How should you provide trust and transparency?

• A. Verbal assurances from executives
• B. Regular updates to stakeholders only after sprint review
• C. Intuition about team progress
• D. Tangible data

Answer: (D)

Providing trust and transparency relies on making progress and reality observable through data, not promises or gut feelings. When you share tangible data, stakeholders can inspect what’s really happening, verify claims, and engage in informed decision-making. This kind of information should be accessible in real time or near real time through dashboards and metrics that reflect the actual state of the product and the team’s work. Examples include sprint burndown or burnup charts, velocity trends, release forecasts, backlog health indicators, defect rates, and cycle time or lead time. These data points create a common understanding and reveal risks, dependencies, and progress without needing to rely on subjective impressions.

Verbal assurances from executives aren’t verifiable and can drift from reality. Updates only after a sprint review leave gaps in visibility and slow feedback. Intuition about progress is subjective and unreliable. Tangible data, by contrast, provides an objective, inspectable basis for trust and continuous improvement.