Scrum Master & AI Exercises

Fill in the blanks to test your knowledge.

1

Scrum's three pillars of empiricism are transparency, inspection, and ___

Scrum's three pillars of empirical process control:

1. Transparency — the process and work must be visible to all

2. Inspection — artifacts and progress must be inspected frequently

3. — if any aspect deviates outside acceptable limits, the process must be adjusted

All three pillars work together to enable empirical process control.

2

When AI tools accelerate delivery, the Definition of Done must include ___ of AI-generated code by someone who did not write it

AI-updated Definition of Done:

- of AI-generated code by a human who was not the author

- At least one test written by a human covering a non-obvious edge case

- Documentation includes the why, not just the what

- AI code handling user input reviewed against OWASP Top 10

3

The Scrum Master role spans three zones: mechanics, coaching, and ___. AI automates the first zone most aggressively.

Scrum Master zones of responsibility:

- Mechanics: ceremonies, tooling, process compliance — AI is automating this zone

- Coaching: psychological safety, culture, individual growth — human judgment required

- : organizational change, vision alignment, strategic thinking

The coaching and zones become more valuable as AI takes the mechanical work.

4

In agentic development workflows, backlog refinement becomes ___ important because AI agents require more precise acceptance criteria than human developers

Human developers: can ask clarifying questions via Slack during development.

Agentic workflows: need precise acceptance criteria before starting — they cannot resolve ambiguity interactively.

Implication: invest in refinement, not less, as agent use increases.

Scrum Master role: ensure stories are agent-ready before sprint planning.

5

When AI tools create visible productivity gaps between team members, the Scrum Master must actively protect ___ so developers feel safe disclosing AI failures

Risk: productivity gaps between team members create pressure to hide AI failures.

The Scrum Master must actively protect : the belief that it is safe to speak up and make mistakes.

Key norm: explicitly celebrate when someone says "the AI got this wrong and I caught it."

Avoid: never frame AI tool adoption as a performance issue.

Insight: teams that hide AI mistakes turn AI failures into production incidents.