DASM PMI Disciplined Agile Scrum Master (DASM) Exam Free Practice Exam Questions (2025 Updated)

A long-lived (or stable) team is a group of individuals who work together over an extended period, typically across multiple projects or product increments. In the context of PMI's Disciplined Agile (DA) framework, having a long-lived team is beneficial for several reasons:

Trustworthy (A):As team members work together over time, they build a strong sense of trust. Trust within a team is foundational for effective collaboration, decision-making, and conflict resolution. Team members learn to rely on each other's skills and knowledge, leading to more effective and efficient work processes. Disciplined Agile emphasizes creating environments where trust can be fostered, which is more easily achieved in stable, long-lived teams.

Highly Collaborative (C):Long-lived teams develop a rhythm of working together, which leads to high levels of collaboration. As team members become more familiar with each other's working styles, strengths, and weaknesses, they can communicate more effectively, align on goals more quickly, and coordinate their efforts more efficiently. This heightened collaboration accelerates delivery, improves quality, and fosters continuous improvement—key principles in the Disciplined Agile toolkit.

Incorrect Options:

B. Projectized:While the concept of a "projectized" organization focuses on structuring around projects, this does not inherently relate to the benefits of having a long-lived team. In contrast, Disciplined Agile promotes stable teams over project-centric teams to maximize the value delivery and learning curve.

D. Specifically resourced:This option refers to the allocation of specific resources for projects or tasks, which does not directly align with the idea of having a stable, long-term team.

E. Ability to multi-task:Multi-tasking is generally not considered a benefit within agile frameworks, including Disciplined Agile. Multi-tasking can lead to inefficiency and reduced focus, which goes against the principles of optimizing flow and delivering value quickly.

Thus, the most appropriate answers that align with the principles of Disciplined Agile areA. TrustworthyandC. Highly collaborative

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 first step in choosing a team’s way of working (WoW) in Disciplined Agile is toanalyze the context. This involves understanding the specific needs, constraints, and circumstances of the team and its environment. By analyzing the context, the team can make informed decisions about which practices, tools, and frameworks are most appropriate for their situation. This ensures that the chosen WoW is tailored to fit the team’s unique challenges and goals.

In Disciplined Agile (DA), aSpecialistis considered a supporting role. Specialists are individuals with deep expertise in a specific area, such as a database administrator, security expert, or a user experience (UX) designer. They are not necessarily core members of the delivery team but can be brought in as needed to provide specific skills or knowledge that the team requires at various points throughout the project. The focus of supporting roles like Specialists is to supplement the team's capabilities and help address specific technical challenges.

In PMI’s Disciplined Agile (DA) framework, process blades refer to modular, process decision-making tools that help organizations optimize their way of working (WoW). They are categorized into three primary areas:

Disciplined DevOps (A) - This blade focuses on streamlining and integrating development and operations activities, with a focus on continuous delivery and automation practices. It encompasses activities such as IT operations, quality assurance, data management, and release management to improve flow and operational efficiency.

Disciplined Project Management Office (PMO) (B) - The Disciplined Agile PMO is designed to oversee and provide governance to an organization's project and product delivery processes. It facilitates strategic alignment and value delivery across teams, ensuring that agile principles are applied at a broader organizational level, and that governance and funding models are adaptable.

Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD) (E) - Disciplined Agile Delivery is a hybrid agile approach focused on the delivery of software-based solutions. It combines strategies from Agile, Lean, Scrum, and other methodologies to create a flexible and scalable approach to delivery. DAD provides guidance across all stages of solution delivery, from concept to deployment.

These three categories help organizations leverage Disciplined Agile principles by enabling flexible, scalable solutions that can be customized based on their specific context and needs.

The role of theProduct Ownerin Agile and Disciplined Agile frameworks is to ensure the team isbuilding the right productthat aligns with stakeholder needs and provides maximum value tothe customer. The Product Owner achieves this by managing and prioritizing the product backlog, defining user stories, clarifying requirements, and making decisions on behalf of the stakeholders.

A. Coordinate the productis not a primary function of the Product Owner.

B. Inspect the productmay be a part of their responsibilities, but the focus is on guiding the product's development.

D. Organize the product teamis more aligned with the Scrum Master's role.

Disciplined Agile (DA)is defined as aprocess-decision toolkitthat offers a broad range of guidance to help individuals, teams, and organizations streamline their processes in a way that makes sense given their unique context. DA is not a specific methodology; instead, it provides a toolkit that integrates various agile, lean, and traditional strategies, allowing teams to choose the best approach for their situation.

