In today’s fast-changing world, companies need agile ways to keep up. Disciplined Agile (DA) is a mix of the best from different project management styles. It aims to create top-notch solutions. But what is Disciplined Agile, and how can it help your business?
Disciplined Agile covers the whole solution delivery cycle, from start to finish. It’s not just about software development like some methods. DA links business goals with what customers want, offering real value.
So, what makes Disciplined Agile stand out? It’s all about being flexible to meet each project’s unique needs. DA uses lean, agile, kanban, and scrum ideas. This lets experienced teams make smart choices and adjust to changes as they go.
Key Takeaways
- Disciplined Agile is a hybrid agile framework that combines best practices from various project management methodologies.
- It encompasses the entire solution delivery lifecycle, from project initiation to deployment and operation.
- DA offers flexibility, allowing teams to tailor their approach by selecting and combining practices from different agile and lean methods.
- Implementing Disciplined Agile can lead to benefits such as enhanced flexibility, scalability, stakeholder satisfaction, and faster time-to-market.
- DA emphasizes a people-centric approach, fostering a supportive environment, empowering teams, and promoting continuous learning and improvement.
As companies try to stay ahead in a fast-changing world, learning about Disciplined Agile can be key. But how does it stack up against other agile frameworks? What are the main principles behind it? Explore the world of Disciplined Agile to find out how it can change how you deliver projects.
What is Disciplined Agile?
Disciplined Agile is a hybrid agile approach. It mixes the best from agile methodologies and lean practices for top-notch solutions. It goes beyond just software development, covering the whole solution delivery cycle.
A Hybrid Agile Approach for Delivering High-Quality Solutions
Disciplined Agile gives teams a solid framework. It helps them make smart choices and adjust to changes. It uses Scrum, Kanban, and Lean to fit each project’s needs.
Combines Best Practices from Agile and Lean Methodologies
Disciplined Agile blends the strengths of agile methodologies for a flexible model. This way, teams can pick the best practices for their challenges. It makes projects run smoother and faster.
“Disciplined Agile is an approach to adopting agile practices within an organization that takes a broader view of the enterprise ecosystem.”
For what is disciplined agile, teams must be open to change. They need to adapt and be flexible in their agile journey.
The Disciplined Agile Delivery Lifecycle
The Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD) framework outlines a comprehensive lifecycle for software development and delivery. It has three key phases: Inception, Construction, and Transition.
Inception Phase: Identifying Goals, Scope, and Stakeholders
In the Inception phase, teams work closely with stakeholders to understand their needs. They establish a shared vision for the project. This involves defining the project scope, identifying risks and dependencies, and aligning on the desired outcomes.
The team uses techniques like modeling and prototyping to explore and refine the solution concept.
Construction Phase: Developing, Testing, and Iterating Solutions
During the Construction phase, the team actively develops and tests the solution. They use Agile and Lean practices. This includes continuous integration, automated testing, and iterative development to ensure high-quality deliverables.
The team continuously monitors progress and adjusts the plan as needed. This optimizes the software development lifecycle and agile delivery lifecycle.
Transition Phase: Deploying Solutions and Post-Delivery Activities
The Transition phase focuses on deploying the solution and supporting its ongoing operation. This includes training end-users, gathering feedback, and planning for future enhancements. The team also ensures a smooth handoff to the maintenance and support teams.
By following the Disciplined Agile Delivery Lifecycle, teams can effectively manage the project management and iterative delivery of their solutions. This is from initial ideation to successful deployment and beyond.
Key Roles in Disciplined Agile
Disciplined Agile outlines several key roles for project success. These roles ensure the project delivers quality solutions. They meet the needs of stakeholders and the organization.
Stakeholders and Product Owners: Representing Customer Needs
Stakeholders have a big interest in the project’s success. They offer input and feedback to shape the project’s direction. Product Owners act as the voice of stakeholders. They prioritize the project’s backlog and ensure it meets business needs.
