of their Scrum Teams.

Answer

Planning and executing the product release schedule.

Answer

Setting individual performance goals for developers.

Question 3

A Product Owner is struggling to break down large features into smaller, manageable items. How can the Scrum Master support them?

Accepted Answer

Suggest techniques like User Story Mapping or splitting patterns.. The Scrum Master can introduce various techniques for backlog refinement, such as user story mapping or INVEST criteria. By providing these tools, the Scrum Master empowers the Product Owner to improve the backlog, ensuring that items are ready for the Developers. This competency is essential for maintaining a healthy workflow, as smaller, well-refined items are easier for the team to estimate, plan, and deliver within a Sprint.

Answer

Take over the responsibility of writing the user stories.

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Tell the Developers to just figure it out themselves.

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Ask the stakeholders to provide smaller requirements.

Question 4

Which of the following describes the most effective way for a Scrum Master to help a new Scrum Team build trust?

Accepted Answer

Create a safe environment where team members feel comfortable to be vulnerable and share their observations.. Trust is built through transparency and the successful delivery of value. By fostering an environment where failures can be discussed openly and successes are celebrated, the Scrum Master helps the team build psychological safety. This is fundamental for high-performing teams, as it allows for honest communication and risk-taking, both of which are required to innovate and improve consistently over time within the Scrum framework.

Answer

Force the team to have social lunches every day to get to know each other.

Answer

Publicly reward the team member who finishes the most tasks in a Sprint.

Answer

Monitor the team members' performance to ensure everyone is pulling their weight.

Question 5

A new Product Owner is struggling to prioritize the backlog because stakeholders are demanding different features. How can the Scrum Master support the organization here?

Accepted Answer

Coach the Product Owner on stakeholder management techniques.. The Scrum Master serves the organization by facilitating an environment where the Product Owner can succeed. This involves helping the Product Owner communicate effectively with stakeholders and ensuring the backlog reflects a clear, value-based strategy. By teaching stakeholders about the empirical nature of the product lifecycle, the Scrum Master reduces the pressure on the Product Owner, allowing them to focus on maximizing product value.

Answer

Take over the backlog prioritization for the Product Owner.

Answer

Tell stakeholders to stop emailing the Product Owner.

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Force all stakeholders into a weekly prioritization meeting.

Question 6

During the Sprint Review, a key stakeholder inspects the Increment and states that a major feature implemented by the Developers does not align with their actual business workflow. However, the feature strictly meets all acceptance criteria defined in the Product Backlog item. How should this situation be handled?

Accepted Answer

Acknowledge the valuable feedback, and have the Product Owner create new Product Backlog items to address the workflow adjustment.. The Sprint Review is designed for inspection and adaptation. When a stakeholder provides feedback revealing a mismatch between written requirements and real-world utility, the Scrum Team must embrace empiricism. The Product Owner creates new Product Backlog items to address the workflow gap, ensuring continuous alignment with customer needs.

Answer

Reject the stakeholder's feedback because the Developers successfully met all written acceptance criteria during the Sprint.

Answer

Scold the Product Owner for failing to write comprehensive acceptance criteria and demand that the feature be rewritten immediately.

Answer

Immediately halt the Sprint Review and force the Developers to refactor the feature before allowing stakeholders to leave.

Question 7

A new Scrum Team is frustrated because their Sprint Burndown chart shows a flat line for the first few days of the Sprint. What is the most effective way for the Scrum Master to help?

Accepted Answer

Facilitate a session on better task decomposition and the importance of incremental progress.. The Scrum Master should coach the team on the value of breaking down work into smaller, manageable tasks. A flat burndown often indicates that items are too large or that the team is waiting for a final push. By helping the team learn to increment work early and often, the Scrum Master improves transparency and ensures the team has early indicators of potential failure, allowing for faster adaptation.

Answer

Mandate that the team update their tasks every hour to keep the chart moving.

Answer

Ignore the chart as it is just a tool and not a requirement of the Scrum Guide.

Answer

Tell the team that the Product Owner is worried about the lack of progress.

Question 8

A Scrum Team's Product Owner has been ordering the Product Backlog based on which stakeholder shouted loudest in the last meeting. The Developers are frustrated because they cannot see a coherent direction, and value delivery is suffering. The Product Owner admits he does not know how to evaluate competing requests. What is the most appropriate action for the Scrum Master?

Accepted Answer

Coach the Product Owner on techniques for ordering the Product Backlog by value, such as weighing cost of delay, risk, and stakeholder impact, and help him establish a transparent rationale he can share.. The Scrum Master serves the Product Owner by coaching him to order the Product Backlog effectively. Helping him learn value-based techniques such as cost of delay, risk assessment, and stakeholder impact, and encouraging a transparent rationale, addresses the root cause of loudest-voice ordering. Bypassing his authority, outsourcing prioritization, or using arbitrary ordering all fail to build his capability and undermine Scrum accountabilities.

