DAC Agile & Lean Principles 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: In a Disciplined Agile context, 'optimizing the whole' instead of sub-optimizing a single team means:
- Every team should use the same process framework
- Improving enterprise outcomes rather than local team metrics (Correct answer)
- All teams must adopt the same delivery cadence
- Individual developers should work on multiple projects simultaneously
Correct answer: Improving enterprise outcomes rather than local team metrics
Optimizing the whole requires focusing improvement efforts on overall enterprise value flow, not isolated team performance.
Question 2: Which DA principle most directly supports the practice of running experiments with multiple process options rather than mandating one approach?
- Delight customers
- Be awesome
- Pragmatism
- Choice is good (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Choice is good
'Choice is good' acknowledges that different contexts require different approaches, supporting process experimentation.
Question 3: The Agile Manifesto principle 'Welcome changing requirements, even late in development' is best supported in DA by:
- Freezing requirements after sprint 1
- Maintaining a responsive governance structure and flexible backlog (Correct answer)
- Limiting stakeholder access to the development team
- Requiring change requests to go through a formal CCB
Correct answer: Maintaining a responsive governance structure and flexible backlog
DA's flexible governance and living backlog practices operationalize the ability to welcome late-stage requirement changes.
Question 4: How does Lean's 'amplify learning' principle manifest in a DA team's retrospective practice?
- Teams document lessons learned in a central repository
- Teams use retrospectives to experiment, inspect results, and adapt (Correct answer)
- Senior coaches review team performance quarterly
- Teams attend external training after each project
Correct answer: Teams use retrospectives to experiment, inspect results, and adapt
Retrospectives that drive experiments and adaptations embody amplified learning by closing the inspect-and-adapt feedback loop.
Question 5: When a DA coach applies the 'context counts' principle, they are recognizing that:
- All teams should eventually converge on one best practice
- Process tailoring must account for unique team and organizational factors (Correct answer)
- Agile works only in software development contexts
- Senior practitioners' experience overrides situational factors
Correct answer: Process tailoring must account for unique team and organizational factors
'Context counts' means the right process depends on team size, domain, culture, and dozens of other situational factors.
Question 6: Which scenario best illustrates a violation of the Lean 'build quality in' principle?
- A team skips code reviews to meet a sprint deadline and plans a 'hardening sprint' (Correct answer)
- A team uses TDD even when it slows initial velocity
- A team automates regression tests before releasing features
- A team refactors code after each story is completed
Correct answer: A team skips code reviews to meet a sprint deadline and plans a 'hardening sprint'
Deferring quality to a hardening sprint violates 'build quality in' by treating quality as a phase rather than a continuous activity.
Question 7: The DA principle 'enterprise awareness' extends individual team agility by requiring teams to:
- Follow enterprise architecture standards when beneficial (Correct answer)
- Report daily status to enterprise program managers
- Adopt the same tools as all other enterprise teams
- Defer all architecture decisions to a central review board
Correct answer: Follow enterprise architecture standards when beneficial
Enterprise awareness means teams consider and align with broader organizational standards and strategies when it adds value.
DAC Agile & Lean Principles 3
In a Disciplined Agile context, 'optimizing the whole' instead of sub-optimizing a single team means: