The FLOW view in Disciplined Agile does not mean that there are no starts and stops in any DA project. Rather, it emphasizes optimizing the flow of work through the system by minimizing delays, reducing bottlenecks, and removing unnecessary handoffs. However, starts and stops may still exist due to various factors such as dependencies, changing priorities, or external constraints.

Theteam leadisnot responsible for securing fundingfor the team. In a Disciplined Agile framework, funding responsibilities typically fall under the purview of management or a sponsor. The team lead focuses on enabling the team, removing impediments, facilitating collaboration, and coaching the team toward effective delivery practices.

References:

PMI’s Disciplined Agile Senior Scrum Master (DASSM) curriculum materials.

"Choose Your WoW! A Disciplined Agile Delivery Handbook for Optimizing Your Way of Working (WoW)", PMI.

Disciplined Agile (DA) milestones are based on Lean governance principles. Lean governance emphasizes lightweight control mechanisms and focuses on achieving desired outcomes rather than enforcing compliance through heavy documentation or bureaucratic processes. DA milestones are established to ensure that value is being delivered efficiently and effectively throughout the lifecycle, with decisions made based on evidence and validated learning rather than detailed documentation (A) or strict adherence to lifecycle stages (D). While continuous integration (C) can support Lean governance by providing frequent, actionable insights into product development, it is not the foundation upon which DA milestones are based.

The purpose of an iteration retrospective in Disciplined Agile (DA) is to reflect on the recent iteration and identify areas of improvement, successes, and challenges. The retrospective allows the team to transfer knowledge, insights, and process improvements to subsequent iterations, fostering continuous improvement. This helps the team become more effective and efficient over time.

Option B relates to a daily stand-up, Option C involves iteration planning, and Option D pertains to an iteration review or demo, not a retrospective.

References:

PMI’s Disciplined Agile Senior Scrum Master (DASSM) curriculum materials.

"Choose Your WoW! A Disciplined Agile Delivery Handbook for Optimizing Your Way of Working (WoW)", PMI.

"Ensure production readiness" is one of the process goals in the transition stage of the Disciplined Agile (DA) framework. During the transition phase, the team focuses on finalizing the product and preparing it for release, which includes activities like final testing, user training, and deployment planning to ensure the solution is ready for production use. Options A (Produce a potentially consumable solution) and B (Develop common vision) are more aligned with earlier phases, such as Inception or Construction. Option D (Address risk) is a goal throughout the lifecycle but is not specific to the transition phase.

True: On an Agile team, the Product Owner is the go-to person for business domain information. The Product Owner is responsible for defining the product vision, managing the product backlog, and acting as the primary liaison between the development team and stakeholders. They provide clarity on business requirements, priorities, and customer needs, ensuring that the team understands what is needed to deliver value. The Product Owner's deep knowledge of the business domain makes them the authoritative source for business-related questions and guidance.

The primary advantage of working in an Agile team, according to the PMI Disciplined Agile framework, is the ability to quickly adapt to changing customer needs (Option C). Agile teams emphasize flexibility, responsiveness, and continuous improvement, enabling them to respond effectively to feedback and evolving requirements. Options A, B, and D do not reflect the core value proposition of Agile. While agile teams may aim for timely delivery, specialization, andreduced customer intervention, their core strength lies in adaptability and responsiveness to change, ensuring that the product remains aligned with customer needs.

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For a long-term project with potential for significant budgeting and tracking overhead, the Scrum Master should set up a long-standing team. According to the Disciplined Agile framework, long-standing teams are stable teams that remain intact across multiple projects or over a long duration. These teams are cross-functional, meaning they have all the necessary skills to deliver value and are more likely to develop high levels of collaboration and productivity over time. While cross-functional teams (B) are a necessary characteristic, "long-standing team" (A) is the best answer for a long-term project with significant overhead, as it implies continuity and sustained team dynamics. A project team (C) is typically formed for a short-term, specific project and disbanded afterward. A shared services team (D) provides specialized skills and services to various teams and is not typically suited for the dedicated effort required by long-term projects.

Guided continuous improvementextends the Kaizen loop strategy by providing structured, context-specific guidance to teams on how to identify and implement techniques likely to be effective for their unique circumstances. This method emphasizes learning from experience, adjusting practices based on outcomes, and aligning improvements with the organization's goals, enhancing the team's ability to adapt and improve continuously.

