RTE Value Stream Management 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What is 'Lead Time' in Value Stream Management?
- The time from when a developer starts coding to when they submit a pull request
- The total time from when a customer request is made to when value is delivered to the customer (Correct answer)
- The duration of PI Planning preparation activities
- The time between two consecutive sprint reviews
Correct answer: The total time from when a customer request is made to when value is delivered to the customer
Lead Time is the end-to-end time from when a customer need is identified to when value is delivered, and reducing it is a primary goal of Value Stream optimization.
Question 2: What is 'cycle time' and how does it differ from lead time?
- They are the same metric measured in different units
- Cycle time measures active work time on a specific item, while lead time measures total elapsed time including waiting (Correct answer)
- Cycle time is measured at the portfolio level; lead time at the team level
- Cycle time tracks features; lead time tracks user stories
Correct answer: Cycle time measures active work time on a specific item, while lead time measures total elapsed time including waiting
Cycle time measures only the active working time on an item, while lead time measures the total elapsed time from request to delivery including all wait states.
Question 3: What is the 'cost of delay' concept and why does the RTE need to understand it?
- The financial penalty for late vendor deliveries
- The economic impact of delaying the delivery of a valuable feature, used to prioritize work in the ART and portfolio backlogs (Correct answer)
- A budget overrun metric tracked by finance
- The extra cost incurred when teams work overtime
Correct answer: The economic impact of delaying the delivery of a valuable feature, used to prioritize work in the ART and portfolio backlogs
Cost of Delay quantifies the economic impact of not delivering a feature on time, helping Product Management and the RTE prioritize work based on value and urgency.
Question 4: How does the RTE use Value Stream thinking to improve ART performance?
- By increasing team headcount in bottleneck areas
- By identifying bottlenecks, reducing WIP, eliminating handoff delays, and improving the flow of work from idea to delivery (Correct answer)
- By reducing the number of features planned per PI
- By standardizing development tools across all teams
Correct answer: By identifying bottlenecks, reducing WIP, eliminating handoff delays, and improving the flow of work from idea to delivery
The RTE applies Value Stream thinking by visualizing the entire delivery flow, identifying bottlenecks and waste, and facilitating improvements that increase throughput and reduce lead time.
Question 5: What is a 'bottleneck' in a Value Stream, and how should the RTE handle it?
- A technical term for a failed deployment
- A constraint that limits the throughput of the entire value stream, which the RTE addresses by focusing improvement efforts on that constraint first (Correct answer)
- A term for a low-performing team member
- A backlog item that has been blocked for more than two sprints
Correct answer: A constraint that limits the throughput of the entire value stream, which the RTE addresses by focusing improvement efforts on that constraint first
A bottleneck is the step in the value stream that constrains overall throughput, and the RTE should focus improvement efforts there, as it limits the entire system's output.
Question 6: What does 'flow efficiency' measure in Value Stream Management?
- The percentage of a sprint completed on time
- The ratio of active work time to total elapsed time for an item, indicating how much time is spent adding value vs. waiting (Correct answer)
- The number of features delivered per PI
- The velocity of individual development teams
Correct answer: The ratio of active work time to total elapsed time for an item, indicating how much time is spent adding value vs. waiting
Flow efficiency is the ratio of active work time to total lead time, and a low ratio indicates significant waiting and waste that the RTE should work to eliminate.
RTE Value Stream Management 2
What is 'Lead Time' in Value Stream Management?