DA DA Team Dynamics & Collaboration Practices 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: In Disciplined Agile, what does the principle 'context counts' mean for team formation?
- All teams must follow the same structure regardless of their situation
- Team structure and practices should be tailored to each team's unique circumstances (Correct answer)
- Context diagrams must be created before any team forms
- Teams are ranked by their contextual maturity level
Correct answer: Team structure and practices should be tailored to each team's unique circumstances
DA's 'context counts' principle recognizes that no single team structure fits all situations, so teams should adapt their composition and practices to their specific environment.
Question 2: According to Disciplined Agile, what is the recommended approach when two team members have a persistent interpersonal conflict that is slowing the team's progress?
- Reassign one team member to a different project immediately
- Address it transparently using a structured retrospective or mediation process (Correct answer)
- Ignore it and let the conflict resolve naturally over time
- Escalate directly to the PMO for arbitration
Correct answer: Address it transparently using a structured retrospective or mediation process
DA encourages teams to address conflicts directly and transparently through facilitated discussion or retrospectives, supporting a psychologically safe and self-organizing environment.
Question 3: In DA, what term describes the shared understanding a team develops about goals, roles, and working norms at the start of a project?
- Team charter (Correct answer)
- Sprint contract
- Project brief
- Agile manifesto alignment
Correct answer: Team charter
A team charter documents the shared agreements about how the team will work together, including goals, norms, decision rights, and communication protocols.
Question 4: In Disciplined Agile, which collaboration pattern best describes two developers working together at a single workstation on the same code simultaneously?
- Swarming
- Pair programming (Correct answer)
- Mob programming
- Peer review
Correct answer: Pair programming
Pair programming involves two developers working together at one workstation, with one typing (driver) and one reviewing and thinking ahead (navigator).
Question 5: According to DA, what is 'mob programming' and when is it most beneficial?
- A technique where the entire team works together on a single task, best for complex problems requiring collective knowledge (Correct answer)
- A brainstorming session where all team members generate requirements simultaneously
- A code review format where multiple developers review one developer's work
- A deployment practice where all team members approve a release together
Correct answer: A technique where the entire team works together on a single task, best for complex problems requiring collective knowledge
Mob programming has the whole team collaborate on one task at a time, and is especially valuable for solving complex problems, onboarding, or spreading critical knowledge.
Question 6: In Disciplined Agile, what is the significance of a team's 'working agreement' in relation to team dynamics?
- It is a formal contract signed by all team members and their managers
- It is a set of self-defined norms that guide how the team interacts and makes decisions (Correct answer)
- It replaces the need for retrospectives by pre-defining all team processes
- It is a document submitted to the PMO to justify the team's agile approach
Correct answer: It is a set of self-defined norms that guide how the team interacts and makes decisions
A working agreement is a collaboratively created set of behavioral norms that helps teams maintain consistent, respectful collaboration and resolve disputes constructively.
DA DA Team Dynamics & Collaboration Practices 1
In Disciplined Agile, what does the principle 'context counts' mean for team formation?