Scrum in Servicing and Support

Correct Answer: Address the issue in the Retrospective meeting and propose techniques for active listening and problem understanding

The best approach when a team often jumps into solution mode without fully understanding the customer's problem is to 'Address the issue in the Retrospective meeting and propose techniques for active listening and problem understanding'. The Scrum Master's role is to facilitate clear and efficient communication, and ensuring the team understands customer problems accurately is a key part of this. Addressing the issue in the Retrospective meeting provides a safe space for the team to reflect on their approach and improve. Active listening and problem understanding techniques can enhance the team's ability to grasp the customer's needs before jumping to solutions. The other options are not the best approach. Asking the team to 'find and provide solutions faster' is counterproductive because it doesn't ensure that the team understands the problem before seeking a solution. Ignoring the issue and hoping 'it will solve itself with experience' is also not ideal, particularly when the Scrum Master can facilitate improvement directly. Finally, asking the team to 'stop providing solutions altogether' is not only impractical but contradicts the problem-solving nature of their work.

Correct Answer: Introduce a system to log time for each support ticket and ensure the team follows it

The Scrum Master, being a servant-leader for the Scrum team, is responsible for promoting and supporting Scrum. In the given scenario, the issue lies in ineffective Sprint Planning due to not tracking the time spent on servicing each ticket. Hence, the best possible action would be to 'Introduce a system to log time for each support ticket and ensure the team follows it'. This practice could improve the time tracking and make the Sprint Planning effective, thus enhancing the team's performance. Moving onto the rest of the options, 'Ask the team to estimate the time instead of logging it' is not a correct solution. Estimation without actual data could lead to inaccurate planning, resulting in potential issues in sprint completion and customer deliverables. On the other hand, 'Ignoring the problem as it does not impact the team’s performance' is a completely inappropriate approach. Given that the issue already affects Sprint Planning, it most certainly impacts the team's performance. Lastly, 'Blaming the team for incorrect Sprint Planning' is against the roles and responsibilities of a Scrum Master, who should not be laying blame but working with the team for improvements.

Correct Answer: Refine the backlog and prioritize work according to business value

The best answer among the options is 'Refine the backlog and prioritize work according to business value'. This is because the key role of a Scrum Master involves helping the team prioritize the product backlog based on the value it provides to the business, and not merely increasing the working hours or team size. As a Scrum Master, it is essential to facilitate effective Scrum ceremonies and ensure the team understands what is highest value to the product and work on those items first. The idea is to maximize value delivery rather than merely box checking tasks off a list which might not be of immediate business value. The answer 'Ask the team to work overtime to clear the backlog' is incorrect because working overtime might lead to increase in stress and decrease the quality of work. Scrum emphasizes sustainable pace of work. The answer 'Ignore the backlog and deal with issues as they come' is incorrect because it defeats the purpose of planning and might lead to chaotic situation in the team. The answer 'Hire more people for the team' does not directly solve the problem of backlog management. Additionally, introducing more people might initially slow down progress due to the time required for the new members to understand about the project and its context (known as Brook's Law). Hence, the most effective way to tackle the situation is to refine and prioritize backlog.