SSM SSM (6.0) - SAFe Scrum Master Practice 6.0 Questions and Answers

Without DevOps, organizations often face significant disconnects between development and operations teams. In traditional setups, developers build the software and then “hand it off” to operations teams for deployment and maintenance. This siloed approach creates delays, quality issues, and feedback gaps.

DevOps bridges this divide by integrating development and operations into a continuous delivery pipeline that promotes automation, collaboration, and shared responsibility for outcomes. SAFe emphasizes DevOps as a key enabler of the Continuous Delivery Pipeline, ensuring faster delivery of value, higher quality, and improved customer satisfaction.

From SAFe guidance:

“Without DevOps, organizations experience challenges between teams that build solutions and those who operate them. DevOps practices close this gap, fostering collaboration and accelerating the flow of value.”

Therefore, the correct answer is B. Challenges between teams that build Solutions and those who operate the Solutions.

One of the best practices Scrum Masters/Team Coaches can use to run successful meetings is to leave meetings with clear action items. Action items are specific tasks that need to be done by a certain person or group by a certain deadline. They help the team to follow up on the outcomes of the meeting, track progress, and ensure accountability. Action items should be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Scrum Masters/Team Coaches should document and communicate the action items to the team and stakeholders, and review them in the next meeting.

During PI Planning, teams are expected to create draft PI Objectives that summarize the business value they intend to deliver. However, a common anti-pattern occurs when teams spend too much time analyzing each Story instead of focusing on higher-level outcomes.

The goal of draft objectives is to express intent, alignment, and expected value—not to finalize every technical detail or task. Over-analyzing individual stories during PI Planning slows progress, distracts from collaboration with other teams, and limits the time available for identifying dependencies and risks.

From SAFe guidance:

“Teams should avoid excessive analysis of stories during PI Planning. The focus should be on creating draft objectives that align with business value and ART goals.”

Thus, the correct answer is A. Too much time is spent analyzing each Story, as it prevents the team from maintaining the right level of planning abstraction.

The Inspect and Adapt (I&A) event is a crucial part of the Program Increment (PI) cycle in SAFe®, held at the end of every PI. It provides a structured opportunity for the Agile Release Train (ART) to reflect, assess results, and drive relentless improvement.

According to SAFe, the I&A event consists of three distinct parts:

PI System Demo – A combined demonstration of all teams’ completed features during the PI to show the integrated solution’s current state.

Quantitative and Qualitative Measurement – Teams review performance metrics and gather stakeholder feedback to assess progress toward business objectives.

Problem-Solving Workshop – The ART collectively identifies systemic issues and applies root cause analysis techniques to create actionable improvement items.

From SAFe guidance:

“The Inspect and Adapt event consists of a PI System Demo, quantitative and qualitative measurement, and a problem-solving workshop.”

Thus, the correct answer is C. PI System Demo, qualitative and quantitative measurement, and problem-solving workshop.

The “C” in the CALMR approach to DevOps stands for culture, which is the foundation of successful DevOps adoption. Culture refers to the values, beliefs, and behaviors that guide the collaboration and alignment of everyone in the value stream. By creating a culture of shared responsibility, teams can manage the tensions caused by differing needs, such as speed, quality, security, and stability. A culture of shared responsibility means that everyone is accountable for the outcomes of their work, and that they work together to deliver value to the customers. It also means that teams respect each other’s roles and expertise, and seek feedback and learning opportunities. A culture of shared responsibility fosters trust, transparency, and continuous improvement, which are essential for DevOps.

An essential coaching technique for Scrum Masters/Team Coaches in SAFe® is asking powerful questions. Instead of providing direct solutions, effective Scrum Masters guide the team toward self-discovery and collaborative problem-solving.

Powerful questions are open-ended, thought-provoking inquiries that stimulate deeper reflection and creative thinking. This approach aligns with the servant-leader mindset, enabling team members to take ownership of their challenges and develop collective accountability.

Examples include:

“What options have we not yet considered?”

“What’s the smallest next step we could take?”

“What’s blocking our progress, and how might we remove it together?”

From SAFe guidance:

“Scrum Masters and Team Coaches enable teams to find their own solutions by asking powerful questions rather than providing answers. This encourages collaboration and fosters a culture of continuous learning.”

