Certified Disciplined Agile Coach (DAC) Exam — Questions and Answers

Question 1: Which facilitation technique encourages open discussion?

Ignoring participants.
Lecturing.
Open-ended questions. (Correct answer)
Closed questions.

Correct answer: Open-ended questions.

Open-ended questions promote exploration and engagement.

Question 2: Which metric from Value Stream Mapping directly helps a DA coach identify the constraint in a system?

Defect rate per process step
The ratio of manual to automated steps
Total number of handoffs across the stream
The step with the longest cycle time relative to its available capacity (Correct answer)

Correct answer: The step with the longest cycle time relative to its available capacity

The bottleneck or constraint is the step whose cycle time exceeds takt time or has the highest utilization, limiting overall throughput.

Question 3: In Disciplined Agile, a coach using a 'tell' approach is most appropriate when:

The team disagrees with the proposed solution
The team is highly experienced and self-organizing
The organization mandates a specific coaching style
The situation is urgent and the team lacks the necessary knowledge to decide safely (Correct answer)

Correct answer: The situation is urgent and the team lacks the necessary knowledge to decide safely

The 'tell' stance is appropriate in urgent or safety-critical situations where directive guidance prevents harm or significant delay.

Question 4: Which statement best describes DA's stance on choosing between SAFe, LeSS, Scrum@Scale, and Nexus?

DA mandates that organizations use SAFe for enterprise-scale agility
DA recommends LeSS as the default because it preserves the most Scrum practices
DA discourages the use of any pre-existing scaling framework in favor of custom solutions
DA is framework-agnostic and treats all scaling approaches as valid options in its toolkit (Correct answer)

Correct answer: DA is framework-agnostic and treats all scaling approaches as valid options in its toolkit

DA is a toolkit that treats SAFe, LeSS, Scrum@Scale, Nexus, and others as valid options from which practitioners can draw based on context.

Question 5: Which of the following best describes a key competency required for devops & continuous delivery in DAC practice?

Reliance on a single methodology for all situations
Strong analytical skills combined with effective communication and ethical judgment (Correct answer)
Memorization of all relevant regulations without understanding context
The ability to work independently without any oversight

Correct answer: Strong analytical skills combined with effective communication and ethical judgment

DAC professionals working in devops & continuous delivery need analytical skills to assess situations, communication skills to convey findings, and ethical judgment to make sound decisions.

Question 6: When applying DA Lean Portfolio Management, what is the purpose of 'portfolio guardrails'?

To strictly control every decision made by delivery teams
To enforce waterfall governance on agile teams
To create a list of prohibited technologies
To establish boundaries and policies within which teams have autonomy to make decisions (Correct answer)

Correct answer: To establish boundaries and policies within which teams have autonomy to make decisions

Portfolio guardrails define the boundaries of team autonomy—setting constraints like budget thresholds, compliance requirements, and architectural standards while empowering teams within those bounds.

Question 7: In Disciplined Agile, 'leading metrics' are preferred over 'lagging metrics' because they:

Provide early signals that allow teams to course-correct before outcomes are locked in (Correct answer)
Only apply to financial reporting
Are easier to calculate
Require less stakeholder communication

Correct answer: Provide early signals that allow teams to course-correct before outcomes are locked in

Leading metrics (e.g., WIP, queue depth) signal future performance, enabling proactive adjustments rather than after-the-fact analysis.

Question 8: In Value Stream Mapping, what is the correct order for creating a complete VSM?

Current state → Future state → Implementation plan (Correct answer)
Future state → Current state → Implementation plan
Implementation plan → Current state → Future state
Future state → Implementation plan → Current state

Correct answer: Current state → Future state → Implementation plan

You must first understand current reality (current-state map) before designing the improved flow (future-state map) and then planning implementation.

Question 9: According to DA's scaling guidance, what is the recommended approach when two teams have conflicting priorities due to shared dependencies?

