CAD Agile Metrics and Reporting 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which agile metric measures the number of story points a team completes in a single sprint?
- Lead time
- Velocity (Correct answer)
- Throughput
- Cycle time
Correct answer: Velocity
Velocity measures the amount of work (in story points) a team completes per sprint, used to forecast future delivery capacity.
Question 2: A burndown chart tracks which of the following over time?
- Cumulative work completed vs. planned
- Remaining work versus time elapsed in the sprint (Correct answer)
- Number of defects found per day
- Team member availability across the sprint
Correct answer: Remaining work versus time elapsed in the sprint
A burndown chart plots remaining work (story points or tasks) on the Y-axis against time remaining in the sprint on the X-axis.
Question 3: What does 'cycle time' measure in an agile context?
- Time from sprint planning to retrospective
- Time from when work begins on an item to when it is delivered (Correct answer)
- Total time a backlog item exists before being discarded
- Time between successive sprint start dates
Correct answer: Time from when work begins on an item to when it is delivered
Cycle time is the elapsed time from when a team starts actively working on an item to when it is completed and delivered.
Question 4: A Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFD) is primarily used to visualize which aspect of a team's workflow?
- Individual team member contributions per sprint
- Work item flow through each stage of the process over time (Correct answer)
- Defect escape rate to production
- Sprint planning accuracy
Correct answer: Work item flow through each stage of the process over time
A CFD shows the quantity of work in each workflow state (e.g., To Do, In Progress, Done) over time, making bottlenecks and flow problems visible.
Question 5: If a team's velocity varies significantly from sprint to sprint, the BEST initial action is to:
- Switch to a fixed-price contract model
- Investigate and address root causes such as scope changes or team instability (Correct answer)
- Double the sprint length to smooth out variance
- Assign story points by manager decree
Correct answer: Investigate and address root causes such as scope changes or team instability
High velocity variance signals underlying problems like frequent scope changes or team disruptions; identifying root causes leads to sustainable improvement.
Question 6: Lead time in agile development is defined as:
- The time from item creation in the backlog to its delivery (Correct answer)
- The average effort in hours per story point
- The number of days before a release freeze
- The time a developer spends in code review
Correct answer: The time from item creation in the backlog to its delivery
Lead time captures the full customer perspective: from when a request is made (item created) to when it is fulfilled (delivered).
Question 7: Which metric directly indicates whether a team is likely to meet a release deadline based on current progress?
- Team happiness index
- Release burndown chart trend (Correct answer)
- Number of daily standups held
- Cumulative defect count
Correct answer: Release burndown chart trend
A release burndown chart shows remaining backlog versus time, allowing the team to project whether the release goal is achievable at the current pace.
