APM Retrospectives & Continuous Improvement 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which retrospective format uses anonymous dot voting to prioritize the most important topics for discussion?
- Fist of Five
- Dot voting (dotmocracy) (Correct answer)
- Affinity mapping
- Round-robin brainstorming
Correct answer: Dot voting (dotmocracy)
Dot voting allows team members to anonymously allocate a fixed number of votes to topics, surfacing the most impactful issues without social bias.
Question 2: In continuous improvement, Kaizen refers to:
- A one-time process overhaul driven by management
- Small, incremental improvements made continuously by the whole team (Correct answer)
- A Japanese term for large-scale transformation projects
- A technique for rapid root cause analysis
Correct answer: Small, incremental improvements made continuously by the whole team
Kaizen means 'change for better' and describes the philosophy of continuous, incremental improvement involving everyone in an organization.
Question 3: A team wants to understand why a production defect escaped testing. They ask 'why' repeatedly until they reach the fundamental cause. This technique is known as:
- Fishbone diagram
- 5 Whys (Correct answer)
- SWOT analysis
- Impact mapping
Correct answer: 5 Whys
The 5 Whys technique iteratively asks 'why' to drill past symptoms down to the root cause of a problem.
Question 4: When should a retrospective action item be considered 'done'?
- When it is documented in the retrospective notes
- When the team verbally agrees it is complete
- When the behavior change or process improvement has been implemented and observed (Correct answer)
- When the Scrum Master marks it complete in the tracking tool
Correct answer: When the behavior change or process improvement has been implemented and observed
A retrospective action item is truly done only when the intended improvement has been enacted and its effect can be observed in practice.
Question 5: Which of the following is an anti-pattern in retrospective facilitation?
- Rotating the facilitator role among team members
- The Scrum Master consistently advocates for specific solutions during the retrospective (Correct answer)
- Using varied retrospective formats each sprint
- Keeping the retrospective time-boxed
Correct answer: The Scrum Master consistently advocates for specific solutions during the retrospective
A facilitator who pushes their own solutions undermines team ownership and reduces psychological safety, which are essential for effective retrospectives.
Question 6: A team uses a cumulative flow diagram to identify that work items linger in the 'In Review' stage far too long. At retrospective, this finding should be treated as:
- A milestone to celebrate
- A data-driven impediment to investigate and address with a process improvement action (Correct answer)
- Information to share only with the Product Owner
- Evidence that the team needs more resources
Correct answer: A data-driven impediment to investigate and address with a process improvement action
Metrics like cumulative flow diagrams provide objective evidence for process bottlenecks that retrospectives should translate into concrete improvement actions.
Question 7: What is the recommended maximum duration for a retrospective in a two-week sprint?
- 30 minutes
- 1.5 hours (Correct answer)
- 3 hours
- 4 hours
Correct answer: 1.5 hours
The Scrum Guide recommends a maximum of 1.5 hours for a retrospective in a two-week sprint to maintain focus and energy.
APM Retrospectives & Continuous Improvement 3
Which retrospective format uses anonymous dot voting to prioritize the most important topics for discussion?