Escalate immediately to the CEO for a final decision
Allow the teams to resolve the conflict independently without any external guidance
Use a collaborative prioritization session involving both teams and stakeholders to align on value (Correct answer)
Freeze all work until a formal change control board approves a resolution

Correct answer: Use a collaborative prioritization session involving both teams and stakeholders to align on value

DA recommends collaborative prioritization involving relevant teams and stakeholders to resolve dependency conflicts based on overall value and organizational goals.

Question 10: Which Agile role is responsible for maximizing product value?

Stakeholder.
Scrum Master.
Product Owner. (Correct answer)
Developer.

Correct answer: Product Owner.

The Product Owner prioritizes backlog items to deliver maximum value.

Question 11: How does DA's FLEX process blade support organizational change leadership?

It provides a fixed Scrum-based framework for all teams
It offers a flexible, lean-agile approach applicable to diverse team contexts (Correct answer)
It enforces SAFe PI Planning across the portfolio
It automates workflow through AI-driven process tools

Correct answer: It offers a flexible, lean-agile approach applicable to diverse team contexts

FLEX is DA's most adaptable process blade, designed for teams needing maximum flexibility in their WoW.

Question 12: In the context of DAC certification, what is the most important consideration when implementing value stream mapping?

Completing implementation as quickly as possible regardless of quality
Delegating all responsibilities to junior staff
Minimizing documentation to save time
Ensuring alignment with established standards, stakeholder needs, and best practices (Correct answer)

Correct answer: Ensuring alignment with established standards, stakeholder needs, and best practices

When implementing value stream mapping, DAC professionals must ensure alignment with industry standards and stakeholder needs. Hasty implementation without proper planning often leads to compliance issues and suboptimal outcomes.

Question 13: How should DAC professionals handle confidential information related to scaling agile frameworks?

Follow established protocols for data protection, access control, and disclosure in accordance with applicable regulations (Correct answer)
Store information without any security measures
Delete all records after project completion
Share freely with all colleagues for transparency

Correct answer: Follow established protocols for data protection, access control, and disclosure in accordance with applicable regulations

Confidential information must be handled according to established protocols, regulatory requirements, and professional ethics standards, including proper access control and disclosure procedures.

Question 14: Which scenario best illustrates a team applying the DA principle of 'pragmatism' in continuous improvement?

Waiting for management approval before changing any process
Adopting every Lean Startup practice regardless of team context
Dropping a retrospective technique that isn't generating useful insights and trying a different one (Correct answer)
Following the Scrum Guide precisely even when it doesn't fit the team's situation

Correct answer: Dropping a retrospective technique that isn't generating useful insights and trying a different one

Pragmatism means abandoning what isn't working and trying something else — choosing effectiveness over adherence to a specific method.

Question 15: How does Disciplined Agile differ from a single prescriptive framework like pure Scrum?

DA prescribes exactly how all teams must work
DA requires all teams to use Kanban boards
DA provides a toolkit of strategies that teams can tailor to their context (Correct answer)
DA eliminates the need for retrospectives

Correct answer: DA provides a toolkit of strategies that teams can tailor to their context

DA provides a flexible toolkit of strategies rather than prescribing a single way of working, enabling teams to tailor their approach.

Question 16: In Disciplined Agile, what does the 'architecture owner' role primarily ensure?

Writing all architectural documentation before development begins
Guiding the technical vision and ensuring architectural decisions align with strategic goals (Correct answer)
Managing the project budget and resource allocation
Approving every code change before it is integrated into the main branch

Correct answer: Guiding the technical vision and ensuring architectural decisions align with strategic goals

The architecture owner in DA guides the technical vision and ensures architectural decisions support strategic business goals without becoming a bottleneck.

Question 17: What is the most effective way to measure success in lean portfolio management within DAC professional practice?

Rely solely on supervisor opinion
Count only the number of activities completed
Compare only with industry averages without considering context
Use a combination of quantitative metrics, qualitative assessments, and stakeholder feedback aligned with defined objectives (Correct answer)

Correct answer: Use a combination of quantitative metrics, qualitative assessments, and stakeholder feedback aligned with defined objectives

Effective measurement combines multiple data sources — quantitative metrics, qualitative assessments, and stakeholder feedback — all aligned with clearly defined objectives for a comprehensive evaluation.

