SAFe Scrum Master SSM 6.0 Exam Questions

50 Sample Questions

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Topic 1: Agile Development Concepts

What is the key differentiation of Agile development from Waterfall?

⬜ Architectural Runway and Incremental delivery of value
⬜ Fast Feedback and Face-to-face interaction
✅ Incremental delivery of value and Fast Feedback
⬜ Architectural Runway and Staggered Integration

What is one example of an Agile Team development practice?

⬜ Writing requirements
⬜ Tracking regulations
⬜ Visualizing effort
✅ Demoing frequently

Which statement is a value from the Agile Manifesto?

⬜ Customer collaboration over a constant indefinite pace
✅ Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
⬜ Customer collaboration over Feature negotiation
⬜ Customer collaboration over ongoing internal conversation

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Topic 2: Scrum Basics

Which statement is true about Scrum?

⬜ It is a methodology for collecting requirements
✅ It is a Team-based Agile Framework
⬜ It is a Lean Portfolio management technique
⬜ It is a set of development practices

Which SAFe Core Value includes “use common terminology” and “understand your customer”?

✅ Alignment
⬜ Respect for People
⬜ Relentless Improvement
⬜ Transparency

Which of the following correctly matches equivalent terms in SAFe and Scrum?

⬜ Product Increment (Scrum) = Planning Interval (SAFe)
✅ Sprint (Scrum) = Iteration (SAFe)
⬜ Scrum Master (Scrum) = Release Train Engineer (SAFe)
⬜ Product Owner (Scrum) = Epic Owner (SAFe)

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Topic 3: Agile Teams in a SAFe Enterprise

What is one way to describe a cross-functional Agile Team?

⬜ They release customer products to production continuously
⬜ They deliver value every 6 weeks
✅ They are optimized for communication and delivery of value
⬜ They are made up of individuals, each of whom can define, develop, test, and deploy the system

Product Management has content authority over the Program Backlog. What do Product Owners have content authority over?

⬜ Value Streams
⬜ Portfolio Backlog
⬜ Portfolio Vision
✅ Team Backlog

According to Patrick Lencioni’s “Five Dysfunctions of a Team”, which issue most often leads to Team Dysfunctions?

✅ Absence of Trust
⬜ Fear of Conflict
⬜ Lack of Commitment
⬜ Avoidance of Accountability

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Topic 4: High-performing team characteristics

Scrum master’s responsibility is to prevent which trait from a high-performing team?

⬜ Self Organizing
⬜ Value Diversity
⬜ Mutual Trust
✅ Competition

Team A works collaboratively on new functionality for a customer application. The acceptance criteria have each been minimally met. Team A decides to release the functionality with a method for collecting direct customer feedback. Which of the following high-performing team characteristics is Team A demonstrating?

✅ Focusing on success over trying to avoid failures
⬜ Taking appropriate risks without fear of failure
⬜ Using regular Feedback Loops built into the learning cycle
⬜ Balancing abilities on the Team with the challenge of the work

During which of the following stages of team development do team members stop focusing on their own goals and begin focusing on developing better ways of working together?

⬜ Performing
✅ Norming
⬜ Storming
⬜ Forming

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Topic 5: DevOps and Release on Demand

What best describes the DevOps?

⬜ A high-performing DevOps Team
⬜ Combine Deployment and Releases
⬜ Strong organizational structure
✅ A culture, a mindset and a set of technical practices

How does the “C” in the CALMR approach to DevOps help teams manage tensions caused by differing needs?

⬜ By establishing communication between different teams
✅ By creating a culture of shared responsibility
⬜ By committing to a balance of speed and quality
⬜ By identifying a collaborative approach to deployment

Why is it important to decouple deployment from release?

⬜ To remove the need to respond quickly to production issues
⬜ To allow inspection of Agile maturity based on different cycle times
⬜ To make deploying of assets a business decision
✅ To enable releasing functionality on demand to meet business needs

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Topic 6: Scrum Master / Team Coach characteristics

The Scrum Master is what above all else? (Choose two.)

✅ A Servant Leader
✅ A Team Coach
⬜ A SAFe Agilist
⬜ A Lean-Agile Leader

What is one trait of a servant leader?

