you join a new Scrum Team as a Scrum Master. Up until now, the Product Owner has not been attending Sprint Retrospectives. The Developers fear they will become “too negative” with the Product Owner present.

As a Scrum master, what should you do?

A. Explore further why the Developers fear the presence of the Product Owner. Work with the Developers to find a safe way to introduce the Product owner to the Sprint Retrospective to enable greater transparency
B. Speak to the Product Owner and see what he or she thinks. Do what they suggest is best
C. Facilitate a discussion in the Scrum Team and allow them to decide what is best to do
D. Respect the Developers wishes

Correct Answer: A

This is not a decision for the Developers or the Product Owner to make. Scrum requires the Product Owner to attend the Sprint Retrospective in order to increase transparency and enable inspection & Adoption. The Scrum Master needs to help make this happen. Exploring the resistance to this and seeking to deal with it will be necessary.