Team Members and Leads: Collaborating and Delivering Solutions
Team Members use their skills to analyze, design, and test solutions. Team Leads guide and support the team. They manage risks and create a positive team atmosphere.
Architecture Owner: Shaping the Technical Direction
The Architecture Owner is crucial in setting the project’s technical direction. They align technical decisions with business goals. They work with the team to ensure the architecture supports the project’s objectives.
| Role | Responsibilities |
|---|---|
| Stakeholders | Provide input and feedback to shape requirements and guide decision-making |
| Product Owners | Represent stakeholders, prioritize the backlog, and ensure the solution meets business needs |
| Team Members | Analyze requirements, design and implement solutions, and test deliverables |
| Team Leads | Provide guidance, support, and coordination to team members, manage risks, and foster a positive team environment |
| Architecture Owner | Shape the technical direction of the project, aligning technical decisions with business objectives |
These roles in Disciplined Agile work together. They deliver quality solutions that meet the organization’s and customers’ needs.
Advantages of Disciplined Agile
Disciplined Agile brings many benefits to organizations. It makes them more agile and adaptable. At its core, it focuses on people, encouraging teams to learn and improve together.
Fostering Continuous Learning
Disciplined Agile values the skills and teamwork of its members. It creates a space where everyone can grow and learn. This keeps teams up-to-date with the latest industry trends and helps them handle changing project needs.
Comprehensive Delivery Lifecycle
Disciplined Agile looks at the whole delivery process. It covers everything from the start to the end of a project. This ensures that all parts of the process work together smoothly, reducing the risk of problems.
Flexible and Tailored Practices
Disciplined Agile is very flexible. Teams can pick and mix practices from different agile and lean methods. This lets them tailor their approach to fit each project’s unique needs, making their workflow more efficient.
By using disciplined agile, organizations can achieve agile delivery. They can also promote continuous improvement and use flexible frameworks. This helps them succeed in today’s fast-paced business world.
Contrasting Disciplined Agile with SAFe
Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD) and the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) aim to deliver top-notch solutions. SAFe focuses on big projects, helping teams work together smoothly. Disciplined Agile, however, is flexible and fits projects of all sizes, letting teams adjust as needed.
DAD uses strategies from 40 years of experience. SAFe offers patterns for large-scale development, aiming for better results and happier workers. SAFe has specific roles, while Disciplined Agile needs experienced coaches for success.
Both Disciplined Agile and SAFe tackle enterprise agility challenges differently. SAFe helps teams stay agile, even when far apart. Disciplined Agile adapts to each project’s unique needs, making it more flexible.
Choosing between Disciplined Agile and SAFe depends on what your organization needs. SAFe is great for big projects, while Disciplined Agile is more adaptable for teams of all sizes.
The Disciplined Agile Mindset
The Disciplined Agile (DA) approach is built on eight core principles. These principles guide how teams work and make decisions. They help organizations adapt and deliver solutions that customers love.
The Eight Principles of Disciplined Agile
- Delight customers: Putting customer happiness and value first in all efforts.
- Be awesome: Creating a culture of excellence, respect, and ongoing improvement.
- Practice pragmatism: Using a practical and flexible way to solve problems.
- Consider context: Adjusting the delivery process to fit each project’s unique needs.
- Embrace choice: Giving teams the freedom to pick the best practices and tools for them.
- Optimize flow: Making sure the delivery process is smooth and efficient to create more value.
- Maintain enterprise awareness: Keeping delivery efforts in line with the organization’s goals and constraints.
- Organize around products or services: Focusing on delivering valuable products or services, not just activities.
By following these disciplined agile principles, organizations can develop an agile mindset. This mindset helps them tackle complex challenges, adapt to changes, and achieve great results. The core values of Disciplined Agile guide teams to make smart choices and keep improving their work.
