SSM Supporting Team Events Practice Question
A Scrum Master notices that the team's Iteration Review has become a status meeting where the Product Owner reads from a slide deck while stakeholders listen passively. What is the most effective action for the Scrum Master to take?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is believing the Scrum Master should directly order the Product Owner to change the meeting, when the effective approach is coaching and facilitating the team to own the improvement.
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 Product Owner and team on the purpose of the Iteration Review, and help them restructure the event to focus on a demo of the Increment and stakeholder feedback.
The Iteration Review should be a working session where the team demonstrates the Increment and stakeholders provide feedback to adapt the backlog. When it becomes a slide-driven status meeting, the Scrum Master should coach the Product Owner and team on the event's purpose and help redesign the format. This preserves role ownership while restoring the event's value. Simply instructing or escalating would disempower the team and fail to build long-term capability.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Invite the Release Train Engineer to attend and take over the meeting, ensuring stakeholders receive the information they need.
Why it's wrong here
Bringing in the RTE to take over undermines the team's ownership of the Iteration Review and does not address the root cause. The RTE is not responsible for facilitating team events. This action would disempower the Product Owner and team, and may not fix the format issue. The Scrum Master should instead coach the team to improve the event themselves, building their capability for future Iterations.
- ✓
Coach the Product Owner and team on the purpose of the Iteration Review, and help them restructure the event to focus on a demo of the Increment and stakeholder feedback.
Why this is correct
The Iteration Review is intended to inspect the Increment and adapt the backlog based on stakeholder feedback. When it devolves into a status presentation, the Scrum Master should coach the Product Owner and team on its true purpose and facilitate a format change. This collaborative approach respects the Product Owner's ownership while ensuring the event delivers value through demonstration and dialogue, not passive listening.
- ✗
Allow the status meeting format to continue, because stakeholders seem engaged and the Product Owner is comfortable with the approach.
Why it's wrong here
Allowing the status meeting format to persist ignores the purpose of the Iteration Review, which is to inspect the working Increment and gather feedback. Stakeholder engagement may be superficial if they are not interacting with the product. Over time, this reduces transparency and adaptability. The Scrum Master must uphold the integrity of Scrum events, even if the current format feels comfortable, by guiding the team toward a more effective practice.
- ✗
Instruct the Product Owner to stop using slides and instead have team members demonstrate working software to stakeholders.
Why it's wrong here
While demonstrating working software is a key aspect of the Iteration Review, unilaterally instructing the Product Owner is directive and may damage the collaborative relationship. The Scrum Master should coach and facilitate, not command. The Product Owner owns the event's content, so the Scrum Master should work with them to shift the format. A more collaborative approach respects roles while guiding the team toward the intended purpose of the review.
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.