Certified Agile Service Manager Agile SM Roles 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which Agile SM role has the authority to cancel a sprint if the sprint goal becomes obsolete?
- Scrum Master
- Development Team
- Product Owner (Correct answer)
- Service Owner
Correct answer: Product Owner
Only the Product Owner has authority to cancel a sprint when the sprint goal is no longer valid or worthwhile.
Question 2: An Agile SM organization is scaling from one team to five. Which role becomes critical to ensure inter-team dependency management?
- Additional Scrum Masters only
- Product Owner Council
- Release Train Engineer or Scrum of Scrums facilitator (Correct answer)
- IT Director
Correct answer: Release Train Engineer or Scrum of Scrums facilitator
A Release Train Engineer or Scrum of Scrums facilitator coordinates dependencies and communication across multiple Agile teams at scale.
Question 3: Which Agile SM practice best supports the Product Owner in prioritizing the service backlog effectively?
- Waterfall project planning
- MOSCOW prioritization or weighted shortest job first (WSJF) (Correct answer)
- Random selection based on team preference
- Priority set by the Scrum Master
Correct answer: MOSCOW prioritization or weighted shortest job first (WSJF)
Techniques like MoSCoW and WSJF give the Product Owner structured frameworks for making data-driven backlog prioritization decisions.
Question 4: During a sprint retrospective, who is responsible for ensuring that the team's improvement action items are tracked and implemented?
- Product Owner
- Scrum Master (Correct answer)
- IT Manager
- Change Advisory Board
Correct answer: Scrum Master
The Scrum Master ensures retrospective action items are followed through and continuous improvement actually happens.
Question 5: A traditional ITIL Change Manager is integrating with an Agile SM team. In Agile SM, change authority is best described as:
- Centralized in a Change Advisory Board that meets weekly
- Embedded within the team with lightweight approval for standard changes (Correct answer)
- Removed entirely with no change oversight
- Delegated to the Scrum Master exclusively
Correct answer: Embedded within the team with lightweight approval for standard changes
Agile SM embeds change authority within the team and uses lightweight approval mechanisms, reducing bottlenecks from heavyweight CAB processes.
Question 6: Which characteristic best describes how Agile SM roles differ from traditional ITIL process owner roles?
- Agile SM roles are more hierarchical and siloed
- Agile SM roles are outcome-focused and cross-functional rather than process-siloed (Correct answer)
- Agile SM roles have stricter documentation requirements
- Agile SM roles eliminate all management responsibilities
Correct answer: Agile SM roles are outcome-focused and cross-functional rather than process-siloed
Agile SM roles focus on delivering service outcomes and collaborate across disciplines rather than owning isolated processes.
Question 7: In an Agile SM environment, which role is best positioned to identify when a team's velocity indicates an unsustainable pace?
- Product Owner
- Service Owner
- Scrum Master (Correct answer)
- Operations Manager
Correct answer: Scrum Master
The Scrum Master monitors team health and velocity trends, recognizing when the pace is unsustainable and addressing it.
Certified Agile Service Manager Agile SM Roles 5
Which Agile SM role has the authority to cancel a sprint if the sprint goal becomes obsolete?