Answer

Suggest that the Product Owner order items alphabetically to remove bias and make the ordering objective and easy to explain.

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Escalate to the stakeholders and ask them to agree on a single prioritized list that the Product Owner can simply copy into the Product Backlog.

Answer

Instruct the Developers to ignore the Product Owner's ordering and instead work on the items they believe deliver the most value.

Question 9

At the Sprint Review, an important stakeholder expresses dissatisfaction with a core feature delivered by the Development Team, stating it does not solve their current business workflow. How should this feedback be handled?

Accepted Answer

Capture the stakeholder feedback as new items in the Product Backlog for the Product Owner to prioritize.. The Sprint Review is a working session designed to inspect the Increment and adapt the Product Backlog based on stakeholder feedback. Discontent from stakeholders indicates a shift in understanding or requirements, which the Product Owner must capture and incorporate into the Product Backlog as new items. This feedback loop validates the empirical nature of Scrum, ensuring the product evolves to meet real market needs.

Answer

Ignore the feedback because the Development Team strictly followed the requirements provided in the initial backlog.

Answer

Scold the Development Team for failing to understand the business needs during Sprint Planning.

Answer

Suspend the release pipeline and force the team to rewrite the entire feature before leaving the room.

Question 10

Refer to the exhibit. The Product Owner was absent from the Daily Scrum. How should the Scrum Master evaluate this?

Accepted Answer

As long as the Developers successfully sync their progress, the absence is acceptable.. The Daily Scrum is for the Developers to plan their work for the next 24 hours. While the Product Owner is welcome, their presence is not required unless they have items on the Sprint Backlog they are actively working on. The Scrum Master should ensure the Developers had the autonomy and information they needed to complete their synchronization effectively without the Product Owner, keeping the event focused on its primary purpose of developer alignment.

Answer

The event was a failure because the Product Owner must attend every meeting.

Answer

The Scrum Master should report the Product Owner for missing the required event.

Answer

The Scrum Master should cancel the meeting if the Product Owner cannot attend.

Question 11

Refer to the exhibit. The Scrum Team is blocked by an external dependency for the second sprint in a row. What is the most effective action for the Scrum Master to take?

Accepted Answer

Facilitate a meeting between the teams to establish a clearer service agreement.. The Scrum Master must act as a bridge between the Scrum Team and the rest of the organization to resolve systemic dependencies. By facilitating a collaboration session between the Scrum Team and the Infrastructure Team, the Scrum Master addresses the root cause of the delay. This action is vital because the Scrum Master is responsible for removing impediments that the team cannot resolve on its own, ensuring smooth product flow.

Answer

Instruct the Scrum Team to work on lower priority tasks while waiting.

Answer

Take over the tasks assigned to the Infrastructure Team to speed up delivery.

Answer

Update the impediment log and wait for the Infrastructure Team to respond.

Question 12

Which THREE of the following are responsibilities that fall under the Scrum Master's accountability toward the Scrum Team?

Accepted Answer

Coaching the team in self-management and cross-functionality.. The Scrum Master acts as a servant-leader for the Scrum Team. These specific responsibilities focus on removing impediments, coaching the team on self-management, and ensuring that all Scrum events take place and are productive. By focusing on these areas, the Scrum Master enables the team to maintain high velocity and quality while adhering to the core principles of the Scrum framework.

Answer

Ordering the Product Backlog items to maximize value.

Answer

Writing the user stories for the Product Backlog.

Question 13

Which TWO of the following are true about the Scrum Master's role?

Accepted Answer

The Scrum Master serves the Product Owner by helping them find techniques for effective Product Backlog management.. The Scrum Master is a servant-leader who focuses on the team, Product Owner, and organization. By ensuring that the Scrum framework is understood and enacted, they create an environment where high-quality work is possible. These dual roles—improving the process and removing blockers—are essential to ensure that the Scrum Team remains effective and that the organization values the agility that Scrum provides.

Answer

The Scrum Master is responsible for the team's final output quality.

Answer

The Scrum Master manages the daily calendar of every team member.

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The Scrum Master directs the Developers on the best ways to write code.

Question 14

A Product Owner frequently introduces new high-priority requirements directly to the Development Team mid-Sprint, claiming urgent customer needs. The Development Team feels pressured and struggles to meet their Sprint Goal. Which Scrum event is specifically designed to prevent this anti-pattern?

Accepted Answer

Sprint Planning creates a fixed commitment for the Sprint, preventing unauthorized mid-Sprint scope changes.. Sprint Planning establishes the Sprint Goal and the work needed to achieve it, creating a protective boundary around the team. Mid-Sprint scope injections violate this boundary, and the Scrum Master must coach the organization to utilize refinement and upcoming planning sessions for requirement adjustments.

Answer

The Daily Scrum provides a daily negotiation platform for the Product Owner to inject new backlog items.

