SSM Introducing Scrum in SAFe Practice Question
What is the primary responsibility of the Scrum Master during PI Planning?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often select 'facilitating the team's technical implementation' or 'writing user stories,' which are not the Scrum Master's primary focus during PI planning.
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
✓
Ensuring the team commits to realistic objectives and manages dependencies.
During PI Planning, the Scrum Master facilitates the team's participation, ensuring they understand the program vision and contribute to the team's PI objectives. They help manage the team's capacity, coordinate dependencies with other teams, and ensure the draft plan is realistic. This phase is critical because it sets the foundation for the entire PI, aligning individual team efforts with the overall business objectives of the train.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Defining the features and writing the user stories for the backlog.
Why it's wrong here
The Product Owner and Product Management are responsible for the backlog content, including feature definitions and user story creation. The Scrum Master focuses on the process, team dynamics, and ensuring the team has the necessary support to plan their work effectively within the time constraints of the planning sessions.
- ✓
Ensuring the team commits to realistic objectives and manages dependencies.
Why this is correct
The Scrum Master is critical in facilitating the team's planning process, ensuring they don't over-commit, and explicitly identifying dependencies with other teams. This ensures that the team’s plan is viable, well-aligned with the ART's overall strategy, and that roadblocks are identified before the actual iteration work begins for the PI.
- ✗
Assigning specific tasks to individual team members to ensure total coverage.
Why it's wrong here
Self-organizing teams own their work and task assignments. Scrum Masters do not assign tasks; instead, they facilitate the planning process so the team can decide how best to accomplish their objectives. Assigning work undermines team autonomy and prevents the team from taking collective ownership of their iteration success.
- ✗
Approving the final program roadmap proposed by the System Architect.
Why it's wrong here
Roadmap approval and strategic planning are the responsibilities of leadership, including Business Owners, Product Management, and System Architects. The Scrum Master’s focus remains on the team level, ensuring the team's execution plan aligns with the roadmap, but they do not hold authority over the program-level strategic direction.
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.