Exam Flashcards
What is a Product Owner (PO) anti-pattern in Iteration planning?
The PO asks the team for recommendations on Story slicing
The PO brings in changes to the planned Features based on stakeholder feedback from the System Demo
The PO changes priorities of the already refined intent
The PO introduces the business intent to the team for the first time
The PO introduces the business intent to the team for the first time
What is a benefit of an Agile Release Train that has both cadence and synchronization?
Dependencies are identified across the Agile Release Train
The entire system is iterating
The Agile Release Train is able to control the injection on new work
Teams participate in the portfolio backlog refinement
The entire system is iterating
When should centralized decision-making be used?
When making frequent decisions
When decisions are short-term in duration
When decisions need specific local context
When there are significant economies of scale
When there are significant economies of scale
Which of the four SAFe Core Values is an enabler of trust?
Built-in Quality
Alignment
Program Execution
Transparency
Transparency
What is the first source of guidance when creating an improvement roadmap?
Communities of Practice
Product Management
Lean Agile Center of Excellence
Agile Program Management Office
Communities of Practice
If a team insists that big Stories cannot be split into smaller ones, how would the Scrum Master coach them to do otherwise?
Demonstrate Story-splitting techniques using a specific example
Suggest a story-splitting bootcamp in the next IP iteration
Emphasize the SAFe principles to highlight the importance of flow
Invite a development manager to emphasize the importance of splitting Stories
Demonstrate Story-splitting techniques using a specific example
SAFe Scrum Masters need to have intentional focus on what? Backlog Prioritization Risks Dependencies Improvement Items
Improvement Items
What is the purpose of the fishbone diagram?
To brainstorm solutions to problems
To identify potential root causes to problems
To identify improvement backlog items
To identify the biggest root cause
To identify potential root causes to problems
A Feature should satisfy which two criteria? (Choose two.)
It is developed within a single Agile Team
It is prioritized using weighted shortest job first (WSJF)
It involves multiple Agile Release Trains
It is fully completed by a single Agile Release Train within one PI
It has one Capability as a parent
It is prioritized using weighted shortest job first (WSJF)
It is fully completed by a single Agile Release Train within one PI
What is the purpose of the Large Solution Level in SAFe?
To coordinate multiple Agile Release Trains that develop the same Solution
To decouple release constraints between Agile Release Trains
To effectively operate in a highly regulated environment
To coordinate the work of multiple Agile Teams
To coordinate multiple Agile Release Trains that develop the same Solution
Why is the program predictability measure the primary Metric used during the quantitative measurement part of the Inspect and Adapt event?
To match customer demand to the Agile Release Train’s velocity
To predict the scope of the remaining requirements in the Program Backlog
To forecast when remaining features could be delivered to customers
To measure the predictability of business value delivered in the PI timebox
To measure the predictability of business value delivered in the PI timebox
What is one output from the problem-solving workshop?
An assessment report
Top improvement items for the next PI
ROAMed risks
All the potential Solutions the team could identify
Top improvement items for the next PI
Which two timestamps are required at minimum to measure lead time by using a Team Kanban board? (Choose two.)
When the team demos to the Product Owner
When the Story is released to users and validated
When the Story is accepted by the Product Owner
When the Story is deployed
When the Agile Team pulls a Story onto the board
When the Story is released to users and validated
When the Agile Team pulls a Story onto the board
How are the program risks, that have been identified during PI Planning, categorized?
Removed, Owned, Accepted, Managed
Resolved, Owned, Accepted, Mitigated
Removed, Owned, Acknowledged, Mitigated
Resolved, Owned, Acknowledged, Managed
Resolved, Owned, Accepted, Mitigated
How is average lead time measured in a Kanban system?
Measure the lead time for at least three items and calculate the statistical mean of the items
Measure the vertical distance between arrival and departure lines on a cumulative flow diagram
By taking the average velocity over the last three iterations
Measure the horizontal distance between arrival and departure lines on a cumulative flow diagram
Measure the horizontal distance between arrival and departure lines on a cumulative flow diagram
During Iteration planning, the Product Owner (PO) introduces multiple new Stories to the team. After a lot of discussion, the team decides to insert spikes into the Iteration for research. Why is this situation an anti-pattern?
The team will engage the dependent teams to work on the Stories
The team is committing to Stories with many unknowns
The PO and the team arrived at the planning session without preparation
The PO and team created spikes
The team is committing to Stories with many unknowns
The purpose of Continuous Integration is to deliver what?
Potentially deployable code
Specific customer functionality
Smaller batch sizes
New builds on the test environment
Potentially deployable code
What is one way a Scrum Master can gain the confidence of a stakeholder?