“The Disciplined Agile mindset is about embracing flexibility, fostering a culture of excellence, and continuously adapting to deliver the best possible solutions for our customers.”
| Principle | Description |
|---|---|
| Delight customers | Focusing on customer satisfaction and creating value through solutions that exceed expectations. |
| Be awesome | Cultivating a culture of high-performance, respect, and continuous improvement. |
| Practice pragmatism | Adopting a practical and flexible approach to problem-solving and decision-making. |
| Consider context | Tailoring the delivery process to the unique needs, constraints, and circumstances of each project. |
| Embrace choice | Empowering teams to select the most appropriate practices and tools for their specific needs. |
| Optimize flow | Ensuring a smooth and efficient delivery process that maximizes value creation. |
| Maintain enterprise awareness | Aligning delivery efforts with the organization’s strategic goals, constraints, and resources. |
| Organize around products or services | Focusing on the creation and delivery of valuable products or services rather than just activities. |
Promises and Guidelines of Disciplined Agile
The disciplined agile framework offers a detailed set of promises and guidelines. These help teams and organizations live by agile values and agile practices. Together, they guide teams through the challenges of modern project management. They also ensure the delivery of top-notch solutions quickly.
The Promises of Disciplined Agile
- Creating psychological safety and embracing diversity
- Accelerating value realization for customers
- Collaborating proactively with stakeholders
- Making all work and workflow visible and transparent
- Improving predictability and reliability of deliverables
- Keeping workloads within the team’s capacity
- Continuously improving processes and practices
The Guidelines of Disciplined Agile
- Validating learnings through empirical evidence
- Applying design thinking to foster innovation
- Catering to relationships across the value stream
- Creating effective environments that foster joy and engagement
- Changing culture by improving the overall system
- Forming semi-autonomous, self-organizing teams
- Adopting measures to improve project outcomes
- Leveraging and enhancing organizational assets
By following these promises and guidelines, teams and organizations can reach their full potential. They create a culture of ongoing learning, adaptability, and delivering great value to their customers.
“The Disciplined Agile Toolkit is designed to be flexible, scalable, and context-specific, catering to organizations of all sizes.”
History and Evolution of Disciplined Agile
The story of Disciplined Agile starts in the late 2000s at IBM. It began with a focus on making decisions about organizational processes. Over time, it grew into a full process framework for enterprise software development, DevOps, and IT.
In 2012, IBM released “Disciplined Agile Delivery” by Scott Ambler and Mark Lines. This book introduced the Disciplined Agile method to more developers and practitioners. Since then, Disciplined Agile has become popular among agile teams. The Project Management Institute (PMI) has also joined in, creating resources and certifications.
The Disciplined Agile method comes from the history of agile and lean. It combines the best of Scrum, Kanban, Extreme Programming (XP), and the Rational Unified Process (RUP).
- 1969: PMI Founded
- 1970: Dr. Winston Royce published “Managing the Development of Large Software Systems”
- 1978: Taiichi Ohno publishes “Toyota Production System – Beyond Large-Scale Production”
- 1986: Two Japanese business experts publish “New New Product Development Game”
- 1990: Lean Manufacturing principles described in “The Machine That Changed the World”
- 1991: Alistair Cockburn develops “Crystal Clear” methodology
- 1995: Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber define Scrum
- 1996: Kent Beck defines Extreme Programming (XP)
- 1996: Rational acquires and renames the Objectory Process to “Rational Unified Process” (RUP)
- 2007: David Andersen describes the Kanban software development process
- 2012: Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD) was first developed at IBM
- 2012: The first DA delivery book was published
- 2015: The first version of the Disciplined Agile toolkit was released
- 2019: The DA delivery book was replaced with “Choose Your WoW: a Disciplined Agile Delivery Handbook for Optimizing Your Way of Working”
- 2019: Disciplined Agile merged with the Project Management Institute (PMI)
- 2020: The “Choose Your WoW” book was updated
Today, Disciplined Agile keeps growing, using the wisdom of agile and lean. It’s a key framework for organizations wanting a flexible and complete agile project management and IBM agile delivery approach.
Disciplined Agile Certifications
The Disciplined Agile framework has certifications for all levels of professionals. They help you grow in agile project management and delivery. These certifications give you the skills needed to succeed in a changing world.
