CAPM Agile Frameworks and Methodologies Practice Question
A Scrum Master notices that the development team is not self-organizing and often waits for instructions. What is the best coaching approach?
⚠ Common exam trap
CAPM often tests whether candidates revert to traditional management behaviors like assigning tasks or escalating for detailed specs, instead of applying Scrum's servant-leadership and self-organization principles.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Encourage the team to make decisions collaboratively and support them when they face obstacles.
The best coaching approach for a team that is not self-organizing is to encourage collaborative decision-making and support the team as it takes ownership, which is the essence of Scrum Master servant-leadership. By facilitating team decisions and removing obstacles, the Scrum Master helps the team build the confidence and skills to self-organize over time. Directing or escalating undermines the team's autonomy and contradicts Scrum principles.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Escalate to the Product Owner to provide more detailed specifications.
Why it's wrong here
Escalating to the Product Owner for detailed specifications shifts ownership of how work is done to the business side, entrenching the dependency. It is tempting because the Product Owner owns backlog content, but specifications describe what is needed, not how the team organises its own work.
- ✓
Encourage the team to make decisions collaboratively and support them when they face obstacles.
Why this is correct
Self-organisation develops through practise, not instruction. Prompting the team to reach decisions collaboratively, while the Scrum Master removes impediments rather than directing work, shifts ownership to the team and builds the capability to act without waiting for orders.
- ✗
Assign a technical lead to direct the team.
Why it's wrong here
Appointing a technical lead to direct work substitutes external command for the team's own collective decision-making, reinforcing the dependency being coached away. It is tempting because a lead can accelerate delivery, yet directive leadership belongs to traditional project structures, not Scrum, where the team must organise its own tasks.
- ✗
Hold daily status meetings to assign tasks.
Why it's wrong here
Daily status meetings where the Scrum Master assigns tasks replaces team self-management with top-down allocation, deepening the wait-for-instruction behaviour. It is tempting because daily coordination is a Scrum ceremony, but the Daily Scrum is the team's own inspection event, not a task-assignment session run by the Scrum Master.
About these practice questions
This CAPM question is part of Courseiva's 451-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official PMI exam blueprint
This CAPM practice question is part of Courseiva's free PMI certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the CAPM exam.