SSM Supporting ART Events Practice Question
During the first day of PI Planning, a team realizes that a critical architectural dependency will prevent them from completing their committed features. How should the Scrum Master coach the team for the Management Review and Problem-Solving session?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often think the team should independently alter enterprise architecture or hide the risk, missing the purpose of leadership escalation during PI 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
✓
Summarize the dependency and its impact on the team's draft plan for the RTE.
The Management Review and Problem-Solving session is a pivotal event where leadership addresses challenges that teams cannot resolve alone. By clearly articulating the impact of the dependency, the Scrum Master ensures that the Release Train Engineer and Business Owners can make informed decisions about scope adjustments or resource reallocation to maintain the integrity of the ART.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Wait until the second day to see if other teams can take over the work.
Why it's wrong here
Delaying the communication of a critical dependency until the second day of PI Planning creates significant risk. It prevents leadership from having the time necessary to adjust the overall plan, potentially leading to a failed planning cycle or unrealistic commitments that the ART cannot actually deliver.
- ✓
Summarize the dependency and its impact on the team's draft plan for the RTE.
Why this is correct
Summarizing the specific dependency and its direct impact allows leadership to understand the bottleneck clearly. This enables the management team to negotiate scope, provide technical guidance, or reassign priorities during the evening review session, which is the primary purpose of this specific SAFe planning event.
- ✗
Advise the team to mark the feature as uncommitted without informing management.
Why it's wrong here
Changing a feature to uncommitted without notifying management bypasses the collaborative nature of PI Planning. Leadership needs to understand why certain objectives are at risk to manage stakeholder expectations and ensure that the most valuable work is prioritized and supported by the necessary architectural runway.
- ✗
Instruct the team to ignore the dependency and plan as if it were resolved.
Why it's wrong here
Planning without acknowledging a known blocker results in an invalid and dishonest plan. This approach undermines the transparency required in SAFe and likely leads to missed commitments during the execution phase, as the underlying technical constraints will eventually halt progress regardless of the initial plan.
Visual reference
About these practice questions
This SSM question is part of Courseiva's 385-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
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.