SSM Scaled Agile SSM (6.0) - SAFe Scrum Master Practice 6.0 Free Practice Exam Questions (2025 Updated)

A constructive IP Iteration is one of the recommended practices for Scrum Masters/Team Coaches to help teams avoid burnout, address technical debt, and foster innovation. An IP Iteration is a unique, dedicated iteration that occurs every PI and provides an estimating buffer for meeting PI Objectives and dedicated time for innovation, continuing education, PI Planning, and Inspect and Adapt events. During the IP Iteration, teams can work on activities such as hackathons, research and design, spikes, refactoring, automation, training, and other improvement initiatives that are difficult to fit into a continuous, incremental value delivery pattern. An IP Iteration also allows teams to prepare for and participate in the PI Planning and Inspect and Adapt events, which are essential for alignment, collaboration, and learning across the ART. A constructive IP Iteration can improve the predictability and flow of value delivery, increase employee engagement and satisfaction, enhance the agility and resilience of the teams, and create a competitive advantage for the enterprise.

According to SAFe®, the Iteration Retrospective is a key event that enables relentless improvement, one of the pillars of the SAFe House of Lean. The purpose is to reflect on the previous iteration and identify what went well, what didn’t, and what can be improved.

An essential outcome of this meeting is a set of actionable improvement items that can be added to the team backlog. These items are often captured as improvement Stories, ensuring that process enhancements are visible, prioritized, and implemented in the next iteration.

From SAFe guidance:

“The retrospective concludes with actionable improvement items added to the backlog. These items should be implemented in subsequent iterations to improve performance.”

Therefore, the correct answer is D. Ensure the event ends with actionable improvement items for the backlog, as it ensures continuous learning and measurable improvement.

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.

According to the SAFe 6 Scrum Master documentation, one of the potential root causes of Team Sync anti-patterns is the lack of collective ownership. Collective ownership means that the team members share responsibility for the quality and delivery of the team’s work. They collaborate, communicate, and coordinate their efforts to achieve the team goals. They also support each other, provide feedback, and resolve issues together. When there is a lack of collective ownership, team members may exhibit some of the following Team Sync anti-patterns 1:

Reporting to managers (status meetings): Team members use the Team Sync as a way to report their progress to the SM/TC or other managers, rather than to synchronize with their peers. This can create a hierarchical and command-and-control culture, where team members are not empowered to self-organize and self-manage.

Monologues: Team members give long and detailed updates that are not relevant or useful to other team members. This can make the Team Sync boring, inefficient, and ineffective, as team members lose interest and attention.

Cross-functional team standups (updates are not related to other people’s work): Team members work on different features or components that are not aligned with the team goals or the Iteration goals. This can result in silos, dependencies, and integration issues, as well as reduced collaboration and coordination.

“Nothing to report” can be a good thing: Team members say they have nothing to report, either because they have not done any work, or because they do not want to share their work with the team. This can indicate a lack of transparency, trust, and accountability, as well as a missed opportunity to get feedback and support from the team.

To overcome these anti-patterns, the SM/TC should coach the team on the purpose and value of the Team Sync, and help them adopt the best practices for effective Team Syncs, such as 2:

Having a clear agenda and timebox

Focusing on the team goals and the Iteration goals

Asking the three key questions: What did I do yesterday? What will I do today? Do I have any impediments?

Using visual aids, such as task boards or Kanban boards, to track progress and identify issues

Encouraging active participation, collaboration, and feedback

Ending with clear action items and follow-ups

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.

In the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe®), Scrum Masters or Team Coaches (SM/TCs) support their teams by making work visible and ensuring transparency around progress and delivery. One of the most effective tools for visualizing team delivery is the Burn-up Chart.

A Burn-up Chart shows progress toward the completion of work over time. It tracks the amount of work completed compared to the total scope, helping teams and stakeholders visualize how close they are to meeting iteration or PI objectives. This visualization enables data-driven discussions, supports predictability, and helps identify delivery risks early.

While other metrics like Cycle Time or Cumulative Flow Diagrams are valuable for measuring flow and efficiency, the Burn-up Chart specifically visualizes delivery progress.

From SAFe guidance:

“Teams use burn-up charts to visualize progress toward the goal and communicate delivery status. They enable transparency and support empirical planning and adaptation.”

Therefore, the correct answer is B. Burn-up chart—it is the primary visualization tool for tracking and communicating team delivery progress.

