DASM Disciplined Agile Scrum Master (DASM) Exam Questions and Answers

Thecoordination meeting(often referred to as the daily stand-up or daily coordination meeting in Agile practices) is crucial for a project team becauseit provides an opportunity for the team to help itself stay in sync. This meeting is typically held daily and allows team members to communicate their progress, discuss any challenges or impediments, and align their activities with the project's goals.

In Disciplined Agile, such meetings are vital for fostering collaboration and ensuring that everyone on the team is aware of what others are doing, which helps avoid misunderstandings, duplicate work, and potential blockers. The purpose is not to report to a manager but for the team to coordinate, plan, and adjust their work dynamically to ensure continuous alignment and effective progress towards the team's objectives.

In Disciplined Agile, theConstructionphase of the project life cycle is responsible for developing aconsumable solution in a collaborative and incremental manner. During this phase, the team iteratively builds the solution, working closely with stakeholders to ensure that the product or service being developed meets their needs and expectations. The Construction phase emphasizes agility, collaboration, and incremental development, where the solution evolves through repeated iterations, incorporating feedback and improvements at each step. This approach helps to minimize risks, adapt to changes, and deliver value more frequently.

Disciplined Agileis described as anagnostic hybrid techniquethat draws upon many different ideas from multiple agile and lean frameworks. Unlike other agile methodologies that prescribe a specific set of practices, Disciplined Agile provides a toolkit that allows teams to choose and tailor their way of working based on their unique context, goals, and constraints. It integrates strategies from Scrum, Kanban, Lean, XP (Extreme Programming), SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework), and other approaches, providing a more flexible and adaptive approach to project management.

AMinimum Viable Product (MVP)is a product with just enough features to satisfy early customers andprovide feedback for future product development. The MVP approach allows organizations to test their product hypothesis with minimal effort and investment, gather valuable user feedback, and make informed decisions about further development. By delivering a basic version of the product quickly, teams can learn from real-world use, validate assumptions, and iterate on the product to better meet customer needs in subsequent versions.

The concept ofLeanwas developed around eliminating the three types of deviations that show inefficient allocation ofresources: Muda (waste), Mura (unevenness), and Muri (overburden). Lean principles focus on maximizing value by minimizing waste and optimizing the use of resources, such as time, effort, and materials. By identifying and eliminating these inefficiencies,organizations can ensure that resources are allocated effectively, reducing costs, improving quality, and increasing customer satisfaction.

In Disciplined Agile, a good Team Lead (or Scrum Master) should act as a servant leader, supporting and enabling team members to succeed. When a team member is falling behind, the appropriate response is tohave a conversation with the team member to understand what is getting in their way and work together to find solutions. This approach fosters an environment of trust and collaboration and helps to identify and remove impediments that may be affecting the team member's performance. The goal is to address the root cause of the issue and provide support, rather than assigning blame or creating discomfort.

In Disciplined Agile (DA), theTeam Memberrole is primarily responsible for building the product correctly. Team Members are the individuals who directly create the product by writing code, testing, designing, and performing other tasks necessary to deliver a working solution. The Architecture Owner may guide architectural decisions, and the Team Lead may facilitate processes, but it is the Team Members who actively build the product and ensure it meets the required standards and specifications.

Along-standing teamis best suited for a long-term project with the potential for significant budgeting and tracking overhead. In Disciplined Agile (DA), a long-standing team is a stable, cross-functional team that remains intact over time and works on various projects or continuous delivery of value. This type of team reduces overhead associated with forming and disbanding teams and allows for more consistent tracking, budgeting, and management of resources. Additionally, long-standing teams develop stronger team dynamics and improve performance over time due to their stability.

B. A project teamis typically temporary and disbanded once the project ends.

C. A cross-functional teamis a characteristic of many Agile teams but does not specifically address the need for long-term stability.

D. A shared services teamsupports other teams by providing specialized skills but is not focused on long-term projects with budgeting needs.

Disciplined Agile (DA) milestones are based on the concept ofLean governance, which is focused on ensuring that agile practices are aligned with the organization's overall objectives while minimizing bureaucracy. In the DA framework, milestones provide lightweight checkpoints throughout the lifecycle to ensure that the team is on track to meet its objectives and deliver value. These milestones are not about documentation or merely following a predefined lifecycle but are instead focused on achieving business value in a lean and efficient manner.

A. Continuous integrationis a practice rather than a basis for milestones.

B. Documentationis not a central focus of DA milestones.

D. Lifecyclerefers to the various phases in the DA process, but milestones are specific checkpoints within these phases guided by lean governance principles.

Thus,C. Lean governanceis the correct answer, as it embodies the principles upon which Disciplined Agile milestones are established.

The method that extends the Kaizen loop strategy to help teams identify techniques likely to work in their context isGuided continuous improvement. In the Disciplined Agile (DA) toolkit, guided continuous improvement refers to using a structured approach to learning and adaptation, where teams are provided with guidance and options based on proven practices. This helps teams apply Kaizen principles effectively in their unique environments by selecting and tailoring techniques that are most likely to yield positive results.

A. Explicit workflow policiesrefer to defining specific rules about how work is managed but do not inherently guide continuous improvement.

C. Communities of practiceinvolve groups that share knowledge, but they do not extend the Kaizen loop strategy directly.

D. Cross-team learninghelps in sharing knowledge between teams but is not the method extending the Kaizen loop strategy.

Thus, the correct answer isB. Guided continuous improvementas it directly aligns with the aim of adapting the Kaizen strategy to specific contexts.

InTeam Estimation, also known as relative estimation or silent grouping, the team first estimates the relative sizes of all user stories by comparing them against each other. The stories are arranged in order of size (smallest to largest) without initially assigning specific numbers. After ordering, numerical values (such as story points) are then assigned to each story based on their relative size. This method leverages group consensus and comparative analysis to provide more accurate estimates.

B. Ranking teams in order of importanceis not part of the Team Estimation process.

C. Defining "Definition of Done" criteriais a separate exercise, not related to estimating story size.

D. Estimating necessary rolesis not a part of Team Estimation.

TheKaizen feedback loopis commonly summarized asPlan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA). This cycle is used for continuous improvement and problem-solving, where:

Plan: Identify a goal or process and plan a change.

Do: Implement the change on a small scale.

Study: Observe and analyze the results of the change.

Act: Decide on necessary adjustments and standardize the successful changes.

Other options do not correctly capture the Kaizen loop:

A. Plan, Do, Monitor, Studyincorrectly places "Monitor".

B. Plat, Implement Demo, Studymixes unrelated steps.

D. Study, Act, React, Demodoes not follow the correct logical order of the Kaizen feedback loop.

Thus, the correct answer isC. Plan, Do, Study, Act.