The Scrum Master should teach the Developers that coordinating with the other teams is their own responsibility, so that together they produce one integrated Increment. The Scrum Master should not become the coordinator.
Exam Question
Five new Scrum Teams have been created to build one product. A few of the Developers on one of the Scrum Teams ask the Scrum Master how to coordinate their work with the other teams. What should the Scrum Master do? (choose the best answer)
- A. Teach them that it is their responsibility to work with the other teams to create an integrated Increment that is inclusive of all five team’s work.
- B. Visit the five teams each day to inspect that their Sprint Backlogs are aligned.
- C. Teach the Product Owner to work with the lead developers on ordering Product Backlog in a way to avoid too much overlap during a Sprint.
- D. Collect the Sprint tasks from the teams at the end of their Sprint Planning and merge that into a consolidated plan for the entire Sprint.
Correct Answer
A. Teach them that it is their responsibility to work with the other teams to create an integrated Increment that is inclusive of all five team’s work.
Why This Is the Correct Answer
All five teams build one product, so they share one Product Backlog, one Product Owner and one Product Goal. The Scrum Guide also says that when multiple Scrum Teams work on a product, they must mutually define and comply with the same Definition of Done. What matters at the end of the Sprint is a single integrated Increment that works as a whole. The Developers are self-managing, so they are best placed to figure out dependencies and coordinate directly with the other teams. The Scrum Master’s job is to teach and coach this, not to step in as a project manager. Frameworks like Nexus build on the same idea.
Why the Other Options Are Wrong
B. Visit the five teams daily to check that their Sprint Backlogs align. This makes the Scrum Master a coordinator and takes ownership away from the Developers.
C. Teach the Product Owner to order the backlog with lead developers to avoid overlap. There are no lead developers in Scrum, and ordering alone cannot remove all dependencies between teams.
D. Merge all teams’ tasks into one consolidated plan. Each Sprint Backlog belongs to its Developers. A consolidated master plan is a project management artifact, not Scrum.
Exam Tip
In multi-team questions, favor answers where the Developers coordinate directly and produce one integrated Increment. Answers that centralize planning in one person are usually wrong.
Key Takeaways
- Multiple teams on one product produce one integrated Increment.
- The Developers coordinate dependencies themselves.
- The Scrum Master teaches and coaches rather than coordinating.
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