A team's value stream shows a stable throughput of 10 features per month, but the average lead time has increased from 20 to 35 days over the last three months. The team is not aware of any new work being added. What should the team investigate first?

The time work spends waiting in queues between process steps

The team's velocity in story points per iteration

The number of defects escaping to production

The change failure rate of recent releases

A value stream shows high throughput, but the average cycle time for individual work items is increasing. The team suspects a bottleneck. What is the most effective way to confirm the bottleneck?

Reduce the overall WIP limit to force the team to work faster

Ask the team which step feels the most stressful

Compare the team's velocity across the last three sprints

Measure the work-in-progress (WIP) at each step and identify where items pile up

When defining metrics for a value stream, what is the primary consideration to ensure they are effective?

They must be approved by the finance department

They must be aligned with the value-driven goals of the organization

They must be identical to industry-standard metrics

They must be easy to automate in the CI/CD pipeline

A value stream has a defect escape rate of 10% and a change failure rate of 10%. The team is considering investing in a new testing tool to reduce both metrics. What is the most important consideration before making this investment?

Whether the tool will reduce the lead time

Whether the tool addresses the root causes of both defect escape and change failure

Whether the team has enough budget for the tool

Whether the tool is popular in the industry

What is the primary purpose of interpreting metric trends in a value stream?

To identify bottlenecks and improvement opportunities

To replace the need for retrospectives

To compare teams and rank them by performance

Certified Tester Agile Test Leadership at Scale

Domain 2Objective 4

Metrics for Analyzing a Value Stream CT-ATLAS Practice Questions (Page 4)

Part of the Improve Quality and Flow in a Value-Driven Organization domain, which makes up ~24% of our current practice bank. ISTQB does not publish an official question count, but from its 120-minute exam (~50–80 total, ~12–19 in this domain), expect 2–4 from this objective — we provide 26 practice questions to prepare you well beyond it. (estimate)

26questions here

6free pages

4concepts

Questions 16–20

16application · medium
A team's value stream shows a stable throughput of 10 features per month, but the average lead time has increased from 20 to 35 days over the last three months. The team is not aware of any new work being added. What should the team investigate first?
Select an answer first
17application · medium
A value stream shows high throughput, but the average cycle time for individual work items is increasing. The team suspects a bottleneck. What is the most effective way to confirm the bottleneck?
Select an answer first
18foundation · easy
When defining metrics for a value stream, what is the primary consideration to ensure they are effective?
Select an answer first
19expert · hard
A value stream has a defect escape rate of 10% and a change failure rate of 10%. The team is considering investing in a new testing tool to reduce both metrics. What is the most important consideration before making this investment?
Select an answer first
20foundation · easy
What is the primary purpose of interpreting metric trends in a value stream?
Select an answer first

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