SSM Supporting ART Events Practice Question
The Product Owner returns from a PO Sync and informs the team that a new high-priority Feature must be started in the current PI. How does the Scrum Master help the team?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often mistakenly choose options suggesting the Scrum Master should reject the work or handle the negotiation alone, ignoring the PO's responsibility to manage the backlog and business priorities.
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
✓
Help the PO assess the impact on current PI Objectives and communicate tradeoffs.
While SAFe encourages a stable plan during the PI, it also recognizes that business needs can change. The Scrum Master's role is to protect the team's sustainable pace while helping them adapt to these changes. This involves facilitating a process where the impact of new work is transparently evaluated against the existing commitments.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Refuse the change to protect the team's original PI plan and commitment.
Why it's wrong here
Refusing change entirely is contrary to the Agile Manifesto's value of responding to change over following a plan. While the PI plan is a commitment, the Scrum Master must help the team find a way to incorporate critical business needs through proper negotiation and impact analysis with stakeholders.
- ✓
Help the PO assess the impact on current PI Objectives and communicate tradeoffs.
Why this is correct
Helping the PO assess the impact on PI Objectives is the correct response as it maintains the integrity of the current plan while acknowledging the change. This collaborative effort allows the team to provide data-driven feedback on what other work might need to be delayed if this new feature is accepted.
- ✗
Add the feature to the current iteration and ask the team to work overtime.
Why it's wrong here
Adding work and demanding overtime violates the principle of sustainable development. Pushing a team beyond their capacity leads to burnout, lower quality, and technical debt. The Scrum Master should always advocate for a realistic workload that can be completed within the team's established velocity and capacity limits.
- ✗
Ask the Release Train Engineer to decide if the team should take the work.
Why it's wrong here
Asking the RTE to decide removes the team's autonomy and the PO's responsibility for the backlog. The decision to accept new work should be a collaborative one between the team and the Product Owner, based on a clear understanding of capacity and the business value of the new request.
About these practice questions
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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.