Pass the Scrum Advanced Scrum Master SAFe-SASM Questions and answers with CertsForce

Relentless Improvement:This principle is a cornerstone of Agile and SAFe. It encourages teams to continuously seek ways to improve their processes, quality, and performance.

Scrum Master Role:The Scrum Master supports the team by fostering a culture of continuous improvement. This involves facilitating retrospectives, encouraging experimentation, and helping the team reflect on their practices and outcomes.

Taking Responsibility:By promoting relentless improvement, the Scrum Master helps the team take ownership of their actions and outcomes, driving self-management and accountability.

SAFe Scrum Master References:

SAFe emphasizes the role of the Scrum Master in supporting continuous improvement initiatives and helping teams develop a mindset of ongoing learning and development.

Creating a buffer state between two states in a Kanban board can help regulate the flow of work and address the varying completion times.

Buffer State Purpose:Acts as a holding area to balance the flow between different stages of work, smoothing out variances in completion times.

Flow Regulation:Ensures that work can continue smoothly without bottlenecks or idle times.

Work In Progress (WIP) Limits:Helps maintain a steady flow by preventing too much work from accumulating in any one state.

This approach aligns with Lean principles of managing flow and reducing variability in processes.

SAFe Scrum Master References:

SAFe Advanced Scrum Master Training Material, Chapter on Kanban Systems​​.

Large stories, often referred to as "epics," pose a challenge to iterative development because they encompass too much work to be completed within a single iteration. This contradicts the principles of Agile, which emphasize small, incremental deliveries to ensure continuous progress and feedback. By breaking down large stories into smaller, more manageable pieces, teams can better align with iterative development practices, allowing for more frequent delivery of value, better risk management, and easier progress tracking.

The Portfolio Backlog in SAFe contains the larger initiatives, known as Epics. Epics are substantial pieces of work that require analysis, investment, and development effort over multiple Program Increments (PIs). They represent significant business or technical needs that drive the long-term strategy of the organization. These Epics are prioritized and managed in the Portfolio Backlog, where they can be decomposed into smaller, actionable items as they progress through the development process.

Collaboration with System Architects and the Systems Team is likely to have the greatest impact on Solution development during PI Planning. This is the time when teams plan their work for the upcoming Program Increment, and involving System Architects and the Systems Team can ensure that architectural considerations, dependencies, and technical requirements are properly addressed. Their input helps align the technical direction with business goals, identify potential risks, and plan for the necessary enablers and infrastructure needed to support the development efforts.

SAFe Scrum Master References

SAFe PI Planning guidelines

SAFe 5.0 framework: roles of System Architects and Systems Teams in PI Planning

In a Kanban system, average lead time is measured by observing the horizontal distance between the arrival and departure lines on a cumulative flow diagram (CFD). The CFD visualizes the flow of work items through various stages of the workflow. The horizontal distance between thepoints where work items enter and leave a particular stage represents the lead time. By calculating this distance over multiple items, teams can determine the average lead time, providing insights into process efficiency and areas for potential improvement.

Cadence:Refers to a regular, predictable schedule that sets the rhythm for the team or ART (Agile Release Train) activities. It helps in aligning planning, development, and delivery cycles.

Synchronization:Ensures that multiple teams or ARTs work together in harmony, aligning their schedules, dependencies, and delivery efforts.

Benefit Explanation:Having both cadence and synchronization means that all teams within the ART are working in a coordinated manner, iterating together. This alignment ensures that dependencies are managed, integration happens regularly, and the system evolves cohesively.

SAFe Scrum Master References:

SAFe promotes cadence and synchronization to manage complex dependencies and ensure that all parts of the system evolve together, enhancing overall system integrity and quality.

Centralized decision-making is appropriate in scenarios where consolidating decisions can lead to significant economies of scale, which involves:

Economies of Scale:These are cost advantages reaped by companies when production becomes efficient. This can happen through increased production, lower costs per unit, bulk purchasing, and centralized processes.

Consistency and Control:Centralized decisions ensure consistency across large-scale operations and can help in maintaining standards and controls, reducing duplication of effort, and leveraging bulk purchasing power.

In contrast, decentralized decision-making is more suitable for decisions requiring specific local context or those that need to be made frequently and swiftly.

SAFe Scrum Master References:

SAFe Advanced Scrum Master Training Material, Chapter on Decision-Making Frameworks​​.

In SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework), lead time is an essential metric used to measure the efficiency and effectiveness of a process. Lead time is defined as the total time it takes for a work item to move through the entire process from the moment it is initiated until it is completed. To measure lead time accurately using a Team Kanban board, two specific timestamps are crucial:

When the Agile Team pulls a Story onto the board (Timestamp C):

This is the starting point of the lead time. It marks the moment when the team commits to working on a particular story by pulling it into the workflow. This action indicates that the story is now in progress and the clock starts ticking from this point.

When the Story is accepted by the Product Owner (Timestamp D):

This is the endpoint of the lead time. It signifies that the story has been completed to the satisfaction of the team and has met the acceptance criteria defined by the Product Owner. When the Product Owner accepts the story, it indicates that the work is done and the lead time measurement stops.

These two timestamps effectively capture the duration a story takes to go through the development process, providing valuable insights into process efficiency and identifying areas for improvement.

SAFe Scrum Master References

SAFe Advanced Scrum Master learning materials

SAFe 5.0 Scrum Master Certification resources

The 2020 Scrum Guide:Scrum Guide 2020

This information aligns with the principles and practices outlined in the SAFe framework and the Scrum Guide, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of lead time measurement within a Team Kanban board context.

Agile Team Composition:According to SAFe, an Agile Team is composed of cross-functional members who work together to deliver value. The team includes:

Scrum Master:Facilitates the team’s processes, helps remove impediments, and supports continuous improvement.

Product Owner:Represents the customer and stakeholders, prioritizes the backlog, and ensures the team is working on the most valuable items.

Developers:The team members who design, build, and test the product.

Key Role:The Product Owner is essential to the Agile Team as they provide the vision, set priorities, and ensure that the team is delivering value that aligns with the customer and business needs.

SAFe Scrum Master References:

The SAFe framework emphasizes the critical role of the Product Owner within the Agile Team, ensuring alignment and effective backlog management.