Disciplined Agile Scrum Master (DASM)
The DASM certification teaches you Scrum, Lean, and Disciplined Agile basics. It’s perfect for beginners or those wanting to improve their Scrum skills.
Disciplined Agile Senior Scrum Master (DASSM)
The DASSM certification helps you lead agile teams and handle big projects. It boosts your ability to overcome agile challenges and achieve project success.
Disciplined Agile Coach (DAC)
The DAC certification makes you an agile coaching expert. You’ll learn to guide organizations towards true agility. It gives you the tools to help teams improve continuously.
Disciplined Agile Value Stream Consultant (DAVSC)
The DAVSC certification is the top level in Disciplined Agile. It helps organizations become more agile and deliver more value. It focuses on optimizing value streams for customers.
These disciplined agile certifications meet the needs of agile scrum masters, agile coaches, and value stream management experts. They help you excel in agile project delivery.
“The Disciplined Agile certifications have been instrumental in my journey as an agile practitioner. They have equipped me with the necessary knowledge and skills to navigate complex agile transformations and achieve sustainable business agility.”
Conclusion
Organizations face many challenges in modern project management. The Disciplined Agile framework is a strong and adaptable solution. It combines the best of agile and lean methods. This helps teams create high-quality solutions that please customers at every stage.
The Disciplined Agile mindset is built on eight key principles. It focuses on people, learning, and adapting to change. It covers the whole delivery cycle, from start to finish. This lets teams pick and mix practices that fit their projects and goals.
More and more, teams want to be agile and manage projects well. Disciplined Agile is a great choice for those looking to improve. It helps teams handle the challenges of software development and deliver great value to customers.
FAQ
What is Disciplined Agile?
Disciplined Agile (DA) is a way to make teams work better together. It uses the best parts of agile and lean methods. This helps teams make smart choices and adapt to changes throughout the project.
How does Disciplined Agile differ from traditional agile methods?
Disciplined Agile looks at the whole project, not just coding. It starts from the beginning and goes all the way to when the project is done. This way, teams can make sure their work meets business and customer needs.
What are the key phases of the Disciplined Agile Delivery Lifecycle?
The lifecycle has three main parts: Inception, Construction, and Transition. In Inception, teams work with stakeholders to understand what’s needed. In Construction, they build and test the solution. Transition is when they deploy and support it.
What are the key roles in Disciplined Agile?
Disciplined Agile has several important roles. These include Stakeholders, Product Owners, Team Members, Team Leads, and the Architecture Owner. Each role has its own job and makes decisions to help the project succeed.
What are the advantages of Disciplined Agile?
Disciplined Agile focuses on people and learning. It covers the whole project lifecycle. It also lets teams pick and mix practices to fit their project needs.
How does Disciplined Agile differ from the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)?
Disciplined Agile and SAFe both aim to deliver quality solutions. But SAFe is mainly for big companies. Disciplined Agile is more flexible and works for all project sizes.
What are the core principles of the Disciplined Agile mindset?
Disciplined Agile is based on eight main principles. These include making customers happy, being practical, and considering the situation. It also values choice, flow, and being aware of the bigger picture.
What are the promises and guidelines of Disciplined Agile?
Disciplined Agile makes promises and gives guidelines for true agility. It aims to create a safe space, speed up value delivery, and keep improving. It suggests validating ideas, using design thinking, and forming teams that work well together.
What is the history and evolution of Disciplined Agile?
Disciplined Agile started at IBM in the late 2000s. It began with focusing on how teams make decisions. Over time, it grew into a full framework for software development, DevOps, and IT. In 2012, IBM published “Disciplined Agile Delivery.” The Project Management Institute (PMI) has since helped build resources and certifications around it.
What Disciplined Agile certifications are available?
There are several Disciplined Agile certifications. These include the Disciplined Agile Scrum Master (DASM), Disciplined Agile Senior Scrum Master (DASSM), Disciplined Agile Coach (DAC), and Disciplined Agile Value Stream Consultant (DAVSC). These certifications are for different levels of agile experience.