Question 18: Which metric is MOST aligned with DA's goal of measuring enterprise agile transformation success?

Percentage of employees with agile certifications
Business outcomes delivered and customer satisfaction improvements (Correct answer)
Lines of code produced per sprint
Number of teams trained in Scrum ceremonies

Correct answer: Business outcomes delivered and customer satisfaction improvements

DA focuses on business outcomes and customer satisfaction as the true measures of transformation success, not activity metrics.

Question 19: An organization wants to scale agile practices across 50 teams. Which DA strategy should a coach recommend to manage the complexity of this change?

Wait until pilot teams reach maturity before expanding
Coordinate teams through a centralized CoE with strict governance
Apply a tailored approach per team context while sharing learnings enterprise-wide (Correct answer)
Roll out one uniform framework to all teams simultaneously

Correct answer: Apply a tailored approach per team context while sharing learnings enterprise-wide

DA's context-sensitive approach means each team tailors its WoW while the organization benefits from shared learning networks.

Question 20: How does DA's Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD) differ from team-level Scrum in an enterprise context?

DAD requires teams to work in 4-week sprints exclusively
DAD replaces Scrum roles with traditional project management roles
DAD eliminates retrospectives in favor of formal audits
DAD provides a more complete lifecycle including enterprise concerns like architecture and governance (Correct answer)

Correct answer: DAD provides a more complete lifecycle including enterprise concerns like architecture and governance

DAD extends beyond Scrum by addressing the full delivery lifecycle including enterprise architecture, data management, and governance concerns.

Question 21: When mapping a software value stream, which activity is most commonly identified as non-value-added but necessary?

Waiting for regulatory or compliance reviews (Correct answer)
Code refactoring
Pair programming sessions
Writing unit tests

Correct answer: Waiting for regulatory or compliance reviews

Compliance and regulatory reviews are classified as 'necessary non-value-added' (Type 1 Muda) because customers don't value them but business rules require them.

Question 22: Which type of waste in Value Stream Mapping refers to producing more than what the customer currently needs?

Defects
Motion
Overproduction (Correct answer)
Waiting

Correct answer: Overproduction

Overproduction is considered the worst waste in Lean thinking because it creates additional inventory, space needs, and other downstream wastes.

Question 23: Which servant leadership behavior BEST supports a team's long-term capability growth according to DA principles?

Teaching the team problem-solving techniques and stepping back (Correct answer)
Assigning experienced members to all critical tasks
Escalating all unresolved issues to the program level
Solving complex problems on behalf of the team quickly

Correct answer: Teaching the team problem-solving techniques and stepping back

Servant leaders grow team capability by teaching and then withdrawing support, rather than creating dependency by solving problems for them.

Question 24: During a team retrospective, the coach uses the '5 Whys' technique. What is the PRIMARY goal of this practice?

Surface the root cause of a problem by iteratively asking why (Correct answer)
Document five team accomplishments per iteration
Rank the top five process improvements by ROI
Assign blame to the correct team member

Correct answer: Surface the root cause of a problem by iteratively asking why

The 5 Whys iteratively drills down through symptoms to reach the underlying root cause of a problem.

Question 25: A coach is facilitating a team that cannot reach consensus on a critical technical decision. What is the BEST next step?

Escalate the decision to upper management immediately
Use a structured decision-making technique such as Fist-to-Five or Gradients of Agreement (Correct answer)
Make the decision for the team to save time
Table the decision indefinitely until consensus emerges naturally

Correct answer: Use a structured decision-making technique such as Fist-to-Five or Gradients of Agreement

Structured consensus tools like Fist-to-Five allow teams to surface degrees of agreement and work toward an acceptable decision without requiring unanimity.

Question 26: Which practice supports continuous improvement?

Regular retrospectives. (Correct answer)
Avoiding change.
Skipping reviews.
Ignoring feedback.

Correct answer: Regular retrospectives.

