SSM Introducing Scrum in SAFe Practice Question
A Scrum Master notices that during team discussions, two senior developers consistently dominate the conversation, preventing quieter team members from sharing valuable technical insights. How should the Scrum Master respond?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates might think dominating behavior from senior staff should be ignored because of their technical seniority and experience level.
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
✓
Establish facilitation techniques that encourage equal participation and create psychological safety for quieter members.
The Scrum Master must act as a facilitator who actively draws out quieter team members by employing inclusive facilitation techniques, ensuring all voices contribute to problem-solving. Fostering psychological safety and equal participation maximizes team intelligence and drives better technical outcomes.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Reassign the senior developers to a different Agile Release Train so the remaining members can speak freely.
Why it's wrong here
Reassigning the senior developers destroys the team's collective skill mix and violates the stable, self-managing team the Scrum Master should protect; the dominating behaviour, not the people, is the problem. It is tempting because removing the source of disruption appears decisive, yet this is the correct choice only when individuals genuinely cannot function within the same team.
- ✓
Establish facilitation techniques that encourage equal participation and create psychological safety for quieter members.
Why this is correct
Facilitation techniques directly address the participation imbalance by structuring turn-taking and reducing dominance, satisfying the constraint that quieter members' insights are being lost. Creating psychological safety lowers the interpersonal risk of speaking up, enabling the Scrum Master to serve the team without imposing authority or overriding self-management.
- ✗
Promote the two senior developers to Scrum Masters so they can run all team meetings officially.
Why it's wrong here
Promoting the dominant developers entrenches the imbalance and removes them from delivery work, worsening the silencing. The role change addresses neither facilitation nor participation. A Scrum Master should instead facilitate balanced discussion, using techniques such as round-robin or silent brainstorming to surface quieter members' insights.
- ✗
Instruct the quieter team members to send their feedback via email after meetings conclude.
Why it's wrong here
Emailing feedback after meetings removes the input from the live discussion where the team refines technical decisions together, so quieter members still cannot influence the outcome. It is tempting because asynchronous channels genuinely help distributed teams capture ideas, but here the Scrum Master must instead facilitate balanced participation during the event itself.
About these practice questions
This SSM question is part of Courseiva's 385-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 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.