CDA Enterprise Agile Scaling 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: In DA's enterprise scaling approach, which layer of the three-layer governance model is responsible for setting the overall strategic direction?
- Team layer
- Program layer
- Portfolio layer (Correct answer)
- Operations layer
Correct answer: Portfolio layer
The Portfolio layer in DA's governance model is responsible for setting strategic direction, funding decisions, and enterprise-level prioritization.
Question 2: A company using DA at scale wants to reduce the time from concept to cash. Which DA process blade most directly addresses this goal?
- Govern Team
- Coordinate Activities
- Improve Quality
- Develop Cadence and Synchronize (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Develop Cadence and Synchronize
The Develop Cadence and Synchronize process blade addresses flow and timing of work, directly impacting the speed from concept to delivered value.
Question 3: In DA enterprise scaling, what is meant by 'Lean governance' as opposed to traditional governance?
- Eliminating all oversight and letting teams govern themselves entirely
- Lightweight, value-focused governance that minimizes bureaucracy while maintaining appropriate oversight (Correct answer)
- Governance focused exclusively on cost reduction metrics
- Replacing human governance with automated compliance tools
Correct answer: Lightweight, value-focused governance that minimizes bureaucracy while maintaining appropriate oversight
Lean governance in DA provides necessary oversight and direction with minimal bureaucratic overhead, focusing on value delivery rather than compliance theater.
Question 4: When multiple DA teams are working on the same product, which artifact helps align their work at a shared level?
- Individual team sprint backlogs only
- A program-level backlog or solution backlog (Correct answer)
- A shared Kanban board managed by Scrum Masters
- A consolidated burndown chart
Correct answer: A program-level backlog or solution backlog
A program-level or solution backlog aggregates and prioritizes work across multiple teams, providing shared visibility into what needs to be built collectively.
Question 5: In DA, which scaling anti-pattern occurs when enterprise agile transformation focuses on process adoption metrics rather than actual business outcomes?
- Scrumfall
- Cargo cult agile (Correct answer)
- Mini-waterfall
- Feature factory syndrome
Correct answer: Cargo cult agile
Cargo cult agile refers to adopting the rituals and ceremonies of agile without understanding or achieving the underlying principles and business outcomes.
Question 6: Which DA principle guides how enterprises should handle the tension between team autonomy and enterprise standardization?
- Maximum standardization ensures predictability and should always win
- Enterprise constraints should be minimized so teams can optimize locally
- Balance team autonomy with enterprise alignment based on situational context (Correct answer)
- All teams must follow identical processes to enable effective benchmarking
Correct answer: Balance team autonomy with enterprise alignment based on situational context
DA advocates for contextual balance—enterprises set necessary constraints while teams retain autonomy within those boundaries to optimize their specific WoW.
Question 7: In an enterprise DA scaling scenario, a Product Manager discovers competing priorities between two program-level teams. What is the recommended DA approach?
- Let each team independently resolve the conflict based on their own backlog priorities
- Escalate immediately to executive leadership for all priority disputes
- Use portfolio-level prioritization and transparent dependency mapping to resolve conflicts collaboratively (Correct answer)
- Freeze both teams' work until a consensus is reached
Correct answer: Use portfolio-level prioritization and transparent dependency mapping to resolve conflicts collaboratively
DA recommends resolving cross-team priority conflicts through portfolio-level prioritization mechanisms and transparent visibility into dependencies, not unilateral team decisions or immediate escalation.
CDA Enterprise Agile Scaling 3
In DA's enterprise scaling approach, which layer of the three-layer governance model is responsible for setting the overall strategic direction?