PMI DASSM - Disciplined Agile Senior Scrum Master (DASSM) Exam

Performingsystem integration testingmore frequently helps identify integration issues early, reducing the cost and time associated with fixing problems discovered later in the development cycle. Continuous integration testing is a core practice in Agile and Disciplined Agile that ensures changes are regularly validated, promoting a smoother integration process. Conducting integration tests more often allows the team to catch defects early and maintain a stable and reliable build.

Options B (adding team members) and C (testing only at the end) are not best practices as they do not address the root cause of the problem. Option D (finding a way to do less integration testing) contradicts Agile principles, which emphasize frequent testing.

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.

It is false to say that Disciplined Agile (DA) roles cover all possible roles in an organization. DA defines a set of primary roles (such as Team Lead, Product Owner, and Architecture Owner) and supporting roles for agile delivery teams. However, it does not prescribe all roles that might exist in an organization, such as executive leadership or specialized departments outside the agile delivery context.

For an Agile or Lean project team, the aim of theConstruction phaseis to develop aconsumable solutionin a collaborative and incremental manner. This phase focuses on delivering working increments of the product that can be consumed by end users or stakeholders. The approach is highly iterative and involves continuous feedback, allowing the team to make frequent adjustments to align with customer needs and expectations. Options B, C, and D do not fully capture the essence of delivering a solution that is ready to be consumed and used by customers.

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.

The main role of the team lead (which can be referred to as a Scrum Master, Team Coach, or Team Lead in Disciplined Agile) is to ensure that the team is building the product in the right way. This involves facilitating the team's process, removing impediments, and coaching them to adopt and optimize Agile practices, ensuring quality and efficiency in delivery. The team lead does not dictate what product to build (which is the role of the Product Owner), nor is their primary role to build the product themselves or coordinate building efforts in a command-and-control manner. Instead, they focus on enabling and empowering the team to deliver high-quality work in alignment with Agile principles.

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 Disciplined Agile, it is the team members who decide how much work is moved from the product backlog to the iteration backlog. This decision is based on the team's capacity, velocity, and understanding of the complexity and size of the work items. While the Product Owner (B) prioritizes the product backlog, it is up to the team to determine how much of that work can be realistically completed within an iteration. Stakeholders (C), the team manager (D), or the project manager (E) do not make this decision.

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.

In Disciplined Agile, the daily huddle or daily stand-up is referred to as a "coordination meeting." The purpose of this meeting is to allow the team members to coordinate their work, identify any impediments, and align their activities to meet the team’s goals. This term emphasizes the focus on coordinating efforts rather than simply following a ritual. Unlike a "daily meeting" (A), "Scrum meeting" (C), or "Sprint review" (D), the coordination meeting is specifically about the daily alignment and coordination, not about reviewing or planning the work in detail.

According to the Disciplined Agile (DA) manifesto, valuing transparency over false predictability means that it is better to be open and honest about uncertainties and unknowns rather than pretending to have precise control or predictability over future outcomes. This approach builds trust and enables more adaptive and responsive planning. Option A (pointless trying to be predictable) is an oversimplification, Option C (stakeholders don’t need to know about the goals) is incorrect, and Option D, while partially true, does not fully capture the intention of the manifesto statement.

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Lean governance practices, as described in the PMI Disciplined Agile (DA) framework, focus on enabling teams to deliver value in a lean, efficient manner. This involves creating business value regularly (Option A), empowering the team (Option C), providing appropriate Return on Investment (RoI) (Option D), and presenting accurate and timely information (Option E). However, "Directing the team with clear tasks" (Option B) contradicts the lean governance principles, which emphasize empowering teams to make decisions and self-organize rather than being directed. Therefore, directing the team with clear tasks is not a lean governance practice.