⬜ Determines the day-to-day activities for the team
⬜ Solves problems on behalf of the team
⬜ Deflects information that could change the team’s work
✅ Persuades rather than using authority

According to SAFe, which of the following key traits of effective Scrum Masters/Team Coaches is crucial for team members to accept coaching?

⬜ Optimism
✅ Empathy
⬜ Fairness
⬜ Agreeableness

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Topic 7: Scrum Master / Team Coach responsibilities

What is one responsibility of a Scrum Master/Team Coach in an Agile Team?

⬜ Prioritizing the backlog
⬜ Testing the system
⬜ Demoing the system
✅ Improving flow

The Scrum Master facilitates which three events in SAFe? (Choose three.)

⬜ System Demo
✅ Retrospective
✅ Daily stand-up
⬜ Scrum of Scrums
✅ Iteration Planning
⬜ LPM Backlog Refinement

What is one way SAFe suggests Scrum Masters/Team Coaches support productive team Backlog Refinement?

⬜ Manage the meeting so that team members can pair with one another
✅ Schedule the meeting on a predictable cadence
⬜ Advocate for the meeting to be held twice per iteration
⬜ Begin the meeting by reviewing Story estimates

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Topic 8: Iteration Basics

What is a Team’s primary goal in an Iteration?

⬜ Sharing progress with the organization during the Iteration
⬜ Managing scope at the start of the Iteration
⬜ Maintaining steady Team Syncs across the Iteration
✅ Delivering working functionality at the end of the Iteration

What is one potential root cause of Team Sync anti-patterns?

⬜ Overcommunication between team members
⬜ Occasional conflict within the team
✅ Lack of collective ownership
⬜ Frequent verification and integration during the Iteration

According to SAFe, which of the following types of work should fit into one Iteration for one team?

⬜ Epics
⬜ Tasks
⬜ Features
✅ Stories

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Topic 9: Iteration Planning

What is the primary purpose of Iteration Planning in SAFe?

⬜ To assign tasks to individual team members
⬜ To define detailed design specifications for features
✅ To define and commit to a set of stories that can be completed in the iteration
⬜ To create the architectural runway for the iteration

During which of the following Agile Team events do team members estimate relative story sizes?

⬜ Backlog Refinement
⬜ Iteration Review
✅ Iteration Planning
⬜ Iteration Retrospective

Who commits to the Iteration goals at the end of Iteration Planning?

⬜ Product Owner
⬜ Scrum Master
✅ Agile Team
⬜ Business Owner

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Topic 10: Backlog Refinement

What is the primary purpose of backlog refinement in SAFe?

⬜ To assign tasks to individual team members
✅ To define, discuss, estimate, and establish acceptance criteria for upcoming backlog items
⬜ To prioritize the backlog items based on business value
⬜ To review the outcomes of the previous iteration

What is the intended value of the Backlog Refinement Event?

⬜ The Team aligns on the progress of Iteration Goals
⬜ The Team reviews and improves processes before the next Iteration
⬜ The Team is able to commit to a set of goals to be delivered in the Iteration
✅ The Team is able to prepare requirements for Iteration Planning

Which of the following statements is true about the team backlog?

⬜ The team backlog is where stories are reviewed
⬜ The team backlog is where the team commits to work
✅ The team backlog is where the team refines possible stories
⬜ The team backlog is where the team finalizes work

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Topic 11: Iteration Review

During Iteration Review, what is one activity performed by an Agile Team?

⬜ Identify opportunities for improvement
⬜ Gather Features requirements from stakeholders
✅ Demonstrate a working, tested team increment
⬜ Modify Iteration Goals

The team has struggled in this Iteration to meet their goals, so they want to cancel the Iteration Review. Which risk is introduced by cancelling the Iteration Review?

✅ The Team is unable to incorporate Feedback during the next Iteration Planning
⬜ The Team does not know when the prior Iteration ends and the next Iteration begins
⬜ The Team can’t accept work as complete
⬜ The Team can’t improve their internal processes

What is one way to ensure a team is holding successful Iteration Reviews and demos?

✅ The team demos working functionality
⬜ The team swarms to prepare for demos
⬜ The team shares improving metrics
⬜ The team ensures they complete every Story

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Topic 12: Iteration Retrospective

What is the primary purpose of the Iteration Retrospective in SAFe?

