Study PSM I Impediments, Conflict, and Improvement: key concepts, common traps, and exam decision cues.
Healthy Scrum Teams do not avoid problems. They make them visible and work on them. PSM I questions in this area often test whether the Scrum Master removes structural blockers while still helping the team own what the team should own.
| Situation | Stronger response |
|---|---|
| Team-level coordination issue | help the team resolve it directly |
| Organization-level blocker | Scrum Master works beyond the team to remove it |
| Repeated delivery friction | inspect patterns and turn them into improvement work |
| Productive disagreement | facilitate learning instead of suppressing the conflict |
The exam is usually not asking whether impediments matter. It is asking who should act, how directly, and in what order. Stronger answers avoid both extremes: the Scrum Master doing everything alone, or the Scrum Master ignoring systemic blockers in the name of self-management.
A dependency on another department repeatedly delays testing. The stronger answer is not to tell Developers to work harder around it. It is to make the impediment visible, help the team adapt where possible, and work with the wider organization to reduce the recurring blocker.
A recurring external blocker slows the team every Sprint. What is the strongest Scrum Master response?
A. Help make the impediment visible, support the team in adapting, and work to remove the organizational blocker
B. Ask Developers to stop raising the issue until management resolves it
C. Replan future Sprints without mentioning the dependency to stakeholders
D. Instruct the Product Owner to accept the delay as normal complexity
Best answer: A
Why: The Scrum Master helps the team improve while also addressing wider organizational impediments that limit Scrum effectiveness.
Why the others are weaker: B, C, and D normalize poor transparency and prevent meaningful improvement.