CSM Service to the Scrum Team Practice Question
During a Sprint Retrospective, the Scrum Team identifies that their technical debt is preventing them from meeting the Definition of Done. What is the most effective way for the Scrum Master to serve the team?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often suggest the Scrum Master directly prioritize the technical debt or tell the team to stop all feature work, overstepping the Scrum Master's role regarding the Product Backlog.
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
✓
Advise the Developers to discuss the impact of technical debt with the Product Owner.
The Scrum Master serves the team by facilitating discussions on process improvement and encouraging the team to address impediments. Technical debt is a systemic issue that impacts the quality of increments. By guiding the team to include technical debt reduction in their planning, the Scrum Master helps the team align their work with the Definition of Done and ensures long-term sustainability of the product delivery process.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Force the team to dedicate 50% of every Sprint exclusively to technical debt.
Why it's wrong here
Scrum Masters do not dictate specific percentages of work to the team; the Developers are self-managing and decide how to achieve the Sprint Goal. Mandating arbitrary work splits undermines self-management and fails to address the underlying root cause of why the technical debt was accrued in the first place.
- ✓
Advise the Developers to discuss the impact of technical debt with the Product Owner.
Why this is correct
Transparency is essential; the Product Owner must understand that debt affects the team's ability to deliver value. By facilitating this conversation, the Scrum Master empowers the team to advocate for quality, ensuring the Product Backlog reflects the necessary work to maintain a high-quality, releasable increment for stakeholders.
- ✗
Ask the Product Owner to remove items from the Product Backlog to save time.
Why it's wrong here
Removing items does not solve the issue of existing technical debt or the processes that created it. The focus should be on improving the team's engineering practices and ensuring the Definition of Done is strictly followed. Managing the backlog is the Product Owner's concern, not the primary fix.
- ✗
Request that management hire additional developers to handle the technical debt.
Why it's wrong here
Adding more resources often complicates communication and does not solve process-related technical debt. The team should look to optimize their own practices and collaboration first. The Scrum Master's role is to help the existing team become more effective, not to immediately seek external personnel solutions for internal issues.
About these practice questions
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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.