CSM Service to the Scrum Team Practice Question
A newly formed Scrum Team has just completed its first Sprint. The Scrum Master wants to serve the team by helping it establish habits that support self-management and empiricism from the start. Which two actions are appropriate for the Scrum Master to take? (Choose two.)
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently confuse visible structure and reporting with healthy Scrum habits, when self-management and inspect-and-adapt behaviors are what actually serve the team.
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
✓
Coach the team to use the Sprint Retrospective to inspect how it worked and to choose one improvement to try next Sprint.
Serving the Scrum Team means coaching self-management and empiricism, which includes clarifying that the Developers own and may adapt the Sprint Backlog and helping the team use the Retrospective to improve its way of working. Fixed roles, imposed velocity targets, and reporting rituals to the Scrum Master all substitute external control for the team's own accountability and would slow the growth the Scrum Master is trying to encourage.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Coach the team to use the Sprint Retrospective to inspect how it worked and to choose one improvement to try next Sprint.
Why this is correct
The Retrospective is the team's formal opportunity to inspect its way of working and adapt, and coaching the team to leave with at least one concrete improvement builds the habit of continuous improvement. This serves the Scrum Team by strengthening its own inspect-and-adapt loop rather than relying on the Scrum Master to diagnose and fix process problems.
- ✓
Ensure the Developers understand that they own the Sprint Backlog and may adapt it as they learn during the Sprint.
Why this is correct
Clarifying ownership of the Sprint Backlog helps the Developers act as a self-managing unit and reinforces empiricism, because they can adjust their plan as new information emerges. This is a direct expression of the Scrum Master's service to the Scrum Team, since it teaches the team which decisions are theirs rather than leaving them guessing or waiting for direction from outside.
- ✗
Require the Developers to present a detailed status report to the Scrum Master at the end of each Sprint.
Why it's wrong here
Status reporting to the Scrum Master is not a Scrum event and adds overhead without improving transparency for the people who need it. The Sprint Review already provides transparency to stakeholders about the Increment, and the Developers self-manage their daily work. Instituting a reporting ritual to the Scrum Master reinforces a command-and-control dynamic that contradicts the service-oriented accountability being asked about.
- ✗
Introduce a velocity target that the team must meet every Sprint to keep stakeholders satisfied.
Why it's wrong here
Velocity is a planning aid, not a performance target, and turning it into a mandated goal invites gaming and hides real variation. Imposing an external target also undermines self-management, because the Developers no longer decide how much work to take on. The Scrum Master serves the team by helping it forecast honestly, not by installing a metric the team must satisfy for appearances.
- ✗
Assign each Developer a fixed role, such as tester or integrator, so the team has clear accountability from Sprint one.
Why it's wrong here
Permanent role assignments work against cross-functionality and self-management, which Scrum expects the Developers to build over time. While specialization can feel efficient early, locking people into fixed roles reduces the team's ability to swarm on work and creates handoffs. The Scrum Master serves the team by coaching it toward shared ownership of all the work needed for a usable Increment, not by partitioning responsibility.
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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 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.