According to both SAFe® principles and Patrick Lencioni’s model (which SAFe references), the absence of trust is the foundational cause of team dysfunction. Without trust, team members are unwilling to be vulnerable, admit mistakes, or ask for help—leading to fear of conflict, lack of commitment, and poor results.

Building trust allows team members to engage in open, honest communication and constructive conflict, both of which are essential for continuous improvement and high performance. Servant leaders play a key role in fostering this psychological safety by modeling openness, empathy, and transparency.

From SAFe guidance:

“The foundation of high-performing teams is trust. Without trust, teams cannot engage in healthy conflict, commit to decisions, or hold one another accountable.”

Therefore, the correct answer is D. Absence of trust, as it is the root cause of most forms of team dysfunction.

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 

SAFe® defines seven core competencies that enable business agility. One of these is Agile Product Delivery, which focuses on building a customer-centric approach to defining, developing, and releasing valuable solutions.

This competency emphasizes Design Thinking, DevOps, continuous delivery, and release on demand to ensure fast, high-quality value delivery aligned with customer needs. While Built-in Quality is a foundational SAFe principle, it is not categorized as a core competency.

From SAFe guidance:

“Agile Product Delivery is a customer-centric approach to defining, building, and releasing a continuous flow of valuable products and services to customers and users.”

Therefore, the correct answer is B. Agile Product Delivery, as it is one of SAFe’s official seven core competencies.

A servant leader is defined in SAFe® as someone who prioritizes the growth, well-being, and development of their team over personal or organizational agendas. Rather than exercising authority or control, servant leaders empower, support, and enable their teams to achieve autonomy and high performance.

Scrum Masters and Team Coaches embody this leadership style by removing impediments, fostering collaboration, and promoting a safe environment for experimentation and learning. The servant leader’s goal is to help the team reach its full potential, not to command or direct.

From SAFe guidance:

“Servant leaders focus on the growth and well-being of people and the communities to which they belong. They put the needs of others first and help people develop and perform as highly as possible.”

Therefore, the correct answer is A. A leader that prioritizes the needs and growth of the team over their own priorities.

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.

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.

During PI Planning, the Scrum Master/Team Coach (SM/TC) plays an important facilitative and support role. One key responsibility is to participate in the management review and problem-solving meeting that occurs midway through PI Planning.

This meeting allows leaders and Scrum Masters to review the teams’ progress, resolve cross-team risks, address scope challenges, and ensure alignment before finalizing PI objectives. The Scrum Master’s insights into team capacity, dependencies, and risks are crucial for ART-level decision-making.

From SAFe guidance:

“Scrum Masters participate in the management review and problem-solving session during PI Planning to help resolve issues that may prevent teams from meeting their objectives.”

Therefore, the correct answer is B. Participate in management review and problem-solving.

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 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.

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 benefit of having an IP Iteration every PI is that it creates an estimating buffer for meeting PI objectives. PI objectives are a set of SMART goals that align the teams and stakeholders to a common vision and mission for the upcoming Program Increment (PI). They are derived from the business context, priorities, and dependencies, and are agreed upon and committed by the teams during PI Planning1 However, since PI objectives are based on estimates and assumptions, there is always a degree of uncertainty and variability in the delivery process. To account for this, SAFe recommends that teams reserve 10% of their capacity for each PI as an estimating buffer. This buffer is used during the IP Iteration, which is a unique, dedicated iteration that occurs every PI and provides dedicated time for innovation, continuing education, PI Planning, and Inspect and Adapt events2 By having an IP Iteration as an estimating buffer, the teams can improve the predictability and flow of value delivery, as well as reduce the stress and pressure of meeting the PI objectives23 

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.

A servant leader empowers team members to grow by creating opportunities for learning and collaboration. One effective technique is to pair team members together to complete new or unique work. This practice promotes knowledge sharing, builds confidence, and helps develop T-shaped skills, which increase team flexibility and resilience.

Pairing fosters mentorship and shared ownership of outcomes, aligning with SAFe’s emphasis on continuous learning culture and relentless improvement. Instead of assigning rigid development paths or confining people to comfort zones, servant leaders enable self-directed learning and encourage experimentation.

From SAFe guidance:

“Servant leaders grow others by providing opportunities for learning, pairing, and collaboration. They help individuals reach their potential by empowering them to take on new challenges.”

Therefore, the correct answer is A. Pair team members together to complete new or unique work, as this directly supports team member growth and a culture of learning.