Retrospective meeting

Correct Answer: Encourage a culture of constructive feedback and ensure all team members understand it's meant for growth, not criticism

The best approach in such a situation as a Scrum Master is to encourage a culture of constructive feedback and ensure all team members understand it's meant for growth, not criticism. This approach opens up a learning opportunity for the team and will ultimately lead to a more understanding and cohesive team environment. Ignoring the defensive attitude or suggesting the team member's work is not discussed would leave the underlying issue unaddressed and could exacerbate tensions in the team in the future. On the other hand, asking the defensive team member to leave the meeting is a severe action and would not contribute to finding a resolution, and could potentially significantly harm team morale.

Correct Answer: Encourage the team to focus on solution-based thinking and ensure action items assigned have clear owners and deadlines

A retrospective meeting in Agile is meant for the team to reflect on the past sprint and identify improvements for the future. If older issues are being rehashed without any concrete steps taken towards resolution, the best approach would be to encourage the team to focus on solution-based thinking and ensure that action items assigned have clear owners and deadlines. This ensures accountability and deadlines for issue resolution. The team is focusing on problem-solving and not just complaining. Letting the team members vent their frustrations or suppressing the discussion of such repetitive issues won't be constructive and will likely not lead to a resolution. Also, leaving it to the team to solve their issues without interference doesn't ensure that concrete steps are taken, and issues may continue without resolution.

Correct Answer: Politely guide the conversation back to the meeting focus and suggest a separate meeting to discuss the personal issue, if it impacts work.

The correct answer is 'Politely guide the conversation back to the meeting focus and suggest a separate meeting to discuss the personal issue, if it impacts work'. As a Scrum Master, it is essential to keep the meeting focused on the sprint or project issues. Although it is important to maintain a supportive environment, personal issues that are not related to the project should be discussed separately if they are impacting the work. This approach ensures that every team member's time is respected, the meeting stays on point, and personal matters are handled appropriately. The other answer options are not considered best practices. 'Immediately shut down the conversation' is not respectful or supportive, 'Redirect the meeting to discuss the personal issue as a team' would take the meeting off-topic, and 'Ignore the situation and hope it resolves on its own' would not address the issue if it impacts work.