Agile Metrics and Reporting Questions and Answers

Question 1

A team is reviewing their Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFD).
They notice that the band representing the 'In Progress' stage is consistently widening over time, while the 'Done' band is flattening.
What is the most likely interpretation of this pattern?

Accepted Answer

A bottleneck exists where work is entering the 'In Progress' stage faster than it is leaving.

Answer

The team's Work in Progress (WIP) limits are too low, starving the team of work.

Answer

The project scope is decreasing as features are being completed and removed.

Answer

The team is becoming more efficient and finishing work faster than new work is starting.

Question 2

An Agile team wants to measure the total time from when a customer request is first made until it is delivered to the customer to better understand the customer's experience. Which metric should they use?

Accepted Answer

Lead Time

Answer

Velocity

Answer

Cycle Time

Answer

Throughput

Question 3

A team is using a burn-up chart to track progress towards a release. Midway through the project, the product owner adds a significant number of new user stories to the scope. How would this event be reflected on the burn-up chart?

Accepted Answer

The line representing total scope would show a distinct upward step.

Answer

The line representing completed work would drop down to a lower value.

Answer

Both the completed work line and the total scope line would flatten.

Answer

A new chart must be started as the original scope is now invalid.

Question 4

A manager who oversees several Scrum teams wants to use velocity as the primary metric to compare their performance. Which of the following is the most significant reason this is a flawed approach?

Accepted Answer

Comparing velocities is misleading because each team's estimation scale is unique and relative to that team.

Answer

Velocity does not account for the quality of the work delivered by each team.

Answer

Teams may artificially inflate their velocity if they know they are being compared.

Answer

Velocity can only be measured accurately using story points, which are subjective.

Question 5

A Kanban team wants to improve the predictability of their delivery. They decide to track the number of work items finished per week to understand their delivery rate. What is this metric called?

Accepted Answer

Throughput

Answer

Work in Progress (WIP)

Answer

Velocity

Answer

Cycle Time

Question 6

You are an Agile leader preparing a status report for stakeholders who are primarily concerned with budget and schedule forecasting for a major release. Which combination of metrics would be most effective for this audience?

Accepted Answer

A Release Burn-up Chart and Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFD)

Answer

Team Velocity and a Sprint Burndown Chart

Answer

Daily Throughput and a Team Happiness Survey

Answer

Escaped Defect Count and Cycle Time

A team is reviewing their Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFD).They notice that the band representing the 'In Progress' stage is consistently widening over time, while the 'Done' band is flattening.What is the most likely interpretation of this pattern?

A team is reviewing their Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFD).
They notice that the band representing the 'In Progress' stage is consistently widening over time, while the 'Done' band is flattening.
What is the most likely interpretation of this pattern?