Certified Agile Service Manager Agile SM Roles 4 ā Questions and Answers
Question 1: In Agile SM, which role is most responsible for shielding the team from external interruptions during a sprint?
- Product Owner
- Service Owner
- Scrum Master (Correct answer)
- Change Manager
Correct answer: Scrum Master
The Scrum Master protects the team from outside distractions and scope changes during the sprint to maintain focus.
Question 2: A team member disagrees with the Product Owner's backlog priorities. According to Agile SM, who has final authority over backlog prioritization?
- The team collectively votes
- The Scrum Master arbitrates
- The Product Owner has final authority (Correct answer)
- The IT Director decides
Correct answer: The Product Owner has final authority
The Product Owner holds ultimate authority over backlog ordering and prioritization decisions.
Question 3: Which Agile SM role is responsible for coaching the organizationānot just the teamāon Agile adoption?
- Product Owner
- Scrum Master
- Enterprise Agile Coach (Correct answer)
- Service Desk Manager
Correct answer: Enterprise Agile Coach
An Enterprise Agile Coach works at the organizational level, helping leadership and multiple teams adopt Agile principles and practices.
Question 4: In an Agile SM team, day-to-day technical decisions about how to implement a service improvement are best made by:
- The Product Owner
- The Service Owner
- The development team members themselves (Correct answer)
- The IT Steering Committee
Correct answer: The development team members themselves
Agile SM empowers the development team to make technical implementation decisions, supporting self-organization.
Question 5: Which scenario best illustrates a conflict of interest that Agile SM discourages?
- A developer also performing testing duties
- The Scrum Master also acting as Product Owner for the same team (Correct answer)
- A tester writing automated scripts
- A business analyst joining the delivery team
Correct answer: The Scrum Master also acting as Product Owner for the same team
Having the same person serve as both Scrum Master and Product Owner creates conflicting priorities and undermines both roles.
Question 6: What is the primary Agile SM rationale for having a dedicated Product Owner rather than a committee making backlog decisions?
- Committees are too expensive
- A single accountable person enables faster, clearer decisions (Correct answer)
- Committees lack technical knowledge
- Product Owners have more IT experience
Correct answer: A single accountable person enables faster, clearer decisions
A dedicated Product Owner enables rapid, clear prioritization decisions without the delays and ambiguity of committee consensus.
Question 7: In Agile SM, the concept of 'T-shaped skills' within a team means:
- Team members only work in their specialty area
- Team members have deep expertise in one area and broad knowledge across others (Correct answer)
- All team members are generalists with no specialization
- Team members rotate roles every sprint
Correct answer: Team members have deep expertise in one area and broad knowledge across others
T-shaped skills balance deep specialization with broad cross-functional awareness, enabling team members to collaborate across disciplines.
Certified Agile Service Manager Agile SM Roles 4
In Agile SM, which role is most responsible for shielding the team from external interruptions during a sprint?