Options A (Cross-team learning), C (Explicit workflow policies), and D (Communities of Practice) are valuable for learning and improvement but do not specifically focus on providing guided, context-sensitive strategies for improvement.

References:

PMI’s Disciplined Agile Senior Scrum Master (DASSM) curriculum materials.

"Choose Your WoW! A Disciplined Agile Delivery Handbook for Optimizing Your Way of Working (WoW)", PMI.

Attributes of a leader in Disciplined Agile include taking risks, inspiring trust, and focusing on goals. Leaders in an agile environment should be willing to take calculated risks to innovate and improve, build trust within their teams and with stakeholders, and maintain a focus on achieving goals and delivering value. Options B (Goes with the flow) and D (Assigns tasks) are less aligned with agile leadership, which emphasizes empowerment over task assignment and adaptability rather than passively following along.

The primary role of the Product Owner in Disciplined Agile is to ensure that the team builds the right product. This includes defining and prioritizing the product backlog, making decisions on behalf of stakeholders, and ensuring that the team understands the product vision and customer needs. Options A (coordinate the product), B (organize the product team), and C (inspect the product) are aspects of the Product Owner's responsibilities, but they do not capture the overarching goal of delivering the right product to meet customer needs.

For an Agile or Lean project team, the aim of the Inception phase is to "perform sufficient work to initiate the endeavor and obtain agreement as to the overall vision with their stakeholders."The Inception phase involves developing a shared understanding of the project's vision, objectives, and scope, ensuring that all stakeholders are aligned and have agreed on the goals. While options A, B, and C involve planning, modeling, or building, the primary goal of the Inception phase is to set a clear direction and establish alignment among stakeholders.

In the PMI Disciplined Agile framework, the timely delivery of the product as committed is ultimately the responsibility of the entire team. While the Product Owner (Option A) provides direction and prioritization of work, and the Team Lead (Option B) facilitates the process, it is the collective responsibility of the Team Members (Option C) to deliver the product incrementally and meet commitments. Agile teams operate under the principle of shared responsibility and accountability for outcomes, meaning every team member contributes to the delivery process. Other roles, such as Gold User (Option D) and Architecture Owner (Option E), have specific responsibilities but are not accountable for the delivery timeline.

The "Program" life-cycle model is the most suitable for running large product development efforts requiring a team-of-teams approach. The Program life cycle in Disciplined Agile (DA) is specifically designed to handle complex projects that require multiple teams working together in a coordinated manner. It focuses on collaboration, synchronization, and scaling across teams to deliver a large-scale solution effectively. Other options like Exploratory (A), Kanban (C), Agile (D), Scrum (E), and Lean (F) do not specifically address the need for coordinating multiple teams on a large product development effort.

The best way to eliminate waste in Disciplined Agile is to "eliminate delays in workflow and feedback." Lean principles focus on removing any non-value-added activities (waste) to improve efficiency. By minimizing delays, teams can ensure a smoother flow of work and faster feedback loops, which helps to identify and resolve issues quickly and reduces the time taken to deliver value to customers. While making sure each step is done as quickly as possible (A) or correctly(D) and ensuring people know their job (B) are important, they are not the primary method of eliminating waste according to Lean principles.

In the Disciplined Agile framework, a "process blade" represents an organizational capability that addresses a specific need or problem within an organization. Process blades provide guidance on how to effectively implement a particular capability (such as finance, governance, or portfolio management) in a context-sensitive manner. They are not meetings (Option A), specificgoals or visions (Option C), or cross-functional teams (Option D); instead, they are resources or guidelines that help the organization improve its processes and capabilities.

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In Disciplined Agile (DA), teams should first select the goal diagrams that are most relevant to their specific context and chosen lifecycle. DA provides guidance on choosing strategies and practices that are best suited to the team's unique situation, objectives, and constraints. While it's important to consider goals in which the team lacks experience (A) or that are selected by stakeholders (B), the most effective approach is to focus on those goals that align with the team's current context and lifecycle. Choosing goals that are the easiest to complete (C) might not necessarily contribute to the overall effectiveness or agility of the team.

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Governance is indeed a critical aspect in Disciplined Agile (DA) projects. While it is true that many DA teams are self-organizing, governance provides oversight, ensures alignment with organizational goals, and helps mitigate risks. Disciplined Agile recognizes the importance of governance to maintain quality and compliance, manage risk, and deliver value. Therefore, "False" is the correct answer because governance remains a critical issue regardless of the self-organizing nature of the teams, ensuring that practices align with organizational policies and objectives.

