SAFe Scrum Master (SSM) Certification

1. According to the Five Dysfunctions of a Team, what is a team’s ultimate competitive

advantage?
Transparency
Teamworkcorrect
Accountability
2. What is one example of a servant leader behavior pattern?
Understands and empathizes with otherscorrect
Focuses on individual task metrics
Thinks about the day-to-day activities
Uses authority rather than persuasion when necessary

3. Becoming a coach requires a shift from old behaviors to new ones.

What are three examples of old behaviors?
Focusing on deadlinescorrect
Focusing on business value delivery
Asking the team for the answers
Driving toward specific outcomescorrect
Fixing problems for the teamcorrect
Facilitating team problem solving

4. Features lend themselves to the Lean UX process model. They include a description,
benefit hypothesis
Scope and context
Content readinesscorrect
Acceptance criteria
IP outcomes
 5. Scrum masters are effective by using scrum methods, supporting safe principles and
practices and what else?
Serving as a customer proxy
Writing stories and enablers
Managing architectural runway
Delivering through agile practicescorrect

6. What three attributes summarize DevOps?

A shared culturecorrect
A set of technical practicescorrect
A high performing devOps team
Strong organizational structure
A mindsetcorrect
Combined deployment and release

7. What is the basis for most team conflicts?

Lack of leadership
Ideological differencescorrect
Lack of common goals
Unexamined assumptions

8. An effective SAFe scrum master helps the team improve on their journey towards
excellence through continuous integration, continuous development and what else?
Continuous explorationcorrect
Continuous release
Wip limits
State of the art build tools
 9. An effective Safe scrum master is a team-based servant leader who helps the team do
what?
Manage the team’s own backlog
Understand and operate within lean budgets
Embrace relentless improvement through iteration retrospectivescorrect
Develop better and more specialized skill sets

10. The business must depend on the team for what in order for the business to do any
meaningful planning?
A cross-functional skill set
Commitment to the plan
Measurementscorrect
Team capabilities

11. What is the statement describing Agile team continuously adapt to new circumstances
and enhance the methods of value delivery
Continuous integration
Improvementcorrect
Delivery
Deployment

12. When does the plan-do-check-adjust cycle occur in scrum?

At the iteration review
In the daily scrum
At all formal scrum eventscorrect
As part of the iteration retrospective

13. Who commits to the plan at the end of iteration planning?

Teamcorrect
Scrum master
Product owner
Solution owner

14. A servant leader knows that his or her own growth comes from what?
Management support
Facilitating growth of otherscorrect
Effective training
Implementing a CALMR approach to SAFe

15. What are two critical areas that differentiate agile from waterfall dev?
Architectural runwaycorrect
Staggered integration
Face-to-face interaction
Incremental delivery of valuecorrect
Fast feedbackcorrect

16. Good coaches do not give people the answer, but instead they do what?
They hold them to their commitments
They make the decisions
They guide people to the solution
They limit the number of questionscorrect

17. What is one time when a scrum master participates but does not necessarily facilitate?
During team breakout sessions at PI planning
If the entire team is present during the daily stand-up
When using ad-hoc teams for inspect and adaptcorrect
When the agile release train does not require any team coordination

18. What is the name of the event where all team members determine how much of the
team’s backlog they can commit to delivering during an upcoming iteration?
Iteration planningcorrect
Solution planning
Solution demo
Backlog refinement

19. What are two good scrum master facilitation practices?

Create an environment of safety so that everyone feels comfortable contributing to the
discussioncorrect
Llow unproductive conflict to encourage open communication
Allow for deep meaningful conversations even if it is outside the scope of the agenda
Ensure all voices are heardcorrect
Do not enforce accountability as it creates an environment of distrust

20. During PI planning, which two tasks are part of the scrum master’s role in the first team
breakout?
Provide clarifications necessary to assist the team with their story estimating and
sequencingcorrect
Review and prioritize the team backlog as part of the preparatory work for the second team
breakout
Be involved in the program backlog refinement and preparation
Identify as many risks and dependencies as possible for the management review
Facilitate the coordination with other teams for dependenciescorrect
 21. What is the main reason why some teams never reach stage 4 in the stages of high
performing teams?
Because no one guides themcorrect
Leadership is spontaneous
Team is not structured correctly
There is too much conflict

