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

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.

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.

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.

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 purpose of iteration goals is to align team members to a common purpose and vision. Iteration goals are a high-level summary of the business and technical goals that an Agile Team agrees to accomplish in an iteration. They help the team and the product owner to reach agreement on the business value they intend to deliver, align their work to their team PI objectives, and ground everyone on their shared purpose. Iteration goals also provide transparency and management information, as well as support the coordination and dependency management of the Agile Release Train (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 

One benefit of holding regular system demos is that execution can be measured across the whole ART. A system demo is a significant event that provides an integrated view of new Features for the most recent Iteration delivered by all the teams in the Agile Release Train (ART). Each demo gives ART stakeholders an objective measure of progress during a Program Increment (PI). The system demo offers the ART a fact-based measure of current, system-level progress within the PI. It’s the true measure of ART velocity and progress. Achieving this requires implementing the scalable engineering practices necessary to support Continuous Integration across the ART. By holding regular system demos, the ART can evaluate the quality, functionality, and usability of the solution, as well as identify and resolve any issues, risks, or dependencies. The system demo also provides an opportunity for feedback and learning from the customers, Business Owners, and other stakeholders, which can help the ART to align with the vision and goals, and to adapt to changing needs and expectations.

Backlog Refinement is the Agile Team event where team members estimate relative story sizes. 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 Backlog1 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 To achieve this, the team uses relative story sizing, which is a technique to compare the effort, complexity, and uncertainty of different stories based on a common reference point3 Relative story sizing helps the team to create a consistent and shared understanding of the scope and value of the work, as well as to optimize the flow and predictability of the delivery process4 The team can use various methods to estimate relative story sizes, such as story points, T-shirt sizes, or Fibonacci numbers35 

The primary goal of a team in an Iteration is to deliver working functionality that meets the acceptance criteria and the definition of done. This functionality is demonstrated to the stakeholders and customers in the Iteration Review and Demo event, where the team receives feedback and validation. By delivering working functionality at the end of the Iteration, the team contributes to the Incremental value delivery, one of the SAFe Lean-Agile Principles.

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.

According to the SAFe 6 Scrum Master documentation, one of the ways a servant leader can support team members in decision-making is by giving each team member the opportunity to contribute. This means that the servant leader encourages and facilitates the participation of all team members in the decision-making process, ensuring that everyone’s voice is heard and valued. By giving each team member the opportunity to contribute, the servant leader fosters a culture of collaboration, empowerment, and trust, as well as increases the quality and buy-in of the decisions.