Questions for the SAFE-SASM were updated on : Nov 21 ,2025
What is one characteristic of an effective Agile Team?
A
Explanation:
An effective Agile Team focuses on delivering value by reliably deploying features that meet
customer needs.
Value Delivery: The primary measure of success for an Agile team is the continuous delivery of
valuable, working software.
Customer Focus: Teams work collaboratively to understand and deliver what is most valuable to
customers.
Incremental Progress: Regularly delivering increments of the product that are potentially shippable
ensures continuous feedback and improvement.
This characteristic emphasizes the Agile principle of delivering working software frequently, with a
focus on customer value.
SAFe Scrum Master Reference:
SAFe Advanced Scrum Master Training Material, Chapter on Agile Teams.
The work within one state of a team's Kanban board is being completed at varying times, sometimes
running faster and sometimes slower than the next state. What could resolve this issue?
C
Explanation:
Creating a buffer state between two states in a Kanban board can help regulate the flow of work and
address the varying completion times.
Buffer State Purpose: Acts as a holding area to balance the flow between different stages of work,
smoothing out variances in completion times.
Flow Regulation: Ensures that work can continue smoothly without bottlenecks or idle times.
Work In Progress (WIP) Limits: Helps maintain a steady flow by preventing too much work from
accumulating in any one state.
This approach aligns with Lean principles of managing flow and reducing variability in processes.
SAFe Scrum Master Reference:
SAFe Advanced Scrum Master Training Material, Chapter on Kanban Systems.
What ROAM risk management category requires a plan for eliminating the threat of the risk?
C
Explanation:
The ROAM risk management framework categorizes risks to ensure they are managed appropriately.
When a risk is mitigated, a plan is put in place to reduce or eliminate the threat posed by the risk.
ROAM Framework:
Resolved: The risk is no longer an issue.
Owned: Someone is assigned to manage the risk.
Accepted: The risk is acknowledged, and its impact is accepted without further action.
Mitigated: Actions are taken to reduce the likelihood or impact of the risk.
Mitigation involves proactive planning and actions to reduce the severity or likelihood of a risk.
SAFe Scrum Master Reference:
SAFe Advanced Scrum Master Training Material, Chapter on Risk Management.
What is the purpose of the Scrum of Scrums meeting during PI Planning?
A
Explanation:
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 Reference:
SAFe Advanced Scrum Master Training Material, Chapter on PI Planning
Which statement is true about refactoring code?
B
Explanation:
Refactoring code involves making small, incremental changes to the internal structure of the code
without altering its external behavior. The goal of refactoring is to improve code readability,
maintainability, and performance while ensuring that the functionality remains unchanged. This
practice helps in reducing technical debt, enhancing the quality of the codebase, and making future
changes easier and less error-prone.
SAFe Scrum Master Reference
SAFe Agile Principles: continuous improvement and refactoring
SAFe 5.0 framework: best practices for maintaining high-quality code through refactoring
What are two characteristics of teams that fear conflict? (Choose two.)
B, C
Explanation:
Teams that fear conflict exhibit certain characteristics that can hinder their success:
They ignore controversial topics that are critical to team success (B): When teams avoid addressing
difficult or controversial issues, they miss out on resolving important problems that could impact
their success. Ignoring such topics can lead to unresolved conflicts, misalignment, and suboptimal
decision-making.
They fail to tap into all the opinions and perspectives of team members (C): Fear of conflict can
prevent team members from voicing their opinions and sharing diverse perspectives. This lack of
open communication can result in missed opportunities for innovation and improvement, as well as
decisions that do not reflect the collective wisdom of the team.
SAFe Scrum Master Reference
SAFe Principles: fostering a culture of open communication and collaboration
What is one requirement for achieving Continuous Deployment?
A
Explanation:
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 Reference
SAFe Continuous Delivery Pipeline: practices for Continuous Deployment
SAFe 5.0 framework: decoupling deployment and release for continuous improvement
What is one way a Scrum Master can gain the confidence of a stakeholder?
D
Explanation:
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 Reference
SAFe Principles: transparency and visibility
SAFe 5.0 framework: building stakeholder confidence through visible processes
What is one outcome of an integration point?
A
Explanation:
Integration points in agile development serve as critical junctures where progress is reviewed, and
decisions can be made on whether to continue on the current path or pivot based on new
information.
Integration Points: Regular integration points help in verifying progress, ensuring alignment with
objectives, and assessing whether the current approach is delivering the desired outcomes.
