DAF Foundations OF Lean Practice Test 3 — 15 Questions

Question 1

In a Lean environment, how do you handle a 'non-value-add but necessary' activity?

Accepted Answer

Streamline and minimize it as much as possible.. In Lean, activities are classified as value-add, non-value-add but necessary (sometimes called 'necessary non-value-add' or Type 1 muda), and pure waste. Necessary non-value-add work — like regulatory compliance checks or safety inspections — cannot be eliminated, so the correct Lean response is to streamline and minimize it (reduce time, effort, and variability) while preserving its necessity.

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Ignore it completely.

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Automate it without optimization.

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Assign it to a low-level employee.

Question 2

What does 'Kaizen' represent in a Lean context?

Accepted Answer

Continuous, incremental improvement.. Kaizen is the Japanese term for continuous, incremental improvement, a foundational Lean principle where every team member is empowered to identify and eliminate waste in small, ongoing steps rather than waiting for large transformative events. In a Lean context, Kaizen emphasizes steady refinement of processes, people, and products through frequent small changes that accumulate into significant gains over time.

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The elimination of all management roles.

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A sudden, radical organizational overhaul.

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A specific software testing methodology.

Question 3

When a team is using a 'Kanban' system, what is the best way to determine if WIP limits are too high?

Accepted Answer

The cycle time is increasing while throughput remains stable.. If the cycle time is consistently increasing despite the throughput remaining the same, the WIP is likely too high.

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The board looks too crowded.

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The team is having too many meetings.

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The team members are complaining about stress.

Question 4

Your team is experiencing 'context switching' due to frequent interruptions. Which Lean-inspired action is most appropriate?

Accepted Answer

Implement 'focus time' where interruptions are restricted.. Context switching from frequent interruptions destroys flow and increases cycle time, a form of Lean waste (muda). Implementing protected 'focus time' where interruptions are restricted directly addresses the root cause by allowing uninterrupted work, consistent with Lean's respect for people and flow efficiency. This is a low-cost, team-driven countermeasure.

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Ask the team to work longer hours.

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Require team members to answer emails immediately.

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Increase the number of daily meetings.

Question 5

Which TWO of the following are primary benefits of limiting Work-in-Progress (WIP)?

Accepted Answer

Reduction in total cycle time.. Option B is correct because limiting WIP reduces the amount of work queued at each stage, which shortens the time any single item spends waiting and being worked on, thereby reducing total cycle time (Little's Law: Cycle Time = WIP / Throughput). Option D is correct because capping WIP prevents work from piling up and hiding problems; when a stage hits its WIP limit, the blockage becomes visible and exposes the underlying process bottleneck that must be addressed. Option A is incorrect because limiting WIP does not eliminate all meetings; it may change their frequency or format but meetings are not inherently removed. Option C is incorrect because limiting WIP primarily reduces cycle time and variability rather than directly increasing total throughput, which depends on the bottleneck's capacity. Option E is incorrect because WIP limits are a system-level flow control mechanism, not a technique for improving individual employee performance.

Answer

Elimination of all meetings.

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Increased total throughput of the system.

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Improved individual employee performance.

Question 6

A team has high 'wait time' between code completion and code review. How should they address this using Lean principles?

Accepted Answer

Incorporate code review into the 'In Progress' workflow state.. The team should pull the review into their workflow, making it a collaborative, immediate step rather than an external dependency.

Answer

Hire more senior developers to review code.

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Eliminate code reviews.

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Schedule all reviews for the end of the week.

Question 7

You are identifying 'non-value-add' work in your process. What is the most important first step?

Accepted Answer

Create a current-state Value Stream Map.. Before you can eliminate waste, you must visualize the current state to know what is actually happening.

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Hire an outside consultant to audit the process.

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Immediately delete all documentation.

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Interview every team member about their tasks.

Question 8

When applying the principle of 'Optimize the Whole', how should you view a 'specialized' sub-team?

Accepted Answer

As a potential silo that should be integrated into cross-functional flow.. Specialized teams often act as silos. The goal is to integrate them into a cross-functional unit to improve end-to-end flow.

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As the most important part of the organization.

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As a group that should work at their own pace.

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As a highly efficient unit that should be kept separate.

Question 9

Which THREE of the following are considered 'Waste' in the context of Lean software development?

Accepted Answer

Waiting for external dependencies to clear.. In Lean software development, 'waste' (muda) is any activity that consumes resources without creating value for the customer. Option A, waiting for external dependencies to clear, is waste because idle time caused by blocked work adds delay and no value, matching the Lean waste category of 'waiting.' Option C, rework due to defects, is waste because correcting defects consumes effort and time that could have been spent on value-adding work, corresponding to the Lean waste of 'defects.' Option D, developing features that the user does not want, is waste because building unnecessary functionality consumes capacity without delivering customer value, matching the Lean waste of 'extra features' or overproduction. Option B, automated regression testing, is not waste because it is a value-enabling practice that verifies working software and reduces defect-related waste. Option E, pair programming sessions, is not waste because pairing is a deliberate practice that improves quality, knowledge sharing, and reduces rework, so it supports value delivery rather than consuming resources without benefit.

Answer

Automated regression testing.

Answer

Pair programming sessions.

Question 10

Which THREE of the following strategies help in 'Optimizing the Whole'?