Invite the stakeholder to the Iteration retrospective
Make the process visible
Establish a daily sync meeting with the stakeholder
Make sure the results of the retrospectives are made public
Make the process visible
What is one outcome of an integration point?
It provides the opportunity to release code
It aligns with a phase-gate milestone
It extends the length of time of an Iteration
It provides an opportunity to pivot the course of action
It provides an opportunity to pivot the course of action
If the distance between the arrival and departure curves on a team’s cumulative flow diagram is growing apart, what is likely happening?
Lead time is increasing
WIP is decreasing
Unplanned work is pushed into the backlog
The backlog is being reprioritized
Lead time is increasing
What are two benefits of applying cadence?
To facilitate better planning and allow for more cross-team collaboration
To cause multiple perspectives to be understood, resolved, and integrated
To pull the different assets of a system together and determine Solution viability
To transform unpredictable events into predictable events
To align the planning efforts of multiple Agile Release Trains
To facilitate better planning and allow for more cross-team collaboration
To transform unpredictable events into predictable events
Which statement is true about refactoring code?
It is the result of combining legacy systems with new code
It should be planned for in the architectural runway
It is a natural part of software development
It is the result of poor development quality
It is a natural part of software development
What goes into the Portfolio Backlog?
Capabilities
Program Enablers
Strategic Themes
Epics
Epics
Lee is a developer on the team. At every daily stand-up Lee reports, “Yesterday, I worked on indexing. Today, I will work on indexing. I have no impediments”. What approach should the Scrum Master suggest to Lee to improve the team’s visibility into his work?
Focus on the progress of the Iteration goals
Have Lee work on different Stories
Assign another team member to assist Lee
Have him break his Stories into tasks for more clarity
Focus on the progress of the Iteration goals
A team consistently receives defect reports from production even though each Story is thoroughly tested. What is the first step to solve this problem?
Instantiate a strict definition of done
Invest in better Story and unit-test automation
Ensure that development and testing environments are equivalent to production
Create a story dependency with the systems team to collaborate on deployment
Invest in better Story and unit-test automation
What is one problem with phase-gate Milestones?
They assume a point Solution exists and can be built right the first time
They require the Product Owner to act as gatekeeper or guardian of the process
They force design decisions too late in the process
They account for variability inherent in the process
They assume a point Solution exists and can be built right the first time
What is one way a Scrum Master leads the team’s efforts for relentless improvement?
By building a high-performing team
By helping teams become better problem solvers
By focusing on technical discipline
By scheduling team meetings
By helping teams become better problem solvers
The work within one state of a team’s Kanban board is being completed at varying times, sometimes running faster and sometimes slower than the next state. What could resolve this issue?
Create a buffer state between the two states to regulate the situation
Redesign the board to ensure a smooth flow of work
Have the Scrum Master change the WIP limit of the faster state
Match skill sets to the WIP states in order to smooth out flow
Create a buffer state between the two states to regulate the situation
How is team performance calculated in SAFe?
The ratio of business value achieved to business value planned for the PI
Team member utilization as a percentage of total capacity
The ratio of Story points completed to Story points planned in the PI
The ratio of tasks planned to tasks completed
The ratio of business value achieved to business value planned for the PI
A team integrates and tests the Stories on the last day of the Iteration. This has become a pattern for the last three Iterations. Why is this considered an anti-pattern?
Because the team demonstrates the full Stories to the Product Owner during the Iteration review
Because it is difficult to manage dependencies with other teams
Because the team consistently meets their commitments, and the Product Owner accepts the Stories
Because the team is waterfalling the Iteration
Because the team is waterfalling the Iteration
What is the output of an Inspect and Adapt event?
A set of improvement items for the upcoming PI Planning event
A set of aggregated SMART PI Objectives for the Solution
A refined understanding of the problem statement
An in depth Ishikawa diagram
A set of improvement items for the upcoming PI Planning event
A Scrum Master is frustrated that her team finds no value during Iteration retrospectives, and the team has asked that she cancel all future ones. Which two specific anti-patterns are most likely present within the team’s retrospectives? (Choose two.)
The team does not feel valued by the Enterprise
The team often over-commits during the Iterations and does not have available time to retrospect
The team does not identify and commit to improvement items for how they do their work
The team identifies improvements but is not allowed to address them
The team does not inspect the Program Increment and revise the product backlog
The team does not identify and commit to improvement items for how they do their work
The team identifies improvements but is not allowed to address them
When developing a team’s skill set, what skill set does an E-shaped person have?
