Understanding of Agile Practices and Principles

Correct Answer: Coach the team about the importance of refactoring and suggest incorporating it into the Definition of Done

As a ScrumMaster, one of the most effective approaches to deal with technical debt hampering the team's velocity is to coach the team about the importance of refactoring and incorporating it into the Definition of Done. This going to allow for maintaining high-quality code and preventing technical debt accumulation. This approach encourages the team to continuously improve and maintain the product backlog in a way that decreases the future cost of change and hence proving beneficial in the long term. Now, looking at the other answers: 'Instruct the team to stop all current work to address technical debt' is not advisable as it disrupts the ongoing projects and can negatively impact the delivery timelines. 'Ignore the technical debt and focus on delivering new features' is also not a great strategy as it will just increase the technical debt over time and cause bigger problems in the future. 'Suggest hiring more developers to work concurrently on new features and technical debt' could be helpful in some situations but it doesn't solve the root cause of the issue which is dealing with technical debt as a part of regular sprints.

Correct Answer: Work with the Product Owner to prioritize and refine the Product Backlog.

The best approach when the Product Backlog is excessively big and vague for the team is to 'Work with the Product Owner to prioritize and refine the Product Backlog'. This is because the ScrumMaster has a service leader role, and one of his responsibilities is to facilitate communication and collaboration between the Product Owner and the Development Team. Other approaches such as 'Ask the team to develop as per current backlog and update later' can lead to development of less important or irrelevant features, which is a wastage of resources and effort. Left unchecked, a large and vague backlog may confuse the team and negatively affect productivity. 'Leave it as it is, let the Product Owner handle it' is incorrect because the ScrumMaster is also responsible for the efficiency of the team and should therefore help alleviate obstacles. The option 'Remove less important items from the backlog without discussing with Product Owner' disregards the Product Owner's authority and involvement in deciding what gets built, which goes against Scrum Principles.

Correct Answer: Encourage the team to stick with updates and move detailed discussions to after the standup

The best action for the ScrumMaster to take when daily standup meetings are running over time is to 'Encourage the team to stick with updates and move detailed discussions to after the standup'. The idea behind this action is critical because the primary purpose of the daily standup meeting in Scrum is to discuss updates and plan for the day. It should be time-boxed to about 15 minutes. Getting into deep problem-solving during the standup can derail the primary focus of the meeting and result in time ovverun. Therefore, it is preferable for detailed discussions and problem-solving to occur after the standup, when they can be given the appropriate attention and time they require without extending the standup meeting itself. The other options 'Extend the time for the daily standup to accommodate the discussions', 'Cancel the meeting so the team can focus solely on work' and 'Do nothing and let the team figure it out on their own' are not the best courses of action as they fail to maintain the discipline and efficiency of the daily standup while appropriately addressing the need for problem-solving.