A. An agile set of practices promoting autonomy within a PMOis not accurate, as DA is broader than just a PMO.

C. An approach that frequently assesses changeis not the specific purpose of DA.

D. A methodology exploring various agile and waterfall practicesdoes not accurately represent DA's comprehensive and context-sensitive nature.

Therefore, the correct answer isB. It is a process-decision toolkit that provides straightforward guidance to help people, teams, and organizations to streamline their processes in a context-sensitive manner.

In Disciplined Agile (DA),Minimum Business Increment (MBI)(A) is a key tool used to sequence work in order to deliver value quickly. An MBI is the smallest piece of functionality that can deliver recognizable value to the business and its stakeholders. By focusing on delivering MBIs, teams can prioritize andsequence their work to release incremental value to customers in a timely manner, reducing time-to-market and allowing for early feedback.

Here’s a breakdown of whyMBIis the correct answer:

MBI (A)is specifically designed to deliverreal business valuewith the minimum amount of effort, ensuring that development work is focused on the most impactful features first. It’s not just about delivering a working product, but rather delivering thesmallest set of functionalitiesthat provide business value, which can be immediately utilized by the organization or customers.

The other options have important roles in Agile but are not directly related to sequencing work to deliver value quickly:

Minimum Viable Product (MVP) (B): While MVP is crucial for early market testing, it is a broader concept compared to MBI. MVP aims to test the product’s viability, but MBI is more focused on delivering incremental business value.

Planning Poker (C): A tool for estimating work efforts in Agile but not used for sequencing work.

Work in Process (WIP) Limits (D): This technique is related to managing workflow, typically in Kanban, by limiting the number of tasks in progress to avoid overloading the team. While it improves flow, it does not directly prioritize or sequence work based on business value.

Therefore,MBI (A)is the most effective technique for sequencing work to deliver value quickly in the DA framework.

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 Agile, and specifically within the Disciplined Agile framework, theretrospectiveis a crucial ceremony where the team reflects on their past iteration to identify areas of improvement. The main purpose is to foster continuous improvement by focusing on how the team can better work together moving forward. It encourages open communication, self-reflection, and team accountability, aligning with the agile principles of continuous learning and adaptation.

The other options are incorrect because:

B. Organizing the product backlogis typically done during backlog refinement sessions, not retrospectives.

C. Prohibiting stakeholders from making requestsis not the purpose of a retrospective; stakeholder feedback is valuable and is usually gathered during review sessions.

D. Providing the product owner with insights into team dynamicsmay occur, but it is not the primary goal of the retrospective.

Therefore, the correct answer isA. It allows the team time to focus on how they can better work together moving forward, as it aligns with the continuous improvement objective central to Agile and Disciplined Agile practices.

In Disciplined Agile, theArchitecture Owneris responsible formitigating key technical risks. This role focuses on overseeing the architectural integrity of the solution being developed, ensuring that the team makes sound technical decisions that align with the desired architecture and quality attributes of the project. The Architecture Owner helps in identifying and addressing potential technical risks early in the project life cycle, collaborating with the team to adapt the architecture as necessary to mitigate these risks.

This individual works closely with the team to guide architectural considerations, ensures compliance with the chosen architectural strategies, and maintains the overall technical direction of the project. Although they are involved in other cross-functional activities, their primary responsibility is to foresee and address technical challenges that could jeopardize the success of the project.

During aniteration demo(also known as an iteration review), the team presents the work completed during the iteration to stakeholders and obtains feedback. This feedback is crucial for ensuring that the team is delivering the desired value and making adjustments as needed forfuture iterations. The demo provides an opportunity for the product owner and other stakeholders to inspect the product increment and provide input that can be used to refine the backlog and guide the team’s efforts.

B. Retrospectiveis focused on team improvement rather than obtaining product feedback.

C. Iteration planningis for planning the work to be done, not gathering feedback.

D. Daily stand-up/coordination meetingis used for team synchronization and does not involve external feedback.

Avalue stream mapis a Lean tool that helps teams visualize the flow of work and identify waste throughout the process of delivering a product or service. The primary purpose of a value stream map is tohelp the team identify problem areas or bottlenecksin the path to realizing value. By understanding where delays, excess inventory, or unnecessary steps occur, teams can target these areas for improvement, thereby minimizing waste and optimizing the flow of value to customers.

B. Focusing on the construction phaseis not specific to minimizing waste across the entire value stream.

C. Reducing delays in the workflow processis an outcome of identifying problem areas but not the direct function of value stream mapping.

D. Applying the five Whys root cause methodis a separate Lean technique that can complement value stream mapping but is not its main purpose.

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.