Scrum Master Roles and Responsibilities

Correct Answer: Advise the Product Owner to discuss the change with the Development Team to understand the impact on the Sprint Goal.

The correct answer emphasizes collaboration and communication within the Scrum Team to assess the impact of adding a new item to the sprint, which is a core principle of the Scrum framework. The wrong answers diverge from Scrum values by suggesting unilaterally changing the Sprint Backlog, delaying engagement with critical items, or improperly breaking down and distributing work without team consensus.

Correct Answer: Facilitate a team discussion to reinforce the concept of collective decision making and self-organizing team.

As a Scrum Master, it is integral to facilitate the self-organization of the team. When a team member starts assuming the role of a Project Manager, it disrupts this self-organization dynamic. The best course of action would be to facilitate a team discussion to reiterate the significance of shared decision-making and the importance of operating as a self-organizing team. This will educate all team members without directly confronting or isolating the individual assuming a role outside of Scrum norms. Other answers are not ideal. Removing the team member from the Scrum team is too drastic and can cause tension or animosity. Promoting the team member to a Project Manager role officially contradicts the core principles of Scrum where roles are flexible and collective decision-making is encouraged. Assigning less work to the person isn't right either because it tries to mitigate the symptom of the problem instead of addressing the root cause.

Correct Answer: Arrange a meeting with the Product Owner to clarify and refine the backlog items.

As a Scrum Master, facilitating communication and collaboration between the team and the Product Owner is crucial for the success of the project. Arranging a meeting with the Product Owner to clarify and refine the backlog items ensures that the team has a clear understanding of the project requirements, leading to more effective planning and execution of tasks. The other options, while involving action on the backlog, either bypass the Product Owner, neglect the collaborative aspect of Scrum, or do not directly address the issue of unclear backlog items, making them less effective approaches.