Experience across several areas and can execute using a combination of skills
Strong domain expertise matched with general integration skills
Expertise in optimizing system flow and general deployment experience
A generalist across many skills and expertise in few
Experience across several areas and can execute using a combination of skills
How can a Scrum Master help the team remain focused on achieving their Iteration goals?
By supporting the rules of the team process
By leading a team’s efforts in relentless improvements
By exhibiting Lean-Agile Leadership
By eliminating impediments
By eliminating impediments
What are two actions the Scrum Master can take to help the team achieve the SAFe Core Value of transparency? (Choose two.)
Be aligned with Product Management when reviewing the Team’s Backlog
Coach the team on how to make reliable commitments every Iteration with visible goals
Ensure the team’s velocity and WIP are a true representation of what is actually happening within the team
Hold team members accountable to complete their tasks by monitoring task progress deviation
Ensure Agile event timeboxes are followed
Coach the team on how to make reliable commitments every Iteration with visible goals
Ensure the team’s velocity and WIP are a true representation of what is actually happening within the team
Systems builders and Customers have a high level of responsibility and should take great care to ensure that any investment in new Solutions will deliver what benefit?
The best opportunity for team utilization
The best ecological benefit for society
The necessary financial benefit
The necessary economic benefit
The best ecological benefit for society
Which two events provide opportunities for the team to collaborate? (Choose two.)
Backlog refinement Pre-PI Planning Portfolio Sync Iteration Planning Solution Demo
Backlog refinement
Iteration Planning
What should be the first step a team should take to feed potential problems into the Problem Solving workshop?
Review feedback from the System Demo
Conduct a short team retrospective
Analyze quantitative & qualitative metrics
Identify enablers needed to build out the Architectural Runway
Review feedback from the System Demo
What is one requirement for achieving Continuous Deployment?
Decouple deployment from release
Create all Features using behavior-driven development
Automate all unit-tests
Couple development cadence and deployment cadence
Decouple deployment from release
Inspect and Adapt events occur at which two SAFe levels? (Choose two.)
Essential Level Team Level Large Solution Level Portfolio Level Value Stream Level
Essential Level
Team Level
An Agile Team decides they want to use pair programming in future Iterations. Where should this be captured? In the team retrospective notes In the Inspect and Adapt meeting notes In the Program Backlog In the team's improvement backlog
In the team’s improvement backlog
Which statement is true about work in process (WIP)?
WIP is directly related to utilization
More WIP decreases variability
More WIP leads to slower throughput
WIP visibility increases cross-training opportunities
More WIP leads to slower throughput
What is the purpose of the scrum of scrums meeting during PI Planning?
To track planning progress across the ART
To discuss scope changes
To create the program board
To control WIP
To track planning progress across the ART
What is the primary goal of decentralized decision-making?
To resolve dependencies
To reduce delay
To empower knowledge workers
To minimize WIP
To reduce delay
What is the purpose of the retrospective held during an Inspect and Adapt event?
To identify the issues to address during the problem-solving workshop
To identify improvement Story candidates
To review how value flows through the Agile Release Train
To learn from PI Planning outcomes
To identify the issues to address during the problem-solving workshop
A Scrum Master is invited to help an Agile Release Train that has struggled through multiple PIs. They just finished the second Iteration in the current PI and have nothing to show at the System Demo. The ART stakeholders are really concerned.
What should be done?
Stop working on any new functionality and fully integrate and test the system; adjust scope based on what is learned
Have every team demonstrate their team increment to the stakeholders separately in the team branch
Re-architect the system so that there are no dependencies between the teams; integration is not required at this time
Find a vendor that specializes in integrating system increments from multiple teams
Stop working on any new functionality and fully integrate and test the system; adjust scope based on what is learned
What is one characteristic of an effective Agile Team?
To reliably deliver value by deploying features
To invest in having specialized skill sets
To pivot towards other work as requested
A strong focus on increasing team velocity
To reliably deliver value by deploying features
Why are big Stories considered an anti-pattern?
They do not support Pair Work
They make it difficult to apply iterative development
They make it difficult to estimate compliance efforts
They make it difficult to estimate testing efforts
They make it difficult to apply iterative development
Three teams in the Agile Release Train are working on the same Feature. Team A is a component team, and Teams B and C are feature teams.
During PI Planning, Teams B and C committed to delivering their part of the Feature by the end of Iteration five and plan to integrate with each other along with Team A’s piece in the first week of the IP Iteration. Why is this an anti-pattern?
Because Product Management accepted each team’s final plan at the end of PI Planning Day 2
Because work should not be planned for the IP Iteration
Because each feature team needs to integrate with the component team
Because the teams managed their dependencies and planned their integration timing during PI Planning
Because work should not be planned for the IP Iteration
What does a Scrum Master support in order to help the team improve and take responsibility for their actions?
