SSM Defining the Scrum Master / Team Coach Role Practice Question
A SAFe Scrum Master / Team Coach notices that during Iteration Planning, the Product Owner dominates the conversation, and the developers rarely speak up. The team consistently commits to more work than they can finish. Which coaching approach best addresses both the imbalance and the overcommitment?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is thinking that the Scrum Master / Team Coach should fix the overcommitment by adjusting scope or excluding the Product Owner, rather than coaching the team to plan realistically together.
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
✓
Facilitate the planning session to ensure all voices are heard and coach the team on using velocity and capacity to guide commitment.
The Scrum Master / Team Coach should facilitate effective Iteration Planning by ensuring all team members contribute and by coaching the team to use velocity and capacity to make realistic commitments. This addresses both the dominance of the Product Owner and the tendency to overcommit. It also builds the team's capability to self-manage and make data-informed decisions.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Allow the team to overcommit for one more iteration and then discuss the results in the retrospective.
Why it's wrong here
Permitting repeated overcommitment risks burnout and erodes trust with stakeholders. While retrospectives are valuable, waiting for failure is not an effective coaching strategy when the pattern is already evident. The Scrum Master / Team Coach should intervene now to help the team use data and facilitate balanced discussion.
- ✗
Ask the Product Owner to leave the room during planning so the team can estimate freely.
Why it's wrong here
Excluding the Product Owner undermines collaboration and prevents the team from gaining clarity on backlog items. The Product Owner's presence is essential for answering questions and clarifying acceptance criteria. Removing them may lead to misunderstandings and does not address the team's overcommitment or the need for balanced participation.
- ✓
Facilitate the planning session to ensure all voices are heard and coach the team on using velocity and capacity to guide commitment.
Why this is correct
This approach tackles both issues: facilitation ensures balanced participation, and using historical velocity and capacity data helps the team make realistic commitments. The Scrum Master / Team Coach should intervene when one person dominates and guide the team to base commitments on evidence rather than optimism. This builds the team's ability to self-manage planning.
- ✗
Tell the Product Owner to reduce the number of stories in the Iteration to match the team's capacity.
Why it's wrong here
While reducing scope may be necessary, dictating this to the Product Owner bypasses the team's role in planning and does not address the participation imbalance. The team should collaboratively decide what it can commit to based on its capacity. This action also fails to develop the team's ability to negotiate scope with the Product Owner.
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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.