The correct answer is D because the squad model can both provide an effective way to scale DevOps teams and reduce the management overhead associated with silo-based structures. Squads are small, dedicated, cross-functional teams aligned to a product, service, customer journey, or value stream. They bring together the skills needed to build, test, release, operate, and improve services with fewer handoffs and less dependency on separate functional departments.

This model supports DevOps scaling because multiple squads can operate with clear ownership while coordinating through chapters, guilds, tribes, or other lightweight structures. It also reduces the overhead created by traditional silos, where work must be passed between separate teams with different priorities, queues, managers, and measures. By increasing autonomy and end-to-end accountability, squads improve flow and feedback.

Option B is incorrect because centralized control of planning is not the primary benefit of squads. In fact, DevOps-aligned squad models usually favor decentralized decision-making within aligned strategic boundaries. The goal is not uncontrolled independence, but fast local decision-making connected to shared purpose and outcomes. Relevant study guide references: Target Operating Models and Organizational Designs; Becoming a DevOps Organization; Measuring to Improve.

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The correct answer is D, Concrete. Training from the Back of the Room uses the 4C model: Connections, Concepts, Concrete Practice, and Conclusions. The purpose of this model is to design learning so that participants are actively engaged, connect new information to existing experience, practice the concepts, and leave with meaningful conclusions or commitments. In DevOps leadership, this matters because transformation requires learning, unlearning, and behavior change across the organization.

“Concrete” appears in the model as Concrete Practice. This is the stage where learners apply new concepts in a realistic or practical way rather than simply listening to information. For DevOps adoption, this supports experiential learning: teams do not become effective by hearing slogans about collaboration, flow, automation, or feedback; they improve by applying those ideas to real work.

Curiosity, courage, and candor are useful leadership and cultural attributes, but they are not one of the formal 4C elements in Training from the Back of the Room. Relevant study guide references: Articulating and Socializing Vision; Maintaining Energy and Momentum; Unlearning Behaviors; DevOps and Transformational Leadership.

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