SSM Introducing Scrum in SAFe Practice Question
During an Iteration Retrospective, a Scrum team identifies that too many stories were brought into the iteration, resulting in frequent context switching and low completion rates. What is the most appropriate action for the Scrum Master to take?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates might think the team should simply work longer hours or over-allocate to meet their initial high commitments.
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 team to calculate their velocity accurately and commit to a realistic amount of work that matches their capacity.
The Scrum Master should coach the team to establish and respect a realistic Work in Process (WIP) limit, ensuring they commit only to what they can realistically finish based on historical velocity. This prevents overloading the team and fosters a sustainable cadence of continuous flow.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Require the team to work mandatory weekend overtime to finish all the open stories before the next iteration starts.
Why it's wrong here
Mandatory weekend overtime treats the symptom by extending hours rather than reducing the number of stories pulled into the iteration, and it degrades the sustainable pace Scrum requires. It tempts as a visible commitment to finishing work, yet the retrospective identified overcommitment, which overtime entrenches rather than corrects.
- ✓
Coach the team to calculate their velocity accurately and commit to a realistic amount of work that matches their capacity.
Why this is correct
Velocity tracking alone does not fix over-commitment; the team must forecast capacity from historical throughput and limit the iteration backlog to that figure. This directly reduces context switching and raises completion rates, satisfying the stem's constraint of too many stories pulled into the iteration.
- ✗
Remove the Scrum Master role from the team and let them self-manage without any coaching on process discipline.
Why it's wrong here
Removing the Scrum Master eliminates the coaching that would help the team inspect and adapt its capacity planning, leaving the overcommitment unaddressed. It tempts as a misreading of self-management, yet self-managing teams still need a Scrum Master serving them, especially when process discipline is the identified problem.
- ✗
Assign stories arbitrarily to individual developers so that each person has a separate, isolated task list.
Why it's wrong here
Isolating each developer into a private task list blocks the swarm-and-pair collaboration that lets a team finish fewer stories together, and does nothing to limit work in progress. It tempts because individual assignment feels like clearer ownership, but the retrospective called for reducing concurrent stories, not redistributing them.
About these practice questions
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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.