For an Agile or Lean project team, the aim of the Transition phase is to ensure that the solution is ready to be released to stakeholders and then appropriately manage its release. The Transitionphase involves finalizing the work, preparing for deployment, and ensuring that all aspects of the solution meet the necessary quality standards for delivery. While testing (A), communicating the release (B), and applying continuous deployment practices (C) are important activities, the primary aim of the Transition phase is to make sure that the solution is ready for release and to handle the release effectively.

In the context of roles in Disciplined Agile (DA), it is true that a person may take on more than one role within a team. DA promotes flexibility and adaptability in team roles, allowing team members to wear multiple hats depending on their skills and the team's needs. Option A (highly specialized team members) contradicts DA’s principle of cross-functional teams. Option C incorrectly assigns the facilitator role to the Product Owner, and Option D does not accurately describe the Team Lead's responsibilities in DA.

The principle "Choice is good" in Disciplined Agile does not mean that a team must present multiple products to customers and let them choose. Rather, it emphasizes the importance of providing teams with choices regarding the practices and strategies they adopt, tailored to their unique context. This principle allows teams to make informed decisions on their Way of Working(WoW), rather than being restricted to a prescribed set of processes. Thus, the correct answer is "False," as the principle focuses on flexibility and adaptability for the team, not on presenting multiple product options to customers.

The primary benefit of DevOps, within the context of Disciplined Agile, isreduced cost of deployments. DevOps is a set of practices that aims to shorten the systems development life cycle and provide continuous delivery with high software quality. In DA, DevOps practices facilitate seamless integration and continuous delivery of code changes, enabling more frequent and reliable releases to production.

By automating and streamlining deployment processes, DevOps reduces the manual effort, time, and errors associated with deployments, which, in turn, lowers the overall cost. This aligns with the Disciplined Agile principle of "optimize flow across the entire value stream," which emphasizes efficient and cost-effective delivery of value.

Additionally, reducing the cost of deployments leads to other secondary benefits such as improved quality (due to more frequent testing and feedback loops) and greater agility (by enabling quicker response to changing market or customer needs). Therefore, while other options may seem beneficial, the most direct and primary benefit associated with DevOps is indeed the reduced cost of deployments.

In Lean, the role of management is to create an environment where teams can thrive and deliver maximum value. This involves fostering a culture that encourages collaboration, continuous improvement, and innovation. Management is responsible for providing support, removing impediments, and ensuring that teams have the resources they need to be successful. The goal is to empower teams to make decisions, own their processes, and focus on delivering value to customers.

Options A, B, and D do not align with the principles of Lean management. Lean emphasizes minimizing waste (like unnecessary documentation) and does not focus on providing MVPs directly to the team (Option B). Ensuring decisions are not made regionally (Option D) is also not a core role of management in Lean.

References:

"Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation," James P. Womack & Daniel T. Jones.

PMI’s Disciplined Agile Senior Scrum Master (DASSM) curriculum materials.

It istruethat, in the initial stages, a team's way of working (WoW) may be determined more by enterprise guidelines or the recommendations of a coach. This is acceptable in Disciplined Agile, especially when teams are new to agile practices and need direction. Over time, however, teams are expected to evolve and refine their WoW based on their unique context, learning from experience, and continuous improvement.

References:

PMI’s Disciplined Agile Senior Scrum Master (DASSM) curriculum materials.

"Choose Your WoW! A Disciplined Agile Delivery Handbook for Optimizing Your Way of Working (WoW)", PMI.

The process goal "Improve Quality" is most likely to offer potential techniques for addressing technical debt. Disciplined Agile encourages teams to continuously improve the quality of their deliverables, and one of the key aspects of improving quality is to manage and reduce technicaldebt. Techniques under this process goal include refactoring, applying test automation, and implementing continuous integration practices, all of which help address existing technical debt in a structured manner.

In the Disciplined Agile (DA) toolkit, "process blades" represent different areas of an organization's processes that need to be addressed for effective agile implementation. The process blades are grouped into three primary categories:

Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD):This category focuses on end-to-end delivery processes that bring a product or solution from idea to implementation, incorporating agile and lean approaches.

Disciplined DevOps:This category deals with practices that facilitate efficient development and operations, ensuring continuous delivery, integration, and deployment of software.

Disciplined Project Management Office (PMO):This process blade relates to the governance and oversight of agile initiatives, aligning them with organizational strategies and goals.

