SSM Introducing Scrum in SAFe Practice Question
A newly formed Scrum team in a SAFe enterprise is experiencing low engagement during Daily Stand-ups. Team members spend most of the time reporting status updates directly to the Scrum Master instead of collaborating on meeting their iteration goals. What should the Scrum Master do?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often think the Scrum Master's job is to collect status updates from everyone during the stand-up to report upward to management.
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
✓
Coach the team to focus their discussion on how they will collaborate to achieve the iteration goals using the Kanban board.
The Scrum Master must redirect the focus of the Daily Stand-up from a status reporting ritual to a collaborative synchronization meeting centered on the iteration board. By coaching the team to talk to each other about impediments and progress toward goals, the Scrum Master fosters self-organization and accountability.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Cancel the Daily Stand-up and replace it with a daily email status report sent directly to the Release Train Engineer.
Why it's wrong here
Replacing the Daily Stand-up with an email report to the Release Train Engineer removes the inspect-and-adapt event entirely and shifts reporting upward, entrenching the status-reporting anti-pattern. The Scrum Master should coach the team to refocus the stand-up on the Sprint Goal; written status suits distributed reporting, not Scrum's daily synchronisation.
- ✗
Run the Daily Stand-up personally by asking each team member individual questions about their completed tasks.
Why it's wrong here
Running the meeting personally reinforces command-and-control behavior and trains the team to depend entirely on the Scrum Master. Stand-ups must be run by the developers themselves as a peer-to-peer coordination event to build genuine team ownership.
- ✓
Coach the team to focus their discussion on how they will collaborate to achieve the iteration goals using the Kanban board.
Why this is correct
Focusing the discussion on collaborative progress toward the iteration goal transforms the stand-up into an effective synchronization event. Team members address obstacles together and inspect their work against the plan, fulfilling the true intent of the ceremony.
- ✗
Report the unengaged team members to the functional manager so that formal performance counseling can be initiated.
Why it's wrong here
Escalating to a functional manager imposes command-and-control outside the team's self-management, worsening the reporting-to-Scrum-Master pattern rather than fixing it. Coaching the team to walk the board and swarm on iteration goals addresses the behaviour directly; performance counselling belongs to line management, not the Scrum Master.
About these practice questions
One of 385 original SSM practice questions on Courseiva, each with a full explanation and wrong-answer analysis — not exam dumps or protected exam content. 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 Scaled Agile exam blueprint
This SSM practice question is part of Courseiva's free Scaled Agile 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 SSM exam.