SSM-6.0 Sample Questions & Answers

In the ROAM (Resolved, Owned, Accepted, Mitigated) process, after a risk is identified and discussed, it must be categorized. For a risk that cannot be immediately resolved, the first step is to assign an 'Owner'. This person is responsible for tracking the risk, escalating it if necessary, and ensuring that mitigation or contingency plans are executed. Assigning an owner ensures accountability and that the risk will not be forgotten after PI Planning.

The IP Iteration serves several purposes, but its primary goals are to provide a regular, cadence-based opportunity for teams to focus on innovation (like hackathons or spikes), continuing education, and preparing for the upcoming PI Planning event. While it can also absorb some PI slippage, treating it as a primary buffer is an anti-pattern. Its main function is to enable relentless improvement and readiness.

Empathy in servant leadership is primarily about understanding others' perspectives, feelings, and motivations. Active, non-judgmental listening is the most direct way to demonstrate this. It builds trust and psychological safety, creating an environment where team members feel heard and respected, which is essential for a high-performing team.

The two main outputs of Iteration Planning are the Iteration Backlog, which is the set of stories the team has pulled from the Team Backlog, and a commitment to the Iteration Goals. The goals provide a coherent summary of the business and technical objectives the team intends to achieve.

The Team Sync is a short, daily meeting for the Agile Team to coordinate their activities and inspect progress toward the Iteration Goals. The team adjusts its plan for the current day’s work and raises any impediments. While this work contributes to the PI Objectives, the immediate focus of the Team Sync is the Iteration Goals.

Effective PI Objectives follow the SMART format to ensure they are clear, actionable, and can be assessed at the end of the PI.

PI Objectives should describe the 'what' and 'why' from a business perspective, not the 'how'. This aligns the team's work with the broader business context and facilitates the assignment of Business Value.

Well-written PI Objectives act as a guiding star for the team, helping them make trade-off decisions and stay aligned on the most important outcomes during the PI.

The Scrum Master's main responsibility during PI Planning is to act as a facilitator for their team. This includes ensuring the planning process is followed, helping the team estimate and create their plan, identifying risks and dependencies, and making sure the final plan is owned by the entire team. Their focus is on the process and the team's ability to create and commit to a plan, not on the content of the plan itself.

Kanban systems are designed to manage flow and make process policies explicit. By visualizing the work on a Kanban board, the team can see the interruptions. Implementing WIP limits forces the team to finish existing work before starting new tasks, which naturally reduces context switching. Explicit policies can be created to define how ad-hoc requests are handled (e.g., via an expedite lane), making the cost of these interruptions visible and manageable. This directly addresses the team's problem of unpredictable flow due to interruptions.

Lean-Agile Leadership is the foundation of the SAFe House of Lean. The model illustrates that management's commitment to Lean-Agile principles and practices is the bedrock upon which the entire system is built. Without this foundational support, the pillars (Respect for People and Culture, Flow, Innovation, Relentless Improvement) and the roof (Value) cannot be sustained.

This approach is the most sustainable and aligns with DevOps principles (specifically Automation and Lean Flow). Instead of simply adding more people to the bottleneck team, this solution empowers the development teams by providing them with self-service tools. The System Team's focus shifts to building a robust platform that all teams can use, which automates common tasks and removes them as a dependency. This scales much more effectively and fosters a culture of shared responsibility for the delivery pipeline.