⬜ To demonstrate the working increment to stakeholders
✅ To review the iteration’s results, discuss practices, and identify improvement opportunities
⬜ To evaluate the team performance metrics
⬜ To assess individual team member performance

According to SAFe, what is one output of a successful Iteration Retrospective?

⬜ Updated ART metrics
✅ Improvement Stories
⬜ Updated dependencies between stories
⬜ Iteration Goals

According to SAFe, what is one Iteration Retrospective anti-pattern?

⬜ The Team only shares issues that are too small to result in real improvement
⬜ The Team only shares issues that are too big to be solved
✅ The Team only brings up issues that are outside of team’s control to address
⬜ The Team only shares issues that can’t be measured

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Topic 13: Agile Release Train (ART)

The Agile Release Train uses which type of teams to get work done?

⬜ Solution teams
⬜ Phased-review-process teams
⬜ Management teams
✅ Cross-functional teams

What are two of the Agile Release Train (ART) Sync meetings? (Choose two.)

✅ PO Sync
⬜ System Demo
⬜ Solution Demo
✅ Coach Sync
⬜ Inspect and Adapt

Which role serves as a servant leader for the Agile Release Train?

⬜ Business Owner
✅ Release Train Engineer
⬜ Agile Coach
⬜ Scrum Master

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Topic 14: PI Planning

What is the example of applying cadence and synchronization in SAFe?

⬜ Creating cross-functional ARTs and Agile teams
⬜ Allocating budgets to Value Streams
⬜ Using a Portfolio Kanban system
✅ Conducting a PI Planning event

A successful PI planning event delivers which primary outputs? (Choose two.)

⬜ Roadmap and Vision
⬜ Business Context
✅ Committed PI objectives
✅ ART planning board
⬜ Scope

The ART Planning board shows which two items? (Choose two.)

⬜ Epics
⬜ Capacity and Load
✅ Features
✅ Significant Dependencies
⬜ Risks

On day two of PI Planning, adjustments are made by the group based on the previous day’s management review and problem-solving meeting. What are three possible types of changes? (Choose three.)

✅ Adjustment to PI Objectives
⬜ User Stories
⬜ Planning requirements reset
✅ Movement of people
✅ Changes to scope

A confidence vote is taken at the end of PI Planning after dependencies are resolved and risks are addressed. What best describes the process of the confidence vote?

⬜ Each person votes
⬜ The managers vote
✅ The teams and the ARTs vote
⬜ The business owners vote

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Topic 15: IP Iteration

What is one benefit of having an IP Iteration every PI?

⬜ It creates a timeboxed opportunity for team growth
✅ It creates an estimating buffer for meeting PI objectives
⬜ It creates a guardrail for teams working too hard
⬜ It creates a chance for teams to manage quality

Team A has decided to use the IP Iteration to continue the finalizing Feature delivery work they have been working on for the past two Iterations. What is one effect Team might experience by continuing to stay heads-down rather than using the IP Iteration as intended?

✅ Individual Team members could lose an opportunity to consider their Team work more holistically
⬜ Individual Team members could lose an opportunity to refresh their motivation
⬜ Individual Team members could lose an opportunity to learn from one another
⬜ Individual Team members could lose an opportunity to keep their technical skills updated

Team A wants to use the IP Iteration to continue their ‘usual work.’ What is one benefit the Scrum Master/Team Coach could share with the Team about using the IP Iteration as intended?

⬜ The team can consider additional retrospective action items
⬜ The team can perform needed system maintenance
✅ The team can participate in hackathons
⬜ The team can find time to participate in ad hoc groups

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Topic 16: Inspect and Adapt (I&A)

What is the primary purpose of the Inspect and Adapt (I&A) event in SAFe?

⬜ To finalize all pending features before release
✅ To demonstrate the current state of the solution and identify improvement backlog items
⬜ To conduct team-building activities
⬜ To reassign team roles and responsibilities

What is one anti-pattern of the Inspect and Adapt?

⬜ Too many ideas enter the problem-solving workshop
⬜ Not enough Team members attend the PI System Demo
⬜ Only one problem is identified by each Team in the retrospective
✅ No actionable improvement Features are created

What is the first step of the problem-solving workshop in the Inspect and Adapt event?

⬜ Restate the new problem for the biggest root cause
⬜ Identify the biggest root cause
⬜ Perform a root-cause analysis
✅ Agree on the problem(s) to solve