3 design Commons: 4/5

Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD)

Also known as: DAD, Disciplined Agile

1. Overview

Discipline Agile Delivery (DAD) is a comprehensive, people-first, and learning-oriented hybrid agile framework for IT solution delivery. Developed by Scott Ambler and Mark Lines, and now part of the Project Management Institute (PMI), DAD extends beyond many agile frameworks like Scrum by addressing the full delivery lifecycle, from inception to delivery and beyond. It provides a flexible, context-sensitive approach, allowing teams to choose their “Way of Working” (WoW) by selecting from various lifecycles and practices to best fit their specific situation. DAD was created to provide a more cohesive and complete approach to agile software development, filling in the process gaps often left by other methods. It integrates proven strategies from various sources, including Scrum, Kanban, Extreme Programming (XP), and Agile Modeling, into a unified framework. The core problem DAD solves is the need for a more robust, scalable, and enterprise-aware agile approach that provides a solid foundation for business agility.

2. Core Principles

Disciplined Agile Delivery is built upon a set of core principles that guide teams in their decision-making and process improvement efforts. These principles, which extend the original Agile Manifesto, provide a philosophical foundation for the DAD framework:

  1. Delight Customers: DAD emphasizes going beyond simply satisfying customer expectations to delighting them. This is achieved through a combination of delivering high-quality solutions, providing a great customer experience, and actively seeking feedback to continuously improve.

  2. Be Awesome: This principle encourages a culture of excellence and continuous improvement. It applies to both individuals and teams, promoting the idea of taking pride in one’s work, being a great team member, and always striving to be better.

  3. Pragmatism: DAD is a pragmatic, not prescriptive, framework. It recognizes that no single method or practice works in every situation. Teams are encouraged to be flexible and adapt their approach based on the context of their project, their team’s skills, and their organization’s culture.

  4. Context Counts: Building on the principle of pragmatism, DAD stresses the importance of understanding and leveraging the unique context of each project. This includes factors such as team size, geographic distribution, technical complexity, and organizational culture. DAD provides a decision framework that helps teams choose the most appropriate practices for their situation.

  5. Choice is Good: DAD provides teams with a wide range of choices, from different lifecycles to various practices and techniques. This allows teams to tailor their Way of Working (WoW) to best suit their needs, rather than being forced to adopt a one-size-fits-all approach.

  6. Optimize Flow: DAD emphasizes the importance of optimizing the flow of value to customers. This involves identifying and eliminating bottlenecks, reducing waste, and creating a smooth and efficient delivery process. DAD incorporates lean principles to help teams achieve this.

  7. Enterprise Awareness: DAD recognizes that teams do not operate in a vacuum. It encourages teams to be aware of the broader enterprise context, including organizational goals, existing infrastructure, and other teams’ work. This helps to ensure that the team’s efforts are aligned with the overall business strategy and that the solution is sustainable in the long run.

3. Key Practices

Disciplined Agile Delivery incorporates a rich set of practices from various agile, lean, and traditional sources, providing a comprehensive toolkit for teams. These practices are organized within a goal-driven framework, allowing teams to select the most appropriate techniques for their context. Here are some of the key practices within DAD:

  1. Goal-Driven Approach: Instead of prescribing a specific set of practices, DAD provides a set of 21 process goals, such as “Form Initial Team,” “Develop Common Vision,” “Address Changing Stakeholder Needs,” and “Deploy the Solution.” For each goal, DAD offers a list of options and trade-offs, enabling teams to make informed decisions about which practices to adopt.

  2. Multiple Lifecycles: DAD recognizes that one size does not fit all and offers six different lifecycles to choose from: the Agile (Scrum-based) lifecycle, the Lean (Kanban-based) lifecycle, two Continuous Delivery lifecycles (Agile and Lean), the Exploratory (Lean Startup-based) lifecycle, and a Program lifecycle for teams of teams.

  3. Explicit Inception and Transition Phases: DAD explicitly includes an Inception phase for project initiation activities like initial planning, architecture, and team formation, and a Transition phase for deploying the solution to stakeholders. This addresses a common gap in other agile methods that focus primarily on the construction phase.

