AZ-400 · Domain 1: Design and implement processes and communications · 13% of the exam
Task 1.2: Design and implement appropriate metrics and queries for DevOps
Dashboards for flow of work such as cycle time, lead time and time to recovery, and the metrics and queries that serve planning, development, testing, security, delivery and operations.
Study it
Flow metrics on dashboards: cycle time, lead time and time to recovery
Lesson coming
Queries and Analytics for planning, development, testing, security, delivery and operations
Lesson coming
Sample questions
Try each one before opening the answer. Every option is explained, with the Microsoft documentation page that proves it.
Question 1 · choose 1
A product owner wants to tell customers how long a request typically takes from the moment it's logged until it's done. The team lead wants to know how long the team takes once it starts working on an item. Which widgets answer these two questions?
AVelocity for the product owner, and Burndown for the team lead
BCycle Time for the product owner's question, and Lead Time for the team lead's question
CLead Time for the product owner, and Cycle Time for the team lead
DCumulative flow for both, read from the width of the Done band
Show the answer and why
AVelocity for the product owner, and Burndown for the team lead
Incorrect
Those widgets don't measure the elapsed time of individual items.
BCycle Time for the product owner's question, and Lead Time for the team lead's question
Incorrect
These are reversed: cycle time starts when work starts, and lead time starts at creation.
CLead Time for the product owner, and Cycle Time for the team lead
Correct
Lead time spans creation to completion; cycle time spans first In Progress to completion.
DCumulative flow for both, read from the width of the Done band
Incorrect
The CFD shows items per state over time, not elapsed time per item.
Lead time is the elapsed time from when a work item is created until it reaches a Completed state, which suits delivery estimates and SLAs. Cycle time runs from when the item first enters an In Progress state until it's completed, which shows team efficiency and bottlenecks.
A team's cumulative flow diagram over six weeks shows the Testing band growing steadily wider while the Done band grows slowly, and the Active band stays about the same width. What should the team conclude and investigate first?
AWork is piling up in Testing, so testing is the bottleneck
BDevelopers are starting too little work, so the backlog should be refined
CThe team's velocity is rising, so it can commit to more stories next sprint
DThe diagram is misconfigured, because bands should keep the same width
Show the answer and why
AWork is piling up in Testing, so testing is the bottleneck
Correct
A band that keeps widening means work enters Testing faster than it leaves for Done, so getting work through and out of Testing is the constraint to investigate.
BDevelopers are starting too little work, so the backlog should be refined
Incorrect
Active stays steady; the growth is downstream in Testing.
CThe team's velocity is rising, so it can commit to more stories next sprint
Incorrect
A slow-growing Done band shows completion isn't keeping up.
DThe diagram is misconfigured, because bands should keep the same width
Incorrect
Band widths change with work in each state; the trend is the signal.
A cumulative flow diagram shows the count of items in each state over time. The width of a band is the work in that state; a band that keeps widening means items enter the state faster than they leave, a bulge that points to a bottleneck and longer cycle times. A bulge shows that the step that takes work out of that state is struggling.
For a quality review, you need a query of every bug that was ever in the Resolved state and is now Active again, so the team can measure reopened work. Which clause pair should the query use?
AState = Active AND State Was Ever Resolved
BState = Active AND Changed Date >= @Today - 30
CState = Resolved AND State = Active
DState In (Active, Resolved)
Show the answer and why
AState = Active AND State Was Ever Resolved
Correct
Was Ever matches items by past values, so it finds active bugs that were resolved at some point.
BState = Active AND Changed Date >= @Today - 30
Incorrect
This lists recently changed active bugs, not ones that were resolved before.
CState = Resolved AND State = Active
Incorrect
A field has one current value, so both conditions can't be true at once.
DState In (Active, Resolved)
Incorrect
In matches current values only, and includes bugs that are resolved now.
Most query operators compare a field's current value. Was Ever lists items based on values the field has had in the past, for example Assigned To Was Ever @Me, or a state the item has passed through.
A team wants a query that always lists the open items in its current sprint, without editing the query at the start of each sprint. Which macro should the Iteration Path clause use?
A@Today
B@Me
C@StartOfWeek
D@CurrentIteration
Show the answer and why
A@Today
Incorrect
@Today is a date macro for date fields.
B@Me
Incorrect
@Me refers to the current user.
C@StartOfWeek
Incorrect
That's a date macro, not an iteration.
D@CurrentIteration
Correct
It returns items in the team's current sprint and moves with it.
Iteration macros such as @CurrentIteration and @CurrentIteration +/- n target the team's current sprint. Date macros include @Today and @StartOfWeek, and @Me refers to the user running the query.
Midway through a sprint, the team wants to see whether the remaining work is falling fast enough to finish by the last day. Which chart should it look at?
AThe Lead Time widget
BThe pipeline duration report
CA burndown chart for the sprint
DThe Velocity widget for the last six sprints
Show the answer and why
AThe Lead Time widget
Incorrect
Lead time measures elapsed time per item.
BThe pipeline duration report
Incorrect
That report covers pipeline run times.
CA burndown chart for the sprint
Correct
Burndown shows remaining work over time against the ideal trend.
DThe Velocity widget for the last six sprints
Incorrect
Velocity reports finished sprints, not progress within this one.
Burndown and burnup widgets track progress of remaining or completed work over a sprint or release, which helps teams see whether they'll finish on time.
Which DevOps metric tracks how quickly a team restores service after a production incident?
ADeployment frequency per week
BChange failure rate
CMean time to recovery
DVelocity
Show the answer and why
ADeployment frequency per week
Incorrect
That counts how often releases reach production.
BChange failure rate
Incorrect
That's the share of deployments that cause problems.
CMean time to recovery
Correct
It measures how quickly incidents are resolved and service restored.
DVelocity
Incorrect
Velocity measures work completed per sprint.
Common DevOps outcome metrics include deployment frequency, change failure rate and mean time to recovery (MTTR), which tracks how quickly service is restored.
A team lead with no OData experience wants a simple Power BI report of Boards data filtered to her team's area path. What's the easiest supported way to get the data?
ACreate an Analytics view and use the Azure DevOps data connector
BWrite OData queries by hand
CExport a query to CSV each week
DConnect Power BI directly to the project database
Show the answer and why
ACreate an Analytics view and use the Azure DevOps data connector
Correct
Analytics views define filtered Boards datasets that the data connector loads into Power BI.
BWrite OData queries by hand
Incorrect
She has no OData experience, and hand-written queries are the harder route.
CExport a query to CSV each week
Incorrect
Manual exports aren't a live connection.
DConnect Power BI directly to the project database
Incorrect
Azure DevOps Services exposes data through Analytics, not a database connection.
Analytics views provide a simple way to define a filtered set of Boards data for Power BI reports, loaded with the Azure DevOps data connector.