Question 1

A Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is a product with just enough features to satisfy early customers and?

Accepted Answer

A

Explanation: A Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is a core concept in lean and agile approaches, including Disciplined Agile. Its primary purpose is twofold: to deliver immediate value to early adopters and, more importantly, to function as an experiment to gather validated learning. By releasing a product with a minimal feature set, the team can test its core business hypotheses with real users. The feedback collected is crucial for guiding future development, ensuring that subsequent iterations are based on actual user needs and behavior rather than assumptions. This "build-measure-learn" feedback loop minimizes wasted effort and maximizes the chances of building a successful product.

Question 2

In Team Estimation

Accepted Answer

A

Explanation: In Disciplined Agile (DA), team estimation is a collaborative process focused on determining the size of work items, such as user stories. The most common and recommended approach is relative estimation. This technique involves the team first comparing stories to each other to understand their relative sizes (e.g., "Story X is about twice as complex as Story Y"). After establishing this relative scale, the team assigns numerical values, typically story points from a sequence like Fibonacci, to represent that size. This leverages the collective wisdom of the team to create a shared understanding of the work involved, rather than focusing on precise time-based predictions.

Question 3

A team is about to begin work on a project that will lace rapidly changing requirements with releases
only every six months or so. The team does not have an agile mindset and does not want to release
often.
Which lifecycle should the scrum master select?

Accepted Answer

C

Explanation: The Disciplined Agile (DA) toolkit emphasizes pragmatism and the principle of "Start Where You Are." The team's context is the primary driver for selecting a lifecycle. In this scenario, the team's lack of an agile mindset and their explicit desire for infrequent releases (every six months) are the dominant factors. While rapidly changing requirements suggest an adaptive approach, forcing an Agile or Lean lifecycle on an unwilling and unprepared team would be counterproductive and likely lead to failure. The DA toolkit includes a Traditional (also called Serial) lifecycle specifically for situations where it is the most appropriate fit for the team's current skills, culture, and context.

Question 4

Which is a supporting role on a Disciplined Agile (DA) team?

Accepted Answer

D

Explanation: Disciplined Agile (DA) categorizes team roles into two types: primary and supporting. Primary roles are essential for the team's day-to-day function throughout the initiative. Supporting roles, however, are engaged on an as-needed, often temporary, basis to provide specific skills or expertise that the core team lacks. A Specialist, such as a security expert or database administrator, is a classic example of a supporting role, brought in to address particular challenges or tasks before disengaging.

Question 5

What are the three phases common across project life cycles? (Choose three)

Accepted Answer

C, D, E

Explanation: The Disciplined Agile (DA) framework describes a full, goal-driven delivery life cycle that is common across various approaches. This life cycle consists of three distinct phases. The Inception phase focuses on envisioning the project, securing funding, and forming the team. The Construction phase is where the team incrementally produces a potentially consumable solution. Finally, the Transition phase ensures the solution is successfully deployed or released to stakeholders and the business is prepared to receive it. These three phases provide a lightweight governance structure for agile and lean projects from initiation to delivery.

Question 6

Which method extends the Kaizen loop strategy to help teams identify techniques that are likely to work in their context?

Accepted Answer

B

Explanation: Guided Continuous Improvement (GCI) is a fundamental concept in the Disciplined Agile (DA) toolkit that enhances the traditional Kaizen (Plan-Do-Study-Act) loop. Instead of relying on unstructured experimentation, GCI provides teams with a framework of process goals, decision points, and a curated list of proven techniques with their associated trade-offs. This guidance helps teams make more informed choices about which new practices are likely to succeed in their specific context, thereby accelerating and focusing their improvement efforts. It extends the Kaizen strategy by providing a "guardrail" of options rather than leaving teams to discover them on their own.

Question 7

Why is the coordination meeting important for a project team?

Accepted Answer

B

Explanation: The primary purpose of a coordination meeting, often referred to as a daily stand-up or daily scrum in agile contexts, is for the project team to synchronize their activities. During this brief, recurring event, team members share progress, discuss any impediments they are facing, and align on the plan for the immediate future (typically the next 24 hours). This ensures that the team remains aligned, can quickly address issues, and can self-organize effectively to meet their iteration goals. It is a meeting for the team, by the team, to facilitate collaboration and maintain momentum.

Question 8

Who defines the amount of work to be completed during an iteration?

Accepted Answer

D

Explanation: In Disciplined Agile (DA), teams are self-organizing and empowered. During iteration planning, the Product Owner presents the prioritized backlog of work. However, it is the responsibility of the entire delivery team to determine how much of that work they can realistically commit to completing within the iteration. This decision is based on their collective understanding of their current capacity, historical performance (velocity), and the complexity of the prioritized items. The team "pulls" work from the backlog into the iteration plan, rather than having work "pushed" onto them. This fosters ownership, accountability, and a sustainable pace.

Question 9

What arc Disciplined Agile milestones based on?

Accepted Answer

C

Explanation: Disciplined Agile (DA) milestones are a fundamental component of its lean governance framework. Unlike traditional, documentation-heavy phase gates, DA milestones are lightweight, risk-based checkpoints. They provide key stakeholders with visibility into the initiative and opportunities to make critical decisions at opportune times. Milestones such as "Proven Architecture," "Continued Viability," and "Sufficient Functionality" are explicitly designed to mitigate common project risks (technical, financial, market) early and ensure the team remains focused on delivering consumable solutions that provide real business value. This approach embodies the lean principles of minimizing waste and maximizing value, which are central to DA's governance strategy.

Question 10

What is the role of management in Lean?

Accepted Answer

D

Explanation: In a Lean paradigm, management's role shifts from command-and-control to that of a coach and enabler. Their primary responsibility is to foster an environment where teams can thrive and continuously improve. This aligns with the Disciplined Agile (DA) principle of "Be Awesome," which includes creating psychological safety and a productive, collaborative atmosphere. By creating an "awesome team environment," management empowers teams, removes impediments, and supports the system of work, which is the essence of Lean leadership. This enables teams to focus on delivering value and eliminating waste, which are the core goals of Lean.

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