SSM Supporting Team Events Practice Question
During a SAFe team's Iteration Retrospective, the team identifies that their Continuous Integration (CI) pipeline frequently fails due to flaky automated tests. The Scrum Master wants to ensure the team creates an effective improvement action. What should the Scrum Master do?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is assuming the Scrum Master should personally fix the problem or escalate it, rather than facilitating the team's own root-cause analysis and action planning.
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 a discussion to identify the root cause, then help the team define a specific, measurable improvement action and add it to the team backlog.
The Scrum Master facilitates the retrospective so the team can identify root causes and define its own improvement actions. Helping the team create a specific, measurable action and adding it to the team backlog ensures ownership and transparency. Assigning to one person, stopping tests, or escalating immediately all fail to build the team's capability and may not address the systemic causes of flaky tests.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Decide that the team should stop running automated tests until the flaky ones are fixed to avoid pipeline failures.
Why it's wrong here
Stopping automated tests would reduce quality feedback and increase the risk of defects reaching production. Flaky tests are a symptom that should be fixed, not a reason to abandon testing. The Scrum Master should guide the team to improve the reliability of the pipeline, not disable it. This option would undermine the team's ability to inspect and adapt and contradicts SAFe's emphasis on built-in quality.
- ✗
Add a backlog item to fix the flaky tests and assign it to the team's best developer to complete in the next iteration.
Why it's wrong here
Assigning the fix to one developer may not address the systemic nature of flaky tests, which often stem from shared practices or infrastructure issues. Improvement actions from a retrospective should be owned by the team, not an individual, to foster collective responsibility. While adding a backlog item is reasonable, the Scrum Master should facilitate the team in defining the action, not dictate who does it. This approach risks creating a bottleneck and missing broader root causes.
- ✓
Facilitate a discussion to identify the root cause, then help the team define a specific, measurable improvement action and add it to the team backlog.
Why this is correct
The Scrum Master's role in the retrospective is to facilitate the team's self-identification of root causes and creation of actionable improvements. By guiding the team to define a specific, measurable action and adding it to the team backlog, the Scrum Master ensures the improvement is owned by the team and tracked transparently. This approach addresses the systemic issue of flaky tests and aligns with SAFe's principle of applying systems thinking and continuous improvement.
- ✗
Escalate the issue to the Release Train Engineer and request that the System Team fix the pipeline before the next iteration.
Why it's wrong here
While the System Team may assist with pipeline infrastructure, escalating immediately bypasses the team's ownership of its own quality. The Scrum Master should first help the team explore root causes and define actions they can take. If the issue requires broader support, the team can then request help. Escalating as the first step disempowers the team and may not address team-specific test practices that contribute to flakiness.
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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.