CSM Service to the Organization Practice Question
During a Sprint, a key expert needed for the team's success is pulled away by another department for 'emergency work.' What is the Scrum Master's best approach to providing service to the organization?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often choose options where the Scrum Master directly confronts the other department, bypassing leadership escalation and organizational governance.
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
✓
Discuss the impact of this interruption with leadership to prevent such resource sharing in the future.
The Scrum Master must make the impact of this disruption transparent and facilitate a discussion with leadership regarding organizational priorities. By highlighting the cost of multi-tasking and broken flow, the Scrum Master educates the organization on the systemic consequences of shifting resources. This service is essential for protecting the team's ability to deliver a Done increment and encourages the organization to move toward a model where teams have the necessary, stable capacity to succeed.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Accept the situation and tell the team to work harder to make up for the lost person.
Why it's wrong here
Telling a team to 'work harder' is a common management anti-pattern that leads to burnout and decreased quality. It ignores the reality of lost capacity and fails to address the root cause of the resource interruption. This approach is not a service to the organization, as it perpetuates an unsustainable, high-pressure, and inefficient work culture.
- ✓
Discuss the impact of this interruption with leadership to prevent such resource sharing in the future.
Why this is correct
Raising the issue at the management level helps leadership see the direct conflict between their resource-sharing policy and the team's ability to deliver. This advocacy for stable, focused teams is a core duty of the Scrum Master. By addressing the root cause, the Scrum Master prevents future disruptions and promotes a more sustainable, effective organizational structure.
- ✗
Update the Sprint Backlog to remove the items the expert was working on.
Why it's wrong here
Removing items without discussing the impact on the Sprint Goal or the Product Owner's priorities is an incomplete solution. It hides the underlying problem of resource interference rather than solving it. While it may reduce immediate pressure, it does not challenge the organizational policy that allowed the resource to be taken in the first place.
- ✗
Ask the expert to work overtime during the evening to cover both tasks.
Why it's wrong here
Encouraging overtime creates a culture of over-extension that is fundamentally contrary to sustainable development. A Scrum Master should never promote or accept burnout as a solution for poor organizational resource planning. This suggestion is harmful to individual well-being and does nothing to improve the underlying issue of conflicting organizational priorities or resource allocation.
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.