CST Velocity, Cycle Time & Flow Metrics 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A Scrum Team wants to use a Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFD). What does a widening band in a specific workflow state indicate?
- Work is flowing smoothly through that state
- A bottleneck or accumulation of work is building up in that state (Correct answer)
- The team is completing more items than planned
- Story point estimates are increasing over time
Correct answer: A bottleneck or accumulation of work is building up in that state
A widening band in a CFD state signals that items are accumulating faster than they are leaving, revealing a bottleneck.
Question 2: Which statement about throughput as a flow metric is MOST accurate?
- Throughput measures the time to complete a single work item
- Throughput counts the number of items completed per unit of time (Correct answer)
- Throughput is equivalent to story point velocity
- Throughput only applies when using Kanban, not Scrum
Correct answer: Throughput counts the number of items completed per unit of time
Throughput is a count-based metric: the number of work items completed within a defined time period.
Question 3: A Product Owner wants to forecast when a set of 30 backlog items will be complete. The team's recent throughput is 6 items per sprint. What is the MOST appropriate probabilistic approach?
- Divide 30 by 6 and commit to exactly 5 sprints
- Use a Monte Carlo simulation based on historical throughput distribution (Correct answer)
- Ask developers to re-estimate all items in hours for precision
- Double the estimate to 10 sprints as a safety buffer
Correct answer: Use a Monte Carlo simulation based on historical throughput distribution
Monte Carlo simulation uses historical throughput variability to generate probabilistic forecasts rather than single-point estimates.
Question 4: What is the primary risk of optimizing solely for high velocity each sprint?
- Teams may finish too much work, leaving nothing for future sprints
- Teams may inflate estimates or cut quality to show more points completed (Correct answer)
- Stakeholders will lose interest in the Sprint Review
- The Product Owner will run out of backlog items to prioritize
Correct answer: Teams may inflate estimates or cut quality to show more points completed
Optimizing for velocity as a target creates pressure to inflate estimates or reduce quality rather than deliver real value.
Question 5: In flow metrics, 'arrival rate' refers to:
- The pace at which the team accepts work into the sprint
- The rate at which new work items enter the workflow system (Correct answer)
- The speed at which items move from one column to the next
- How quickly stakeholders provide feedback after a Sprint Review
Correct answer: The rate at which new work items enter the workflow system
Arrival rate measures how many new items are added to the workflow per unit of time, useful for assessing system demand.
Question 6: When is velocity MOST reliable for release planning?
- After the very first sprint when the team has a baseline
- After several sprints when the team has a stable, consistent measurement (Correct answer)
- When calculated by averaging the highest and lowest sprint results
- When summed across all sprints in the project to date
Correct answer: After several sprints when the team has a stable, consistent measurement
Velocity becomes a reliable planning tool only after the team reaches a stable, predictable pattern over multiple sprints.
Question 7: Which action BEST reduces cycle time for individual work items in a Scrum Team?
- Increasing the number of items in the Sprint Backlog
- Limiting Work in Progress so developers can focus and finish items faster (Correct answer)
- Assigning each item to a specialist who only works on that type of task
- Extending the sprint length to allow more time per item
Correct answer: Limiting Work in Progress so developers can focus and finish items faster
Limiting WIP reduces context-switching and wait time, allowing team members to complete individual items more quickly.
CST Velocity, Cycle Time & Flow Metrics 3
A Scrum Team wants to use a Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFD).
What does a widening band in a specific workflow state indicate?