Mixed Deck — All Professional Scrum Master Topics Flashcards
100 cards from real Professional Scrum Master practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 20 Mixed Deck — All Professional Scrum Master Topics flashcards as text
A Product Owner wants to measure whether the product is delivering value. Which metric would be most meaningful in a Scrum context?
Answer: Revenue generated or user adoption rates for recently delivered features
Outcome-based metrics like revenue or user adoption directly measure product value, unlike output metrics that only track activity.
During a Sprint Retrospective, the team identifies that the Scrum Master has been making technical decisions for the Developers. What Scrum principle is being violated?
Answer: Self-management of the Developers
Developers are self-managing and internally decide who does what, when, and how; a Scrum Master making technical decisions for them violates this accountability.
A stakeholder complains to the Scrum Master that they never know what the team is working on. Which Scrum event best addresses this concern?
Answer: Sprint Review, which provides transparency to stakeholders on the Increment and progress toward the Product Goal
The Sprint Review is the formal inspect-and-adapt event that invites stakeholders to examine the Increment and collaborate on what to do next. It is the primary mechanism for external transparency.
The Development Team is consistently delivering fewer stories than forecast. Management interprets this as poor performance. What should the Scrum Master do?
Answer: Help management understand that forecasts are probabilistic and coach them to focus on business value delivered per Sprint
Educating management on empiricism and value delivery reframes the conversation away from output metrics toward meaningful outcomes.
What is true about the Product Backlog in a mature Scrum environment?
Answer: It is a dynamic artifact that evolves as the product and market change
The Product Backlog is never complete; it evolves as long as the product exists, reflecting new insights, feedback, and changing conditions.
How does continuous refinement of the Product Backlog support Agile product management?
Answer: It keeps upcoming items well understood and sized so the team can plan effectively
Regular refinement ensures that upcoming backlog items are understood, estimated, and ready, enabling smoother Sprint Planning.
During the Daily Scrum, two developers begin an extended technical debate. What should the Scrum Master do?
Answer: Facilitate by noting the topic and suggesting the two developers resolve it in a follow-up meeting after the Daily Scrum
The Scrum Master protects the Daily Scrum timebox by encouraging off-topic deep dives to be taken offline after the event.
Developers say they need specialized knowledge that no team member currently has. What is the CORRECT Scrum approach?
Answer: The Developers identify the gap; the team adapts by learning or collaborating with specialists
Scrum Teams are accountable for being cross-functional; they must proactively address skill gaps through learning, coaching, or temporary collaboration.
What happens if the Product Owner and the Development Team disagree on the Definition of Done?
Answer: The organization's standards for Done apply as a minimum, and the Development Team must conform to them
If there is a Definition of Done as part of organizational standards, all Scrum Teams must follow it as a minimum; the Development Team can choose stricter criteria but not looser.
A Product Owner discovers mid-Sprint that a competitor has launched a feature that changes market expectations. What is the most appropriate action?
Answer: Discuss the new information with the Scrum Team and add it to the Product Backlog for future Sprint consideration
New information should be captured in the Product Backlog for future prioritization while the current Sprint continues toward its goal.
The Scrum Guide says Scrum is 'simple to understand, difficult to master.' What makes mastery difficult?
Answer: Changing organizational culture and team behaviors to truly live Scrum values is hard
The rules of Scrum are simple, but genuinely living the values and maintaining the discipline of empiricism requires significant cultural and behavioral change.
A Scrum Team is co-located but team members rarely interact outside of Scrum events. The Scrum Master wants to improve collaboration. What is the BEST first step?
Answer: Facilitate team-building activities and create opportunities for informal interaction
Facilitated team-building activities and informal interaction opportunities organically strengthen relationships and trust, which are prerequisites for effective collaboration.
During a Sprint Retrospective, the team identifies an improvement but says they have no time to implement it. How should the Scrum Master respond?
Answer: Help the team find a way to incorporate the improvement into their next Sprint, even as a small experiment
The Scrum Master encourages the team to own their process improvements by finding small, actionable ways to implement changes within the Sprint.
A functional manager, who is not part of the Scrum Team, is consistently giving a Developer tasks that are not in the Sprint Backlog. This is jeopardizing the Sprint Goal. What is the Scrum Master's most appropriate leadership action?
Answer: Have a conversation with the manager to explain how their actions impact the Scrum Team's focus and the Sprint Goal.
A Scrum Master leads by protecting the team's ability to focus and by helping the organization understand Scrum. The most effective leadership action is to address the impediment directly with the manager, explaining the 'why' behind Scrum's principles (like focus and commitment to a Sprint Goal). This is an opportunity to coach the manager and improve the organizational environment for the team.
How does evidence-based management (EBM) support agile product management in Scrum?
Answer: By providing key value areas and metrics that help the Product Owner make informed decisions about what to build next
EBM defines key value areas such as Current Value and Unrealized Value that guide the Product Owner in making empirical product decisions.
Why is it important for the Product Owner to attend the Sprint Review?
Answer: To gather feedback from stakeholders and use it to adapt the Product Backlog
The Sprint Review is an opportunity for the Product Owner to collect stakeholder feedback and use it to inform future Product Backlog decisions.
Scrum is founded on empiricism. Which of the following best describes the three pillars of empirical process control?
Answer: Transparency, Inspection, and Adaptation
Scrum theory is based on empiricism, which asserts that knowledge comes from experience and making decisions based on what is observed. The three pillars of empiricism are Transparency, Inspection, and Adaptation. Transparency ensures all aspects of the process are visible to everyone involved. Inspection involves frequently checking progress toward a goal to detect undesirable variances. Adaptation is the process of adjusting to minimize any further deviation if inspection reveals something is outside acceptable limits.
A Development Team realizes mid-Sprint that they cannot complete all the forecasted Product Backlog items. What should they do?
Answer: Collaborate with the Product Owner to negotiate the Sprint scope
When the Development Team finds the work is more or less than expected, they collaborate with the Product Owner to negotiate scope within the Sprint.
A Scrum Team is performing well technically but struggles to connect their work to business value. Which coaching approach should the Scrum Master take?
Answer: Facilitate sessions where the team explores customer outcomes and how their work creates value
Facilitated sessions that connect technical work to customer outcomes build business acumen and intrinsic motivation in the team.
A team finishes all Sprint Backlog items with three days remaining. What should they do regarding the Sprint artifacts?
Answer: Pull in additional Product Backlog items that support the Sprint Goal
Developers may pull in additional Product Backlog items from the backlog — with Product Owner input — as long as they do not endanger the Sprint Goal.