Therefore, the correct answer is A. Asking powerful questions, as it directly supports self-management and team empowerment.

In SAFe®, the Coach Sync (also known as the Scrum of Scrums or SM/TC Sync) is a coordination event for Scrum Masters and Team Coaches within an Agile Release Train (ART). The main purpose of this event is to gain visibility into team progress, discuss impediments, and ensure cross-team alignment.

Facilitated by the Release Train Engineer (RTE), the Coach Sync promotes transparency across the ART by allowing Scrum Masters to share information about iteration status, dependencies, and challenges that may affect other teams. It also serves as a forum for escalating ART-level impediments.

From SAFe guidance:

“The Coach Sync provides Scrum Masters and Team Coaches with visibility into progress and dependencies across teams and enables them to coordinate and remove impediments at the ART level.”

Thus, the correct answer is C. To gain visibility into progress, as this captures the event’s primary purpose.

The CALMR approach to DevOps in SAFe® stands for Culture, Automation, Lean Flow, Measurement, and Recovery. It represents the foundational mindset required to achieve continuous delivery and operational excellence.

The “C” in CALMR stands for Culture, which emphasizes building a culture of shared responsibility between development, operations, and business teams. This shared responsibility ensures alignment, collaboration, and a collective focus on delivering value rather than working in silos.

From SAFe guidance:

“DevOps is founded on a culture of shared responsibility for the delivery of value, encouraging collaboration across all roles and reducing handoffs.”

Therefore, the correct answer is B. Create a culture of shared responsibility, as it reflects the first and most essential principle of the CALMR approach.

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.

PI Planning is one of the events that aligns teams on a train. PI Planning is a cadence-based event for the entire Agile Release Train (ART) that aligns teams and stakeholders to a shared mission and vision. PI Planning provides an opportunity for the ART to review the business context and priorities, identify and resolve dependencies and risks, and commit to a realistic and achievable plan for the next Program Increment (PI). PI Planning is essential to SAFe: If you are not doing it, you are not doing SAFe1 

According to SAFe, one output of a successful Iteration Retrospective is the creation of a few improvement Stories that enter the Team Backlog for the next iteration. These stories reflect the team’s agreement on what they can do better in terms of their process, practices, and performance. The improvement stories are visible and prioritized along with the other stories in the backlog. They help the team implement the concept of relentless improvement, which is one of the core values of SAFe.

According to SAFe, empathy is one of the key traits of effective Scrum Masters/Team Coaches. Empathy means displaying an authentic understanding and concern for a team member’s beliefs or feelings. By being empathetic, Scrum Masters/Team Coaches can build trust and rapport with the team, which are essential for people to accept and welcome coaching. Empathy also helps Scrum Masters/Team Coaches to tailor their coaching style and approach to the needs and preferences of each team member.

A safe environment for taking risks without fear of embarrassment or criticism is one of the characteristics of a high-performing Agile Team. A high-performing Agile Team is a cross-functional group of people that have everything, and everyone, necessary to produce a working, tested increment of product1 They are empowered, collaborative, aligned, and committed to delivering value to the customers and the organization2 One of the factors that enable a high-performing Agile Team is a safe environment where team members can experiment, learn, and grow without fear of failure, blame, or judgment3 A safe environment fosters a culture of innovation, creativity, and continuous improvement, as well as a sense of psychological safety, trust, and belonging among team members4 Team C is demonstrating this characteristic by creating a new workflow to speed up the testing process, even though it did not work out as expected. The rest of the team was excited to hear what was learned from the failed experiment, rather than being disappointed or critical. This shows that the team values learning over perfection, and supports each other in taking risks and trying new things.

In SAFe®, the team backlog is the source of work for the Agile Team and includes all the user stories, enablers, and defects that represent potential upcoming work. It is owned and managed by the team, often guided by the Product Owner, who ensures the backlog remains prioritized and ready for iteration planning.

A crucial ongoing activity related to the backlog is refinement (or backlog refinement)—the process of reviewing, clarifying, and breaking down backlog items into smaller, well-understood Stories that are ready for implementation. During this activity, the team collaborates to ensure backlog items have sufficient detail, appropriate acceptance criteria, and relative sizing estimates.

From SAFe guidance:

“The team backlog is the source for stories, enablers, and defects planned in iterations. Teams continuously refine the backlog to ensure upcoming work is well understood and ready for planning.”