These categories provide a structured way to organize process-related activities and ensure a holistic approach to agile adoption, covering various facets from development to operations and governance.References:

"Choose Your WoW! A Disciplined Agile Delivery Handbook for Optimizing Your Way of Working (WoW)", PMI, Scott Ambler & Mark Lines.

PMI’s Disciplined Agile Senior Scrum Master (DASSM) curriculum materials.

The correct answer isC. Accelerate value delivery. In the Disciplined Agile (DA) framework, the process goal"Accelerate value delivery"typically requires significant tailoring to suit the specific needs, context, and constraints of the team and the organization.

What is "Accelerate Value Delivery"?

The process goal"Accelerate value delivery"focuses on optimizing the flow of work and reducing delays in delivering valuable outcomes to customers. This goal encompasses various practices and techniques such as reducing batch sizes, implementing continuous integration and delivery, enhancing team collaboration, removing bottlenecks, and improving overall efficiency in delivering products or services.

Achieving this goal requires careful consideration of the team's context, technology stack, existing workflows, and the organization's unique challenges and constraints. As a result, "Accelerate value delivery" is highly tailored to ensure that the selected practices are effective in a specific environment.

Why "Accelerate Value Delivery" Requires a Lot of Tailoring:

Tailoring is necessary because different teams and organizations have varying capabilities, maturity levels, cultural norms, and existing processes. For example, one team might need to focus on improving their DevOps practices, while another may need to address process inefficiencies or enhance cross-functional collaboration.

In Disciplined Agile, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to accelerating value delivery. Teams are encouraged to choose from a range of strategies and techniques that best suit their particular circumstances. This flexibility means that teams must continually assess and adapt their approaches to achieve optimal results, which requires significant customization and tailoring.

Why the Other Options Are Not Correct:

A. Form team:While forming a team may require some tailoring based on the project's needs and team composition, it is generally a more straightforward process with less variation in how it is executed compared to accelerating value delivery.

B. Prove architecture early:This process goal typically involves establishing the technical foundation of the solution early in the project. While it may require some adaptation based on the project's architecture, it does not involve the same level of ongoing tailoring as optimizing the flow of value delivery.

D. Improve quality:Although improving quality involves adopting practices that suit the team's context, it does not typically require as much tailoring as "Accelerate value delivery." Quality improvement is often about adhering to established standards and best practices, which can be more consistent across different teams and projects.

Therefore,C. Accelerate value deliveryis the correct answer because it inherently involves a high degree of customization to adapt the approach to the unique context and constraints of the team and organization, consistent with Disciplined Agile's emphasis on context-driven agility.

In Disciplined Agile, process goals are not meant to prescribe how to achieve a particular objective but rather to provide guidance and flexibility. They offer a range of potential options and strategies that a team can choose from to achieve their objectives, allowing the team to tailor its approach based on its specific context and needs. Thus, the correct answer is "False," as process goals are intended to guide rather than dictate a specific way of achieving objectives.

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In the context of Disciplined Agile (DA), an Epic is a large user story that represents a significant piece of work that usually requires substantial effort and may span multiple iterations or sprints to complete. Epics are often too large to be completed in a single iteration and are typically broken down into smaller, more manageable user stories. Option A (a collection of smaller user stories) is partially correct because epics are often decomposed into smaller user stories, but option B provides a more precise definition as it emphasizes the size and effort required for completion. Options C and D are not correct in the DA context; they describe different types of analysis tools or techniques.

In Disciplined Agile, the role of a DevOps Engineer is not necessarily filled by an operations person assigned to an Agile or Lean team. The DevOps role can be filled by individuals from either the development or operations side, or even someone with cross-functional expertise. The focus of the DevOps role is to foster collaboration between development and operations to enable continuous integration, delivery, and deployment. It is not limited to being an "operations person," but rather emphasizes the integration and collaboration needed to improve the flow from development to operations.

A well-written user story in the Disciplined Agile (DA) framework describes the product requirements from the customer's perspective. In DA, a user story is a short, simple description of a feature told from the perspective of the person who desires the new capability, typically a user or customer of the system. The primary purpose of a user story is to articulate how a piece of work will deliver a particular value back to the customer.

A user story should focus on what the customer needs and wants, rather than a fixed outcome (A), the needs of all users (B), or merely the expectations of the product owner (C). It shouldcapture the customer's perspective (D) to ensure the team understands who the end-user is, what they need, and why they need it. This customer-centric approach helps the team create value-driven features and maintain alignment with customer expectations.

