CSM Scrum Master Core Competencies Practice Question
A team has a very high 'WIP' limit and consistently fails to finish items. What is the most appropriate Scrum Master intervention?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often choose to 'lower the WIP limit' immediately or 'assign more tasks', failing to realize that the Scrum Master should facilitate the team's self-discovery of the problem first.
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 data-driven discussion in the Retrospective.
The Scrum Master should facilitate a retrospective to analyze the cause of the unfinished work. High WIP limits often indicate a lack of focus or poor refinement. By guiding the team to visualize their flow, the Scrum Master helps them identify bottlenecks and understand how limiting work in progress improves cycle time and the ability to achieve the Sprint Goal consistently.
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 a lower WIP limit for the next Sprint.
Why it's wrong here
Directly mandating a change violates the self-organizing principle of Scrum teams. The team needs to reach this conclusion through their own inspection of the data. When the Scrum Master enforces rules, the team loses ownership of their process, which can lead to decreased motivation and less effective process improvement.
- ✓
Facilitate a data-driven discussion in the Retrospective.
Why this is correct
Using data to facilitate the Retrospective encourages an objective examination of performance issues. This transparency allows the team to see the direct correlation between high WIP and their inability to reach 'Done', empowering them to choose a more sustainable WIP limit that improves their delivery flow and team health.
- ✗
Ask the Product Owner to provide fewer items.
Why it's wrong here
While the Product Owner influences the backlog, the team is responsible for managing their own WIP. Blaming the Product Owner ignores the team's capacity management and their ability to push back on scope. The Scrum Master must coach the team to take accountability for their own capacity and focus.
- ✗
Increase the Sprint length to finish more work.
Why it's wrong here
Increasing Sprint length is a common anti-pattern that masks the underlying issues of poor focus and ineffective work management. It does not solve the root cause of high WIP. The team will likely continue to struggle with finishing work, regardless of how long the Sprint is extended to accommodate them.
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.