  4. Hybrid Method and Practice Re-use: DAD is a hybrid framework that adopts and tailors proven strategies from a variety of sources, including Scrum, Extreme Programming (XP), Agile Modeling (AM), Kanban, Lean Software Development, and the Unified Process (UP). This allows teams to leverage the best of what these methods have to offer in a cohesive and consistent manner.

  5. Enterprise Awareness: DAD teams are encouraged to be “enterprise aware,” meaning they should work within the context of the wider organization. This includes leveraging and enhancing existing corporate assets, following enterprise standards and guidelines, and collaborating with other teams to ensure the solution is robust, supportable, and aligned with the organization’s goals.

  6. Focus on Consumable Solutions: DAD extends the agile focus on working software to the delivery of “consumable solutions.” This means that in addition to the software itself, the team is also responsible for producing supporting documentation, training materials, and any other artifacts necessary for the stakeholders to effectively use and benefit from the solution.

  7. Defined Roles and Responsibilities: DAD defines a set of primary roles (Stakeholder, Product Owner, Team Member, Team Lead, and Architecture Owner) and supporting roles (Specialist, Domain Expert, Technical Expert, Independent Tester, and Integrator) to ensure that all necessary responsibilities are covered.

  8. Risk-Based Milestones: DAD includes a set of explicit, risk-based milestones, such as “Stakeholder Vision,” “Proven Architecture,” and “Sufficient Functionality,” to ensure that the project is on track and that key risks are being addressed in a timely manner.

  9. Continuous Improvement through Guided Continuous Improvement (GCI): DAD promotes a culture of continuous improvement through its Guided Continuous Improvement (GCI) approach. This involves regularly reflecting on the team’s Way of Working (WoW) and making incremental improvements to their process.

  10. Agile Governance: DAD provides a lightweight, agile approach to governance that is based on collaboration, transparency, and trust. It emphasizes empowering teams to make their own decisions while providing the necessary oversight and guidance to ensure that they are aligned with the organization’s goals and objectives.

4. Application Context

Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD) is a highly adaptable framework, but its application requires careful consideration of the context. It is best suited for enterprise-level agile transformations, complex projects with diverse stakeholder needs, and teams seeking a flexible, customizable agile approach. DAD provides a clear path for organizations looking to scale beyond Scrum and offers guidance for geographically distributed teams. However, for small, simple projects, the overhead of DAD’s comprehensive framework may be unnecessary. Moreover, DAD is not well-suited for organizations with a rigid, command-and-control culture, as it requires a culture of trust, collaboration, and empowerment. DAD is designed to be scalable from individual teams to entire enterprises and is most commonly applied in the software development and IT industries, although its principles can be adapted to other domains.

5. Implementation

Implementing Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD) is a transformational process requiring careful planning, strong leadership, and a commitment to continuous improvement. A successful implementation hinges on several prerequisites: strong executive support to champion the change, a culture ready to embrace collaboration and empowerment, and a foundational understanding of agile principles. The process typically begins with assessing the organization’s context, followed by comprehensive training for all stakeholders. A pilot project is then selected to test the new process, after which the team and organization continuously inspect and adapt their approach. Common challenges include resistance to change, lack of business engagement, and coordinating distributed teams. Overcoming these requires strong change management, dedicated product owners, and effective collaboration tools. Success is further enabled by strong leadership, empowered teams, and a culture of continuous improvement.

6. Evidence & Impact

Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD) has been adopted by a wide range of organizations across various industries, from finance and retail to government and healthcare. While comprehensive, quantitative data on DAD’s impact can be challenging to isolate due to its context-sensitive nature, a growing body of case studies and anecdotal evidence points to significant positive outcomes.

