CSM Service to the Scrum Team Practice Question
A new Scrum Team is frustrated because their Sprint Burndown chart shows a flat line for the first few days of the Sprint. What is the most effective way for the Scrum Master to help?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often suggest the Scrum Master should force the team to update their chart daily or micromanage their tasks, failing to address the underlying issue of poor task decomposition.
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 on better task decomposition and the importance of incremental progress.
The Scrum Master should coach the team on the value of breaking down work into smaller, manageable tasks. A flat burndown often indicates that items are too large or that the team is waiting for a final push. By helping the team learn to increment work early and often, the Scrum Master improves transparency and ensures the team has early indicators of potential failure, allowing for faster adaptation.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Mandate that the team update their tasks every hour to keep the chart moving.
Why it's wrong here
Micromanaging task updates creates overhead and frustration. The goal is to deliver value, not to make the chart look a certain way. The Scrum Master should focus on the team's ability to break down work properly, rather than implementing a burdensome tracking process that adds no real value to progress.
- ✓
Facilitate a session on better task decomposition and the importance of incremental progress.
Why this is correct
Teaching the team to break down Product Backlog items into smaller, vertical slices of functionality helps them achieve a smoother flow. This ensures that value is delivered throughout the Sprint, making the progress visible and allowing the team to identify and solve integration or technical issues much earlier in the cycle.
- ✗
Ignore the chart as it is just a tool and not a requirement of the Scrum Guide.
Why it's wrong here
While the chart is not strictly required, the team uses it to track progress. Ignoring it is a missed opportunity for the Scrum Master to coach the team on empiricism. The team needs to understand why their progress looks the way it does, which is a key part of their growth.
- ✗
Tell the team that the Product Owner is worried about the lack of progress.
Why it's wrong here
Adding pressure by citing stakeholder concern increases anxiety and can cause the team to rush, leading to quality issues. The Scrum Master should focus on improving the process through coaching, not by applying emotional pressure. A calm, process-oriented approach is more likely to result in long-term performance improvements.
About these practice questions
This CSM question is part of Courseiva's 312-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 Scrum Alliance exam blueprint
This CSM practice question is part of Courseiva's free Scrum Alliance 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 CSM exam.