CST CST Scrum Values & Organizational Change 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: How does the Scrum value of Respect manifest between the Product Owner and Developers?
- The PO accepts all developer estimates without question
- Developers implement every feature without discussion
- Both acknowledge each other's expertise and engage in honest dialogue (Correct answer)
- The PO defers all technical decisions to the team
Correct answer: Both acknowledge each other's expertise and engage in honest dialogue
Respect means each Scrum Team member values the others' skills and perspectives, enabling collaborative decision-making.
Question 2: During organizational change, a CST observes middle managers resisting Scrum adoption. What is the most effective response?
- Bypass managers and work directly with teams
- Involve managers early as Scrum advocates and reframe their role (Correct answer)
- Escalate to senior leadership to mandate compliance
- Remove resistant managers from the change process
Correct answer: Involve managers early as Scrum advocates and reframe their role
Engaging managers early and helping them find a meaningful role in the new structure converts potential blockers into change champions.
Question 3: Which Scrum value is most demonstrated when a Developer raises a technical risk that may jeopardize the Sprint Goal?
- Focus
- Openness (Correct answer)
- Commitment
- Respect
Correct answer: Openness
Openly sharing risks or impediments, even uncomfortable ones, is a direct expression of the Scrum value of Openness.
Question 4: An organization wants to scale Scrum but its teams still lack foundational Scrum practices. What should a CST advise?
- Proceed with scaling immediately to gain efficiency
- Strengthen single-team Scrum proficiency before scaling (Correct answer)
- Adopt SAFe to provide structure for inexperienced teams
- Assign dedicated coordinators to manage dependencies
Correct answer: Strengthen single-team Scrum proficiency before scaling
Scaling amplifies existing practices—good or bad—so teams must master foundational Scrum before adding coordination complexity.
Question 5: Which of the following best describes 'organizational impediments' in Scrum coaching?
- Technical debt in the codebase
- Systemic barriers outside the team's control that slow delivery (Correct answer)
- Backlog items that have not been refined
- Disagreements within the Development Team
Correct answer: Systemic barriers outside the team's control that slow delivery
Organizational impediments are structural, cultural, or process issues—such as approval gates or resource silos—that the Scrum Master must escalate.
Question 6: How should a CST frame the Scrum value of Courage to an executive audience skeptical of empiricism?
- As a personal trait some employees naturally have
- As a cultural norm that enables honest feedback and faster course correction (Correct answer)
- As a soft skill unrelated to business results
- As a reason to ignore performance metrics
Correct answer: As a cultural norm that enables honest feedback and faster course correction
Framing Courage as the mechanism for surfacing problems early resonates with executives who care about reducing costly late-stage failures.
CST CST Scrum Values & Organizational Change 2
How does the Scrum value of Respect manifest between the Product Owner and Developers?