SSM Supporting Team Events Practice Question
During the Iteration Review, a stakeholder heavily criticizes a feature. How should the Scrum Master intervene?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often choose 'defend the team' or 'argue with the stakeholder,' which creates an adversarial environment instead of maintaining a professional focus on the product.
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
✓
Encourage the stakeholder to provide specific, actionable feedback that the team can consider.
The Scrum Master must maintain the psychological safety of the team while allowing constructive feedback. By redirecting the conversation toward the specific, actionable aspects of the feedback, the Scrum Master ensures the session remains productive. This professional handling of conflict models the behavior expected in a collaborative environment and prevents the review from devolving into a personal attack on developers.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Defend the team immediately to prevent the stakeholder from being rude.
Why it's wrong here
Defending the team can escalate the situation and make the Scrum Master appear biased. Instead, the Scrum Master should remain neutral and facilitate a productive conversation that focuses on the feedback itself. This keeps the atmosphere professional and ensures that the team can hear the feedback without feeling attacked.
- ✓
Encourage the stakeholder to provide specific, actionable feedback that the team can consider.
Why this is correct
Reframing criticism into actionable feedback is a key facilitation skill. It turns a negative emotional reaction into constructive input that the team can actually use to improve the product. This protects the team's morale while still ensuring the stakeholder's concerns are heard, recorded, and addressed appropriately in the backlog.
- ✗
Ask the stakeholder to leave the review if they cannot be respectful to the team.
Why it's wrong here
Asking a stakeholder to leave is a confrontational move that can damage important relationships. The Scrum Master should manage the meeting dynamics and redirect the conversation rather than ejecting a participant. This approach maintains professional relationships while still controlling the tone and focus of the meeting effectively.
- ✗
Apologize to the stakeholder for the feature and promise to redo it immediately.
Why it's wrong here
Promising to redo work without proper analysis or Product Owner alignment is a major mistake. The Scrum Master should not make commitments on behalf of the team or the Product Owner. The team needs to evaluate the feedback objectively and decide on the next steps in their planning process.
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.