Disciplined Agile emphasizes that user stories are part of a collaborative conversation with the stakeholders, which allows the team to explore and understand the customers' needs effectively. The DA framework encourages iterative development based on customer feedback, ensuring that each user story is aligned with delivering maximum customer value.

The principle "Organize around products/services" meansbuilding dedicated cross-functional teams focused on customer offerings. This approach ensures that teams are aligned directly with the delivery of customer value, with all the necessary skills to deliver a complete product or service. This organization enhances focus, collaboration, and efficiency, driving greater value delivery to customers.

Option A (asking customers to pick from available products) does not reflect this principle, and Option C (project teams being best equipped) does not align with the DA emphasis on long-standing, product-focused teams over temporary project teams.

References:

PMI’s Disciplined Agile Senior Scrum Master (DASSM) curriculum materials.

"Choose Your WoW! A Disciplined Agile Delivery Handbook for Optimizing Your Way of Working (WoW)", PMI.

Disciplined Agile (DA) is best described as aprocess-decision toolkit. Unlike a prescriptive methodology or framework, DA provides a flexible toolkit that helps teams and organizations make informed decisions about their way of working based on their unique context. It offers guidance on various agile, lean, and traditional practices, and helps teams choose the most effective strategies for their situation. DA focuses on pragmatism and context-driven choice, encouraging teams to adopt and adapt practices that suit their specific needs rather than following a one-size-fits-all approach.

DevOps in the Disciplined Agile framework refers to a set of practices and tools aimed at creating a seamless integration of development and operations to enable continuous delivery and integration. Option (B), "Creating a smooth flow of work from development to operations," correctly captures the essence of DevOps. This practice involves automating workflows, improving collaboration between development and operations teams, and ensuring that software changes can be deployed to production reliably and frequently.

Options A, C, and D do not fully encompass the concept of DevOps in the Disciplined Agile context. While automating testing (A) and involving operational teams in development (C) are parts of DevOps, they are not the complete definition. Using development team members to solve operational problems (D) is not the primary focus of DevOps; instead, the aim is to create a collaborative environment where both development and operations teams work together effectively.

Thus, the correct answer is (B) as it represents the overarching goal of DevOps in a DA context, which is to facilitate a smooth, efficient flow from development to operations, enabling rapid and reliable software delivery.

An advantage of aproject teamas opposed to long-standing product teams is agreater focus on delivery and short-term goals. Project teams are typically formed to achieve specific, time-bound objectives, and their primary focus is on delivering the project outcomes within the set timeframe. This can lead to an intense focus on immediate deliverables and short-term results.

Options A (motivation to learn and evolve the WoW) and D (bringing work to the team) are more applicable to long-standing teams, while Option C (long-term focus) is not typically an advantage of project-based teams.

References:

PMI’s Disciplined Agile Senior Scrum Master (DASSM) curriculum materials.

"Choose Your WoW! A Disciplined Agile Delivery Handbook for Optimizing Your Way of Working (WoW)", PMI.

The primary advantage of using design thinking, according to DA guidelines, is that it promotes customer empathy and appropriate solutions. Design thinking focuses on understanding the user's needs and creating solutions that are tailored to those needs. Options A, C, and D are not accurate descriptions of design thinking's primary benefit; rather, they reflect misconceptions or partial truths.

A team should consider entering the transition phase when the product meets all stakeholder expectations. In Disciplined Agile, the transition phase involves finalizing the product or solution for release. This phase is initiated when the product is deemed ready and all necessary criteria, including stakeholder expectations, have been fulfilled. Options A (new MBI developed), C (operational teams ready), and D (MVP ready) may be relevant in other contexts but do not specifically trigger the transition phase.

Disciplined Agile (DA) emphasizes the use ofautomated measuresto enable data-driven decision-making in projects. This is aligned with the Disciplined Agile Manifesto and principles, which focus on pragmatism, the use of relevant metrics, and fostering continuous improvement within teams.

In Disciplined Agile, metrics are viewed as tools that provide objective insights into project health and progress. The use of automated measures helps to minimize human error and bias, and enhances the reliability of the data being collected. Automated metrics can include lead time, cycle time, throughput, defect rates, and other quantitative data points that can be generated from automated tools (such as Jira, Azure DevOps, etc.). These metrics allow teams to make informed decisions swiftly and adjust their practices and processes based on actual data.

