Professional Scrum Master Coaching and Facilitation 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A conflict arises between two Development Team members over technical design choices. The conflict is affecting team collaboration. What is the Scrum Master's BEST response?
- Make the technical decision yourself to resolve the conflict quickly
- Escalate the conflict to the Product Owner to decide
- Facilitate a structured conversation where both members can express concerns and find common ground (Correct answer)
- Separate the two members into different work streams to avoid further conflict
Correct answer: Facilitate a structured conversation where both members can express concerns and find common ground
A Scrum Master facilitates conflict resolution by creating a safe space for dialogue, helping the team reach their own resolution rather than imposing a solution.
Question 2: Which Scrum Master behavior BEST demonstrates servant leadership during Sprint Planning?
- Deciding which Product Backlog items the team should commit to
- Ensuring the event stays within its timebox and that the team has what it needs to plan effectively (Correct answer)
- Creating the Sprint Goal on behalf of the team to save time
- Telling the team how many story points to assign to each item
Correct answer: Ensuring the event stays within its timebox and that the team has what it needs to plan effectively
Servant leadership in Sprint Planning means serving the process — keeping the event timeboxed and removing impediments — while letting the team do the actual planning.
Question 3: A team member approaches the Scrum Master privately and says the team's velocity estimates are being manipulated to satisfy management. What should the Scrum Master do?
- Report the manipulation directly to senior management
- Coach the team transparently about the harm of manipulating metrics and facilitate a Retrospective discussion (Correct answer)
- Ignore it since velocity is an internal team metric
- Document the manipulation and use it in the next performance review
Correct answer: Coach the team transparently about the harm of manipulating metrics and facilitate a Retrospective discussion
The Scrum Master upholds transparency and coaches the team to use metrics honestly, ideally by addressing the root cause in a safe team forum like the Retrospective.
Question 4: How should a Scrum Master handle a situation where the organization's management wants to add team members mid-Sprint to increase velocity?
- Agree and immediately onboard the new members
- Negotiate with management to add members only at the start of the next Sprint
- Coach management about the disruption mid-Sprint additions cause and explain that new members affect team dynamics (Correct answer)
- Ask the Development Team to vote on whether to accept the new members
Correct answer: Coach management about the disruption mid-Sprint additions cause and explain that new members affect team dynamics
Adding members mid-Sprint disrupts team dynamics and rarely increases velocity immediately; the Scrum Master educates management on the impact of such decisions.
Question 5: Which questioning technique is MOST useful when a Scrum Master is coaching a team member who is stuck on a problem?
- Leading questions that guide the member toward the Scrum Master's preferred solution
- Closed questions to quickly identify the exact issue
- Powerful open-ended questions that help the member explore possibilities themselves (Correct answer)
- Hypothetical questions that shift focus away from the current problem
Correct answer: Powerful open-ended questions that help the member explore possibilities themselves
Powerful open-ended questions are a core coaching technique that stimulates self-discovery and build the team member's own problem-solving capability.
Question 6: A Scrum Team is consistently delivering below its Sprint Goal but never discusses this in the Retrospective. What should the Scrum Master do?
- Add Sprint Goal completion as a mandatory agenda item for every Retrospective
- Facilitate an honest retrospective by surfacing data on Sprint Goal achievement and asking the team to explore root causes (Correct answer)
- Report the team's underperformance to the Product Owner
- Lower the Sprint Goals to match the team's actual delivery rate
Correct answer: Facilitate an honest retrospective by surfacing data on Sprint Goal achievement and asking the team to explore root causes
Facilitating data-driven reflection helps the team confront reality and take ownership of improvement, which is the core purpose of the Retrospective.
Question 7: During Sprint Review, the team is reluctant to demonstrate incomplete work to stakeholders. As Scrum Master, what is the BEST coaching approach?
- Allow the team to skip demonstrating incomplete items
- Demonstrate the incomplete items yourself so the team isn't embarrassed
- Coach the team that transparency includes showing actual progress and that stakeholder feedback on incomplete work is valuable (Correct answer)
- Tell stakeholders only completed items will be shown and reschedule a second review
Correct answer: Coach the team that transparency includes showing actual progress and that stakeholder feedback on incomplete work is valuable
Sprint Reviews thrive on transparency; coaching the team to share actual progress — including what isn't done — builds trust and generates useful stakeholder feedback.
Professional Scrum Master Coaching and Facilitation 3
A conflict arises between two Development Team members over technical design choices.
The conflict is affecting team collaboration.
What is the Scrum Master's BEST response?