Disciplined Agile vs Agile - Know the Difference

Introduction

With the advancement in technology, everyone is going Agile these days. There are many concepts and recommendations, such as managing small teams and working well for small projects. But sometimes, there is a lack of guidance while coordinating multiple teams working on large-scale projects, specifically during the early phases. Various Agile frameworks are specially developed for large-scale organization projects, but you need to choose one according to your needs and requirements. This article focuses on how Disciplined Agile is different from others. 
Most Agile processes act as frameworks and stay away from the methodology. Disciplined Agile is not a framework but a tool kit.

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Disciplined Agile

Disciplined Agile was developed by Mark Lines and Scott Ambler and is quite similar to SAFe in the sense that it recommends using existing Agile and Lean techniques. The Disciplined Agile framework has the same features as other Agile methodologies, such as Kanban, Crystal Agile Framework, or eXtreme programming.  Disciplined Agile helps developers, teams, and enterprises to optimize their functions. It creates a foundation for business enhancement by showing how IT operations, software development, finance, portfolio management, procurement, and enterprise architecture, can work as a team. Not only this, but it also provides various customized and context-sensitive ideas and helps make better decisions through disciplined agile delivery. 

Some teams find the hybrid nature of Disciplined Agile quite difficult to handle. It is not recommended for those who are new to Agile Project Management. But if you are already familiar with working with Agile, then you must opt for Disciplined Agile. Here is the manifesto of Disciplined Agile: 

• Consumable solutions over detailed documentation 
• Individuals and interactions over tools and processes 
• Collaboration of stakeholders over contract negotiation 
• Transparency over predictability 
• Responding to feedback over following a strategy 

What is Disciplined Agile Used For?

The following are the core principles of Discipline Agile: 

• Be Awesome: This means being engaged, motivated, and inspired. This will improve the team’s trustworthiness and dependability. The team focuses on product quality as the primary stage as opposed to developing it later. 
• Delight Customers: Disciplined Agile principles state that customer satisfaction plays a crucial role in an organization’s success. The product should be developed keeping in mind the needs of the customers. Furthermore, enterprises should ask for feedback post-deployment to maintain customer satisfaction. 
• Context Counts: The team members and the organization are unique entities with unique goals and a working process. So the environment’s effect on the individual entity should be taken into account because each entity affects the other. 
• Choice is Good: This means encouraging the teams to plan strategies for getting maximum benefits according to the circumstances.  
• Optimizing Workflow: Disciplined Agile improves the organization’s decision-making process, which will optimize the overall workflow in which teams are involved. This means visualizing the workflow, continuous improvement, eliminating waste, and clearly defined success metrics. 
• Enterprise Awareness: This refers to team members understanding their positions in the larger enterprise architecture, which comprises knowing tasks that need to be done. 

3 Phases of the Disciplined Agile Framework

There are three different phases of the Disciplined Agile framework which mark stages in product development: 

• Inception: This phase includes work upfront at the primary stage of the development process. This involves compiling the activities, which will frame the project and understand its purpose. The 2013 Project Initiation Survey found that the teams take twice the length of average iteration in the initial stage. 
• Construction: This phase includes developing the product in increments. Here, teams may use hybrid Agile methods such as Agile Modeling and Scrum Agile data for creating the solution. 
• Transition: This phase is all about deploying the product to the stakeholders. This step should not be too lengthy. 

After the transition phase, the cycle starts from the initial phase in a new delivery cycle. There are six different types of life cycles in Disciplined Agile delivery. Each type has three different phases. Following are the types of lifecycles: 

• Basic/Agile Lifecycle: Interaction-based and scrum-based; consists of milestones and a team instead of a product backlog. 
• Continuous Delivery Agile Lifecycle: This lifecycle is an advanced version of the basic/Agile lifecycle with shorter iterations. 
• The Lean Lifecycle: The primary difference between the Agile/basic and the lifecycle is iteration planning sessions, and meetings are conducted on an as-needed basis.  
• Continuous Delivery Lean Lifecycle: This is the lean lifecycle having shorter iterations and more frequent releases. 
• The Program Lifecycle: This lifecycle focuses on organizing teams of teams and sometimes the large Agile team

The team must select their lifecycle according to their needs and abilities. A team may choose the lifecycle type, but it should choose the lifecycle when it matures and starts gaining experience. Each life cycle has its advantages and disadvantages. 

Role of Model Team in Disciplined Agile

Disciplined Agile has five major roles and responsibilities which manifest in Agile teams of all scales, and they are: 

• Product Owner: The product owner speaks for the consumers. They represent the needs of the customers to the team members and the stakeholders. 
• Stakeholder: Stakeholders are materially impacted by the outcome of the product. They could be users, managers, someone related to the users, or product owners. Anyone having a stake in the success of the product will fit this role. 
• Team Member: This is someone who is a part of the production process. Team members identify and perform the operations and track their work statuses. They work with the team frequently to minimize the requirements, documentation, and testing. They are responsible for maintaining a list of work items for the team members to complete and communicate the progress. 
• Team Leader: They lead the team, provide guidance through technical management, and create conditions for success. 
• Architecture Owner: They help minimize architectural risks. The architecture owner has a strong knowledge of the business domain and technical background. They work on the product’s overall design, resolve minor team issues, and provide resources to ensure success. 

Not only these, but many other roles are context-dependent and temporary. The following roles are hired to solve scale issues: 

• Domain or Subject Matter Expert: They are hired by the product manager to help answer the team’s questions and explain the overall visions and the other specific requirements of the product. 
• Specialist: A larger team or teams engaged in a complicated project may need a specialist to guide them. For instance, a business analyst is hired to study product requirements. 
• Technical Expert: Technical experts are introduced on a contractual basis to solve technical issues and transfer skills to other team members. 
• Integrator: Integrator focuses on integrating the large team that needs a separate position to ensure it functions as a unit. 
• Independent Tester: An independent tester supports Disciplined Agile teams by working with them as a unit and validating work throughout life cycles. 

These roles are not permanent. Any person from within or outside the organization may occupy any of these roles at any time. There are also times when a single person can occupy multiple roles at the same time. 

How is Disciplined Agile Different from Other Approaches?

Disciplined Agile provides you with a single way of working. It allows you to analyze and customize your working methods using your unique ideas. 

Disciplined Agile does not have any readymade frameworks like other Agile approaches. Here, the stakeholders and coaches work together and develop a framework using different tools and techniques. 

Agile versus Scrum? Disciplined Agile is context-sensitive. It takes good ideas and practices from Lean, Scrum, Kanban, and Scaled Agile and implements them together. 

Therefore, we can conclude that Disciplined Agile is not a readymade framework, but it lets you customize your way of working. It also embraces the unique ideas and practices of various other Agile approaches and supports the project way of working. 

Advantages Of Disciplined Agile

Various Agile products such as Scrum and SAFe can operate on large problems that consist of multiple teams. On the other hand, Disciplined Agile runs both small and large programs by working as a single unit. 

Disciplined Agile uses a flexible process and a goal-oriented strategy. This helps teams select their methods, strategies, and frameworks, ensuring the better engagement of the team. 

It improves market competitiveness.  

It improves overall business agility. A specific team’s success will still benefit the entire organization. 

As Disciplined Agile is a hybrid of different Agile methodologies, it selects the best elements from each of them. It is specifically developed to fill the gaps unaddressed by the Agile SAFe methodology. 

Disciplined Agile is perfect for experienced and proficient Agile teams. However, for teams transitioning into the Agile framework, Disciplined Agile can be quite expensive.  If you want to learn more about Disciplined Agile, enroll in the Disciplined Agile course.