Scrum SAFe Advanced Scrum Master (SASM) SAFe-SASM Exam Dumps: Updated Questions & Answers (October 2025)

Decentralized decision-making is a principle in SAFe aimed at distributing decision authority to the people closest to the information and most affected by the decisions. The primary goal of decentralized decision-making is to reduce delay in the decision-making process, which can often occur when decisions need to pass through multiple layers of hierarchy. By empowering individuals and teams to make decisions quickly, organizations can respond faster to changes, improve agility, and maintain a steady flow of work.

Agile Team Composition:According to SAFe, an Agile Team is composed of cross-functional members who work together to deliver value. The team includes:

Scrum Master:Facilitates the team’s processes, helps remove impediments, and supports continuous improvement.

Product Owner:Represents the customer and stakeholders, prioritizes the backlog, and ensures the team is working on the most valuable items.

Developers:The team members who design, build, and test the product.

Key Role:The Product Owner is essential to the Agile Team as they provide the vision, set priorities, and ensure that the team is delivering value that aligns with the customer and business needs.

SAFe Scrum Master References:

The SAFe framework emphasizes the critical role of the Product Owner within the Agile Team, ensuring alignment and effective backlog management.

Refactoring code involves making small, incremental changes to the internal structure of the code without altering its external behavior. The goal of refactoring is to improve code readability, maintainability, and performance while ensuring that the functionality remains unchanged. This practice helps in reducing technical debt, enhancing the quality of the codebase, and making future changes easier and less error-prone.

SAFe Scrum Master References

SAFe Agile Principles: continuous improvement and refactoring

SAFe 5.0 framework: best practices for maintaining high-quality code through refactoring

The Portfolio Backlog in SAFe contains the larger initiatives, known as Epics. Epics are substantial pieces of work that require analysis, investment, and development effort over multiple Program Increments (PIs). They represent significant business or technical needs that drive the long-term strategy of the organization. These Epics are prioritized and managed in the Portfolio Backlog, where they can be decomposed into smaller, actionable items as they progress through the development process.

The Scrum Master should coach Lee to discuss his progress in the context of the Iteration goals. By framing his updates around how his work contributes to the broader objectives of the iteration, Lee can provide the team with better visibility into his progress and the impact of his work. This approach encourages team members to think beyond individual tasks and understand how their efforts align with the team's goals, fostering greater collaboration and accountability.

SAFe Scrum Master References

SAFe Principles: focusing on outcomes and aligning individual efforts with team goals

SAFe 5.0 framework: effective daily stand-up practices

An effective Agile Team focuses on delivering value by reliably deploying features that meet customer needs.

Value Delivery:The primary measure of success for an Agile team is the continuous delivery of valuable, working software.

Customer Focus:Teams work collaboratively to understand and deliver what is most valuable to customers.

Incremental Progress:Regularly delivering increments of the product that are potentially shippable ensures continuous feedback and improvement.

This characteristic emphasizes the Agile principle of delivering working software frequently, with a focus on customer value.

SAFe Scrum Master References:

SAFe Advanced Scrum Master Training Material, Chapter on Agile Teams​​.

Relentless Improvement:This principle is a cornerstone of Agile and SAFe. It encourages teams to continuously seek ways to improve their processes, quality, and performance.

Scrum Master Role:The Scrum Master supports the team by fostering a culture of continuous improvement. This involves facilitating retrospectives, encouraging experimentation, and helping the team reflect on their practices and outcomes.

Taking Responsibility:By promoting relentless improvement, the Scrum Master helps the team take ownership of their actions and outcomes, driving self-management and accountability.

SAFe Scrum Master References:

SAFe emphasizes the role of the Scrum Master in supporting continuous improvement initiatives and helping teams develop a mindset of ongoing learning and development.

One way a Scrum Master leads the team's efforts for relentless improvement is by helping teams become better problem solvers. This involves coaching and mentoring the team in effective problem-solving techniques, facilitating problem-solving workshops, and encouraging a mindset of continuous improvement. By empowering teams to identify and address issues autonomously, the Scrum Master supports the development of a high-performing, self-sufficient team.

SAFe Scrum Master References

SAFe 5.0 framework: role of the Scrum Master in promoting continuous improvement

SAFe Advanced Scrum Master learning materials: techniques for improving problem-solving skills within teams

Inspect and Adapt (I&A) Event:This event includes a retrospective aimed at reviewing the past Program Increment (PI) and identifying issues that need to be addressed.

Purpose of Retrospective:The retrospective helps the team reflect on what went well, what didn’t, and why. It is used to identify specific problems and root causes that will be addressed in the subsequent problem-solving workshop.

Outcome:The issues identified during the retrospective form the basis for the problem-solving workshop, where the team collaboratively develops action plans to improve processes and outcomes.

SAFe Scrum Master References:

The I&A event in SAFe is designed to foster continuous improvement by systematically identifying and addressing issues through structured retrospectives and problem-solving workshops.

The fishbone diagram, also known as an Ishikawa diagram or cause-and-effect diagram, is a tool used to systematically identify potential root causes of a problem. It helps teams brainstorm and categorize the possible causes of problems to identify root issues.

Problem Statement:Clearly defines the problem at the head of the fishbone diagram.

Categories:Major categories (e.g., methods, materials, equipment, people, environment, etc.) are identified and drawn as "bones" branching off from the main "spine."

Brainstorming:Each category is explored to list possible causes, which are added as smaller bones off the main categories.

Analysis:The team analyzes the diagram to identify which causes are most likely contributing to the problem.

This method helps teams to visually map out and drill down into all possible causes of a problem, leading to more thorough and effective problem-solving.

SAFe Scrum Master References:

SAFe Advanced Scrum Master Training Material, Chapter on Problem-Solving Techniques​​.