Understanding and applying the Scrum framework
Objective 1 of Professional Scrum Master I, worth 33.33% of the exam.
- Share of the exam
- 33.33%
- Questions in a real sitting
- roughly 27 of 80
- Questions in this bank
- 54
- Signed for by a person
- 0
- Machine-checked only
- 54
Partly checked. None of the 54 questions here has been read against the cited source by a person. 54 questions have been checked against their cited clause by an automated pass — which is not the same thing, and is not a signature.
Only questions a person has signed for are used in mock exams here. That is the whole difference between the two kinds of checking above.
How these questions are written — where each question comes from, what the verification ledger records, and what happens when one is found wrong.
What this objective covers
The 54 questions written for this objective cite 21 Scrum Guide sections (Adaptation, Commitment: Definition of Done, Commitment: Product Goal, Commitment: Sprint Goal, Daily Scrum, Developers, Increment, Inspection, Product Backlog, Product Owner, Scrum Master, Scrum Team, Scrum Theory, Scrum Values, Sprint Backlog, Sprint Planning, Sprint Retrospective, Sprint Review, The Sprint, Topic Three: How will the chosen work get done?, Transparency).
They break down as 43 single-answer questions and 11 choose-several questions.
Lessons in this objective
The objective cut into the pieces the blueprint declares. Each one has the material written out and the questions that test it.
- Empiricism and the three pillars
- The Scrum values
- The Scrum Team and its accountabilities
- The Sprint and Sprint Planning
- The Daily Scrum and the Sprint Review
- The Sprint Retrospective and cancelling a Sprint
- The Product Backlog and the Product Goal
- The Sprint Backlog and the Increment
- The Definition of Done
Drill this objective
The trainer can run a short practice set drawn from this objective alone, which is what the weight column above is for: revise the heavy objectives first.
Practise Understanding and applying the Scrum framework
Questions on this objective (page 1 of 3)
- A department is choosing an approach for a product where both the requirements and the technology are poorly understood and keep changing as the team learns. Someone argues for Scrum "because it is founded on empiricism". What does founding an approach on empiricism actually commit the team to? machine-checked
- At the end of a Sprint three items are functionally complete but have not been through the automated test suite the Definition of Done requires. To avoid an awkward conversation the Developers mark them Done on the board and include them in the Sprint Review. Which pillar has been damaged, and what follows from that? machine-checked
- A Scrum Team holds every event on schedule, keeps a burn-down chart and reviews its metrics carefully. For six Sprints running, the same impediment — a two-day wait for a shared test environment — has been named in the Retrospective, and nothing about it has changed. What is the accurate diagnosis? machine-checked
- Mid-Sprint, the Developers discover that a third-party API rate-limits far below what they assumed, which makes the current plan unworkable. One of them suggests carrying on as planned and raising it at the Sprint Retrospective, so the Sprint is not disrupted. What should happen instead? machine-checked
- Which THREE of these statements about Scrum theory are accurate as the framework defines it? machine-checked
- A Developer is fairly sure the design the team agreed last week will not scale. The team is halfway through the Sprint, everyone else seems content, and saying so means an uncomfortable conversation and probably rework. Which Scrum value most directly asks them to speak? machine-checked
- At Sprint Planning the Developers select eleven Product Backlog items. At the Sprint Review, nine are Done and the Sprint Goal has been met. A manager tells the Scrum Master that the team "broke its commitment" and should be held to its number next time. How should the Scrum Master respond? machine-checked
- Three days into a two-week Sprint the Developers conclude that the Sprint Goal is very unlikely to be met. They agree among themselves to say nothing until the Sprint Review, in the hope that something turns in their favour. Which value are they failing, and what does the framework expect? machine-checked
- A newly appointed Scrum Master finds that the Developers wait each morning to be told which item to pick up, because the previous Scrum Master assigned the work. They decide to keep assigning tasks "until the team is ready to do it themselves". What is wrong with that plan? machine-checked
- A Scrum Team is reviewing its own behaviour against the five Scrum values. Which TWO of these behaviours are consistent with the values as Scrum describes them? machine-checked
- A portfolio office asks a Scrum Team when the remaining forty Product Backlog items will be finished. The Developers extend their burn-up chart, and the office wants the resulting date entered in the plan as a delivery commitment. What is the accurate position in Scrum? machine-checked
- A new Scrum Master inherits a team where nobody admits to being stuck. They print the five values as posters, run a half-day workshop and ask everyone to sign a values charter on the wall. Three Sprints later nothing has changed. What does Scrum actually say about how the values take hold? machine-checked
- An organisation proposes that a central operations group take over running and maintaining the product once features are released, and that a separate discovery group do the customer research, leaving the Scrum Team to build. The Product Owner asks the Scrum Master whether this is compatible with Scrum. What should the Scrum Master say? machine-checked
- The Developers would like a security architect from another department to join the first hour of Sprint Planning to advise on one item. A colleague objects that Sprint Planning is for the Scrum Team only. Which TWO statements about Sprint Planning are accurate? machine-checked
- A Scrum Team has quietly acquired two standing meetings: a Tuesday and Thursday coordination call, and a Friday impediments call with the Scrum Master. The Daily Scrum still happens and takes twelve minutes, but nobody raises anything in it. How should the Scrum Master read this? machine-checked
- A Product Owner says they will skip the Sprint Retrospective because it is about how the Developers work together, and a delivery manager asks to attend so they can hear the improvement ideas first-hand. Who takes part in the Sprint Retrospective? machine-checked
- A team introduces a formal gate: no Product Backlog item may be selected at Sprint Planning until the Product Owner has signed it off in a readiness review and stakeholders have approved its acceptance criteria. Which TWO statements reflect what Scrum says about an item being ready for selection? machine-checked
- At Sprint Planning a team writes its Sprint Goal as "complete the ten items we selected". The ten serve four unrelated initiatives. Mid-Sprint the Product Owner asks to swap one item out, and the Developers cannot say whether that endangers the Sprint Goal. What is the underlying problem? machine-checked
- The Definition of Done for a payments product requires penetration testing and updated operator documentation. The Developers forecast each Sprint on build effort alone, treating those two as "the checklist we run at the end". For four Sprints running, two or three items have finished the Sprint undocumented and untested. What does Scrum expect at Sprint Planning? machine-checked
- One product is being built by a single Scrum Team of eighteen people. Communication is slow, the Daily Scrum routinely overruns, and nobody has a complete picture of what is in flight. What does Scrum suggest? machine-checked
Practise Understanding and applying the Scrum framework
The other objectives in Professional Scrum Master I
- 2. Developing people and teams — 33.33% of the exam
- 3. Managing products with agility — 33.33% of the exam