SSM Introducing Scrum in SAFe Practice Question
Which TWO of the following describe the role of the Scrum Master when introducing Scrum within a SAFe ART? (Choose two)
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often select options that imply the Scrum Master manages the team or assigns tasks, which violates the core Scrum principle of team self-organization.
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
✓
Coaching the team in self-organization and effective Scrum practices.
The Scrum Master in SAFe serves as a servant leader and a coach who supports the team's agility while ensuring alignment with the ART's cadence. By facilitating events and removing impediments, the Scrum Master enables the team to contribute effectively to the Program Increment goals. This role is essential for balancing local team autonomy with the necessary synchronization required by the larger scaled organization.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Acting as a single point of failure for all technical architectural decisions.
Why it's wrong here
A Scrum Master should not be the bottleneck for architectural decisions. SAFe promotes decentralized decision-making where the team, supported by System Architects, owns technical choices. Centralizing authority in one person contradicts Agile principles and creates a dependency that slows down development speed and degrades team empowerment.
- ✓
Coaching the team in self-organization and effective Scrum practices.
Why this is correct
Coaching the team toward self-organization is a core responsibility. In a SAFe context, this means guiding the team to manage their own work while remaining cognizant of dependencies across the ART. This enables the team to maintain high quality and velocity without needing constant intervention from external management.
- ✓
Removing impediments to team progress and facilitating Scrum events.
Why this is correct
Removing impediments is critical for maintaining team flow. By facilitating events like the Sprint Planning and the Daily Stand-up, the Scrum Master ensures the team stays aligned with the ART cadence. This support allows developers to focus on delivering high-quality value without being blocked by external organizational friction.
- ✗
Managing the team's budget and assigning individual performance bonuses.
Why it's wrong here
Scrum Masters do not perform HR functions like budget management or performance reviews. These activities are typically handled by functional managers. Mixing servant leadership with personnel management creates conflicts of interest and destroys the trust necessary for a high-performing team to operate transparently and effectively.
- ✗
Taking full control of the backlog to ensure no user stories are added by the PO.
Why it's wrong here
The Product Owner is responsible for the product backlog. The Scrum Master supports the PO in backlog refinement but should never seize control of the product strategy or backlog content. Interfering with the PO's responsibilities disrupts the clarity of the vision and leads to misalignment on customer value.
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.