SSM Supporting Team Events Practice Question
Exhibit
JSON Configuration: {'iteration_planning': {'enabled': true, 'timebox_max_hours': 4}, 'retrospective': {'enabled': true, 'max_participants': 'all_team_members'}, 'daily_standup': {'max_minutes': 15}}Refer to the exhibit. If the team consistently exceeds the 'timebox_max_hours' during planning, what is the Scrum Master's best next step?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often select answers that simply tell the team to work faster or extend meeting hours, ignoring the systemic preparation and backlog quality issues causing the delay.
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 session to review the team's preparation process and the quality of backlog items.
The Scrum Master must investigate why the planning process is dragging. It could be due to ill-defined stories, lack of preparation by the Product Owner, or poor facilitation. By addressing the root cause, the Scrum Master helps the team regain efficiency and respect the timebox, which is essential for maintaining a sustainable pace and avoiding fatigue during the iteration planning process.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Extend the timebox to 6 hours to ensure the team can finish their planning thoroughly.
Why it's wrong here
Simply extending the timebox encourages inefficiency. The goal is to plan effectively within the given time, which forces the team to prioritize and be concise. If they consistently exceed four hours, they need to improve their preparation and facilitation, not just expand the meeting length indefinitely.
- ✓
Facilitate a session to review the team's preparation process and the quality of backlog items.
Why this is correct
Incomplete or ambiguous backlog items are often the main cause of long planning meetings. By ensuring the stories are ready before the planning session, the team can spend their time on commitment and tasking rather than clarification. This preparation is a fundamental Scrum Master responsibility to enable team efficiency.
- ✗
Ask the Product Owner to select the stories and provide them to the team beforehand.
Why it's wrong here
While pre-reading is beneficial, the team must be involved in the planning discussion to truly commit to the work. The Scrum Master should facilitate a process where the team is involved, rather than having the Product Owner dictate the plan. This ensures the team feels ownership of the commitment.
- ✗
Stop the meeting at 4 hours regardless of whether the plan is complete or not.
Why it's wrong here
Abruptly stopping the meeting without a completed plan leaves the team without a clear path for the iteration. The Scrum Master should focus on improving the planning efficiency so the work can be completed within the timebox, not just enforcing a hard stop that results in an incomplete plan.
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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.