ADM ADM Metrics & Reporting 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What does 'velocity' measure in a Scrum team?
- The number of story points completed in a sprint (Correct answer)
- The speed at which developers write code
- The number of bugs fixed per day
- The total hours worked by the team
Correct answer: The number of story points completed in a sprint
Velocity measures the amount of work (in story points) a team completes during a sprint, used for forecasting future capacity.
Question 2: What does a sprint burndown chart primarily show?
- Remaining work versus time left in the sprint (Correct answer)
- Total budget consumed versus planned
- Number of team members active each day
- Defect count over the sprint duration
Correct answer: Remaining work versus time left in the sprint
A sprint burndown chart plots remaining work (story points or tasks) against the days remaining, helping teams see if they are on track.
Question 3: How is 'cycle time' defined in agile delivery?
- Time from when work is started to when it is completed (Correct answer)
- Time from feature request to first commit
- Time from sprint start to sprint end
- Time between two consecutive releases
Correct answer: Time from when work is started to when it is completed
Cycle time measures the elapsed time from when a work item is actively started until it is delivered, reflecting team execution speed.
Question 4: What does 'lead time' measure in an agile workflow?
- Time from customer request to delivery (Correct answer)
- Time from code commit to deployment
- Time from backlog creation to sprint planning
- Time from defect discovery to resolution
Correct answer: Time from customer request to delivery
Lead time spans from when a customer or stakeholder makes a request to when that request is fully delivered, including any wait time.
Question 5: What is the primary purpose of a Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFD)?
- Visualize work item flow and identify bottlenecks across workflow stages (Correct answer)
- Track individual developer productivity over time
- Compare planned versus actual sprint velocity
- Measure customer satisfaction trends
Correct answer: Visualize work item flow and identify bottlenecks across workflow stages
A CFD shows the number of work items in each workflow state over time, making bottlenecks and WIP imbalances immediately visible.
Question 6: What does a consistently declining sprint velocity most likely indicate?
- The team is facing impediments or is overcommitted (Correct answer)
- The team is improving its estimation accuracy
- The product backlog is running out of items
- The Definition of Done has been relaxed
Correct answer: The team is facing impediments or is overcommitted
A sustained drop in velocity typically signals unresolved blockers, team instability, or workload that exceeds the team's sustainable pace.
ADM ADM Metrics & Reporting 1
What does 'velocity' measure in a Scrum team?