CSM Scrum Master Core Competencies Practice Question
The team is struggling with technical debt. What should the Scrum Master do to address this?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often think the Scrum Master should dictate technical refactoring rules or directly fix the technical debt themselves instead of focusing on transparency.
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 team on how to make the debt transparent.
The Scrum Master should facilitate a conversation between the Developers and the Product Owner to ensure technical debt is made transparent in the Product Backlog. This is a critical leadership act because ignoring technical debt leads to a decrease in development velocity and quality over time. By balancing new features with necessary refactoring, the team maintains a sustainable pace and long-term delivery capability.
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 fix debt before any new work.
Why it's wrong here
Forcing the team to stop new work is a command-and-control approach that ignores business priorities. The team must work with the Product Owner to balance new features and debt reduction. A sustainable balance ensures the product remains valuable while still being maintainable, which is the desired outcome for any Scrum team.
- ✓
Coach the team on how to make the debt transparent.
Why this is correct
Transparency is essential for managing debt. By coaching the team to document technical debt in the Product Backlog, the Scrum Master ensures that the Product Owner can make informed decisions about balancing new features with debt repayment, preventing the product from becoming unmaintainable and ensuring sustainable long-term value delivery.
- ✗
Tell the Product Owner to stop adding new features.
Why it's wrong here
The Scrum Master does not have the authority to halt feature development. The Product Owner is responsible for the backlog prioritization. The Scrum Master's role is to facilitate the conversation so the Product Owner understands the risks, ensuring that business decisions are based on a full picture of the product's health.
- ✗
Ask the developers to work extra hours to fix it.
Why it's wrong here
Asking for overtime is a short-term, unsustainable solution that leads to burnout. It does not solve the structural problems that cause technical debt. The Scrum Master must advocate for a sustainable pace, ensuring that the team works within their capacity to address debt as part of their regular development cycle.
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.