Pivot or Persevere: These points provide the opportunity to pivot if necessary. Teams can change
their course of action based on feedback, new insights, or changing requirements, ensuring that the
final product meets the needs effectively.
Risk Mitigation: Regular integration reduces the risk of late discovery of issues and ensures that the
product evolves in a way that adds value continuously.
SAFe Scrum Master Reference:
SAFe Advanced Scrum Master Training Material, Chapter on Iteration Execution.
When should centralized decision-making be used?
A
Explanation:
Centralized decision-making is appropriate in scenarios where consolidating decisions can lead to
significant economies of scale, which involves:
Economies of Scale: These are cost advantages reaped by companies when production becomes
efficient. This can happen through increased production, lower costs per unit, bulk purchasing, and
centralized processes.
Consistency and Control: Centralized decisions ensure consistency across large-scale operations and
can help in maintaining standards and controls, reducing duplication of effort, and leveraging bulk
purchasing power.
In contrast, decentralized decision-making is more suitable for decisions requiring specific local
context or those that need to be made frequently and swiftly.
SAFe Scrum Master Reference:
SAFe Advanced Scrum Master Training Material, Chapter on Decision-Making Frameworks.
An Agile Team decides they want to use pair programming in future Iterations. Where should this be
captured?
B
Explanation:
The decision to implement pair programming in future iterations is a team-level improvement action
that stems from reflecting on their current processes and identifying areas for enhancement. This is
best captured during the team's retrospective:
Retrospective Purpose: The retrospective is a regular meeting where the team reflects on what went
well, what didn’t, and what could be improved.
Action Items: Decisions and action items, such as adopting pair programming, are documented in the
retrospective notes to ensure they are followed up in future iterations.
Continuous Improvement: Capturing this in the retrospective notes ensures the team is committed
to continuous improvement and has a clear record of their decisions and plans for process
enhancements.
SAFe Scrum Master Reference:
SAFe Advanced Scrum Master Training Material, Chapter on Team Retrospectives.
When is collaboration with System Architects and the Systems Team likely to have the greatest
impact on Solution development?
D
Explanation:
Collaboration with System Architects and the Systems Team is likely to have the greatest impact on
Solution development during PI Planning. This is the time when teams plan their work for the
upcoming Program Increment, and involving System Architects and the Systems Team can ensure
that architectural considerations, dependencies, and technical requirements are properly addressed.
Their input helps align the technical direction with business goals, identify potential risks, and plan
for the necessary enablers and infrastructure needed to support the development efforts.
SAFe Scrum Master Reference
SAFe PI Planning guidelines
SAFe 5.0 framework: roles of System Architects and Systems Teams in PI Planning
Inspect and Adapt events occur at which two SAFe levels? (Choose two.)
C D
Explanation:
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 Reference
SAFe 5.0 framework: levels of Inspect and Adapt events
SAFe Principles: continuous improvement at multiple levels of the organization
Lee is a developer on the team. At every daily stand-up Lee reports, "Yesterday, I worked on indexing.
Today, I will work on indexing. I have no impediments." What coaching should the Scrum Master
provide Lee to improve the team's visibility into his work?
D
Explanation:
The Scrum Master should coach Lee to discuss his progress in the context of the Iteration goals. By
framing his updates around how his work contributes to the broader objectives of the iteration, Lee
can provide the team with better visibility into his progress and the impact of his work. This approach
encourages team members to think beyond individual tasks and understand how their efforts align
with the team's goals, fostering greater collaboration and accountability.
SAFe Scrum Master Reference
SAFe Principles: focusing on outcomes and aligning individual efforts with team goals
SAFe 5.0 framework: effective daily stand-up practices
What should be the first step a team should take to feed potential problems into the Problem Solving
workshop?
D
Explanation:
The first step a team should take to feed potential problems into the Problem Solving workshop is to
analyze quantitative and qualitative metrics. These metrics provide objective data about the team's
performance and can highlight areas where issues may be occurring. By reviewing these metrics, the
team can identify trends, pinpoint specific problems, and prioritize them for discussion in the
Problem Solving workshop. This approach ensures that the workshop focuses on data-driven issues,
leading to more effective and targeted solutions.
SAFe Scrum Master Reference
SAFe 5.0 framework: importance of data-driven decision-making and problem-solving
SAFe Advanced Scrum Master learning materials: analyzing metrics for continuous improvement