Pass the Scaled Agile SAFe Scrum Master SSM Questions and answers with ExamsMirror

One of the main responsibilities of a Scrum Master/Team Coach is to facilitate team events, such as Iteration Planning, Daily Stand-up, Iteration Review, and Iteration Retrospective. These events help the team to plan, execute, inspect, and adapt their work throughout the Iteration. By facilitating these events, the Scrum Master/Team Coach ensures that the team follows the Agile principles and practices, collaborates effectively, and delivers value to the customers and stakeholders.

One of the responsibilities of a Scrum Master/Team Coach is to help the team achieve flow, which is a state of continuous and sustainable delivery of value. They do this by teaching and coaching the team on SAFe Scrum and SAFe Team Kanban practices, such as limiting work in progress, visualizing work, managing queues, and reducing batch sizes. They also help identify and eliminate impediments and bottlenecks that hinder the team’s progress and performance.

One recommended practice for Scrum Masters/Team Coaches when coaching teams on presenting a draft plan at PI Planning is to align on how the team will answer questions about their proposed objectives. This practice helps the team to prepare for the feedback and input they will receive from the business owners, product management, and other teams and stakeholders during the draft plan review. The team should agree on who will present the objectives, how they will explain the business value and technical feasibility, and how they will handle any objections or concerns. The team should also rehearse their presentation and anticipate potential questions and scenarios. By aligning on how to answer questions, the team can increase their confidence and clarity, and demonstrate their commitment and alignment to the vision and goals of the ART.

One Iteration Retrospective anti-pattern is when the team only brings up issues that are outside of their control to address, such as organizational policies, external dependencies, or stakeholder expectations. This can lead to frustration, helplessness, and cynicism among the team members, as well as a loss of focus on their own improvement opportunities12 

By continuing to stay heads-down on the finalizing Feature delivery work, Team A might miss the chance to reflect on their team work more holistically and identify areas for improvement. The IP Iteration is intended to provide time for the team to participate in the Inspect and Adapt event, where they can review their PI performance, analyze the root causes of any issues, and create an improvement backlog. The IP Iteration also allows the team to engage in innovation and learning activities, such as hackathons, that can foster creativity, collaboration, and experimentation. These activities can help the team generate new ideas, solutions, and feedback that can benefit their future work. By skipping the IP Iteration, Team A might lose the opportunity to learn from their past experiences, improve their processes, and innovate their products. References: Innovation and Planning Iteration - Scaled Agile Framework, Exam Study Guide: SSM (6.0) - SAFe® Scrum Master

One anti-pattern of the Inspect and Adapt (I&A) is to have no actionable improvement Features created as a result of the problem-solving workshop. This is considered an anti-pattern because the main goal of the I&A workshop is to identify and address the systemic issues that are limiting the effectiveness of the Agile Release Train (ART). The workshop should produce one or more improvement Features that are added to the ART backlog and prioritized for the next PI Planning event. These Features should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) and aligned with the ART vision and goals. Without actionable improvement Features, the ART will miss the opportunity to learn and improve from the feedback and data collected during the PI.

One way a Scrum Master/Team Coach can support productive team Backlog Refinement sessions is to ensure subject matter experts are invited. Subject matter experts (SMEs) are people who have specialized knowledge or skills related to the domain or technical aspects of the product or solution. They can provide valuable input and feedback to the team during Backlog Refinement, such as clarifying requirements, validating assumptions, identifying dependencies, and suggesting solutions. SMEs can also help the team to split, estimate, and prioritize the backlog items more effectively and accurately. By inviting SMEs to the Backlog Refinement sessions, the Scrum Master/Team Coach can facilitate better collaboration, communication, and alignment among the team and the stakeholders.

According to the SAFe 6 Scrum Master documentation, one of the metrics that are reported at the Inspect and Adapt event is the ART predictability measure. This metric shows how well the ART delivers on its PI objectives, which are the SMART commitments made by the teams during PI planning. The ART predictability measure is calculated by dividing the total actual business value achieved by the total planned business value, as shown in the PI system demo. The ART predictability measure helps the ART to assess its performance, identify gaps, and improve its forecasting accuracy and reliability.

Lean flow is one of the elements of the CALMR approach to DevOps in SAFe. It means applying lean principles and practices to optimize the flow of value from idea to production. Lean flow accelerates delivery by eliminating waste, reducing batch sizes, implementing pull systems, limiting work in process, managing queues, reducing handoffs, and applying cadence and synchronization. Lean flow enables faster feedback, shorter lead times, higher quality, and lower costs.

One method a Scrum Master/Team Coach can use to help teams overcome a fear of conflict is to give every team member the opportunity to contribute. Fear of conflict is one of the common dysfunctions of a team, which can result in artificial harmony, lack of trust, and avoidance of issues1 To overcome this fear, the Scrum Master/Team Coach can facilitate a safe and respectful environment where team members can express their opinions, ideas, and concerns without being judged, ignored, or attacked23 Giving every team member the opportunity to contribute can help them feel valued, respected, and heard, as well as foster a culture of collaboration, feedback, and learning45 The Scrum Master/Team Coach can use various techniques to ensure equal participation, such as round-robin, fist of five, dot voting, silent brainstorming, and liberating structures45 By encouraging healthy and constructive conflict, the Scrum Master/Team Coach can help the team improve their performance, creativity, and innovation23