DASSM Practice Questions

This approach directly addresses the root cause of the problem: the siloed nature of the teams and communication barriers. By embedding liaisons or creating a more integrated, cross-functional team structure, communication becomes more fluid, decisions can be made faster, and the supporting departments gain a better understanding of the development team's context and needs. This aligns with the DA principle of breaking down silos to optimize the overall value stream.

When a team reports status to a leader instead of coordinating with each other, it's a classic sign that they have not yet matured into a self-organizing unit. They still view the DASSM as a traditional manager responsible for coordination, rather than seeing themselves as a collective responsible for the work. The goal of the meeting should be for the team to coordinate among themselves, not to report to a manager.

User stories, particularly following the format 'As a [user], I want [goal], so that [benefit],' inherently focus on the 'what' and 'why' rather than the 'how.' By coaching the PO to write requirements as user stories and collaborating with the team to define acceptance criteria, the focus shifts from a prescriptive specification to a shared understanding of user needs, empowering the team to design the best solution.

This statement is true. 'Context Counts' is one of the fundamental principles of Disciplined Agile. The entire DA toolkit is built on the idea that teams should be empowered to choose and tailor their process based on context factors such as team size, technical complexity, and organizational culture. DA explicitly rejects prescriptive, one-size-fits-all frameworks.

The flowchart clearly shows multiple handoffs and manual processes after the development sprint: a long manual QA phase, a CAB approval gate, and a manual deployment. This entire section represents the largest source of delay and is the primary constraint on the value stream. Applying Disciplined DevOps principles—such as continuous integration, continuous testing, and automated deployment—would collapse these stages, dramatically reducing lead time and improving flow.

The core problem is a delay caused by a separate, manual QA phase. The Continuous Delivery: Agile lifecycle is specifically designed to address this by integrating development, testing, and deployment activities into a seamless flow. It promotes automation and cross-functional collaboration, directly targeting the handoff bottleneck. The Exploratory lifecycle is for high-uncertainty products, the Program lifecycle is for coordinating teams, and the Lean lifecycle, while good for flow, doesn't inherently mandate the integration of deployment and testing like the CD lifecycles do.

Collaboration is the ideal conflict resolution mode for Disciplined Agile teams, especially for complex technical decisions. It involves working together to find a win-win solution that addresses the underlying concerns of both parties (scalability and complexity). Competing would alienate one developer, Avoiding would let the problem fester, and Compromising might lead to a suboptimal technical solution. Collaboration aims for the best outcome by synthesizing viewpoints.

A newly formed team with low trust needs explicit norms and personal connection. Facilitating a team charter or working agreements makes mutual expectations explicit and gives the team a shared foundation for how it works together. Team-building activities in which members share personal (non-work) stories build interpersonal understanding and trust, which underpins psychological safety (a DA promise: Create Psychological Safety and Embrace Diversity). Immediate individual metrics, a lead who makes all decisions, or assuming trust will appear on its own all work against safety and self-organization.

A newly formed team with low trust needs explicit norms and personal connection. Facilitating a team charter or working agreements makes mutual expectations explicit and gives the team a shared foundation for how it works together. Team-building activities in which members share personal (non-work) stories build interpersonal understanding and trust, which underpins psychological safety (a DA promise: Create Psychological Safety and Embrace Diversity). Immediate individual metrics, a lead who makes all decisions, or assuming trust will appear on its own all work against safety and self-organization.

Portfolio Management is a process blade in the Value Streams layer of the DA tool kit. It addresses how an organization identifies, prioritizes, organizes and governs its initiatives (projects, programs, product and service teams) across their full lifecycle, maximizing business value in a sustainable way. Coordinate Activities, Govern Delivery Team and Address Risk are ongoing process goals of Disciplined Agile Delivery that operate at the level of a single delivery team, not the enterprise portfolio. Source: PMI Disciplined Agile, Process Blades and Portfolio Management.

Silent Writing (also known as brainwriting or silent brainstorming) is a technique where participants write down their ideas individually before sharing them with the group. This method is particularly effective for ensuring that introverted or less assertive team members have an equal opportunity to contribute their thoughts without being overshadowed by more dominant personalities. It leverages social awareness to create a more inclusive and effective collaborative environment.