CSM Scrum Team Roles and Accountabilities Practice Question
A Scrum Team is struggling to deliver a potentially releasable Increment each Sprint because the Developers keep discovering integration issues late. The Scrum Master wants to help the team improve. According to Scrum, what is the most appropriate action for the Scrum Master to take?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is assuming the Scrum Master should direct technical solutions or escalate to management, rather than coaching the team to self-manage and improve its own processes.
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 to improve their Definition of Done and self-manage their integration practices.
The Scrum Master serves the Scrum Team by coaching it in self-management and helping it improve its practices. When integration issues arise, the most appropriate action is to guide the Developers to enhance their Definition of Done and take ownership of their integration approach. This fosters continuous improvement and aligns with Scrum's empirical nature.
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 add a backlog item for fixing integration issues in the next Sprint.
Why it's wrong here
Integration issues are technical process problems, not product backlog items. The Product Owner manages the Product Backlog to maximize value, not to address internal team workflow. Adding such an item would not solve the underlying issue of how the team ensures a releasable Increment and shifts responsibility away from the Developers.
- ✗
Instruct the Developers to adopt continuous integration and automated testing immediately.
Why it's wrong here
Directing the Developers to adopt specific technical practices oversteps the Scrum Master's accountability. The Scrum Master serves the team by coaching and facilitating, not by mandating engineering tools or processes. While continuous integration may help, imposing it undermines self-management and does not address the root cause through the team's own inspection and adaptation.
- ✓
Coach the Developers to improve their Definition of Done and self-manage their integration practices.
Why this is correct
The Scrum Master serves the Scrum Team by coaching it in self-management and cross-functionality. Helping the Developers refine their Definition of Done and address integration issues themselves aligns with Scrum principles. This empowers the team to own their process and continuously improve, rather than relying on external direction.
- ✗
Escalate the problem to management so they can allocate additional resources to the team.
Why it's wrong here
Escalating to management for resources is not the Scrum Master's first approach. Scrum encourages the team to solve its own problems through inspection and adaptation. Bringing in management may undermine self-management and does not build the team's capability to improve its own engineering practices and Definition of Done.
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.