DA Governance, Compliance, and Continuous Improvement 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: In Disciplined Agile, which governance model best supports teams that choose their own way of working (WoW)?
- Command-and-control governance with mandatory process templates
- Lean governance that provides guardrails and enables team autonomy (Correct answer)
- Regulatory-first governance that mandates compliance checklists
- Waterfall-stage-gate governance with formal phase reviews
Correct answer: Lean governance that provides guardrails and enables team autonomy
DA's lean governance model establishes guardrails and guidance while empowering teams to choose their own WoW rather than imposing uniform processes.
Question 2: Which DA concept describes the lightweight boundaries within which teams are free to self-organize and choose their practices?
- Stage gates
- Guardrails (Correct answer)
- Compliance mandates
- Sprint contracts
Correct answer: Guardrails
Guardrails in DA define the boundaries set by the enterprise within which teams can autonomously choose their way of working.
Question 3: A DA team is required to comply with SOC 2 security standards. What is the BEST approach to handle this compliance need?
- Ignore compliance until an audit is scheduled
- Treat compliance as a constraint that shapes but doesn't override WoW choices (Correct answer)
- Adopt a fully waterfall approach to satisfy auditors
- Delegate all compliance tasks to a separate non-agile team
Correct answer: Treat compliance as a constraint that shapes but doesn't override WoW choices
DA treats regulatory and compliance requirements as constraints that teams must incorporate into their WoW choices while still remaining agile.
Question 4: In DA's continuous improvement philosophy, what does the term 'kaizen' refer to?
- A Japanese word for project closure ceremonies
- Small, incremental, and continuous improvements made by everyone (Correct answer)
- A formal six-month process improvement program
- A one-time radical process reengineering effort
Correct answer: Small, incremental, and continuous improvements made by everyone
Kaizen means continuous, incremental improvement involving everyone on the team, which aligns with DA's emphasis on ongoing optimization.
Question 5: Which DA governance layer is primarily responsible for setting strategic direction, funding, and portfolio-level oversight?
- Team layer
- Program layer
- Enterprise layer (Correct answer)
- Delivery layer
Correct answer: Enterprise layer
The Enterprise layer in DA handles strategic governance including funding decisions, enterprise architecture, and portfolio prioritization.
Question 6: What is the PRIMARY purpose of a DA team retrospective from a continuous improvement perspective?
- To assign blame for sprint failures
- To produce formal audit reports for management
- To inspect the team's WoW and identify actionable improvements (Correct answer)
- To update the project schedule and budget estimates
Correct answer: To inspect the team's WoW and identify actionable improvements
Retrospectives in DA are improvement events where teams reflect on their WoW and commit to specific, actionable changes.
Question 7: In DA, enterprise governance differs from team-level governance primarily because it focuses on:
- Daily stand-ups and task tracking
- Portfolio investment decisions and organizational strategy alignment (Correct answer)
- Individual developer performance reviews
- Selecting which agile ceremonies teams must attend
Correct answer: Portfolio investment decisions and organizational strategy alignment
Enterprise governance in DA addresses strategic concerns like portfolio investment, risk at scale, and aligning delivery with organizational strategy.
DA Governance, Compliance, and Continuous Improvement 2
In Disciplined Agile, which governance model best supports teams that choose their own way of working (WoW)?