The DA mindset also promotes outcome-oriented metrics rather than activity-oriented ones. This means teams focus on the end results and the value being delivered, rather than just measuring tasks completed or the amount of work done. By favoring automated and objective measures, DA ensures that teams base their decisions on accurate and timely information rather than subjective opinions or potentially misleading scalar measures.

This is also supported by the DA principle that encourages “Optimize Flow Across the Entire Value Stream” – which relies on data-driven decision-making to effectively manage and optimize processes. Overall, automated measures align with DA's goal of achieving agile goals in a pragmatic, context-sensitive manner.

The Lean life-cycle model is based on a continuous flow of work. In Disciplined Agile, Lean focuses on minimizing waste, delivering value continuously, and optimizing the entire value stream. Unlike other models like Waterfall, which follow a sequential approach, or Agile models, which may focus on iterative increments, Lean emphasizes a smooth, steady flow of value to the customer. Continuous Delivery Agile also involves a continuous flow, but "Lean" specifically is the framework built around this concept. Therefore, "D. Lean" is the correct answer.

When introducing new features to a large, existing product, the product team should employ the Minimum Business Increment (MBI) technique. In the Disciplined Agile (DA) framework, an MBI is a small, releasable component that delivers recognizable business value to a customer or user. Unlike a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), which is often used for new products or market exploration, an MBI is suitable for incrementally enhancing existing products by delivering value in manageable pieces. This approach allows teams to release new features more frequently and receive feedback more rapidly, helping them to prioritize future work based on actual customer and business needs. Continuous Integration (A) is a practice of merging code frequently to prevent integration issues, while Pull System (B) is related to Lean practices of managing work in progress. MVP (D) is generally used for launching new products rather than adding to an existing one.

It istruethat any change or improvement in the process is likely to plateau unless efforts are put into constantly reviewing and revising it. Continuous improvement is a core principle of Agile and Disciplined Agile, where teams are encouraged to regularly inspect and adapt their processes to ensure ongoing progress. Without regular reflection and adjustments, improvements can stagnate, and the team may miss opportunities for further optimization and innovation.

References:

PMI’s Disciplined Agile Senior Scrum Master (DASSM) curriculum materials.

"Choose Your WoW! A Disciplined Agile Delivery Handbook for Optimizing Your Way of Working (WoW)", PMI.

The primary purpose of a Community of Practice (CoP) in the Disciplined Agile (DA) framework is to share knowledge among a group of like-minded people. CoPs bring together people who share a common interest or practice, enabling them to exchange insights, experiences, and best practices to enhance their collective expertise. Options B (bringing all the experts together) and D (mentoring, coaching, and guiding others) are secondary benefits but not the primary purpose. Option C (selling a competency) does not align with the purpose of a CoP.

The architecture owner in Disciplined Agile has several key responsibilities: working with the product owner to define the technical roadmap (A), mentoring and coaching the team on technical practices (B), working to improve the supportability of the product (C), and evolving the design and architecture for the product (E). However, evaluating team members' performance and administering rewards (D) is not within the scope of the architecture owner’s responsibilities. This task typically falls under the purview of people managers or human resources.

The first step in deciding the team's way of working (WoW) in Disciplined Agile is toanalyze the context. Understanding the context includes assessing the team's current situation, the organization's culture, available skills, tools, stakeholder expectations, and project goals. This analysis helps determine which practices, tools, and techniques are most appropriate for the team’s unique environment. Based on this understanding, the team can make informed decisions on their WoW.

References:

PMI’s Disciplined Agile Senior Scrum Master (DASSM) curriculum materials.

"Choose Your WoW! A Disciplined Agile Delivery Handbook for Optimizing Your Way of Working (WoW)", PMI.

In the context of the Disciplined Agile (DA) framework, if a team is about to begin work on a project where releases are expected only every six months or so, and the team does not have an agile mindset or desire to release often, the "Traditional" lifecycle is most appropriate. The Traditional lifecycle, also known as a predictive or waterfall lifecycle, is suitable for teams or projects that require extensive planning and where changes are infrequent or less welcome. This approach matches well with a mindset that is not inclined towards frequent releases or iterative development, allowing for longer, planned intervals between releases, which aligns with the six-month release cadence described in the scenario.

