Professional Scrum Master I case studies
PSM I · Put your knowledge to work in context.
The Professional Scrum Master (PSM) credential is part of the Professional Scrum Master assessment family offered by Scrum.org, described on its site as covering "Fundamental, advanced & distinguished levels of Scrum Master knowledge in levels I, II & III." The PSM I entry point is aimed at anyone accountable for, or working alongside, a Scrum Master: practising Scrum Masters, team members, Product Owners, managers and coaches who want to demonstrate that they understand Scrum as written in the Scrum Guide rather than as adapted folklore. Expect questions that test the framework's theory and the reasoning behind it - empiricism, the Scrum Values, the accountabilities within the Scrum Team, the events and their purposes, the artifacts and their commitments, and how a Scrum Master serves the team and the wider organisation. The PSM I case studies are 5 cases and about 2,534 words.
1The Sprint Review That Became a Status Meeting
A Scrum Team at a logistics company runs two-week Sprints. The Product Owner has started inviting 15 stakeholders to the Sprint Review and presenting a slide deck of completed Jira tickets himself, while the Developers sit silently at the back.
500 words, about 3 min2The Sprint Goal Nobody Can State
A five-person Scrum Team has been running Sprints for six months. When the Scrum Master asks each member to state the current Sprint Goal, four give different answers and one says "finish the backlog items we picked." The Sprint Backlog is a flat list of 22 items carried over from the Product Backlog, ordered by the Product Owner.
542 words, about 3 min3Who Owns the Definition of Done?
A Scrum Team at a fintech company has no written Definition of Done. Each Developer applies their own standard: one writes unit tests, another does not; one considers a feature done when it merges to main, another when it is deployed to staging.
497 words, about 2 min4The Daily Scrum That Runs 40 Minutes
A Scrum Master joins a team whose Daily Scrum lasts 40 minutes. Each of the seven Developers gives a detailed status update to the Scrum Master, who takes notes and then assigns follow-up tasks.
507 words, about 3 min5The Product Owner Who Is Also the Tech Lead
At a 12-person company, the most senior engineer holds two titles: Product Owner and Tech Lead. She orders the Product Backlog, sets the Sprint Goal, and also assigns technical tasks to the Developers, reviews their code, and decides architecture.
488 words, about 2 min