Your Pocket-sized Disciplined Agile Delivery Handbook
By: Hajime Estanislao, PMP, CSM; Editor: Geram Lompon; Reviewed by: Dr. Michael J. Shick, MSPM, PMP, CSM
Are you finding it challenging to scale Agile across your organization while still delivering value? We might have the answer.
Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD) offers a comprehensive framework that goes beyond traditional Agile, addressing the full project lifecycle. Unlike other approaches that focus solely on development and ceremonies, DAD provides both flexibility and structure to help scale Agile practices, integrate DevOps, and align with your organization’s strategic goals. It’s designed to elevate your Agile practices to meet the complexity of enterprise-level needs.
The Disciplined Agile framework enables your teams to self-organize and make context-driven decisions, improving efficiency and consistently delivering high-quality solutions. With a hybrid and goal-driven approach, you will overcome the limitations of frequently used Agile methods.
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What is Disciplined Agile Delivery?
Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD) is a flexible and scalable Agile framework that guides teams through every stage of a project, from inception to deployment. DAD addresses key areas like architecture, governance, operations, and portfolio management by combining Agile, Lean, and DevOps practices. It provides a toolkit that allows organizations to choose the best way of working (WoW) tailored to the specific needs and context of the project so that teams can deliver solutions effectively and efficiently.
DAD allows teams to adapt and tailor their processes depending on the complexity by emphasizing flexibility. The ultimate goal is to deliver solutions, not just working software. It also integrates enterprise awareness, ensuring that Agile software development teams operate within the larger organizational framework to align with strategic goals.
What is Unique about Disciplined Agile Delivery?
What sets Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD) apart from other Agile methodologies is its hybrid, context-sensitive approach and comprehensive coverage of the solution delivery lifecycle. Here are some of the unique aspects:
Full Delivery Lifecycle
Unlike many Agile methods, focusing primarily on software development, DAD addresses the delivery lifecycle, covering the Inception, Construction, and Transition phases. It includes everything from initial project vision and architecture planning to deployment and handover.
Context-Sensitive and Flexible
DAD is not a one-size-fits-all Agile approach. It allows teams to tailor their Way of Working (WoW) based on the unique needs and complexity of the project. Teams can adopt elements from Agile, Lean, and even traditional approaches depending on what makes the most sense in their context.
Support for Multiple Lifecycles
DAD supports six lifecycles and uses techniques from Lean, Continuous Delivery, and exploratory approaches. This flexibility helps teams choose the lifecycle that best fits their situation, whether working on a simple project or a complex program.
Enterprise Awareness
One of DAD’s key features is its focus on enterprise awareness. Teams work in alignment with organizational goals so that the solutions they deliver are technically robust and strategically aligned with business objectives. This helps teams contribute to larger company goals while maintaining the integrity and quality of their projects.
Hybrid Toolkit
DAD integrates best practices from various frameworks, including Scrum, Kanban, Lean, Extreme Programming (XP), and Agile Modeling. Instead of reinventing the wheel, DAD pulls from existing methods and adapts them to offer a more comprehensive toolkit for teams to deliver business value.
Governance with Self-Organization
While DAD promotes the Agile principle of self-organizing teams through agile processes, it also ensures that these teams are governed appropriately within an enterprise setting. It balances autonomy and governance to ensure teams remain aligned with business objectives without being bogged down by excessive controls.
Reasons You Need to Know Disciplined Agile Toolkit and Delivery
Understanding Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD) is becoming crucial for organizations looking to scale Agile practices while maintaining flexibility and control. As businesses grow more complex, they need a framework that supports development and aligns with larger enterprise goals. DAD provides a tailored approach that can adapt to any project, team size, or organization for smoother project delivery and greater business agility.
- Scalability: DAD allows Agile practices to scale across large organizations, supporting diverse team structures and complex projects.
- Flexibility: Unlike rigid frameworks, DAD is context-sensitive and can be customized to meet each project’s unique needs.
- End-to-End Delivery: It covers the entire lifecycle, from inception to deployment, ensuring comprehensive project management and delivery.
- Enterprise Awareness: DAD ensures that Agile teams align with broader organizational goals, integrating governance without sacrificing agility.
- Hybrid Approach: DAD combines Agile techniques, Lean methods, and traditional practices, allowing teams to select the best techniques for their specific context.
- Enhanced Business Agility: DAD helps organizations improve responsiveness and adaptability by optimizing value streams and solution delivery.
Disciplined Agile Delivery – Steps and Phases
Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD) follows a structured approach that divides the project lifecycle into three major phases: Inception, Construction, and Transition. These phases guide teams from initial project conception to deployment of a consumable solution.