Regular retrospectives are dedicated meetings where Agile teams reflect on their recent work, processes, and interactions. This practice provides a structured opportunity to identify what went well, what could be improved, and to commit to actionable changes for continuous learning and enhancement of team performance.

Question 27: Which behavior supports positive team dynamics?

Ignoring feedback.
Dominating discussions.
Respecting diverse perspectives. (Correct answer)
Disregarding others' opinions.

Correct answer: Respecting diverse perspectives.

Respecting diverse perspectives is fundamental to positive team dynamics as it encourages inclusivity and values the unique contributions of each member. When team members feel their opinions are heard and valued, it fosters psychological safety, promotes richer discussions, and leads to more robust and innovative solutions.

Question 28: Which DA principle best explains why a team should avoid refining stories that are many sprints away?

Keep workitems small
Be awesome
Embrace and manage change (Correct answer)
Optimize flow

Correct answer: Embrace and manage change

Embracing and managing change means distant items are likely to change, so over-refining them wastes effort.

Question 29: A DA Coach working with multiple teams notices they are solving the same problems independently. Which practice should the coach introduce to accelerate cross-team learning?

Merge all teams into one large team
Establish a community of practice (CoP) where teams share solutions and learnings (Correct answer)
Require each team to document solutions in a central repository without discussion
Assign one team to own all process decisions for the others

Correct answer: Establish a community of practice (CoP) where teams share solutions and learnings

Communities of Practice enable cross-team knowledge sharing in DA, preventing redundant problem-solving and accelerating organizational learning.

Question 30: In a future-state Value Stream Map, a 'supermarket' icon connected to a pull arrow indicates what kind of flow control?

An emergency stockpile for meeting unexpected demand spikes
A centralized backlog managed by a single product owner
A controlled inventory buffer where downstream processes pull work when needed (Correct answer)
Unlimited work-in-progress without constraints

Correct answer: A controlled inventory buffer where downstream processes pull work when needed

A supermarket buffer with pull arrows implements kanban-style flow control, allowing downstream teams to pull only what they need when they need it.

Question 31: In DA, the 'stability' of a team's flow is best assessed by examining which statistical property of their cycle time data?

Number of data points collected
Standard deviation or spread of cycle time distribution (Correct answer)
Mean cycle time only
Maximum recorded cycle time

Correct answer: Standard deviation or spread of cycle time distribution

Low standard deviation in cycle time indicates a stable, predictable process; high spread signals variability that undermines reliable forecasting.

Question 32: What is the primary purpose of a 'working agreement' that a DA coach helps a team create?

To define the team's sprint goals for the quarter
To provide a performance benchmark for management review
To replace the team's employment contracts
To document the team's commitments to how they will collaborate and interact (Correct answer)

Correct answer: To document the team's commitments to how they will collaborate and interact

Working agreements are team-generated commitments about collaboration norms, communication standards, and expected behaviors that improve team effectiveness.

Question 33: Which DA principle best explains why teams should avoid solely tracking output metrics like story points?

Be awesome
Make all work and workflow visible
Optimize flow
Delight all stakeholders (Correct answer)

Correct answer: Delight all stakeholders

DA's 'Delight all stakeholders' principle requires measuring outcomes that matter to stakeholders, not just internal output proxies.

Question 34: A DA Coach encounters passive resistance from middle managers during an agile transformation. What is the BEST initial approach?

Bypass managers and work directly with teams
Engage managers in co-creating the change vision (Correct answer)
Document resistance and ignore it temporarily
Escalate immediately to senior leadership

Correct answer: Engage managers in co-creating the change vision

Co-creating the change vision with resistant stakeholders builds ownership and reduces passive resistance.

Question 35: When calculating WIP (Work In Progress) limits using VSM data, which formula from Little's Law is applied?

Lead Time = WIP ÷ Throughput (Correct answer)
Lead Time = Throughput × WIP
WIP = Throughput ÷ Lead Time
Throughput = Lead Time + WIP

Correct answer: Lead Time = WIP ÷ Throughput

Little's Law states Lead Time = WIP ÷ Throughput, allowing teams to calculate appropriate WIP limits to achieve target lead times given known throughput.

