Directors on the housing-voucher ART schedule a dedicated hardening iteration at the end of every PI so testers can hunt defects after feature work. What should the Scrum Master / Team Coach do?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation
A hardening iteration is a mop at the end of a muddy hallway. If voucher work only gets real testing after the PI, quality never lived in the work. Build it in with test-first, CI, and a real Done—do not calendar a cleanup festival.
Full Explanation
SAFe Built-in Quality expects teams to prevent defects during the PI through practices such as test-first, continuous integration, and a Definition of Done that includes working, integrated software. A recurring hardening iteration is evidence that inspection is still late and flow will keep stalling on rework. The SM/TC should not institutionalize that delay, dump untested work into the Innovation and Planning iteration, or hide quality in a System Team backlog. Coach the housing-voucher teams to make quality part of every story so hardening is unnecessary as a strategy.