SSM Defining the Scrum Master / Team Coach Role Practice Question
Elena has just been named Scrum Master / Team Coach for the Checkout Agile Team. In her first week, the Product Owner asks her to also decide the acceptance criteria for upcoming Stories and to approve the team's work before it is demonstrated at the System Demo. Which response reflects the Scrum Master / Team Coach role?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is treating the Scrum Master / Team Coach as a general-purpose helper who should absorb any task offered, when the role actually depends on protecting clear accountabilities.
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
✓
Decline both tasks and explain that the Product Owner owns content decisions while the team owns how the work is done.
In SAFe, the Product Owner owns content decisions such as acceptance criteria, and the team owns how the work is done and demonstrates its own results. The Scrum Master / Team Coach serves both by clarifying these boundaries rather than absorbing tasks that belong elsewhere. Accepting either task would create a gatekeeper role and erode the team's ownership of quality and delivery.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Accept the approval task but decline the acceptance-criteria task, since the coach must protect the System Demo's integrity.
Why it's wrong here
Approving the team's work before the System Demo turns the coach into a quality gate, which is not part of the role. The System Demo exists to show integrated work to stakeholders, and the team demonstrates it directly. Protecting the demo means helping the team prepare and integrate, not pre-screening their output. The acceptance-criteria half was correctly declined, but the approval half should also be refused.
- ✗
Accept the acceptance-criteria task but decline the approval task, since only the team can approve its own work.
Why it's wrong here
Acceptance criteria are part of the Product Owner's content authority and are best defined with the team, not handed to the coach. Taking that task still crosses a role boundary even though the second task was correctly declined. The cleaner response is to decline both and clarify who owns each decision, which keeps the coach in a coaching rather than authoring role.
- ✓
Decline both tasks and explain that the Product Owner owns content decisions while the team owns how the work is done.
Why this is correct
This is correct because SAFe separates content authority from technical execution. The Product Owner owns what gets built and its acceptance criteria, while the team decides how to build it and demonstrates working software. A coach who takes on either task undermines those accountabilities. Explaining the boundary also educates the Product Owner and protects the team's self-management.
- ✗
Accept both tasks, since the coach is ultimately accountable for the quality of what the team delivers.
Why it's wrong here
The Scrum Master / Team Coach is not accountable for product quality or content decisions. Accepting these tasks would blur the boundary with the Product Owner and the team, and would make the coach a gatekeeper rather than a servant leader. Quality is built into the work by the team, and acceptance criteria are defined collaboratively with the Product Owner, not by the coach.
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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.