SSM Supporting Team Events Practice Question
Exhibit
Iteration Retrospective Input: 1. Developers feeling overwhelmed by mid-iteration requests. 2. Testing is consistently delayed. 3. Daily stand-ups are taking over 25 minutes.
Refer to the exhibit. Given these findings, which action should the Scrum Master prioritize to improve team flow?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often focus on symptoms like the meeting length or individual performance rather than the systemic flow issues like mid-iteration interruptions and testing delays.
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
✓
Facilitate a discussion on how to protect the team from mid-iteration requests and pull testing earlier.
The Scrum Master must address the root causes of flow disruption. By focusing on the mid-iteration requests, the team can stabilize their work-in-progress, which directly impacts their ability to complete testing on time. Addressing the stand-up duration is important, but flow stability is a higher priority because it directly impacts the team's ability to meet the Iteration Goal and quality standards.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Implement a strict rule that no new work can be added after the planning session.
Why it's wrong here
Absolute bans on scope change can be counterproductive in a flexible Agile environment. The team should instead work with the Product Owner to establish a process for handling urgent requests, ensuring that any new work does not compromise the overall iteration commitment or create unnecessary context switching for developers.
- ✓
Facilitate a discussion on how to protect the team from mid-iteration requests and pull testing earlier.
Why this is correct
Protecting the team from interruptions ensures stable velocity and focus, while shifting testing earlier identifies defects sooner. This dual approach addresses the root cause of the testing bottleneck and the feeling of being overwhelmed, directly leading to higher quality outcomes and more predictable delivery cycles for the team.
- ✗
Enforce a timebox of 15 minutes for the Daily Stand-up and cut off any long discussions.
Why it's wrong here
While keeping the Daily Stand-up under 15 minutes is a best practice, simply enforcing the timebox does not address the underlying delivery issues. The team needs to understand why the meetings are long and focus on solving the systemic bottlenecks that are preventing their efficient progress and delivery.
- ✗
Ask the team to move testing tasks to the start of the iteration to avoid delays.
Why it's wrong here
Moving tasks without addressing the root cause, such as the mid-iteration requests, will likely lead to similar delays. The team must optimize their entire workflow to ensure that testing is integrated continuously, rather than just shifting the order of tasks without resolving the underlying interruptions to their work.
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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.