Disciplined Agile: Does it Provide Real Results? #
This white paper details a high level of what Disciplined Agile is and if its methodologies can provide actual results for both the corporate industry and individuals. After reading this white paper, users can make an informed decision if Disciplined Agile is right for them.
What is Disciplined Agile? #
Disciplined Agile is a tool kit that harnesses hundreds of Agile practices to guide you in the best Way of Working (WoW) whether you are part of a small team or a large organization. It provides a process decision outline that puts individuals first and offers lightweight guidance to help optimize teams’ processes according to their unique needs.
Disciplined Agile provides process goal options, and teams can select the appropriate choices depending on the project’s needs without trial and error.
Figure 1A: Shows a team’s process goal options when starting their project.
Disciplined Agile: New but Not #
Disciplined Agile, a hybrid approach developed at IBM beginning in 2009, was first introduced in 2012 with the book Disciplined Agile Delivery. However, popularized in 2001, Disciplined Agile methodologies in the tech industry have widely accepted Agile, Lean, Kanban, Scrum, SAFe, and other approaches.
The toolkit helps a team identify the best ways to work and select the right tools and processes for the job.
Not widely accepted until 2019, industries and individuals have only become acquainted with Disciplined Agile (DA) concepts and implementing them in business.
Initially developed specifically for IT, DA has transformed throughout the last decade, extending its application to various industries, including construction.
Why Disciplined Agile #
True business success comes from freedom, not frameworks. In traditional ways of working, the highest cost is waste. Waste occurs when there is a delay, a problem in the project, or simply an inefficient way of working. These delays can be in either time or materials, costing the business a significant amount of money.
DA prevents an organization from being tied to a specific way of working, allowing teams to adjust and change quickly depending on the problem or project requirements. The team must learn and adapt to improve and better serve the stakeholder, whether this is an internal or external stakeholder.
Successful companies promote the people-first-culture DA endorses. The work of Dan Pink is broadly adopted as a foundation for success when building agile teams. His work shows that intrinsic motivators, such as participating in a sport because it’s fun and you enjoy it rather than doing it to win an award, are far more critical than extrinsic motivators, for example, money and nice offices.
The following points summarize the culture:
- Mastery.
Disciplined Agile supports mastery by a learning-oriented approach where teams regularly reflect on how well they are working, explore new ideas and technologies, share their skills and knowledge with others, and purposely explore both the problem and solution domains in an evolutionary manner. - Autonomy.
Self-organization strengthens with appropriate governance, and process teams need practical, lightweight guidance. - Purpose.
People are motivated by goals more significant than themselves. The first milestone is to arrive at a shared vision with stakeholders, a vision that guides the team throughout each phase. Ensuring everyone has a practical understanding.
The Way of Working for each organization may be different; even if it is not agile, it remains disciplined and people-oriented.
The Problem #
Since 2015, less than half of organizations have used Disciplined Agile and its methodologies. Growth and success remain vital to any organization, from delighting customers to enabling speed to market.
The following shows a list of main inhibitors:
- The lack of broad acceptance of DA remains due to a lack of knowledge and how it can help.
- Most companies using DA are in the IT industry or solely in the IT departments. Since most companies consist of more than just IT, this limits Disciplined Agile’s abilities to a single sector.
- The traditional waterfall approach to a project can present inherent problems. Organizations with unique challenges can inhibit themselves from scaling and growing to market needs.
- Organizations often opt for a one-size-fits-all solution to their way of working for simplicity and process-related problems. However, they might fail to address the various difficulties faced by a team or multiple teams.
- Problems stack when organizations are hesitant to change because “it’s the way we’ve always done things” attitude.
Findings #
The following summarizes how organizations and individuals have found success in implementing DA.
Case Study – Panera and Papa John’s Pizza #
Mike Nettles, former Chief Operating and Growth Officer, endorses how Disciplined Agile successfully navigated the restaurant industry’s challenges. His accomplishments included engaging marketing and operations teams in agile planning using Disciplined Agile processes, strategic planning, and the Disciplined Agile mindset.
How it Helped #
The following is a summary list of achievements:
- Spending necessary time at the beginning of the project for the initial planning phase creating a vision and preparing for the next stage. The team set appropriate expectations for what will be delivered by whom and when. It also gave the team time to establish their work environment, tooling, and other logistics.
- The teams established a successful goal-driven approach for the context of the project. Choosing from the process goals helped the project team make effective process goal choices without having to figure it out by trial and error.
Case Study – Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) #
ICBC underwent a multi-year large-scale IT transformation from a legacy-based mainframe system to a commercial off-the-shelf solution. While early attempts at agile projects yielded some successes, it became clear that ICBC could not adopt a one-size-fits-all framework. As a government-run corporation subject to annual planning cycles and other inhibiting processes, ICBC needed a pragmatic enterprise solution that incorporated agile where possible while accommodating the broader challenges inherent in the organization.
How it Helped #
ICBC’s CITO Gary Eastwood summarizes the results of the DA implementation in the following list:
- 7x annual increase in enhancement releases over the first two years.
- Delivered 36 successful transformation projects on time and within budget.
- Dovetailed seamlessly with ICBC’s existing Lean process improvement initiative.
Although the overall picture showed positive results from DA adoption, it’s essential to remember that the individuals in these teams required help along the way.
Teams underwent training, which provided a common vocabulary and a shared understanding of how new ways of working could lead to greater productivity; coaching offered an opportunity to talk through challenges, including cultural resistance to change.
Disciplined Agile adoption is not flawless. Although these success stories reveal the cost and time-saving results, it’s vital to remember that this methodology requires initial acceptance from the organization’s stakeholders.
Most organizations fail and remain dissatisfied with implementing DA because of a lack of buy-in and participation from the individuals within those teams.
The Solution #
The Disciplined Agile approach allows flexibility to teams depending on the situation. It enables many options to resolve impediments, reach sprint deadlines, or reduce waste.
Teams meet their immediate requirement for an appropriate way of working while learning to reach their long-term goal of achieving improvement. The organization becomes a learning organization when your teams are continually improving.
Every team is different and has different needs. It’s only logical that to improve, we need to adapt. By helping the team members understand the versatility and importance of DA and providing adequate training, the organization can benefit from its methodologies.
Figure 2A: Shows a graphical overview of how Disciplined Agile promotes continuous improvement.
Conclusion #
In conclusion, Disciplined Agile can provide a practical guide to help organizations and teams reduce waste, create happy people, and delight stakeholders.
It can provide results if stakeholders and teams receive adequate training to understand how DA can benefit them and recognize that change is good.
Changing to this Way of Working may not be ideal for every organization. However, remember that this methodology can be used in both large and small companies successfully, and it can even help individuals become more efficient in an organization that has not yet adopted Disciplined Agile.
References #
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agile_software_development
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disciplined_agile_delivery
- https://pmi.org
- https://www.pmi.org/disciplined-agile/resources/disciplined-agile-success-stories/icbc-case-study
- https://www.pmi.org/disciplined-agile/resources/disciplined-agile-success-stories
- https://www.tactec.ca/improving-our-way-of-working/
- https://www.stratx-exl.com/industry-insights/agile-companies