Professional Scrum Master Scrum Master as Leader 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A Scrum Master is asked by a manager to evaluate individual developer performance based on Sprint velocity. What is the BEST response?
- Agree and produce individual velocity metrics for each developer
- Explain that velocity is a team measure and using it for individual evaluation undermines collaboration (Correct answer)
- Delegate the task to the Product Owner who manages the backlog
- Provide the metrics but add a disclaimer that they may not be accurate
Correct answer: Explain that velocity is a team measure and using it for individual evaluation undermines collaboration
Velocity is a team-level empirical measure; applying it to individuals creates harmful competition and erodes Scrum values.
Question 2: Which scenario BEST demonstrates a Scrum Master using a 'Teaching' stance appropriately?
- Explaining the purpose of the Sprint Retrospective to a newly formed team experiencing their first one (Correct answer)
- Telling a senior developer how to write unit tests during a Sprint
- Deciding the technical architecture for the upcoming Sprint
- Writing User Stories on behalf of the Product Owner to speed up backlog refinement
Correct answer: Explaining the purpose of the Sprint Retrospective to a newly formed team experiencing their first one
Teaching Scrum events and their purpose to new teams is an appropriate and necessary Scrum Master activity.
Question 3: The Development Team says they have no impediments at every Daily Scrum. The Scrum Master suspects this is not true. What is the BEST next step?
- Accept the team's word and focus on other organizational concerns
- Have one-on-one conversations with developers to build trust and uncover hidden obstacles (Correct answer)
- Add a mandatory 'impediment check' agenda item to every meeting
- Report the team to management for lack of transparency
Correct answer: Have one-on-one conversations with developers to build trust and uncover hidden obstacles
Individual conversations help build the trust needed for developers to feel safe sharing real impediments.
Question 4: A stakeholder insists on attending Daily Scrums and giving daily feedback to developers. The team feels disrupted. What should the Scrum Master do?
- Allow it since stakeholder engagement is always beneficial in Scrum
- Protect the team's Daily Scrum and redirect the stakeholder to the Sprint Review for feedback (Correct answer)
- Ask the Product Owner to ban the stakeholder from all Scrum events
- Schedule a separate daily meeting between the stakeholder and one developer
Correct answer: Protect the team's Daily Scrum and redirect the stakeholder to the Sprint Review for feedback
The Daily Scrum is for the Developers to inspect and adapt their plan; redirecting stakeholders to the Sprint Review maintains both focus and transparency.
Question 5: Two developers have an unresolved interpersonal conflict that is slowing Sprint progress. What is the MOST appropriate Scrum Master action?
- Decide who is right and instruct the other developer to comply
- Facilitate a private conversation between the two developers to resolve the conflict collaboratively (Correct answer)
- Separate the developers onto different Scrum Teams permanently
- Ignore it since self-organizing teams must resolve their own conflicts without help
Correct answer: Facilitate a private conversation between the two developers to resolve the conflict collaboratively
The Scrum Master facilitates conflict resolution to restore collaboration without imposing a solution.
Question 6: Which Scrum Master behavior MOST effectively builds organizational support for adopting Scrum?
- Presenting empirical data showing improved outcomes from Scrum adoption to organizational leaders (Correct answer)
- Enforcing Scrum rules strictly and penalizing teams that deviate from the framework
- Automating all reporting to reduce the burden of transparency
- Avoiding engagement with organizational leaders to maintain team independence
Correct answer: Presenting empirical data showing improved outcomes from Scrum adoption to organizational leaders
Presenting empirical outcome data persuades organizational leaders through evidence rather than authority.
Question 7: A Scrum Master notices that the Sprint Retrospective consistently produces action items that are never completed. What is the ROOT CAUSE the Scrum Master should address?
- Retrospectives are scheduled too infrequently to maintain momentum
- The team lacks accountability mechanisms or commitment to improvement actions (Correct answer)
- The Development Team is too large for retrospective action items to be tracked
- The Product Owner is assigning too much work, leaving no capacity for improvements
Correct answer: The team lacks accountability mechanisms or commitment to improvement actions
Unimplemented improvement actions indicate a commitment or accountability gap that the Scrum Master must help the team address.
Professional Scrum Master Scrum Master as Leader 3
A Scrum Master is asked by a manager to evaluate individual developer performance based on Sprint velocity.
What is the BEST response?