The Exploratory Life Cycle is adopted when there is a need to bring a new product or service to market, and the customer requirements are uncertain. This life cycle is characterized by a high degree of exploration and experimentation, where the team continuously learns and adapts based on customer feedback and market conditions. Options A and B are incorrect because they refer to evolving an existing product or service rather than bringing a new one to market. Option E is also incorrect because it assumes the requirements are well understood, which would not necessitate an exploratory approach.

The "Definition of Done" (DoD) is a checklist that specifies the criteria that must be met for a user story or product increment to be considered complete by the team. It provides a shared understanding among team members and stakeholders of what it means for work to be finished. The DoD ensures that all user stories meet a minimum quality standard and are ready for production or release. It is not related to when the team is done with the iteration (B) or with estimating user stories (C).

The "Plan the Release" process goal in Disciplined Agile is most likely to offer potential techniques for providing a cost estimate for the project while recognizing that requirements will evolve over time. This goal involves determining the scope of the release, estimating the effort and cost, and planning for future iterations. It accounts for the fact that Agile teams work in environments of uncertainty and helps them create realistic plans that can adapt as requirements change. Options A (Project Management), C (Explore Scope), and D (Address Changing Stakeholder Needs) are relevant for Agile projects, but "Plan the Release" specifically focuses on creating estimates and planning in an Agile context.

In Disciplined Agile (DA), the "Specialist" is considered a supporting role. Specialists possess expertise in specific areas (e.g., security, database management) and are brought in as needed to support the primary delivery team. The supporting roles are not part of the core team but contribute specialized skills and knowledge when required.

Options A (Stakeholder), B (Team Lead), and D (Architecture Owner) are not supporting roles. Stakeholders represent end-users or business interests, while Team Leads and Architecture Owners are considered primary roles within a DA team.

References:

PMI’s Disciplined Agile Senior Scrum Master (DASSM) curriculum materials.

"Choose Your WoW! A Disciplined Agile Delivery Handbook for Optimizing Your Way of Working (WoW)", PMI.

Pushis when work isgiven to people. In a "push" system, tasks or work items are assigned to individuals or teams regardless of their current capacity or workload. This can lead to overburdening, inefficiencies, and bottlenecks. In contrast, a "pull" system allows team members to take on new work only when they have the capacity to do so, promoting smoother flow and reducing waste. Agile methodologies generally favor a pull approach to optimize flow and enhance team autonomy and efficiency.

According to Disciplined Agile and broader agile principles, complex adaptive systems, such as software development environments, cannot be fully understood by analyzing individual parts in isolation. The nature of complex adaptive systems is that they involve multiple interacting components, and their behaviors emerge from these interactions. Therefore, understanding the whole system requires examining the relationships, feedback loops, and patterns that arise within the entire context, not just the individual parts. This concept is grounded in systems thinking, a key component in agile methodologies, which encourages viewing the system holistically.

A major challenge that agile teams face withProcurement processesis that these processes are oftennot agile enough. Traditional procurement practices can be bureaucratic, slow, and rigid,making it difficult for Agile teams to respond quickly to changes, integrate new vendors, or adjust to new requirements. Agile teams need flexible procurement processes that allow for iterative and incremental development, quick onboarding of vendors, and adaptive contracting mechanisms.

Options B (vendor compliance), C (preference for in-house teams), and D (no contracting) are not typically the primary challenges Agile teams face with procurement.

References:

PMI’s Disciplined Agile Senior Scrum Master (DASSM) curriculum materials.

"Choose Your WoW! A Disciplined Agile Delivery Handbook for Optimizing Your Way of Working (WoW)", PMI.

The PMI Disciplined Agile framework presents various process choices in a goal diagram to allow teams to select the most appropriate practices for their context. However, not all choices are suitable for every situation. The goal diagram illustrates multiple options to provide flexibility, but teams need to assess their specific circumstances, constraints, and goals to determine which process choices are viable. Therefore, it is true that not all process choices may be viable in a given situation.

In the Disciplined Agile (DA) framework, the transition from the Construction phase to the Transition phase in a project is marked by reaching the milestone of "Sufficient functionality." This milestone indicates that the team has built enough functionality to justify moving into the Transition phase, where the focus shifts from developing the product to deploying it into production. The term "sufficient functionality" aligns with the DA's principles that ensure the solution is viable and meets the stakeholders' needs at a basic level before moving to production deployment and further refinement. Other options like "Production ready" or "Proven architecture" may occur before or after reaching this specific milestone, but "Sufficient functionality" is the key indicator for moving into the Transition phase.