Notable Adopters

DAD has been successfully implemented in numerous organizations, including:

  • Panera Bread: The fast-casual restaurant chain used DAD to transform its IT department and improve its ability to respond to business changes. The pilot project, which focused on a new “Back of House” system, was delivered on time and on budget, leading to a broader adoption of DAD across the organization.
  • Papa John’s Pizza: Following his success at Panera, Mike Nettles brought DAD to Papa John’s to drive a similar agile transformation.
  • A Large UK Retail Bank: A case study on ProjectManagement.com details the retrospective application of DAD to a complex project at a major UK bank, highlighting how DAD could have improved the project’s execution.
  • A Global Investment Firm: A PMI success story describes how a global investment firm used DAD to move from a slow, waterfall-based approach to a more agile and responsive multi-phase approach.
  • A Government Organization: Another PMI success story showcases how a government organization leveraged DAD to achieve impressive speed, execution, and integration.
  • Hospital El Pilar: This private hospital in Guatemala used Disciplined Agile to improve patient care and become one of the best hospitals in the country.

Documented Outcomes

The Panera Bread case study provides specific examples of the positive outcomes of their DAD adoption. The pilot project was delivered in eight two-week iterations, with a two-week inception phase and a two-week transition phase. The project was considered a success, and the company moved forward with a broader agile transformation. Other documented outcomes from various DAD adoptions include:

  • Increased Speed to Market: By streamlining the delivery process and focusing on a continuous flow of value, DAD helps organizations to deliver solutions to their customers more quickly.
  • Improved Quality: DAD’s emphasis on continuous testing and quality assurance practices helps to improve the overall quality of the solution.
  • Greater Stakeholder Satisfaction: By involving stakeholders throughout the entire process and delivering consumable solutions that meet their needs, DAD leads to higher levels of stakeholder satisfaction.
  • Increased Team Morale and Productivity: DAD’s people-first approach, which emphasizes empowerment, collaboration, and continuous improvement, leads to more engaged and productive teams.

Research Support

While formal academic research on DAD is still emerging, the framework is built on a solid foundation of proven agile and lean principles. The work of Scott Ambler and Mark Lines, particularly their book “Choose Your WoW!”, provides a comprehensive and well-researched guide to the DAD framework. Additionally, the growing number of case studies and experience reports from organizations that have successfully adopted DAD provides strong empirical evidence of its effectiveness.

7. Cognitive Era Considerations

The principles and practices of Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD) are well-positioned to evolve and thrive in the Cognitive Era, where artificial intelligence and automation are becoming increasingly prevalent. The framework’s flexibility and context-sensitive nature make it highly adaptable to the integration of AI-powered tools and techniques.

Cognitive Augmentation Potential

AI and automation can significantly enhance the DAD framework in several ways:

  • AI-Powered Analytics and Decision Support: AI can be used to analyze project data, identify patterns, and provide insights to support decision-making. For example, AI-powered tools could help teams to more accurately estimate work items, identify potential risks, and optimize their workflow.
  • Automated Testing and Quality Assurance: AI can be used to automate various aspects of testing, from generating test cases to identifying and reporting defects. This can help to improve the quality of the solution and free up team members to focus on more creative and strategic tasks.
  • Intelligent Process Guidance: An AI-powered version of the DAD framework could provide teams with intelligent guidance on which practices and techniques to use based on their specific context. This would further enhance DAD’s goal-driven approach and make it even easier for teams to choose their Way of Working (WoW).
  • Automated Code Generation and Refactoring: AI-powered tools can assist with code generation and refactoring, helping to improve developer productivity and code quality.

Human-Machine Balance

While AI and automation have the potential to significantly augment the DAD framework, the human element will remain critical. The “people-first” principle of DAD will become even more important in the Cognitive Era. The uniquely human skills of creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, and emotional intelligence will be essential for:

  • Understanding and interpreting stakeholder needs: While AI can help to analyze data, it cannot replace the human ability to empathize with stakeholders and understand their underlying needs and motivations.
  • Making complex, context-sensitive decisions: While AI can provide decision support, the final decision-making authority will still rest with the team. The team’s ability to weigh the various factors and make a judgment call based on their experience and intuition will be crucial.
  • Building strong relationships and fostering a collaborative culture: The success of any agile team depends on the quality of the relationships between its members. The human ability to build trust, communicate effectively, and resolve conflicts will be more important than ever.

