DAC Agile Metrics & Reporting 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: In Disciplined Agile, which metric category focuses on whether the team is building the right product for customers?
- Flow efficiency
- Effectiveness metrics (Correct answer)
- Predictability index
- Team velocity
Correct answer: Effectiveness metrics
Effectiveness metrics measure whether the team is delivering value that actually satisfies customer needs, not just output.
Question 2: A DA team notices their cycle time has tripled over three sprints. Which investigation step should come first?
- Increase team headcount immediately
- Examine the work-in-progress (WIP) limits and queue depths (Correct answer)
- Switch from Scrum to Kanban
- Reduce sprint length
Correct answer: Examine the work-in-progress (WIP) limits and queue depths
Rising cycle time usually signals WIP accumulation or blocked queues, so examining those limits is the most direct diagnostic step.
Question 3: Which reporting approach does Disciplined Agile recommend to replace traditional status reports in a team-of-teams context?
- Monthly written status reports to PMO
- Visual management boards with pull-based information (Correct answer)
- Daily email summaries to all stakeholders
- Quarterly Earned Value reports
Correct answer: Visual management boards with pull-based information
DA promotes visual management and information radiators so stakeholders can pull relevant data rather than receiving push reports.
Question 4: What does the metric 'value delivered per sprint' primarily help a DA coach assess?
- Team happiness
- Alignment between backlog priorities and business outcomes (Correct answer)
- Server uptime
- Code coverage percentage
Correct answer: Alignment between backlog priorities and business outcomes
Value delivered per sprint ties completed work to business outcomes, helping coaches verify that prioritization decisions are creating real value.
Question 5: In DA, 'predictability' at the program level is best measured by comparing which two things?
- Story points estimated vs. story points completed
- Planned PI objectives vs. achieved PI objectives (Correct answer)
- Budget allocated vs. budget spent
- Sprint length vs. release cadence
Correct answer: Planned PI objectives vs. achieved PI objectives
Program Increment predictability is calculated as the ratio of achieved PI objectives (business value) to planned PI objectives.
Question 6: Which DA principle best explains why teams should avoid solely tracking output metrics like story points?
- Optimize flow
- Delight all stakeholders (Correct answer)
- Make all work and workflow visible
- Be awesome
Correct answer: Delight all stakeholders
DA's 'Delight all stakeholders' principle requires measuring outcomes that matter to stakeholders, not just internal output proxies.
Question 7: A Disciplined Agile Coach wants to assess team improvement over time. Which metric combination best reflects both speed and quality?
- Velocity and headcount
- Cycle time and escaped defect rate (Correct answer)
- Burn-down slope and meeting attendance
- Story point total and retrospective frequency
Correct answer: Cycle time and escaped defect rate
Combining cycle time (speed) with escaped defect rate (quality) gives a balanced view of how effectively the team delivers releasable work.
DAC Agile Metrics & Reporting 2
In Disciplined Agile, which metric category focuses on whether the team is building the right product for customers?