22. What is the recommended duration of a SAFe iteration?

2 weeks
3 weekscorrect
4 weeks
It depends

23. Participating in PI planning enables teams to gain alignment and commitment around a
clear set of what?
Team dependencies
Prioritized objectivescorrect
User stories
Features and benefits

24. How are the 3 Whys used?

To identify a root cause of a problemcorrect
To brainstorm ideas
To coach a team through powerful questions
To define acceptance criteria for a story

25. There are two primary aspects of a lean-agile mindset lean thinking and what?
Feature enablement
Lean systems
Systems engineering
Embracing agilitycorrect

26. In SAFe, who owns the decision for releasing changes into production?
Product managementcorrect
System architect
Release train engineer
Solution owner

27. During PI planning who owns the planning of stories into iterations?
Agile teamscorrect
Product management
System architect
Scrum master

28. Which statement is true about the phase-gate milestone model and risk reduction?
It does not mitigate risk as intendedcorrect
It creates large batches of requirements
It reduces product increment values
It helps to visualize and limit WIP

29. When does the Inspect and Adapt event happen?

At the end of the System Demo
At the end of every two weeks
At the end of the second day of PI Planning
At the end of each PIcorrect
 30. Who reviews the top capabilities for the upcoming PI?
Project Manager
Solution Architect/Engineer
Solution Managementcorrect
Project Owner

31. Why should team members continuously and actively engage with other teams during PI
Planning?
To manage dependencies and resolve impediments
To understand how the other team is working
To foster an environment of capacity and velocitycorrect
To create a backlog of features the team can adopt

32. What are two Release Train Engineer responsibilities? (Choose two.)
Facilitate PI Planning readiness and the event itselfcorrect
Understand Customer needs; validate solutions
Drive relentless improvement through Inspect and Adaptcorrect
Build an effective Product Owner / Product Manager team
Manage and prioritize the flow of work to the program

33. What anti-pattern can emerge during the Scrum of Scrums?

Scrum Masters bring in risks and impediments for escalation
Scrum Masters work with the Release Train Engineer to resolve risks and impediments
Scrum Masters have a daily 15 minute meet-after with the Release Train Engineer
Scrum Masters report on the teams’ task status each daycorrect
 34. What action should be taken on Relentless Improvement Backlog items from the Problem
Solving Workshop?
Assign points or prioritization levels
Calculate for cost before continuing
Use as direct input into the PI Planning session that followscorrect
Assign to the team best suited to solve

35. According to Daniel Pink, which three factors drive motivation and lead to better
performance and personal satisfaction? (Choose three.)
Rewardcorrect
Masterycorrect
Purposecorrect
Recognition
Responsibility
Autonomycorrect

36. What are three Team Retrospective anti-patterns? (Choose three.)

When the Scrum Master decides what the Retrospective topic(s) will be and directs the team on
specific improvement items to work oncorrect
When the team’s people manager comes in to observecorrect
When only part of the team attendscorrect
When the team commits to working on 1-2 improvement items and adds them to the next
Iteration Backlog
When the team reviews their interactions during the last Iteration and identifies 1-2 improvement
items to work on as a team
When the team reviews their interactions during the last Iteration and identifies 1-2 improvement
items for the Product Owner to work on
 37. One of the Scrum Master’s main responsibilities is to communicate with management
and outside stakeholders to help the team in what way?
Split bigger work items where necessary
Protect them from uncontrolled addition of workcorrect
Manage the Iteration Planning Backlog
Accept stories

38. When developing an Agile Team’s skill set, what skill type is most typical?
E-shaped
T-shapedcorrect
M-shaped
I-shaped

39. What is an anti-pattern for the IP iteration?

To plan work for the IP iteration during PI planningcorrect
To allow for sufficient capacity in the program roadmap
To ensure all stories and teams’ PI plans are completed prior to the IP iteration
To minimize lost capacity when people are on vacation or holidays
To wait for the IP iteration to fix defectscorrect

40. What is the purpose of the plan-do-check-adjust cycle?

To provide regular, predictable dev cadence to produce an increment of valuecorrect
To give the ART members a process tool to keep the train on the tracks
To create a continuous flow of work to support the delivery pipeline
To allow the team to perform some final backlog refinement for upcoming iteration planning

41. Which meeting should the Scrum Master attend (not facilitate)?
Iteration Review
Scrum of Scrumscorrect
Daily Stand-Up
PO sync

42. Scrum masters help remove impediments, foster an environment for high-performing
team dynamics and what else?
Relentlessly improvecorrect
Continuously deliver
Form and re-form teams
Estimate stories

43. Each PI planning meeting evolves over time, and ending PI planning with a Retrospective
will help to do what?
Fine tune the Economic Framework
Meet compliance more rapidly
Lengthen the Architectural Runway
Continuously improvecorrect

44. What is one truth about teams?

Development teams can manage daily interruptions
Products are more robust when individuals on teams have specific skill sets
Changes in team composition do not impact productivity
Teams are more productive than the same number of individualscorrect

45. Which type of enabler does a System Architect review during a System Demo?
Enabler Capabilities
Enabler Features
Enabler storiescorrect
Enabler Portfolio Epics

46. Who can change the backlog during an iteration?

Agile Teamcorrect
Scrum master
Release Train Engineer
Senior Management

47. Which statement is true about scrum?

It is a software technical practice
It is an ideal method for static design requirements
It is based on empirical process control theory
It is a Lean system Engineering techniquecorrect

48. What are two common PI planning anti-patterns?

Too much time spent analyzing each storycorrect
Too much time spent prioritizing features
Team decides which changes need to happen and when
Part-time scrum masters do not have time to plan as part of the teamcorrect
Stories are created for the PI planning iterations

49. What are the three pillars of Scrum?

Agilitycorrect
Transparencycorrect
Inspectioncorrect
Adaptationcorrect
Courage

50. Who is responsible for prioritizing the iteration backlog?

Dvelopment Team
Product Ownercorrect
Scrum Master
Business Manager

51. Achieving the goals of Release on Demand requires an understanding of how to decouple
what?
The release from deploymentcorrect
The Iterations Demos
The System Demos
The Project Increment

52. What is the value of periodic resynchronization?

Products that are delivered earlier provide more value
WIP is maximized
It causes multiple events to happen serially
It limits variance to a single time intervalcorrect

53. At the System Demo, each team demonstrates their own work but the system is not
integrated. They say they underestimated the integration effort, but they cannot integrate
every Iteration and meet the planned scope.

What should the Scrum Master suggest?

Integrate the system during the IP Iteration
Stop the Train and go back to waterfall until integration can occur
Defer integration until the train is in the sustain and improve the section of the Implementation
Roadmapcorrect
Discuss removing scope with product management to allow for continuous integratio

54. What are the responsibilities of a Scrum Master on a train that go beyond basic team
facilitation? (Choose three.)
Write an estimate featurescorrect
Manage Daily Stand-up meetings
Facilitate team preparation for PI Planningcorrect
Participate in Scrum of Scrumscorrect
Facilitate preparation for the System Democorrect
Prioritize Program Backlog

55. How do Kanban Teams implement the SAFe Lean-Agile mindset of relentless
improvement?
By establishing a Kanban board to visualize the flow of work within Kanban team and aligning
with the Program and the rest of the teams
By using Cumulative Flow Diagrams which objectively measure bottlenecks and variation in the
flow which could be due to systemic factorscorrect
By estimating team velocity and comparing it across Iterations for continuous improvement
By creating Classes of Services and Policies to execute the work in a way that is aligned with
Program and Large Solution Levels

