Free Practice Questions for Scrum SAFe-SASM Exam

Transparency:Ensuring that metrics like team velocity and work in process (WIP) accurately reflect the team's actual work provides visibility into the team's progress and capacity.

Action by Scrum Master:By monitoring and ensuring these metrics are accurate, the Scrum Master helps the team maintain transparency about their work, which is critical for making informed decisions and identifying areas for improvement.

Outcome:Accurate representation of velocity and WIP helps the team and stakeholders understand the team's performance, plan effectively, and address any issues promptly.

SAFe Scrum Master References:

SAFe stresses the importance of transparency in Agile teams, and accurate tracking of key metrics like velocity and WIP is a fundamental aspect of achieving this.

Achieving Continuous Deployment involves several practices, one of which is decoupling deployment from release. This means that code can be deployed to production continuously and automatically, but it is only released to end-users when it is appropriate. Decoupling these processes allows for more frequent and reliable deployments without affecting the user experience until the features are ready for release. This practice helps in maintaining system stability and enabling faster feedback loops.

SAFe Scrum Master References

SAFe Continuous Delivery Pipeline: practices for Continuous Deployment

SAFe 5.0 framework: decoupling deployment and release for continuous improvement

WIP (Work in Process):Refers to the number of work items that are in progress at any given time.

Impact of High WIP:Having too many items in progress can lead to context switching, inefficiencies, and delays, ultimately slowing down the overall throughput of the team.

Throughput:The rate at which the team completes work items. Reducing WIP helps the team focus on completing tasks, leading to faster throughput and better flow of work.

SAFe Scrum Master References:

SAFe emphasizes limiting WIP to improve flow efficiency, reduce bottlenecks, and increase throughput.

One way a Scrum Master can gain the confidence of a stakeholder is by making the process visible. Transparency is a key principle in Agile and SAFe, as it builds trust and ensures that stakeholders are well-informed about the progress, challenges, and successes of the team. By making the process visible through tools like information radiators, progress charts, and regular updates, the Scrum Master can demonstrate accountability, foster open communication, and build stakeholder confidence in the team's ability to deliver value.

SAFe Scrum Master References

SAFe Principles: transparency and visibility

SAFe 5.0 framework: building stakeholder confidence through visible processes

Large Solution Level in SAFe:This level is designed for enterprises where multiple Agile Release Trains (ARTs) and suppliers collaborate to build and deploy complex solutions that require coordination beyond a single ART.

Purpose:The Large Solution level provides the practices, roles, and artifacts necessary to coordinate the efforts of multiple ARTs:

Solution Train:A structure that manages the delivery of large solutions, aligning the efforts of multiple ARTs.

Solution Management and Solution Architect/Engineer:Roles responsible for defining the solution’s vision, roadmap, and architecture.

Solution Backlog and Solution Kanban:Tools to manage and prioritize work across multiple ARTs.

Coordination:The primary focus is on ensuring that all ARTs are aligned, integrated, and delivering cohesive, high-quality solutions.

SAFe Scrum Master References:

The SAFe framework details the Large Solution level and its role in coordinating the efforts of multiple ARTs to deliver complex, enterprise-level solutions.

The Scrum of Scrums meeting during PI Planning is designed to identify and manage dependencies across teams. This meeting allows representatives from each team to come together and discuss how their plans intersect and where they might impact each other.

Dependency Identification:Teams identify dependencies early to manage risks and align their efforts.

Coordination:Facilitates better coordination and integration of work between multiple teams.

Communication:Provides a forum for raising issues and ensuring that all teams are aware of potential impacts on their work.

This helps in creating a more cohesive and integrated approach to delivering the Program Increment (PI).

SAFe Scrum Master References:

SAFe Advanced Scrum Master Training Material, Chapter on PI Planning​​

Decentralized decision-making is a principle in SAFe aimed at distributing decision authority to the people closest to the information and most affected by the decisions. The primary goal of decentralized decision-making is to reduce delay in the decision-making process, which can often occur when decisions need to pass through multiple layers of hierarchy. By empowering individuals and teams to make decisions quickly, organizations can respond faster to changes, improve agility, and maintain a steady flow of work.

Inspect and Adapt (I&A) events occur at both the Team Level and the Value Stream Level in SAFe. At the Team Level, these events allow individual Agile teams to reflect on their performance, identify areas for improvement, and plan actions for the next iteration. At the Value Stream Level, I&A events involve multiple teams working within a Value Stream to review progress, identify systemic issues, and make improvements that benefit the entire Value Stream. These levels ensure that continuous improvement practices are applied both locally within teams and more broadly across the organization.

SAFe Scrum Master References

SAFe 5.0 framework: levels of Inspect and Adapt events

SAFe Principles: continuous improvement at multiple levels of the organization