Invest in architectural runway
A team’s efforts in relentless improvement
Increasing Quality practices
Building a high-performing team
A team’s efforts in relentless improvement
What are three opportunities for creating collaboration on a team? (Choose three.)
Hackathons Inspect and Adapt Backlog refinement Communities of Practice Pair work Iteration planning
Hackathons
Inspect and Adapt
Pair work
What are two purposes of the scrum of scrums meeting? (Choose two.)
Collaborate release details with Systems Team Review Solution Architecture Discuss Program Backlog priority changes Facilitate cross-team collaboration Identify impediments
Facilitate cross-team collaboration
Identify impediments
What is the primary measurement during Inspect and Adapt? Team NPS score Program predictability measure Number of automated tests Number of Features delivered
Program predictability measure
When is collaboration with System Architects and the Systems Team likely to have the greatest impact on Solution development?
At the System Demo
During PI Planning
During the daily stand-up
At the Inspect and Adapt event
During PI Planning
What are relationships within a highly collaborative team based on? Alignment Trust Collaboration Communication
Trust
Which statement is true about batch size, lead time, and utilization?
As batch size increases, lead time decreases
There is no direct relationship between lead time and utilization
Batch size is influenced by the Product Owner; utilization is influenced by the whole team
Higher team member utilization leads to longer lead times
Higher team member utilization leads to longer lead times
What are two characteristics of teams that fear conflict? (Choose two.)
They avoid pair work
They have longer meetings
They do not focus on results
They ignore controversial topics that are critical to team success
They fail to tap into all the opinions and perspectives of team members
They ignore controversial topics that are critical to team success
They fail to tap into all the opinions and perspectives of team members
Why are phase-gate Milestones problematic?
They use documentation and signoffs as a proxy for Solution progress
They are a construct of the well established way of working
They stop Solutions from failing early
They prohibit decision-making at the large-solution level
They stop Solutions from failing early
What are the benefits of organizing teams around Features?
Teams can avoid decomposing Features into Stories
It enables specialized skill sets to be used
There are fewer dependencies between teams
It eliminates the need for a dependency board
There are fewer dependencies between teams
Which two statements describe the design of the Team Kanban board? (Choose two.)
It has a WIP limit for every stage that is adjusted by what is happening
It is primarily a task board used to visualize the Iteration Backlog and related tasks
It has the same design across all Agile Teams to ensure consistent execution
It is designed by the Scrum Master so that team members follow her suggestions on how the work needs to be done
It is designed by the team with coaching from the Scrum Master, and it is based on the team’s workflow
It has a WIP limit for every stage that is adjusted by what is happening
It is designed by the team with coaching from the Scrum Master, and it is based on the team’s workflow
What benefit does cadence development provide?
Limits variability
Limits WIP
Causes multiple events to occur at the same time
Synchronization
Limits variability
What are two actions a team can take to improve economic outcomes? (Choose two.)
Late integration
Delay performance testing
Create a Research Enabler
Automated testing
Increase velocity
Create a Research Enabler
Automated testing
What is a typical measurement in Kanban?
Code quality
Velocity
Queue length
Average WIP
Average WIP
What are two reasons the 5 Whys technique is effective? (Choose two.)
It reveals the nature of the problem through repeating “why” five times
It allows problems of a similar nature to be combined into groups
It explores the cause and effect relationship underlying a particular problem
It is an effective way for the team to collaborate
It allows for assumptions and logic traps
It reveals the nature of the problem through repeating “why” five times
It explores the cause and effect relationship underlying a particular problem
What are two examples of an organizational structure anti-pattern? (Choose two.)
There is one Scrum Master supporting the team
The Scrum Master runs backlog refinement
There are two Product Owners for the team
Team members rotate the role of the Scrum Master
The team’s manager is also the Product Owner
There are two Product Owners for the team
The team’s manager is also the Product Owner
What are the SAFe 7 core competencies?
Lean-Agile Leadership
Team and Technical Agility
Agile Product Delivery
Enterprise Solution Delivery
Lean Portfolio Management:
Organizational Agility
Continuous Learning Culture
What are the SAFE core values?
Alignment
Built-in Quality
Transparency
Program Execution
What is the House of Lean?
Roof:
Value
Pillars: Respect for people and culture Flow Innovation Relentless improvement
Foundation:
Leadership
What is Lean?
Lean is a set of principles and practices for efficient manufacturing and operations that grew out of the Toyota Production System developed in post-WWII Japan. It focuses on problem-solving and continuous improvement to increase quality and eliminate waste.
What are the types of teams in an ART?
Stream-aligned
Complicated subsystem
Enabling
Platform
