CSM Scrum Master Core Competencies Practice Question
During a Sprint Planning event, the development team expresses concern that the Product Owner is pushing to include more user stories than their historical velocity suggests is feasible. As the Scrum Master, how should you facilitate this situation?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often think the Scrum Master should dictate the Sprint Backlog size or allow the Product Owner to override the development team's capacity limits.
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 Product Owner and developers to collaboratively inspect past velocity and team capacity to negotiate a realistic commitment.
The Scrum Master must protect team sustainability while fostering collaboration. By coaching the Product Owner and developers to inspect capacity against historical data, the team can negotiate a realistic Sprint Backlog. This upholds empirical planning principles without undermining the Product Owner's accountability for maximizing value through the product backlog ordering.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Direct the Product Owner to immediately reduce the scope to match exact historical velocity to prevent team burnout.
Why it's wrong here
Directing the Product Owner to cut scope to exact historical velocity removes the team's own forecasting from Sprint Planning and treats velocity as a cap rather than a planning input. The Scrum Master should surface the concern and let the team and Product Owner negotiate a Sprint Goal together. Velocity-based scope limits apply when the team itself chooses them.
- ✓
Coach the Product Owner and developers to collaboratively inspect past velocity and team capacity to negotiate a realistic commitment.
Why this is correct
Coaching both parties to inspect historical velocity and current capacity directly addresses the stem's constraint: the Product Owner's push exceeds what past data supports. This collaborative inspection lets the team negotiate a Sprint Goal they can genuinely meet, preserving empiricism and self-management rather than imposing scope from above.
- ✗
Advise the development team to accept all requested stories and figure out how to work overtime to meet the sprint goal.
Why it's wrong here
Overtime masks the velocity mismatch rather than resolving it; the Scrum Master should let the team negotiate scope with the Product Owner based on historical data. Directing overtime contradicts Scrum's sustainable pace principle, though it would suit a command-and-control environment where utilisation targets override empirical planning.
- ✗
Take over Sprint Planning by selecting the user stories yourself based on your independent assessment of team capability.
Why it's wrong here
Selecting stories unilaterally removes the Developers' authority to determine how much work they can complete, which Sprint Planning reserves to them. The Scrum Master facilitates the conversation between Product Owner and Developers rather than deciding scope. Self-selection by the Scrum Master would be appropriate only if the team were absent or unable to participate.
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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.