CSM Service to the Organization Practice Question
A Scrum Master at an insurance company notices that the HR department evaluates Scrum team members using annual individual performance appraisals tied to utilization percentages. Team members have started optimizing their personal utilization rather than collaborating to finish the Sprint Backlog. What is the most appropriate action for the Scrum Master to take in service to the organization?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is treating an organizational HR policy as outside the Scrum Master's remit, when serving the organization explicitly includes helping it remove structural impediments to self-management.
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
✓
Work with HR and leadership to help them understand how utilization-based individual appraisal undermines self-managing teams, and offer to collaborate on a team-based approach to performance feedback.
The Scrum Master serves the organization by helping it understand and adopt Scrum-compatible practices. When an appraisal system rewards individual utilization over team outcomes, the Scrum Master should collaborate with HR and leadership to redesign it around team-based feedback and value delivery, rather than forcing the team to work around it or escalating punitively.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Ask the Product Owner to adjust the Sprint Backlog so each team member has enough individual work to keep utilization percentages high.
Why it's wrong here
This is wrong because it accepts and reinforces the invalid metric instead of addressing it. The Product Owner owns ordering the Product Backlog for value, not optimizing individual utilization. Modifying the Sprint Backlog to satisfy an appraisal metric undermines empiricism and team collaboration.
- ✗
Report the HR department to senior management as a blocker and request that the appraisal process be suspended immediately.
Why it's wrong here
Escalating as a complaint and demanding suspension is not the Scrum Master's stance. The Scrum Master serves the organization by coaching and facilitating change, not by punitive reporting. A collaborative approach with HR and leadership is more likely to create lasting understanding and a workable appraisal model.
- ✗
Instruct the Scrum team to ignore the appraisal system and focus only on the Sprint Goal, since performance management is outside the team's scope.
Why it's wrong here
This fails because simply telling the team to ignore the appraisal system does not remove the organizational impediment. The Scrum Master serves the organization, so the misuse of individual metrics must be surfaced and addressed with HR and leadership, not hidden. Ignoring it leaves a structural barrier in place.
- ✓
Work with HR and leadership to help them understand how utilization-based individual appraisal undermines self-managing teams, and offer to collaborate on a team-based approach to performance feedback.
Why this is correct
This is correct because the Scrum Master serves the organization by helping it adopt practices that support Scrum, including guiding HR away from metrics that conflict with self-management and empiricism. Collaborating with the organization to redesign performance feedback is a legitimate organizational change effort within the Scrum Master's accountability.
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 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.