SSM Supporting Team Events Practice Question
During the daily stand-up, a developer states they are blocked because an external vendor has not delivered an API specification. The Scrum Master notices this is the third consecutive day this impediment has been raised without resolution. What immediate action should the Scrum Master take?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers often assume the developer should handle external vendors personally, ignoring the Scrum Master's duty to remove external obstacles.
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
✓
Take ownership of the impediment, escalate it through appropriate ART channels, and coordinate with procurement or management to unblock it.
When an impediment persists across multiple daily stand-ups and is outside the team's ability to resolve, the Scrum Master must take direct ownership of escalating and removing it. Leaving external blockers unaddressed damages team momentum and demonstrates poor servant leadership. The Scrum Master should leverage their organizational network and escalation channels to engage the vendor management team.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Tell the developer to call the vendor directly and negotiate a contractual penalty clause to force faster delivery.
Why it's wrong here
Negotiating contractual penalties falls outside the Scrum Master's remit and does not resolve the impediment; the Scrum Master should escalate or remove the blocker directly. It is tempting because vendor management feels like decisive action, and procurement or legal specialists would legitimately handle contract enforcement in a commercial dispute.
- ✓
Take ownership of the impediment, escalate it through appropriate ART channels, and coordinate with procurement or management to unblock it.
Why this is correct
The Scrum Master acts as a servant leader who aggressively removes impediments that impede team flow and exceed team authority. Taking ownership ensures the blocker is escalated through formal channels like management or release train leadership.
- ✗
Advise the team to wait patiently for the vendor to respond while pausing all work on dependent backlog items indefinitely.
Why it's wrong here
Telling the team to sit idle waiting for external dependencies destroys flow and wastes valuable iteration capacity. The team should look for alternative work or temporary mock interfaces while the Scrum Master handles the escalation.
- ✗
Remove the dependent backlog items from the iteration entirely and replace them with unrelated technical debt tasks.
Why it's wrong here
Deleting the dependent backlog items discards value the Product Owner prioritised and masks the impediment rather than resolving it. It is tempting because re-planning the Sprint restores flow, and substituting work would be legitimate only if the Product Owner reordered the backlog after the vendor dependency was genuinely removed.
Visual reference
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.