Therefore, the correct answer is C. The team backlog is where the team refines possible Stories.

According to the SAFe 6 Scrum Master documentation, one of the important attendees to the PI System Demo is the Business Owners. Business Owners are a small group of stakeholders who have the primary business and technical responsibility for governance, compliance, and return on investment (ROI) for a Solution developed by an Agile Release Train (ART). They are key stakeholders on the ART who must evaluate fitness for use and actively participate in certain ART events. The PI System Demo provides them an opportunity to see the integrated view of new features delivered by the ART, give feedback, and influence the future direction of the solution.

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 traits of a servant leader is to persuade rather than use authority. This means that the servant leader influences others by appealing to their values, beliefs, and interests, rather than by imposing their own will or position. By persuading rather than using authority, the servant leader fosters a culture of collaboration, empowerment, and trust, where team members are more likely to accept and welcome coaching, feedback, and change. Persuasion also helps the servant leader to align the team with the organization’s vision, mission, and goals, and to create a shared understanding of the purpose and value of the work.

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.

The Innovation and Planning (IP) Iteration is a key element in SAFe®’s Program Increment (PI) cadence. It provides dedicated time for innovation, exploration, education, and infrastructure improvements, as well as PI planning and inspect-and-adapt activities.

When teams attempt to use the IP Iteration for their “usual work,” they miss opportunities for reflection, learning, and systemic improvement. Using it as intended promotes relentless improvement and allows teams to invest in long-term value creation.

From SAFe guidance:

“The IP Iteration provides teams with time to innovate, improve infrastructure, and plan for the next PI. It ensures a sustainable pace and supports continuous improvement.”

Therefore, the correct answer is A. There will be time for infrastructure improvements, as this is one of the primary intended uses of the IP Iteration.

Respect is one of the five Scrum values that can help Agile Teams create transparency. Respect means that team members value each other’s opinions, skills, and contributions, and treat each other with dignity and professionalism. Respect also means that team members are honest and open with each other, and share information and feedback without hiding or withholding anything. By respecting each other, Agile Teams can foster a culture of trust and collaboration, where everyone feels comfortable to express their ideas, concerns, and issues, and work together to solve them. Transparency is essential for Agile Teams to inspect and adapt their work, and to align their actions with the vision and goals of the organization.

According to the SAFe® (Scaled Agile Framework) guidelines, an effective Scrum Master or Team Coach (SM/TC) exhibits several key traits that enable them to support Agile Teams effectively. One of the most emphasized characteristics is the ability to navigate conflict constructively.

A "conflict navigator" refers to someone who helps the team identify and work through disagreements in a productive way. Rather than avoiding or suppressing conflict, a skilled Scrum Master uses it as an opportunity to surface issues, enhance team learning, and drive continuous improvement. This aligns with the servant-leadership stance encouraged both in SAFe and the Scrum Guide.

While traits like being charismatic or ambitious may be personally beneficial, they are not explicitly listed in SAFe or Scrum literature as core attributes for Scrum Masters. Similarly, competitiveness could actually contradict the collaborative, team-focused nature of Agile frameworks.

From the SAFe® Scrum Master role description:

“Effective Scrum Masters are servant leaders who display characteristics such as active listening, empathy, persuasion, and conflict facilitation.”

This highlights the importance of conflict facilitation, making “Conflict navigator” the correct answer.

For full reference, see:

???? SAFe Scrum Master Role – Scaled Agile Framework

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.

One example of Scrum Masters/Team Coaches helping without diminishing the commitment of others is facilitating necessary meetings for the team. Facilitating means providing guidance and support to the team in conducting effective and productive meetings, such as Iteration Planning, Daily Stand-up, Iteration Review, and Iteration Retrospective1 Facilitating does not mean taking over the meeting or making decisions for the team. Rather, it means creating a safe and respectful environment, ensuring clear and shared objectives, encouraging participation and collaboration, managing time and agenda, resolving conflicts and issues, and summarizing outcomes and action items23 By facilitating necessary meetings for the team, Scrum Masters/Team Coaches help the team to achieve their goals, improve their processes, and deliver value to the customers and the organization14 At the same time, they respect and empower the team’s autonomy, self-organization, and self-management, and do not interfere with their commitment or accountability14