CSM Service to the Scrum Team Practice Question
During a Sprint, a developer approaches the Scrum Master complaining that another team member's coding style violates internal standards, creating friction during code reviews. How should the Scrum Master address this service to the Scrum Team?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often choose the option where the Scrum Master directly enforces standards or mandates a technical review, confusing Scrum Master servant leadership with a traditional management role.
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 conversation between the developers to help them establish shared coding norms and update their team agreements.
The Scrum Master serves the Scrum Team by facilitating self-organization and helping them resolve internal conflicts rather than imposing external rules. Encouraging the developers to collaborate on updating their Definition of Done or team agreements fosters ownership. This approach builds team maturity and sustainable engineering practices while preventing reliance on the Scrum Master as a mediator.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Report the compliance issue to the engineering manager so management can formally discipline the developer.
Why it's wrong here
Escalating internal team friction to management undermines the self-organizing nature of Scrum teams and erodes psychological safety. The Scrum Master should coach the team through interpersonal conflicts and help them build internal accountability mechanisms before involving external stakeholders.
- ✗
Rewrite the problematic code yourself to align with standards and demonstrate the expected technical quality.
Why it's wrong here
Stepping in to write code or perform development tasks makes the Scrum Master a functional bottleneck and creates dependency. The Scrum Master must remain focused on process facilitation and team dynamics rather than executing technical delivery tasks.
- ✓
Facilitate a conversation between the developers to help them establish shared coding norms and update their team agreements.
Why this is correct
The Scrum Master serves the team by coaching self-management rather than imposing standards. Facilitating a conversation lets the developers own the coding norms and codify them in their working agreements, resolving the friction at its source without acting as arbiter or manager.
- ✗
Cancel the Sprint immediately because technical disagreements prevent the team from meeting their Sprint Goal.
Why it's wrong here
Canceling a Sprint is an extreme measure reserved exclusively for when the Sprint Goal becomes obsolete due to external business changes. Minor interpersonal friction or coding style debates do not justify disrupting the entire development cycle.
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About these practice questions
One of 312 original CSM practice questions on Courseiva, each with a full explanation and wrong-answer analysis — not exam dumps or protected exam content. 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.