DA Metrics, KPIs & Performance Measurement Flashcards

In Disciplined Agile, which category of metrics focuses on measuring the outcomes delivered to customers rather than internal team activities?

Answer: Outcome metrics

Outcome metrics focus on the value and results delivered to customers, which DA prioritizes over tracking internal outputs or activities.

What does the Disciplined Agile concept of 'flow efficiency' measure?

Answer: The percentage of time work is actively being worked on versus waiting

Flow efficiency measures the proportion of time work spends in active processing versus sitting idle in queues, highlighting waste in the value stream.

In the DA toolkit, which metric is used to measure the predictability of a team's delivery cadence?

Answer: Velocity variance

Velocity variance tracks fluctuations in a team's velocity over time, indicating how predictable and stable their delivery cadence is.

According to Disciplined Agile, what is the primary risk of relying solely on velocity as a performance metric?

Answer: Teams may game the metric by inflating story points rather than improving real productivity

DA warns that velocity-only focus incentivizes point inflation and story padding rather than genuine productivity improvement or customer value delivery.

Which DA principle guides teams to use metrics for learning and improvement rather than for performance evaluation of individuals?

Answer: Create psychological safety

DA emphasizes psychological safety so that metrics are used as learning tools for the team, not as surveillance or judgment tools against individuals.

In Disciplined Agile, 'leading indicators' differ from 'lagging indicators' in that leading indicators:

Answer: Predict future performance trends before outcomes occur

Leading indicators provide early signals about future outcomes (e.g., team morale, defect injection rate), allowing teams to course-correct before problems fully materialize.