DAC Agile & Lean Principles 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which Lean principle focuses on delivering value to the customer as quickly as possible by reducing delays between process steps?
- Eliminate waste
- Amplify learning
- Deliver fast (Correct answer)
- Decide late
Correct answer: Deliver fast
Lean's 'Deliver Fast' principle emphasizes reducing cycle time and flow time so customers receive value sooner.
Question 2: In Disciplined Agile, the 'Delight Customers' principle differs from simply 'satisfying' them by focusing on:
- Delivering on time and within budget
- Exceeding expectations and creating loyalty (Correct answer)
- Meeting all documented requirements
- Minimizing defects in the final product
Correct answer: Exceeding expectations and creating loyalty
Delighting customers means going beyond satisfaction to create emotional loyalty and repeat business.
Question 3: A team practicing 'Be Awesome' as a DA principle is primarily focused on:
- Achieving perfect technical implementation
- Continuously improving skills and professionalism (Correct answer)
- Outperforming competitor teams
- Receiving top performance review scores
Correct answer: Continuously improving skills and professionalism
'Be Awesome' in DA means each person strives to be the best professional they can be through continuous learning.
Question 4: The Lean concept of 'pull' systems in a software context means:
- Managers assign work items to available developers
- Work is started only when downstream capacity exists (Correct answer)
- Code is pulled from version control on demand
- Requirements are pulled from the product backlog each sprint
Correct answer: Work is started only when downstream capacity exists
Pull systems ensure work flows only when the next step has capacity, preventing WIP overload and bottlenecks.
Question 5: Which agile principle underpins the DA practice of choosing team size to balance communication overhead and productivity?
- Individuals and interactions over processes and tools (Correct answer)
- Responding to change over following a plan
- Working software over comprehensive documentation
- Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Correct answer: Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Prioritizing individuals and interactions drives team-size decisions that maximize effective human communication.
Question 6: What does the Lean 'Respect People' principle require of agile coaches in a DA context?
- Shielding team members from stakeholder pressure
- Trusting teams to self-organize and make decisions (Correct answer)
- Providing step-by-step work instructions
- Ensuring team members never fail publicly
Correct answer: Trusting teams to self-organize and make decisions
Respecting people means trusting their judgment and giving them autonomy rather than micromanaging their work.
Question 7: A DAC candidate observes a team holding long daily stand-ups that often become problem-solving sessions. Which Lean principle is most violated?
- Optimize the whole
- Build quality in
- Eliminate waste (Correct answer)
- Amplify learning
Correct answer: Eliminate waste
Stand-ups that drift into problem-solving sessions waste time and represent unnecessary non-value-adding work in the flow.
DAC Agile & Lean Principles 2
Which Lean principle focuses on delivering value to the customer as quickly as possible by reducing delays between process steps?