SSM Supporting ART Events Practice Question
A Scrum Master is facilitating the team's preparation for the upcoming PI Planning event. The team needs to ensure they have the right inputs and readiness to create a realistic plan. Which TWO actions should the Scrum Master take to support the team? (Choose two.)
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is assuming that PI Planning preparation means completing all backlog refinement and assigning work in advance, rather than ensuring the team has the strategic context and capacity data needed to plan collaboratively.
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
✓
Ensure the team has reviewed the Program Vision and the top features in the Program Backlog before arriving at PI Planning.
Effective PI Planning preparation includes reviewing the Program Vision and Program Backlog features, and confirming the team's capacity, dependencies, and risks. These inputs enable the team to create realistic draft objectives and engage productively in breakout sessions. Pre-assigning work or requiring fully finalized stories undermines self-organization and the collaborative nature of the event.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Ask the Product Owner to finalize all team backlog stories with detailed acceptance criteria and estimates before PI Planning begins.
Why it's wrong here
While having a refined backlog is helpful, requiring all stories to be fully detailed and estimated before PI Planning is unrealistic and counterproductive. PI Planning is where teams often decompose features into stories and estimate them collaboratively. Pre-defining every story removes the team's ownership and may lead to inaccurate plans. The Scrum Master should ensure the backlog is reasonably prepared, not completely finalized.
- ✓
Ensure the team has reviewed the Program Vision and the top features in the Program Backlog before arriving at PI Planning.
Why this is correct
PI Planning requires teams to understand the Program Vision and the prioritized features in the Program Backlog so they can create meaningful draft objectives. The Scrum Master should verify that the team has access to and has reviewed these inputs beforehand. This preparation enables productive breakout sessions and helps the team align its plan with the ART's strategic direction, rather than spending valuable planning time on basic orientation.
- ✗
Have the Scrum Master assign each team member their specific stories for the upcoming PI so that planning time can be used for estimation only.
Why it's wrong here
Assigning stories to individuals before PI Planning undermines self-organization and team ownership. During PI Planning, the team collaboratively decides how to decompose features and who will work on what. Pre-assigning work removes the team's ability to negotiate scope and sequence based on capacity and dependencies. The Scrum Master should facilitate the team's planning process, not dictate individual assignments in advance.
- ✓
Confirm that the team has identified its capacity and any known dependencies or risks that should be shared during the planning event.
Why this is correct
Understanding capacity and surfacing known dependencies and risks before PI Planning allows the team to plan realistically and communicate constraints early. The Scrum Master should help the team gather this information so that breakout sessions focus on sequencing and committing to objectives. This preparation also feeds the program board and helps the Release Train Engineer coordinate cross-team dependencies during the event.
- ✗
Instruct the team to prepare a detailed presentation of all completed work from the previous PI to share with stakeholders at the start of PI Planning.
Why it's wrong here
PI Planning begins with the business context and Program Vision, not with team presentations of past work. Reviewing previous work is not a required input for planning the next PI. Spending time on such presentations detracts from the event's purpose: aligning teams on the upcoming PI. The Scrum Master should focus the team on forward-looking preparation, not retrospective reporting to stakeholders.
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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.