CST Stakeholder Collaboration & Trust 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A Scrum Team is working with an external client who lacks Agile experience. What is the MOST effective approach to build collaboration?
- Train the client on Scrum theory before starting any work
- Use familiar business outcomes to frame Scrum events and involve the client incrementally (Correct answer)
- Avoid Scrum terminology entirely and run the project in a traditional way
- Limit the client's involvement to monthly status meetings
Correct answer: Use familiar business outcomes to frame Scrum events and involve the client incrementally
Framing Scrum through business outcomes lowers the learning barrier and draws external stakeholders into meaningful collaboration.
Question 2: The Scrum Guide states that the Sprint Review is NOT a status meeting. What distinguishes it from a status meeting?
- It is held monthly instead of weekly
- It is a working session where stakeholders inspect the increment and adapt the backlog (Correct answer)
- Only the Product Owner speaks during the review
- It replaces the need for all other stakeholder communication
Correct answer: It is a working session where stakeholders inspect the increment and adapt the backlog
The Sprint Review is a collaborative inspection-and-adaptation event, not a one-way report of completed tasks.
Question 3: How does empiricism support stakeholder trust in Scrum?
- It guarantees delivery of the full product backlog on schedule
- It provides stakeholders with accurate, observable data on which to base decisions (Correct answer)
- It replaces the need for stakeholder input with data-driven automation
- It allows teams to predict outcomes precisely before starting work
Correct answer: It provides stakeholders with accurate, observable data on which to base decisions
Empiricism gives stakeholders real, inspectable evidence at each Sprint Review rather than forecasts based on assumption.
Question 4: A Product Owner is pressured by a stakeholder to commit to a specific feature list for the next six Sprints. What is the recommended response?
- Accept the commitment to maintain the stakeholder relationship
- Explain that Scrum favors responding to change and offer a near-term forecast with longer-term intent (Correct answer)
- Escalate to the Scrum Master to handle the stakeholder
- Lock the backlog for six Sprints but hide it from the development team
Correct answer: Explain that Scrum favors responding to change and offer a near-term forecast with longer-term intent
Scrum values responding to change, so the Product Owner should offer transparency about near-term plans while educating stakeholders on adaptive planning.
Question 5: Which Scrum value is MOST directly expressed when the Scrum Team shares bad news about project risks with stakeholders immediately?
- Focus
- Commitment
- Courage (Correct answer)
- Respect
Correct answer: Courage
Sharing difficult news proactively requires courage, one of Scrum's five core values.
Question 6: When should a CST recommend increasing the frequency of stakeholder touchpoints?
- When the team's velocity is below average
- When stakeholder trust is low or the product domain is highly uncertain (Correct answer)
- Only when the Sprint length is longer than four weeks
- When the Scrum Master requests more oversight support
Correct answer: When stakeholder trust is low or the product domain is highly uncertain
More frequent collaboration reduces uncertainty and rebuilds trust in high-risk or low-trust environments.
Question 7: A stakeholder group has conflicting priorities for the same product. Who is responsible for resolving this conflict?
- The Scrum Master, as servant-leader for the organization
- The entire Scrum Team in a group negotiation session
- The Product Owner, who holds the single authoritative backlog priority (Correct answer)
- Each stakeholder group independently through separate backlogs
Correct answer: The Product Owner, who holds the single authoritative backlog priority
The Product Owner has sole accountability for ordering the Product Backlog and must make final prioritization decisions.
CST Stakeholder Collaboration & Trust 3
A Scrum Team is working with an external client who lacks Agile experience.
What is the MOST effective approach to build collaboration?