DAC Agile Metrics & Reporting 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which DA framework layer is most responsible for defining the metrics governance strategy across multiple teams?
- Team layer
- Program layer
- Portfolio layer (Correct answer)
- Foundation layer
Correct answer: Portfolio layer
The Portfolio layer in DA sets strategic direction including enterprise metrics governance and investment tracking across programs.
Question 2: When coaching a team using a cumulative flow diagram (CFD), a flattening of the 'Done' band typically signals what?
- The team is accelerating delivery
- Work is not completing—a potential blockage (Correct answer)
- Backlog refinement is working well
- The team has reached sustainable pace
Correct answer: Work is not completing—a potential blockage
A flat 'Done' band on a CFD means items are not moving to completion, indicating a bottleneck or blocker in the workflow.
Question 3: In Disciplined Agile, the concept of 'GQM' (Goal-Question-Metric) is used to ensure metrics are:
- Automatically generated by tools
- Aligned with specific improvement goals (Correct answer)
- Mandated by the PMO
- Focused only on financial returns
Correct answer: Aligned with specific improvement goals
GQM ensures each metric traces back to an explicit goal and question, preventing teams from tracking metrics without purpose.
Question 4: A DA team wants to measure technical debt accumulation over time. Which metric is most appropriate?
- Sprint velocity trend
- Code complexity growth and unresolved technical debt items (Correct answer)
- Number of user stories completed
- Daily stand-up duration
Correct answer: Code complexity growth and unresolved technical debt items
Tracking code complexity growth alongside unresolved technical debt items directly reflects whether the codebase is becoming harder to maintain.
Question 5: Which stakeholder reporting practice aligns best with DA's 'Make all work and workflow visible' mindset?
- Sending monthly PDF reports to executives
- Maintaining a live digital dashboard accessible to all stakeholders (Correct answer)
- Scheduling quarterly review meetings only
- Restricting metrics to team members
Correct answer: Maintaining a live digital dashboard accessible to all stakeholders
A live dashboard makes work visible in real time to all stakeholders, supporting DA's transparency principle without generating report-creation overhead.
Question 6: In a DA context, 'flow time' differs from 'cycle time' in that flow time measures:
- Only coding time
- Total elapsed time from item creation to delivery, including wait time (Correct answer)
- Time spent in retrospectives
- Time from sprint start to sprint end
Correct answer: Total elapsed time from item creation to delivery, including wait time
Flow time (also called lead time) spans from when work is requested to when it is delivered, capturing all wait and active work periods.
Question 7: Which DA-recommended metric helps a coach evaluate whether continuous improvement experiments are having the intended effect?
- Team size ratio
- Before-and-after comparison of targeted process metrics (Correct answer)
- Number of retrospectives held
- Budget variance percentage
Correct answer: Before-and-after comparison of targeted process metrics
Comparing relevant process metrics before and after a kaizen experiment validates whether the improvement action actually moved the targeted measure.
DAC Agile Metrics & Reporting 3
Which DA framework layer is most responsible for defining the metrics governance strategy across multiple teams?