DOL Lean Practices 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: In Lean thinking, what does the concept of 'Muda' refer to?
- Any activity that adds customer value
- Waste — activities that consume resources without adding value (Correct answer)
- Overproduction to meet future demand
- Standardizing work processes across teams
Correct answer: Waste — activities that consume resources without adding value
Muda is the Japanese term for waste, encompassing any activity that consumes resources but does not add value from the customer's perspective.
Question 2: Which Lean principle focuses on producing only what the next process step needs, when it needs it?
- Push system
- Pull system (Correct answer)
- Batch processing
- Kanban replenishment
Correct answer: Pull system
A pull system triggers production or work based on downstream demand, preventing overproduction and reducing inventory waste.
Question 3: A DevOps team uses A3 problem solving. What is the primary purpose of the A3 report?
- Document sprint retrospective action items
- Provide a structured single-page problem-solving and communication tool (Correct answer)
- Track daily stand-up outcomes
- Replace the project charter in agile teams
Correct answer: Provide a structured single-page problem-solving and communication tool
The A3 report (named for the paper size) is a Lean tool that captures problem definition, current state, root cause, countermeasures, and follow-up on a single page.
Question 4: What does 'flow efficiency' measure in a Lean DevOps context?
- The ratio of CPU utilization to total server capacity
- The proportion of time work is actively being processed versus total lead time (Correct answer)
- The number of deployments per sprint
- The percentage of automated tests passing
Correct answer: The proportion of time work is actively being processed versus total lead time
Flow efficiency = touch time / (touch time + wait time), showing how much of a work item's life it is actually being worked on.
Question 5: Which of the following best describes 'Genchi Genbutsu' as applied in DevOps?
- Using dashboards and reports to identify bottlenecks
- Going to the actual place where work happens to observe and understand the real situation (Correct answer)
- Running automated root cause analysis tools
- Delegating incident response to on-call engineers
Correct answer: Going to the actual place where work happens to observe and understand the real situation
Genchi Genbutsu ('go and see') means leaders and engineers should personally observe the actual work environment rather than relying solely on reports.
Question 6: In Lean, 'Jidoka' is a pillar of the Toyota Production System. How is it best applied in software delivery?
- Running all builds in parallel to increase throughput
- Automatically stopping the pipeline and alerting the team when a defect is detected (Correct answer)
- Scheduling releases only during low-traffic windows
- Using feature flags to decouple deployment from release
Correct answer: Automatically stopping the pipeline and alerting the team when a defect is detected
Jidoka (autonomation) means building in quality by stopping the process immediately when an abnormality is detected, preventing defects from passing downstream.
Question 7: A team wants to reduce the Seven Wastes of Lean in their software process. Which waste category best describes waiting for code review approvals?
- Overproduction
- Defects
- Waiting (Correct answer)
- Extra processing
Correct answer: Waiting
Waiting is one of the seven wastes (TIM WOOD), representing idle time where work is stalled because a resource, decision, or approval is pending.
DOL Lean Practices 2
In Lean thinking, what does the concept of 'Muda' refer to?