SSM Introducing Scrum in SAFe Practice Question
During a SAFe transformation, a line manager tells a Scrum Master that the manager will assign tasks to team members each morning so the team stays efficient, and will also decide which team member attends the Scrum of Scrums. The team currently self-manages its own work. What should the Scrum Master do first?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is treating the manager's authority over performance reviews as authority over daily work allocation.
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 manager on self-managing teams and clarify how the manager's accountability for people development differs from directing the team's daily work
Self-managing teams decide how to do their work, while managers in SAFe develop people and improve the environment rather than assign tasks. Because the Scrum Master serves the organization, the appropriate first move is coaching the manager on this distinction and on how attendance at coordination events should be decided by the team. Escalation, compliance, or reassigning direction to the Product Owner all fail to restore self-management.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Escalate the manager's behavior to the Release Train Engineer and request that the manager be removed from supporting the team
Why it's wrong here
Escalation and removal are disproportionate first responses. The Scrum Master serves the whole organization, including management, and a coaching conversation usually resolves a misunderstanding about roles. Escalating immediately would damage trust and skip the teaching responsibility that introducing Scrum in SAFe requires of the Scrum Master.
- ✗
Accept the arrangement, since the manager owns the team members' performance reviews and career development
Why it's wrong here
While the manager does own people development in SAFe, that accountability does not extend to directing daily task assignment inside a self-managing team. Accepting this arrangement would undermine the team's authority to organize its own work and would contradict the Scrum principle of self-management that the Scrum Master is expected to teach and protect.
- ✓
Coach the manager on self-managing teams and clarify how the manager's accountability for people development differs from directing the team's daily work
Why this is correct
In SAFe, teams are self-managing and self-organizing, deciding how to accomplish their work, while managers focus on developing people, eliminating impediments, and improving the system. The Scrum Master serves the organization by coaching stakeholders, so the first step is to help the manager understand this boundary rather than escalate or silently comply.
- ✗
Instruct the team to ignore the manager's task assignments and let the Product Owner assign the daily work instead
Why it's wrong here
Redirecting task assignment to the Product Owner misstates SAFe roles: the Product Owner owns backlog content and priority, not the team's internal task breakdown. Telling the team to ignore the manager also escalates conflict instead of resolving it, and it replaces one form of direction with another rather than restoring genuine self-management.
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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.