Each phase has specific goals and practices to streamline the delivery process, ensuring flexibility, alignment with business objectives, and continuous improvement.
This article will discuss the essential steps within these phases and outline how DAD’s methodology supports successful project execution.
Inception Phase
The Inception Phase is about the groundwork for the project: team formation, exploration of project scope, and acquiring funding. It establishes a shared vision for the project to ensure alignment of stakeholders and project team members. Tasks during this phase include:
- Forming the team: It involves assembling the right mix of skills and defining roles such as the product owner, team members, and architecture owner.
- Developing the architecture strategy: Teams create a high-level architecture to guide the development throughout the lifecycle. Early architecture decisions help minimize technical risks down the road.
- Securing funding: The team must ensure sufficient resources and budget for the project to proceed successfully.
Executing the Inception Phase sets the stage for the rest of the project by aligning the team, stakeholders, and enterprise with the project direction.
Construction Phase
In the Construction Phase, the focus shifts to incremental development. Teams work iteratively to build and refine the product, addressing stakeholder feedback. The phase emphasizes flexibility, allowing teams to adjust as new information or requirements emerge. The core activities include:
- Iterative development: Teams deliver working software in smaller iterations, ensuring continuous improvement and integration of stakeholder feedback.
- Testing and validating architecture: Continuous testing validates the architecture and ensures that the system meets its performance, security, and functional goals.
- Adjusting to stakeholder needs means flexibility is highlighted and expected within this phase. It allows teams to iterate product features based on real-time stakeholder feedback to meet the customer and stakeholder’s needs.
Effective management of this phase results in a robust, high-quality solution ready to be deployed.
Transition Phase
The Transition Phase focuses on finalizing and deploying the product into production. This phase ensures the solution is stable, secure, and integrated into the organization’s operational environment. The main tasks include:
Final testing and stabilization of the team ensures the product is ready for release by testing and addressing any remaining issues.
Deployment involves deploying the solution to the end users or customers, ensuring a smooth handover to operations.
Teams provide necessary documentation and training to users and operational teams to ensure a seamless transition into production.
This phase ensures the product is fully ready for end-users and can deliver the intended business value.
Considerations For Successfully Performing Disciplined Agile Delivery
Several key considerations can influence the project’s success when executing DAD. Context sensitivity is a factor. Since DAD is flexible and adaptable, selecting the right tools, methods, and practices that fit the specific project requirements becomes a regular aspect. Teams must assess the complexity, organizational culture, and stakeholder expectations to tailor their approach effectively.
Another consideration is governance balanced with self-organization. While DAD encourages teams to self-organize and make decisions, it also requires governance structures that ensure alignment with broader business goals. Senior leadership should provide strategic direction and oversight without stifling the teams’ autonomy and agility.
Continuous improvement is fundamental to the DA philosophy. The framework emphasizes iterative learning and evolving the Way of Working (WoW). Teams should regularly assess their performance, reflect on lessons learned, and adjust their processes to optimize efficiency and value delivery.
Alternatives: Hybrid Frameworks
When considering alternatives to Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD), various hybrid frameworks offer paths to solution delivery. These hybrid approaches combine Agile, Lean, and traditional
One framework is the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe). Like DAD, SAFe integrates Agile and Lean principles, focusing on scaling these methods across multiple teams and portfolios. It emphasizes structured planning at the program and portfolio levels, ensuring that larger organizations can manage complex projects while maintaining agility.
Another alternative is Large-Scale Scrum (LeSS), which extends Scrum principles to larger teams and organizations. LeSS is similar to DAD in flexibility and minimalistic approach but focuses more on maintaining Scrum’s simplicity even as it scales across bigger groups. It is ideal for organizations looking to extend Scrum without adopting a new framework.
Hybrid
Wrapping Up and My Experience with Disciplined Agile Delivery
Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD) provides a context-sensitive approach to agile
In my experience with Disciplined Agile Delivery, its adaptability has been one of its most valuable aspects. The ability to tailor practices based on project complexity and organizational context ensures that teams can remain agile while aligning with broader business goals. DAD’s focus on continuous improvement and iterative learning has fostered a culture of excellence where teams evolve their practices for better efficiency and value delivery.
References
Agilest. (2024). The basics of DAD (Disciplined Agile Delivery). Agilest. Retrieved October 2024, from https://www.agilest.org/scaled-agile/disciplined-agile-delivery-dad/
Project Management Institute. (2024). Disciplined Agile.
Project Management Institute. (2024). Introduction to Disciplined Agile (DA).