CSM Scrum Team Roles and Accountabilities Practice Question
Exhibit
Team Composition: 1 PO, 1 SM, 3 Backend, 3 Frontend, 1 QA, 1 Designer. Sprint Goal: Deploy new user login. Problem: Frontend team waiting on Backend API changes.
Refer to the exhibit. What does this reveal about the team's structure and role expectations?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently misinterpret functional silos as specialized efficiency, overlooking the Scrum principle that true cross-functional teams should eliminate hand-offs and waiting periods between departments.
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
✓
The team is not truly cross-functional, as they rely on functional hand-offs.
The team is currently operating as a collection of silos (Backend, Frontend, QA) rather than a truly cross-functional team. The fact that the frontend team is 'waiting' indicates that they lack the necessary skills within their sub-group to complete the work, or that they are not collaborating as a single unit. The team needs to cross-train to become truly cross-functional and move away from siloed thinking.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The team size is too small; they need more developers.
Why it's wrong here
A team of 10 is within the recommended size. Adding more people would likely increase coordination overhead and make the communication issues worse, not better. The problem is not the number of people, but how they are organized and how they collaborate on the work items themselves.
- ✓
The team is not truly cross-functional, as they rely on functional hand-offs.
Why this is correct
True cross-functionality means the team possesses all the skills needed to complete the work without waiting on external dependencies. Having distinct 'Backend' and 'Frontend' teams within one Scrum Team suggests that they are not collaborating effectively, which leads to bottlenecks and prevents the team from finishing the Increment.
- ✗
The Product Owner is not providing clear requirements for the backend work.
Why it's wrong here
While it is possible the requirements are unclear, the issue of 'waiting' is primarily a technical and collaborative bottleneck. Attributing this to the Product Owner is a guess that doesn't solve the structural problem of the team being organized into functional silos instead of being a cross-functional unit.
- ✗
The Scrum Master failed to assign the backend work to the frontend developers.
Why it's wrong here
Assigning work is not the Scrum Master's role. If the Scrum Master started assigning tasks, it would further entrench the command-and-control behavior that limits the team's autonomy. The solution is for the team to recognize their need to share knowledge and cross-train to remove these internal dependencies.
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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.