Coaching and Mentoring

Correct Answer: Coach the team member privately to understand the root of the issue and set a plan for improvement.

As a ScrumMaster, the most proactive and agile approach to deal with a team member who is compromising sprint goals due to consistent failure in performing commitments is 'to coach the team member privately to understand the root of the issue and set a plan for improvement'. This is a strong attempt to rectify the issue while maintaining a ethos of continuous learning and improvement within the team. Reassigning the team member's work to more competent team members is not the correct approach as it avoids dealing with the problem directly and may imbalance the team's workload. Recommending to fire the team member undermines the Scrum values of respect and commitment, it should be seen as a last resort, not a primary solution. Lastly, ignoring the occurrence in hope it may get better on its own is a passive approach and may adversely affect the efficiency and delivery of the whole team. ScrumMaster has to be an active facilitator and coach for the team.

Correct Answer: Introduce techniques for improving estimation accuracy such as planning poker or the use of historical data for better forecasting.

The correct answer promotes a balanced and educational approach to improve the team's estimation capabilities without imposing solutions, undermining team autonomy, or bypassing the issue. Assigning estimation to only experienced members reduces collective ownership and learning. Cutting down the scope arbitrarily can lead to missed opportunities for delivering valuable increments. Whereas, in-depth training on development practices, though beneficial, does not directly address the immediate issue of estimation and may distract from the objective of refining estimation techniques.

Correct Answer: Encourage the Scrum Master to use different facilitation techniques and create a safe space for the team to share openly, while modeling effective retrospective facilitation in a joint session.

Encouraging the Scrum Master to use different facilitation techniques and create a safe space for the team to share openly, while modeling effective retrospective facilitation in a joint session, is the most effective approach. This helps the Scrum Master learn and apply new skills in a supportive environment, and demonstrates how to foster open communication and trust within the team. Canceling retrospectives or focusing solely on successes would not address the underlying issues and may further discourage the team from engaging in continuous improvement. While anonymous feedback and pre-populated templates can be helpful tools, they should be used in conjunction with facilitated discussions to ensure the team is actively involved in identifying and addressing areas for improvement.