Assessment for PSM1

Outside of the 4 questions offered being examples of "bad' Scrum, here are my thoughts:

1) I personally do not see the benefit of having a single development team being served by more than one Scrum Master. My answer would be no based on my understanding of Scrum.

"Why is this needed?" would be a good question in this instance.

2) While this approach can get ugly (multiple product owners), I have actually worked in similar environments. The real challenge with this approach is helping the multiple product owners play nice with each other (team time, grooming, prioritization). It is still an ugly situation to work in. Ideally, you should prefer a development team to work with only one product owner.

One thing the question doesn't state is whether one product owner is a "proxy" for the other product owner, but both serve the same product. Again, this can work even though it is not ideal.

3) A stable, dedicated team roster is the ideal situation. Sometimes, Subject Matter Experts are needed across teams until the specialization gap is reduced through knowledge transfer and cross-training. Again, a less-than-ideal situation, but something I have seen work in the past. Extra effort is needed by the team to coordinate that team member's availability sprint to sprint.

4) A very ugly situation, but again, something I have seen in the past. This places a significant burden on the Scrum Master to serve three different teams all located in different geographic areas (meetings, Scrum Ceremonies).

// Now i am focusing on taking as many self assessments. //

THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT YOU SHOULD NOT BE DOING.
Many online mock exams will add to your confusion.

1. Did you write to support@scrum.org and got their feedback on areas that you need improvement?
2. Did you truly understand the concepts of cross-functionality, product ownership, scrum master role as coach, etc?
3. Did you attend all the Scrum Open quizzes and understood why incorrect answers are incorrect?

More than all, did you "grasp" Scrum as per Scrum Guide in both substance and intent?
Please read this post by mohammed to understand what I mean:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-pass-psm-first-attempt-five-steps-ge…

Take your first test as learning opportunity and strengthen your understanding now. Good luck for going strong next time!

Hi Timothy,

Thanks for your replies. I have same understanding as yours. Though the questions and their answers are quite misleading.

Thanks for your comments Rafeal.
Yes i got an update from Scrum.org and result is :
Scrum Framework 80%
Scrum Theory and Principles 75%
Cross-functional, self-organizing Teams 78.6%
Coaching & Facilitation 100%

I am revising my scrum concepts but it will be very helpful if you can guide me more on feasibility of teams having multiple SMs & POs. I dont find this concept in Scrum Guide.

From the feedback from scrum.org, you need more understanding on most of the areas.
So, one more round of preparation across all areas needed.

Now - don't get tied so much around the questions you see in those online tests.

Here are some guidelines that will help you know all that is required on this topic.

- Scrum Master need not be a core technical member. They can be full time/part time for a Scrum Team. They can support as Scrum Master for more than one Scrum Team in parallel.
• Product Owner can be Full/part time for a Scrum Team. They usually support as a single Product Owner for more than one Scrum Team in parallel. One Product has only one Product Owner. That means a Dev Team working on a Product Backlog has only one Product Owner. Having competing authorities with Product Owner increases conflicts and misalignment.
(ref: psm exam guide)

Note:
There is ONLY ONE Scrum Master for a team
From many practitioners, I see that most of them recommend dedicated scrum master. They are also ok with scrum master supporting one more team. More than that... scrum master's sphere of influencing the team's behavior comes down

In case where multiple teams work on single Product Backlog and bandwidth of Product Owner won't suffice, there could be more than one Product Owner. However, even in that case, every Development Team will still work with only one sub Product Owner who is guided by ONLY ONE chief Product Owner

Another question from PS1 assessment :

If the dev team members are in different locations …. Then the logistics (Conference rooms, teleconference ) for Daily Scrum…. Is arranged and managed by ….
1. Dev Team …. As they are self organizing.
2. Scrum Master ….. as logistics may be counted as impediment as they contribute directly to Sprint goal

hey guys i'm now a PSM certified and i want to share with you some free exam that will be very useful for those who wants to pass the exam :

http://mlapshin.com/index.php/psm-quiz/real-mode/

maybe that will help someone to save 150 Dollars :-)

Ciao

In my humble opinion, if you want PSM1, stick with the blogs and websites of people who have passed PSM1. (i.e. people here). The internet is awash with Scrum info, a lot of which is old or bad scrum and just plain confusing. For what it's worth, and there is no guarantee, (you've got to put the work in), here's how I passed http://psm1-selfstudyguide.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/psm1-self-study-guide… . All the best, keep reading and don't give up. You are about to embark on a life changing adventure.
J

Hi all,

Just to inform that I've passed the PSM I today with 99%. Want to extend my thanks to all who have posted replies to my questions and helped me in getting better understanding of Scrum.

However, I did not see many questions from Scaled Scrum but there were one or two.

Would also like to share some tips, here are below:

1. Read Scrum guide multiple times until you understand the whole Scrum framework very well. Try to question yourself and check whether your answer is in line with Scrum framework/process.
2. Read 'Professional Scrum Developer Glossary' & 'Glossary of Scrum Terms' available on scrum.org
2. Read 'The Scrum Master Training Manual' available free at http://mplaza.pm/product/scrum-master-training-manual/?referrer=manasbh…. This will help you understand the scrum guide more easily.
3. Attempt all 'Free assessments' viz Scrum Open, PO Open, Developer Open available in website Scrum.org: https://www.scrum.org/Assessments/Open-Assessments, until you are constantly getting above 95%. You will definitely see 15-20 questions straight from Open assessments which will save lot of time.
4. Read the Nexus Guide available in Scrum.org, just to understand how multiple Scrum teams work to create an integrated increment. Also try free Nexus Open assessments multiple times
5. Practice Scrums of Scrum through: https://www.classmarker.com/online-test/start/?quiz=7rt5464b55300026
6. Use following link to test your knowledge on Scrum guide and it will also help you to check your speed of attempting questions during the real exam i.e. it is in real mode: http://mlapshin.com/index.php/psm-quiz/real-mode/
7. Visit forums on Scrum.org, post your questions/queries, believe me it really helps.
8. Below are some links which will help you in understanding the Scrum better:
i. https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd997578(v=vs.120).aspx
ii. http://www.scrumstudy.com/scrum-principles.asp
iii. https://www.scrum.org/About/All-Articles/articleType/ArticleView/articl…
iv. http://pm.stackexchange.com/questions/14613/what-does-architectural-spi…

All the best for your PSM certification.