A new Scrum Master is asked by his line manager to write down, in one sentence each, what he is actually accountable for. Which TWO statements belong on that list?
Professional Scrum Master I, objective 2. Developing people and teams medium
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Treat it as a good draft rather than as settled fact, and read the source below before you rely on it. It is not used in mock exams here — only questions a person has signed for are.
The options
Choose 2.
Not correct Chairing each event and deciding its agenda so that the discussion stays on track
Wrong, and it is the everyday misreading of the role. Facilitating is not chairing: the Daily Scrum is the Developers' event and Sprint Planning's plan is created by the whole Scrum Team, agenda included.
Correct Ensuring that all Scrum events take place and are positive, productive and kept within the timebox
Correct. This is the Scrum Master's service to the events, stated as one accountability: they happen, they are worth holding, and they end on time.
Correct Establishing Scrum as defined in the Scrum Guide, by helping everyone inside and outside the team understand Scrum theory and practice
Correct. It is the Scrum Master's headline accountability, and it is why a Sprint Review being used as a sign-off gate is his problem and not merely an unfortunate local custom.
Not correct Recording the decisions taken in each event and circulating them to management
Wrong. Scrum defines no minute-taker, and a Scrum Master who becomes the reporting channel out of the events changes what people are willing to say in them.
Why
Notice what the two correct statements have in common and what the two wrong ones share. The accountabilities are about conditions — that the events exist, are useful, are bounded, and that the framework is genuinely understood. The distractors are about control of the room. That distinction resolves most PSM I questions about the Scrum Master and the events: he is accountable for the events happening well, never for running them or for what they decide.
Where this comes from
- Cited
- Scrum Guide section Scrum Master
- What it says
- Ensuring that all Scrum events take place and are positive, productive, and kept within the timebox.
Practise this
Reading one question is not practice. The trainer will draw a set from objective 2 and space the ones you get wrong.
Practise Professional Scrum Master I
More questions on this objective
- A team lead who sits outside the Scrum Team has taken to opening the board every Monday and assigning each Sprint Backlog item to a named Developer for the week. The Developers say the assignments rarely match who is best placed to pick the work up. Who decides which Developer works on which item? machine-checked
- On day four of a two-week Sprint, a department head tells one of the five Developers to spend the rest of the week on a customer escalation for another product. The Sprint Goal depends on that Developer's work. What should the Scrum Master do? machine-checked
- During Sprint Planning, a solution architect who is not on the Scrum Team hands the Developers a task breakdown for each selected Product Backlog item and asks them to follow it. The Developers had planned to decompose the work differently. What does Scrum say about this? machine-checked
- A Scrum Team is reworking its Daily Scrum. They are tired of three questions each and want to try walking the board right to left instead, and they also want to know how much else about the event they are free to change. Which two of the following are genuinely theirs to decide? (Choose two.) machine-checked
- A Scrum Team has stopped keeping its Sprint Backlog current, and when a stakeholder asks how the Sprint is going the Developers reply that they are self-managing and will show the result at the Sprint Review. Two Sprints in a row have then missed the Sprint Goal. What is wrong here? machine-checked
- With three days of the Sprint left, the Developers agree among themselves to skip the security review and the automated regression suite, both of which are in the Definition of Done, so that two more items can be finished. They argue that as a self-managing team it is their call. Is it? machine-checked