HKSM

Evaluations and external comparisons are used to set a baseline quality level for a product or service. These insights often lead the team to revise its Done criteria, and at the program or portfolio level can prompt the Product Owner to add new user stories that implement proven best practices.

Key Points

• Defines a minimum acceptable standard by comparing performance to internal goals and external benchmarks.
• Frequently results in updates to the team's Done criteria and acceptance expectations.
• Findings can generate new backlog items or user stories to adopt best practices.
• Program/Portfolio Product Owners use results to scale improvements across teams and products.

Example

After benchmarking its release frequency against industry leaders, a company finds it lags by 50%. The team updates its Done criteria to include automated deployment and rollback checks. The Program Product Owner adds user stories for build pipeline automation, deployment scripts, and environment parity to implement the benchmarked best practices.

PMP Example Question

Benchmarking shows your team's lead time is significantly slower than peers. What should you do next?

1. Update the team's Done criteria and add user stories to implement the identified best practices.
2. Increase scope to deliver more features in the next iteration.
3. Ignore the data until the next quarterly review.
4. Replace team members to speed up delivery.

Correct Answer: A — Update Done criteria and create user stories for best practices

Explanation: Assessment and benchmarking results set minimum standards, often driving changes to Done criteria and prompting new user stories to adopt the proven practices.