Question 36: A DAC uses the 'GROW' model in a coaching session. What does the 'R' in GROW stand for?

Reflection
Resistance
Resources
Reality (Correct answer)

Correct answer: Reality

In the GROW model (Goal, Reality, Options, Will/Way Forward), 'Reality' represents the current state assessment that helps clarify where the coachee stands today.

Question 37: A newly formed DA team has members from three different former teams, each with different process habits. The BEST first step for the coach is to:

Assign a senior member to dictate the team's process
Allow each subgroup to continue their prior processes independently
Mandate that the team adopt the process used by the largest former team
Facilitate a collaborative session to co-create new working agreements reflecting the combined team's needs (Correct answer)

Correct answer: Facilitate a collaborative session to co-create new working agreements reflecting the combined team's needs

Co-creating working agreements gives all members ownership over the new process, accelerating alignment and reducing conflict from competing habits.

Question 38: Which of the following best describes the 'information flow' layer in a Value Stream Map?

The physical movement of documents between offices
The data architecture of the supporting IT systems
The signals, systems, and communications that trigger and control the movement of work (Correct answer)
The reporting hierarchy between managers and teams

Correct answer: The signals, systems, and communications that trigger and control the movement of work

The information flow layer shows how orders, schedules, and signals (including electronic systems) direct work to flow through the value stream.

Question 39: A DAC candidate observes a team holding long daily stand-ups that often become problem-solving sessions. Which Lean principle is most violated?

Eliminate waste (Correct answer)
Amplify learning
Optimize the whole
Build quality in

Correct answer: Eliminate waste

Stand-ups that drift into problem-solving sessions waste time and represent unnecessary non-value-adding work in the flow.

Question 40: What is the benefit of cross-functional teams?

Reduce communication.
Enhance collaboration and innovation. (Correct answer)
Increase silos.
Limit creativity.

Correct answer: Enhance collaboration and innovation.

Cross-functional teams bring together individuals with diverse skills and expertise, allowing them to collaborate closely on a shared goal. This diversity of thought and capability fosters a holistic approach to problem-solving, breaks down silos, and significantly enhances both collaboration and innovative solutions.

Question 41: An enterprise has completed its initial DA transformation but is seeing 'agile fatigue' — teams reverting to old habits. What DA mechanism BEST prevents this regression?

Increasing the number of agile coaches to monitor team compliance
Embedding continuous improvement practices and measuring outcomes to sustain behavioral change (Correct answer)
Publishing a transformation success story and closing the program
Re-running the initial agile training program for all employees

Correct answer: Embedding continuous improvement practices and measuring outcomes to sustain behavioral change

Sustaining transformation requires embedding continuous improvement rituals and tracking meaningful outcomes so agility becomes the new normal rather than a program with an end date.

Question 42: A DA coach is helping a team adopt DevOps. Which mindset shift is most fundamental?

Speed of delivery should always take priority over system stability
Breaking down the wall between development and operations to share responsibility for the full delivery lifecycle (Correct answer)
Operations teams should own all deployment decisions
Developers should never access production systems

Correct answer: Breaking down the wall between development and operations to share responsibility for the full delivery lifecycle

DevOps fundamentally requires dissolving the Dev/Ops silo so both sides share ownership of outcomes from code to production.

Question 43: Which symbol on a Value Stream Map typically represents an external customer or supplier?

A triangle with an 'I' inside
A circle with an arrow
A factory or building icon (Correct answer)
A lightning bolt

Correct answer: A factory or building icon

External customers and suppliers are depicted as factory/building icons positioned at the top corners of the VSM to represent the boundaries of the value stream.

Question 44: Which DA process goal is most closely aligned with achieving high deployment frequency?

Manage Risk
Govern Delivery
Coordinate Activities
Accelerate Value Delivery (Correct answer)

Correct answer: Accelerate Value Delivery

Accelerating value delivery directly targets reducing cycle time and increasing how often working software reaches users.