Accepted Answer

Focusing on end-to-end cycle time rather than local task speed.. Option A is correct because optimizing the whole means improving the entire value stream's flow, so measuring and reducing end-to-end cycle time (the total elapsed time from request to delivery) prevents suboptimization where one stage gets faster at the expense of others. Option B is correct because cross-team dependencies are the primary source of delays and handoff waste in multi-team systems, so identifying and actively managing them keeps work flowing across team boundaries rather than stalling at interfaces. Option C is correct because aligning each team's goals with the organization's overarching value delivery ensures local decisions contribute to overall customer and business outcomes instead of optimizing isolated metrics. Option D is not correct because specialized teams working in complete isolation create silos, increase handoffs, and destroy the end-to-end flow that whole-system optimization requires. Option E is not correct because assigning a manager per individual team member adds supervisory overhead and reinforces a command-and-control, local-optimization mindset rather than improving system-wide value delivery.

Answer

Creating specialized teams that work in complete isolation.

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Assigning one manager to oversee each individual team member.

Question 11

Which TWO of the following are common types of 'Waste' (Muda) that teams should look for?

Accepted Answer

Waiting for information or approvals.. Option A (Waiting for information or approvals) is correct because waiting is one of the classic seven wastes of Lean/Muda — any idle time where work is blocked by a dependency, handoff, or approval gate adds no value and delays flow. Option C (Excessive motion or context switching) is correct because unnecessary movement and task-switching are recognized forms of waste; in knowledge work, context switching destroys focus and throughput, analogous to the 'motion' and 'transportation' wastes in manufacturing. Option B (Collaborative code reviews) is not waste — it is a value-adding quality practice that catches defects early and spreads knowledge. Option D (The use of automated build tools) is not waste — automation reduces manual effort and errors, directly eliminating waste rather than creating it. Option E (Regular team retrospectives) is not waste — retrospectives are a deliberate improvement activity that helps teams identify and remove waste.

Answer

Collaborative code reviews.

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The use of automated build tools.

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Regular team retrospectives.

Question 12

Which TWO of the following are essential components of a successful Value Stream Mapping session?

Accepted Answer

Objective data about cycle time and lead time.. Option A is correct because Value Stream Mapping depends on objective metrics such as cycle time (the time to complete one unit of work) and lead time (the total elapsed time from request to delivery), which expose real bottlenecks and delays rather than opinions. Option D is correct because the people who actually perform the work possess the detailed, tacit knowledge of handoffs, wait states, and workarounds, and their participation builds ownership of the resulting improvement actions. Options B, C, and E are not essential: a cost-cutting mandate can distort the map toward blame rather than flow, an external facilitator enforcing rigid rules suppresses the open, honest discussion VSM requires, and full automation is neither necessary nor always desirable since the goal is to identify and remove waste first.

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A mandate from upper management to cut costs.

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An external facilitator to enforce rigid rules.

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A requirement to automate the whole process.

Question 13

Which THREE of the following actions support the Lean principle 'Build Quality In'?

Accepted Answer

Using automated regression testing.. Option C (Using automated regression testing) is correct because it embeds quality checks into the delivery pipeline, catching defects immediately after each change rather than letting them accumulate, which directly supports building quality in at the source. Option D (Performing continuous integration) is correct because CI automatically builds and tests every commit, providing fast feedback and preventing integration defects from compounding, which is a core mechanism for building quality into the product. Option E (Implementing Test-Driven Development (TDD)) is correct because writing tests before code forces quality requirements into the design and implementation from the start, eliminating defects at the earliest possible point. Option A (Deferring testing until the end of the project) is not correct because late-stage testing allows defects to accumulate and violates the build-quality-in principle of early detection. Option B (Relying on manual testing by an external team) is not correct because outsourcing manual testing creates delayed, non-continuous feedback and does not embed quality into the development process itself.

Answer

Deferring testing until the end of the project.

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Relying on manual testing by an external team.

Question 14

Which THREE of the following represent ways to reduce handoffs?

Accepted Answer

Automating the delivery pipeline to minimize manual intervention.. Option A is correct because automating the delivery pipeline (e.g., CI/CD with automated build, test, and deploy stages) removes the manual handoffs between development, QA, and operations that occur when artifacts are passed between people or teams. Option B is correct because co-locating team members who need to collaborate frequently replaces formal, asynchronous handoffs with direct, high-bandwidth communication, reducing the transfer of work between separate locations or groups. Option C is correct because cross-functional teams that own features end-to-end keep the skills needed for the whole value stream (dev, test, ops) within one team, eliminating the sequential handoffs to external specialist teams. Option D does not belong because outsourcing to a vendor creates additional organizational boundaries and handoffs rather than reducing them. Option E does not belong because adding a management layer to monitor transfers adds coordination overhead and does not remove the handoffs themselves.

Answer

Outsourcing non-core tasks to a specialized vendor.

Answer

Adding an extra layer of management to monitor transfers.

Question 15

Which TWO of the following are common pitfalls of 'Push' systems?

Accepted Answer

Overwhelming the team with too much work.. Option B is correct because a Push system schedules and assigns work based on forecasted demand rather than actual capacity, so more work items are pushed into the team than they can complete, overwhelming the team with too much work. Option D is correct because when work is pushed faster than it can be finished, the excess accumulates as hidden queues (work-in-progress inventory) between process steps, increasing lead times and obscuring the true state of the workflow. Options A, C, and E are incorrect because Push systems are not known for perfectly matching supply with demand (they typically cause mismatch), do not inherently produce high team satisfaction (overload and hidden queues tend to reduce it), and do not automatically eliminate defects (defects must be detected and removed through explicit quality practices).

Answer

The ability to perfectly match supply with demand.

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High levels of team satisfaction.

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Automatic elimination of defects.