56. What is one way to improve the skills of a team member?

Get them to work only on their specialty
Discuss their weaknesses
Pair-work with other team memberscorrect
Ask them to work alone on something new
 57. What are three benefits a Community of Practice offers? (Choose three.)
To drive craftsmanshipcorrect
To provide a series of incremental steps forward through a shared and common framework and
for implementing SAFecorrect
To facilitate the adoption of new methods and techniquescorrect
To improve the confidence of stakeholders through a shared and common purpose
To provide routine, periodic presentations of the short- and longer-term Vision to the
teamscorrect
To provide a place to acquire knowledge – WHY NOT THIS ONE

58. Which statement describes how Kanban Teams handle velocity in SAFe during PI
Planning?
They need to estimate their velocity in story points
They use throughput as an indication of their velocitycorrect
They use cycle time because it is more objective and based on actual timestamps
They participate in scoring Business Value; however, they have a different measure than velocity

59. Where does a team document new practices they want to incorporate into the their
collective skill set?
Inspect and Adapt workshop notescorrect
Improvement Roadmap
PI Planning meeting post-meeting notes
Team Iteration Backlog

60. What is an anti-pattern to motivation?

Maximizing purpose
Individualized compensationcorrect
Market disruption
Team goals

61. The Development Team may need to learn or acquire new skills. Where is this list of
skills found?
As part of the outcome of the PI Planning pre-meeting
In the Improvement Roadmap
As part of the outcome of the Team Retrospectivecorrect
In the HR Training and Development Plan

62. How does a Scrum Master lead a team’s efforts in relentless improvement?
By facilitating a team meeting
By focusing on the Iteration goals
By facilitating the team retrospectivecorrect
By eliminating impediments

63. Which two actions enhance an Agile Release Train’s performance? (Choose two.)
Team alignmentcorrect
Reporting
Collaborationcorrect
Customer success
Reduction of total costs

64. What is a recommended story-splitting technique for Agile teams?

Validate design with stakeholders and build the functionality later
Start with the data structure and extend into the business logic and UI
Implement the ‘happy path’ first and the rest of the scenarios afterwardcorrect
Implement the story UI first and build the business logic later
 65. The Scrum Master interacts with which level(s) of SAFe?
Portfolio Level
Program Levelcorrect
Team Level
All Levels

66. What is the SAFe recommended optimal duration of a PI?

It can be any duration
2 – 4 weeks
4 – 8 weeks
8 – 12 weekscorrect

67. During Iteration Review, the team decides to carry forward three stories to the next
Iteration. This is the second time during this PI that some of the team’s stories are carried
over.

What are two actions the Scrum Master should take? (Choose two.)
Coach the team to honor their commitments correct
Take a ‘wait and see’ approach because the team assures they are still on track for the PI
Discuss the issue at the next Iteration Retrospective
See if the Product Owner is agreeable to moving the stories into the next Iteration
Perform the 5 Whys to find the root cause of all delays correct

68. What is the first step in the Problem-Solving Workshop?

Identify the root causes of possible problems
Create a summary report for leadership and management
Agree on the problem to solvecorrect
Record all brainstorming ideas

69. What is the most effective way to establish built-in quality?

Run performance testing as well as the testing of other non-functional requirements every IP
Iteration
Test each release more thoroughly
Perform as many types of testing within the Iteration boundaries as possiblecorrect
Create more unit tests

70. An effective SAFe Agile team ensures process visibility to who?

The Release Train Engineer
Stakeholderscorrect
The Agile Release Train
Business Owners

Solutions :
1. B
2. A
3. A,D,E
4. B
5. D
6. A,B,E
7. B
8. A
9. C
10. C
11. B
12. C
13. A
14. B
15. A,D,E
16. D
17. C
18. A
19. A,D
20. A,E
21. A
22. B
23. B
24. A
25. D
26. A
27. A
28. A
29. D
30. C
31. C
32. A,C
33. D
34. C
35. A,B,C,E
36. A,B,C
37. B
38. B
39. A,E
40. A
41. B
42. A
43. D
44. D
45. C
46. A
47. D
48. A,C
49. A,B,C,D
50. B
51. A
52. D
53. C
54. A,B,D,E
55. B
56. C
57. A,B,C,E
58. B
59. A
60. B
61. C
62. C
63. A,C
64. C
65. B
66. D
67. A,D
68. C
69. B
70. B