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

The Team Sync (or Daily Stand-up) in SAFe® is a short, focused, timeboxed event that allows the team to align on progress toward iteration goals, identify impediments, and plan the next 24 hours.

The meeting promotes transparency and collaboration, ensuring that all team members are aware of progress and issues that could affect delivery. It also reinforces self-management by allowing the team to adapt plans daily based on new information.

From SAFe guidance:

“The Team Sync allows team members to align on progress toward iteration goals, discuss impediments, and adjust their plans to stay on track.”

Thus, the correct answer is A. The team aligns on the progress of Iteration Goals, as it captures the event’s primary intent.

In SAFe®, Iteration Planning is the event where the team determines how much work they can commit to for the upcoming iteration and aligns on the iteration goal. The recommended first step of Iteration Planning is to establish team capacity.

By identifying the available capacity (in person-days or story points) considering holidays, time off, or other commitments, the team ensures realistic planning and avoids overcommitment. This forms the foundation for selecting appropriate backlog items that fit within available capacity.

From SAFe guidance:

“Iteration Planning starts with establishing the team’s capacity for the upcoming iteration. This ensures that the team commits to a realistic amount of work based on their availability.”

Therefore, the correct answer is D. Establish capacity, as it is the first and most critical step in effective iteration planning.

According to the SAFe 6 Scrum Master documentation, the type of work that should fit into one Iteration for one team is a Story. A Story is a short description of a small piece of functionality that provides value to the customer or stakeholder. Stories are derived from Features, which are larger units of value that typically span multiple Iterations. Stories are also decomposed into Tasks, which are the specific activities that the team members perform to implement the Story. Stories are the primary backlog items that the team plans, estimates, and delivers in an Iteration. They are also the basis for defining and committing to the Iteration goals. Stories should be small enough to be completed within one Iteration, and they should meet the definition of ready and the definition of done.

According to the SAFe 6 Scrum Master documentation, one of the elements on the Scrum Master/Team Coach responsibility wheel is to facilitate PI Planning. PI Planning is a two-day event where all the teams and stakeholders of an Agile Release Train (ART) collaborate to align on a common vision, define and commit to the PI objectives, and identify and manage risks and dependencies. The Scrum Master/Team Coach facilitates PI Planning by 1:

Helping the team prepare for the event, such as reviewing the business context, vision, and backlog, and creating draft plans

Supporting the team during the event, such as facilitating breakout sessions, resolving issues, and ensuring alignment and collaboration with other teams

Assisting the team after the event, such as finalizing the plans, updating the PI board, and conducting a retrospective

Facilitating PI Planning is one of the ways the Scrum Master/Team Coach helps the team and the ART achieve their goals and deliver value.

In the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe®), sustainable pace and predictable delivery are essential for high-performing Agile teams. An important signal that a team may be overcommitting to work is when team members begin pulling in work from future Iterations before completing the committed iteration backlog.

This behavior is an anti-pattern because it disrupts the cadence and predictability of the Agile Release Train (ART). It also undermines flow and focus, spreading the team’s effort too thin across multiple iterations and reducing quality. Overcommitting leads to burnout, missed commitments, and lower morale, which negatively affect the team’s long-term velocity and dependability.

According to SAFe:

“Teams should plan only as much work as they can complete within the iteration based on historical velocity and available capacity. Pulling work from future iterations indicates overcommitment or lack of focus on the planned goals.”

Therefore, C. Team members are pulling in work from future Iterations is the correct answer—it’s a clear symptom of overcommitment and poor iteration discipline.

One example of an Agile Team development practice is to demo working functionality frequently to the product owner and other stakeholders. This practice helps the team to get fast feedback, validate their assumptions, and ensure that they are delivering value that meets the customer needs and expectations. Demoing frequently also helps the team to improve the quality of their work, as they have to ensure that the functionality is tested and meets the definition of done before showing it to others. Demoing frequently is part of the SAFe Scrum and SAFe Team Kanban practices, and is done at the end of each iteration in the Iteration Review event.

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 way uncommitted objectives help Agile Teams make a plan for the PI is that they maintain the predictability of achieving the objectives. Uncommitted objectives are PI objectives that are not included in the team’s commitment or counted against teams in the ART predictability measure. They are used to identify work that can be variable within the scope of a PI, such as stretch goals, spikes, innovation, or exploration1 Uncommitted objectives help improve the predictability of delivering business value since they allow the team to adjust their scope based on the actual progress and feedback during the PI. They also provide the team with some flexibility and capacity to respond to changing needs and expectations, as well as to pursue learning and improvement opportunities12 

One anti-pattern that emerges when teams do not spend enough time refining the backlog is that they enter new Iterations without enough Stories prepared. This can result in several negative consequences, such as: 123

The team may struggle to plan and commit to the Iteration Goals, as they lack clarity, feasibility, and testability of the Stories.

The team may face delays, rework, and waste, as they encounter unanticipated dependencies, risks, or technical issues during the Iteration.

The team may deliver low-quality or incomplete Stories, as they rush to meet the Iteration deadlines or compromise on the Definition of Done.

The team may lose focus, alignment, and motivation, as they work on ambiguous or unrealistic Stories that do not deliver value to the customers or the organization.

To avoid this anti-pattern, the team should dedicate sufficient time and effort to refine the backlog on a regular basis, preferably every Iteration123 Backlog Refinement is an ongoing process where the team collaborates with the Product Owner and other stakeholders to review, split, prioritize, and estimate the Stories in the Team Backlog4 One of the main objectives of Backlog Refinement is to ensure that the Stories are ready for Iteration Planning, which means they are clear, feasible, testable, and small enough to be completed in a single Iteration2 By doing so, the team can improve the quality, efficiency, and effectiveness of their work, as well as deliver value to the customers and the organization

The Coach Sync (sometimes referred to as the Scrum of Scrums or SM/TC Sync) is a coordination event within SAFe® where Scrum Masters and Team Coaches from the Agile Release Train (ART) meet to discuss progress, dependencies, and impediments that affect multiple teams.

This event provides a forum for escalating and addressing ART-level impediments that cannot be resolved within a single team. The RTE (Release Train Engineer) typically facilitates this meeting to ensure transparency and problem-solving across teams.

From SAFe guidance:

“The Coach Sync allows Scrum Masters and Team Coaches to discuss cross-team progress and impediments, escalating those that require ART-level visibility or resolution.”

Therefore, the correct answer is C. Coach Sync. This event enables effective synchronization among teams and promotes continuous improvement across the ART.