SSM Supporting Team Events Practice Question
An Agile Team is in its second day of PI Planning. A developer repeatedly interrupts the Product Owner during the draft plan review, arguing that a planned feature is technically impossible within the Iteration. Other team members are becoming visibly frustrated, and the team is falling behind schedule. What is the most appropriate action for the Scrum Master?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is assuming that any conflict during PI Planning must be escalated to the RTE or resolved by the Product Owner, when the Scrum Master should first facilitate within the team.
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
✓
Remind the team of the agreed working agreements and ask the developer to capture the technical concern as a risk or impediment on the team board for later discussion.
The Scrum Master facilitates team events by upholding working agreements and ensuring that concerns are captured as risks or impediments rather than debated endlessly. This keeps PI Planning productive while respecting the developer's technical input. Escalation, unmanaged debate, or shifting the decision to the Product Owner would all undermine self-management and the purpose 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.
- ✓
Remind the team of the agreed working agreements and ask the developer to capture the technical concern as a risk or impediment on the team board for later discussion.
Why this is correct
This action respects the team's working agreements, keeps the planning event on track, and ensures the technical concern is documented as a risk or impediment, which is a core Scrum Master responsibility during PI Planning. It also protects the psychological safety of the team by addressing behavior without personal criticism, while still making the issue visible for follow-up.
- ✗
Ask the Product Owner to make a final decision on the feature scope so the team can move on without further discussion.
Why it's wrong here
The Product Owner owns prioritization and scope decisions, but this situation is about facilitating team behavior and capturing technical risks, not about changing scope. Asking the Product Owner to decide would bypass the team's self-management and could suppress valuable technical input. The Scrum Master should address the process issue directly.
- ✗
Allow the debate to continue until the developer is satisfied, because technical feasibility must be fully resolved before the team can commit to the plan.
Why it's wrong here
While technical feasibility matters, allowing an unstructured debate to derail the entire planning session harms the team's ability to deliver a plan. The Scrum Master should facilitate timeboxing and capture unresolved issues as risks. The team can revisit technical details later, and PI Planning is not the venue for deep architectural resolution.
- ✗
Immediately escalate the conflict to the Release Train Engineer and request that the developer be removed from the planning session.
Why it's wrong here
Escalating immediately is disproportionate and undermines the team's ability to self-manage. The Scrum Master should first facilitate within the team, using working agreements and impediment capture. Removing a team member from planning would also deprive the team of critical technical insight and damage trust, which is contrary to the Scrum Master's role as a servant leader.
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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.