Question 45: During a team facilitation, a participant says 'we've always done it this way.' What facilitation technique BEST addresses this response?

Tell the team the old way is wrong
Agree and move on to avoid conflict
Skip that agenda item and return to it later
Ask 'What outcomes has that approach been producing?' to examine results objectively (Correct answer)

Correct answer: Ask 'What outcomes has that approach been producing?' to examine results objectively

Redirecting focus to measurable outcomes rather than tradition helps teams objectively evaluate whether their current approach is serving them.

Question 46: What is the primary risk of adopting a 'big bang' approach to agile transformation across an enterprise?

Overwhelming the organization's capacity to absorb change simultaneously (Correct answer)
Executive sponsors lose interest in agile
Agile frameworks become outdated during rollout
Teams become too autonomous too quickly

Correct answer: Overwhelming the organization's capacity to absorb change simultaneously

Big bang transformations overwhelm organizational change capacity, often causing chaos and reversion to old behaviors.

Question 47: When coaching an organization on Lean Portfolio Management, a DAC observes that most portfolio initiatives are classified as 'highest priority.' What should the coach do?

Randomly assign priorities to create a starting point
Facilitate a prioritization exercise using techniques like weighted shortest job first (WSJF) or cost of delay (Correct answer)
Accept the classification and add more teams to handle all the work
Escalate to the CEO to resolve the priority conflict

Correct answer: Facilitate a prioritization exercise using techniques like weighted shortest job first (WSJF) or cost of delay

When everything is highest priority, nothing is—a DA Coach should facilitate structured prioritization using economic frameworks like WSJF to force meaningful ordering.

Question 48: When a DAC coach facilitates a future-state VSM design session, what question best guides the team toward a pull-based system?

Where can downstream demand directly signal upstream processes to produce? (Correct answer)
Where can we introduce scheduling systems to push work more efficiently?
How can we maximize resource utilization at every step?
How can we increase the speed of each individual process step?

Correct answer: Where can downstream demand directly signal upstream processes to produce?

Pull systems are designed by identifying where customer or downstream demand can directly trigger upstream production, replacing push scheduling with real-time signals.

Question 49: Which DA principle most directly supports the practice of running experiments with multiple process options rather than mandating one approach?

Be awesome
Choice is good (Correct answer)
Delight customers
Pragmatism

Correct answer: Choice is good

'Choice is good' acknowledges that different contexts require different approaches, supporting process experimentation.

Question 50: When conducting a VSM workshop in a scaled agile environment, a DA coach discovers that three teams share a single deployment pipeline. What waste category does this most represent?

Waiting and contention for shared resources (Correct answer)
Overprocessing due to redundant reviews
Defects introduced by integration failures
Overproduction

Correct answer: Waiting and contention for shared resources

Shared constrained resources create contention queues where teams wait for access, representing the 'waiting' waste category in Lean thinking.

Question 51: In Value Stream Mapping, what does 'takt time' represent?

The time it takes to complete one unit of work
The rate at which work must be completed to meet customer demand (Correct answer)
The time spent waiting between process steps
The total elapsed time from request to delivery

Correct answer: The rate at which work must be completed to meet customer demand

Takt time is the available production time divided by customer demand rate, representing the pace work must flow to satisfy customers.

Question 52: A DAC is coaching a scaled program where multiple teams feed into a shared integration environment that creates a bottleneck. The Lean principle most relevant for resolving this is:

Decide as late as responsible
Optimize the whole (Correct answer)
Respect people
Eliminate waste

Correct answer: Optimize the whole

A shared integration bottleneck is a system-level constraint, and optimizing the whole means addressing cross-team flow rather than individual team throughput.

Question 53: Which approach supports scaling Agile across multiple teams?

Agile Release Trains. (Correct answer)
Waterfall project management.
Individual team sprints.
Ad-hoc meetings.

Correct answer: Agile Release Trains.

