AZ-400 Question 20
Select 2You are a DevOps engineer for a company that wants to visualize the flow of work across multiple teams in Azure DevOps. They specifically want to track lead time, cycle time, and time to recovery within a single consolidated dashboard. You have set up work item tracking in Azure Boards and are using Azure Pipelines to deploy changes. Which two actions should you perform to ensure you can accurately display these three metrics on the dashboard in Azure DevOps? (Choose two.)
- A
Add the 'Cycle Time' widget from the Analytics Marketplace to measure how long work items stay in progress before completion.
- B
Enable the 'Release pipeline lead time' toggle in the Azure Pipelines settings to automatically generate a lead time metric.
- C
Create a custom query in Azure Boards calculating incident resolution time, then embed it as a chart to capture time to recovery (MTTR).
- D
Pin Git commit logs to the dashboard to measure the time from commit to code push, counting that as lead time.
- E
Build a query chart tracking the time from when a backlog item changes from 'New' to 'Active' for a rough lead time metric.
Show answer and explanation
Correct answers: A, C
Explanation
Accurately tracking flow metrics in Azure DevOps often involves the Analytics extension or built-in Analytics features. Cycle time measures how long an issue stays 'In Progress' before it's done, whereas lead time covers the full duration from item creation to deployment in production. Time to recovery (MTTR) can be approximated by monitoring incident or bug items from creation to resolution. Official Microsoft documentation on Azure DevOps Analytics (https://learn.microsoft.com/azure/devops/report/analytics/overview) provides guidance on configuring widgets and queries for dashboards, ensuring these metrics are visualized accurately.
- A. Correct.
Option 1 is correct. The 'Cycle Time' widget from the Analytics Marketplace (or the built-in Analytics features, if enabled) measures how long work items spend in specific states, which provides accurate cycle time metrics. Embedding this widget directly into your Azure DevOps dashboard allows you to track how quickly items move from 'Active' to 'Done.'
- B. Incorrect.
Option 2 is incorrect. There is no built-in 'Release pipeline lead time' toggle in Azure Pipelines settings. Azure Pipelines provides deployment logs and summaries, but it does not automatically define or display lead time in a single step.
- C. Correct.
Option 3 is correct. Time to recovery (MTTR) can be approximated by tracking incident or bug work items. By creating and embedding a custom query chart for incidents, measuring from creation to resolution, you can display how quickly your team recovers after failures.
- D. Incorrect.
Option 4 is incorrect. Pinning Git commit logs only reflects the time from commit to push, which does not represent full lead time. Lead time typically includes the work period from item creation (or definition) to deployment in production.
- E. Incorrect.
Option 5 is incorrect. While you can build a query chart in Azure Boards, simply measuring the time from 'New' to 'Active' doesn't fully capture lead time. True lead time should measure from the moment a request or backlog item is created until it is delivered to production.