Answer

The Sprint Review allows stakeholders to renegotiate the scope of the current ongoing iteration dynamically.

Answer

Backlog Refinement sessions allow the Product Owner to push urgent tasks directly into the active Sprint Backlog.

Question 15

A Scrum Team has two Product Owners to handle the complex, multi-departmental product. What is the most common issue this creates regarding Scrum accountability?

Accepted Answer

Ambiguity in decision-making and backlog ordering.. Scrum defines the Product Owner as one person, not a committee. Having two Product Owners creates confusion over who has the final authority to prioritize the Product Backlog, leading to conflicting instructions for Developers and reduced transparency. This ambiguity prevents the team from having a single, clear source of value optimization, which is essential for effective decision-making and focus in a Scrum environment.

Answer

Increased velocity due to double the input.

Answer

A violation of the Scrum Master's role.

Answer

The team becomes too cross-functional.

Question 16

Refer to the exhibit. The Product Owner is unsure which items should be prioritized for the next release. Based on Scrum principles, how should the Scrum Master advise the Product Owner?

Accepted Answer

Suggest prioritizing 'User Authentication' first to mitigate risk while delivering core functionality.. The Scrum Master should coach the Product Owner to balance risk, value, and effort. While the Product Owner retains final say, the Scrum Master can help them apply techniques like MoSCoW or Risk-Adjusted Backlog Grooming. Addressing high-risk, high-value items early is crucial for learning and reducing uncertainty, whereas low-value, low-complexity items are often deferred to optimize the return on investment throughout the product's lifecycle.

Answer

Advise the Product Owner to address the 'Database Migration' first to clear the complex technical debt.

Answer

Tell the Product Owner to group all items by type and complete the lowest complexity items first.

Answer

Recommend that the Scrum Master randomly select the order to ensure the team stays motivated and focused.

Question 17

A Scrum Team is about to hold its Sprint Retrospective at the end of a challenging Sprint. Which TWO statements accurately describe the purpose and format of the Sprint Retrospective according to the Scrum Guide? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

The Sprint Retrospective concludes the Sprint and is timeboxed to a maximum of three hours for a one-month Sprint.. The Sprint Retrospective is a required event that concludes the Sprint. It is timeboxed to a maximum of three hours for a one-month Sprint and is attended by the entire Scrum Team. Its purpose is to inspect the last Sprint and create a plan for improvements to be enacted during the next Sprint, often including adjustments to the Definition of Done.

Answer

The Sprint Retrospective is optional if the team met its Sprint Goal and had no impediments during the Sprint.

Answer

The Sprint Retrospective is attended only by the Scrum Master and Product Owner, who then report findings to the Developers.

Answer

The primary output of the Sprint Retrospective is an updated Product Backlog with newly prioritized items for the next Sprint.

Question 18

The Product Owner is having difficulty defining the 'Definition of Done' (DoD) because they believe quality is a technical concern. How should the Scrum Master guide the Product Owner?

Accepted Answer

Facilitate a session where the Product Owner and Developers collaborate to define quality standards that satisfy both product value and technical excellence.. The Scrum Master must clarify that the Product Owner is accountable for the product's value, which is inherently tied to quality. If the increment is not of high quality, it creates technical debt that slows down future progress and decreases total value. Coaching the Product Owner to see quality as a value enabler allows them to collaborate effectively with the Developers to define clear criteria for a releasable increment.

Answer

Tell the Product Owner that the Definition of Done is purely a technical matter for the Developers to decide independently.

Answer

Suggest the Product Owner adopt a market standard definition without consulting the Developers to save time during the Sprint.

Answer

Recommend the Product Owner focus only on the features and let the Scrum Master enforce the Definition of Done.

Question 19

Which TWO of the following are considered accountabilities of the Developers in a Scrum Team?

Accepted Answer

Creating a plan for the Sprint, the Sprint Backlog.. Developers are accountable for the technical execution and quality of the increment. They must manage their own work during the Sprint to meet the Definition of Done. These accountabilities ensure that the team focuses on creating a usable, high-quality product increment every Sprint, emphasizing self-management and cross-functionality in achieving the Sprint Goal.

Answer

Defining the product vision and roadmap.

Answer

Final approval of the Definition of Done.

Answer

Managing stakeholder expectations and communications.

Question 20

Refer to the exhibit. As a Scrum Master, what is the most critical issue shown in the error log?

Accepted Answer

Velocity is being reported to management and individual performance is being tracked.. The log indicates the Scrum Master is using Scrum metrics for management reporting and individual tracking, which is an anti-pattern. This destroys transparency, as team members will manipulate velocity to meet management expectations. The Scrum Master must stop these practices to restore the integrity of the Scrum process, as these actions undermine the core Scrum value of trust and prevent the team from honestly inspecting their performance.

Answer

The log format is incorrect for reporting purposes.

Answer

The Scrum Master is tracking the wrong metrics.

Answer

The logging system is not capturing enough information.