Agile Release Trains (ARTs) are a core concept within scaled Agile frameworks like SAFe, designed to coordinate multiple Agile teams working together on a shared solution. ARTs synchronize efforts, manage dependencies, and deliver integrated increments of value on a regular cadence, enabling effective scaled Agile delivery.

Question 54: Which of the following BEST describes the difference between coaching and mentoring in a DA context?

Coaching draws out the coachee's own solutions while mentoring shares the mentor's experience and knowledge (Correct answer)
Coaching is short-term while mentoring is always multi-year
Coaching gives answers while mentoring asks questions
Coaching is for individuals while mentoring is for teams

Correct answer: Coaching draws out the coachee's own solutions while mentoring shares the mentor's experience and knowledge

In DA and ICF frameworks, coaching helps people discover their own answers through inquiry, while mentoring involves sharing the mentor's direct experience and expertise.

Question 55: According to Disciplined Agile, how should a servant leader handle a situation where the team's chosen way of working (WoW) is suboptimal?

Escalate the issue to a governance board
Mandate the correct WoW to save time
Guide the team to reflect on and improve their WoW through retrospectives (Correct answer)
Allow the team to continue since autonomy is absolute

Correct answer: Guide the team to reflect on and improve their WoW through retrospectives

DA servant leaders facilitate team reflection and continuous improvement of WoW rather than imposing solutions or ignoring problems.

Question 56: A DA Coach is asked to help an enterprise scale agile to 200+ teams. Which anti-pattern should be AVOIDED when selecting a scaling framework?

Piloting the approach with a small cohort first
Mandating a single, rigid scaling framework for all teams enterprise-wide (Correct answer)
Measuring outcomes rather than framework compliance
Engaging teams in choosing practices from the DA toolkit

Correct answer: Mandating a single, rigid scaling framework for all teams enterprise-wide

Mandating a single rigid framework ignores DA's core principle of context-sensitivity and 'choose your WoW,' leading to compliance theater rather than genuine agility.

Question 57: A DA coach reviewing a current-state VSM notices multiple approval gates between development and deployment. What systemic problem does this most likely indicate?

Overemphasis on continuous integration
Insufficient team velocity
Lack of built-in quality and low organizational trust in the development process (Correct answer)
Too many parallel work streams

Correct answer: Lack of built-in quality and low organizational trust in the development process

Excessive approval gates often reflect low trust in quality practices; DA coaches address this by building quality in and establishing automated quality gates.

Question 58: In the context of Value Stream Mapping for software delivery, what does 'queue time' represent?

Time spent in active development by the team
Time allocated in sprint planning ceremonies
Time required for automated testing to complete
Time a work item spends waiting before the next person or team begins working on it (Correct answer)

Correct answer: Time a work item spends waiting before the next person or team begins working on it

Queue time is idle wait time between active processing steps and typically accounts for the majority of total lead time in software delivery.

Question 59: What is the key difference between 'lead time' and 'cycle time' in a Value Stream Map?

They are interchangeable terms in modern VSM practice
Lead time is team-level; cycle time is organization-level
Lead time is the total elapsed time from request to delivery; cycle time is the active processing time at a single step (Correct answer)
Lead time includes only value-added activities; cycle time includes all activities

Correct answer: Lead time is the total elapsed time from request to delivery; cycle time is the active processing time at a single step

Lead time spans the entire value stream from customer request to fulfillment, while cycle time measures how long one process step takes to complete its work.

Question 60: What is the purpose of a 'stakeholder map' in a DA coaching context?

To rank stakeholders by their salary level
To document stakeholder complaints for HR records
To identify all stakeholders, their interests, influence, and engagement needs (Correct answer)
To limit the number of stakeholders involved in a project

Correct answer: To identify all stakeholders, their interests, influence, and engagement needs

A stakeholder map helps coaches understand who is involved, what each stakeholder cares about, and how to appropriately engage each person.

Certified Disciplined Agile Coach (DAC) Exam

This certification validates an individual's ability to coach teams and organizations in adopting and optimizing Disciplined Agile (DA) practices and principles.

Questions

90 min

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70%

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