CSM Service to the Scrum Team Practice Question
A Scrum Master joins a newly formed Scrum Team whose Developers come from three different departments. The Developers keep waiting for the Scrum Master to assign tasks, and two of them have begun reporting progress to their functional managers instead of the team. Which two actions best fulfil the Scrum Master's service to the Scrum Team? (Choose two.)
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is treating the Scrum Master as a coordinator who allocates work or convenes managers to monitor individuals, when the real service is building the Developers' capacity to self-manage and clarifying accountabilities around them.
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 Developers on self-management so they collectively decide how to turn Product Backlog items into valuable Increments.
A newly formed Scrum Team often carries habits from functional hierarchies, so the Scrum Master serves it by coaching self-management and by helping the surrounding organization understand Scrum accountabilities. Together these actions shift decision-making about how to build the Increment to the Developers while reducing the pull of outside reporting expectations that fragment their focus.
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 Developers on self-management so they collectively decide how to turn Product Backlog items into valuable Increments.
Why this is correct
Self-management is a core Scrum Team characteristic: the Developers decide how to do the work rather than receiving assignments. Coaching them to own that decision-making builds the internal accountability the team currently lacks and directly addresses the habit of waiting for the Scrum Master to allocate tasks, which is not a Scrum Master responsibility in Scrum.
- ✗
Recommend that the organization restructure so all Developers report to the Product Owner for the duration of the project.
Why it's wrong here
Reporting lines are an organizational design matter, and making Developers report to the Product Owner blurs the distinct accountabilities of the Product Owner and the Developers. The Scrum Master serves the organization by helping it understand Scrum, not by proposing structural changes that confuse who decides what and who does the work.
- ✗
Take over Sprint Backlog allocation for the first few Sprints until the Developers demonstrate they can work independently.
Why it's wrong here
Assigning tasks to Developers contradicts self-management and teaches the team to keep waiting for direction. It also positions the Scrum Master as a project manager or team lead, which is not the accountabilities of the role. Temporary control tends to become permanent dependency, so this action would reinforce the very behaviour the team needs to unlearn.
- ✗
Ask the functional managers to attend Daily Scrums so they can track each Developer's individual progress directly.
Why it's wrong here
Inviting managers to monitor individuals during the Daily Scrum turns a Developers' inspection of progress toward the Sprint Goal into a status report to management. That undermines self-management, increases pressure to look busy rather than to collaborate, and does nothing to resolve the underlying confusion about accountabilities within the Scrum Team.
- ✓
Teach the Developers and their managers how the Scrum Team's accountabilities differ from traditional functional reporting lines.
Why this is correct
When Developers report progress to functional managers instead of the team, the Scrum Master serves the team by making the Scrum accountabilities visible to everyone affected, including those managers. Helping the wider organization understand that the Scrum Team is self-managing and cross-functional reduces conflicting expectations and lets the Developers focus on the Sprint Goal.
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.