Evolution Outlook

In the Cognitive Era, the DAD framework is likely to evolve in several ways. We can expect to see a greater emphasis on data-driven decision-making, with teams using AI-powered tools to collect and analyze data about their process and performance. The framework will also likely incorporate new practices and techniques for managing the development and deployment of AI-powered systems. The role of the team member will also evolve, with a greater emphasis on skills such as data literacy, AI ethics, and human-computer interaction. Ultimately, the DAD framework’s focus on learning, adaptation, and continuous improvement will be key to its continued relevance and success in the Cognitive Era.

8. Commons Alignment Assessment (v2.0)

This assessment evaluates the pattern based on the Commons OS v2.0 framework, which focuses on the pattern’s ability to enable resilient collective value creation.

1. Stakeholder Architecture: DAD defines a clear set of roles and responsibilities (e.g., Stakeholder, Product Owner, Team Lead), establishing a basic stakeholder architecture. However, this architecture is primarily focused on the direct participants in the IT solution delivery process. The framework does not explicitly extend rights and responsibilities to non-obvious stakeholders such as the environment, local communities, or future generations, which remains a significant gap from a commons perspective.

2. Value Creation Capability: DAD’s core principle to “Delight Customers” and produce “consumable solutions” moves beyond purely economic outputs to include user satisfaction and usability. The framework’s flexibility allows for the potential to define value more broadly, but it does not inherently guide teams to create social, ecological, or knowledge value. The capability for broader value creation is present but requires a conscious effort from the implementing organization to define and prioritize it.

3. Resilience & Adaptability: This is a core strength of the DAD framework. Principles like “Context Counts,” “Choice is Good,” and the availability of multiple lifecycles (Scrum, Kanban, etc.) are explicitly designed to help teams adapt to complexity and thrive on change. By allowing teams to choose their own “Way of Working” (WoW), DAD enables systems to maintain coherence and effectiveness even when under stress or facing unforeseen challenges.

4. Ownership Architecture: DAD’s roles and responsibilities distribute leadership and decision-making within the delivery process, but the ownership architecture for the resulting product and its value remains conventional. It operates under the assumption that the sponsoring organization retains all rights and equity. The framework does not introduce or explore concepts of stewardship, co-ownership with stakeholders, or other non-monetary forms of equity.

5. Design for Autonomy: The framework’s goal-driven, non-prescriptive nature and its principle of “Enterprise Awareness” make it highly compatible with distributed and autonomous systems. DAD’s focus on outcomes over specific processes provides the flexibility needed for AI-driven teams or DAOs to operate effectively. The coordination overhead is relatively low for an enterprise-grade framework, promoting team autonomy.

6. Composability & Interoperability: DAD is explicitly designed as a hybrid, composable framework, integrating proven practices from Scrum, Kanban, Extreme Programming (XP), and other methods. It is built to function within a “systems of systems” context, emphasizing interoperability with other teams and enterprise assets. This makes it highly effective for building larger, integrated value-creation systems by combining it with other patterns.

7. Fractal Value Creation: The principles of DAD are designed to be scalable and can be applied at multiple levels, from a single team to a large-scale program and across the entire enterprise (via the broader Disciplined Agile framework). This demonstrates a strong fractal capability, as the core logic of context-sensitive, goal-driven value creation can be replicated at different scales. The framework provides a consistent yet flexible approach that scales effectively.

Overall Score: 4 (Value Creation Enabler)

Rationale: DAD is a powerful Value Creation Enabler because it provides a robust, adaptable, and scalable process architecture for complex solution delivery. Its strengths in resilience, composability, and fractal scaling create the necessary conditions for resilient collective value creation. However, it falls short of a perfect score because its stakeholder and ownership models are still rooted in a traditional, enterprise-centric view, requiring significant adaptation to fully align with a commons-based approach.

Opportunities for Improvement:

  • Explicitly expand the “Stakeholder” role to include non-human and future-generation stakeholders, with defined rights and responsibilities.
  • Integrate a multi-capital value framework (e.g., social, ecological, knowledge) into the “Delight Customers” and “Consumable Solution” concepts.
  • Introduce options for alternative ownership models, such as steward-ownership or open-source licensing, within the Transition phase.

Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD), with its flexible, context-sensitive, and enterprise-aware approach, presents an interesting case for a Commons Alignment Assessment. While it originated as a framework for improving IT solution delivery within a corporate context, its underlying principles and practices have the potential to support more commons-oriented approaches to value creation.

1. Stakeholder Mapping

DAD explicitly includes the “Stakeholder” as a primary role, defining it as anyone materially impacted by the outcome of the solution. This is a broader definition than many traditional frameworks, which often focus narrowly on customers or end-users. DAD also encourages teams to develop a common vision by understanding the needs of all stakeholders. However, the extent to which this mapping is truly comprehensive depends on the team’s interpretation and the organizational context. In a traditional corporate setting, the focus is likely to remain on internal stakeholders and paying customers. For a higher commons alignment, the stakeholder mapping would need to be expanded to include the broader community, the environment, and future generations.

2. Value Creation

DAD’s principle of “Delighting Customers” and its focus on delivering “consumable solutions” that provide real business value are clear strengths. The framework is designed to optimize the flow of value to stakeholders. However, the type of value created is typically defined by the organization’s goals, which in a for-profit enterprise, is primarily financial. To be more commons-aligned, the definition of value would need to be broadened to include social, environmental, and knowledge-based value. DAD’s flexibility could, in theory, accommodate this broader definition of value if the organization chose to prioritize it.

3. Value Preservation

DAD’s emphasis on enterprise awareness, sustainable solutions, and continuous improvement contributes to value preservation. By encouraging teams to leverage and enhance existing infrastructure and to build high-quality, maintainable solutions, DAD helps to ensure that the value created is not short-lived. The framework’s focus on learning and adaptation also helps to keep the solution relevant over time. However, the long-term preservation of value for the commons would require a more explicit focus on open standards, open data, and modular architectures that allow for future adaptation and reuse by a wider community.

4. Shared Rights & Responsibilities

DAD promotes a collaborative approach, with shared responsibilities within the team. The roles of Product Owner, Team Lead, and Architecture Owner distribute leadership and decision-making. However, the ultimate ownership of the solution and the intellectual property it generates typically resides with the organization. A more commons-aligned approach would involve exploring alternative ownership models, such as co-ownership with stakeholders or releasing the solution under an open-source license. DAD’s framework does not preclude these options, but it does not explicitly encourage them either.

5. Systematic Design

DAD is a highly systematic framework, providing a comprehensive set of process goals, lifecycles, and practices. Its goal-driven approach allows for a systematic yet flexible design of the delivery process. The framework’s emphasis on architecture and its inclusion of an Architecture Owner role also contribute to a more systematic design of the solution itself. This systematic approach could be leveraged to design for the commons, for example, by incorporating principles of universal design, accessibility, and sustainability into the architecture and development process.

6. Systems of Systems

DAD is explicitly designed to operate within a “systems of systems” context. Its enterprise awareness and its guidance on coordinating multiple teams make it well-suited for large, complex environments where multiple systems need to interact. This capability is essential for building commons-based solutions, which often involve the integration of multiple, independently developed components.

7. Fractal Properties

DAD’s principles, such as “Context Counts” and “Choice is Good,” can be applied at multiple scales, from individual teams to the entire enterprise. This suggests that the framework has some fractal properties. However, the extent to which these principles are applied consistently across all scales depends on the organization’s commitment to the DAD mindset. For a higher commons alignment, the principles of transparency, collaboration, and stakeholder engagement would need to be applied not just at the team level, but also at the organizational and inter-organizational levels.

Overall Score: 3 - Transitional

Disciplined Agile Delivery is best described as a Transitional framework in terms of its commons alignment. It represents a significant step forward from traditional, command-and-control approaches, with its emphasis on collaboration, empowerment, and stakeholder engagement. Its flexibility and context-sensitive nature provide a foundation upon which a more commons-oriented approach could be built. However, as it is typically applied within a corporate context, its primary focus remains on creating value for the organization rather than for the commons. To move towards a higher level of commons alignment, organizations using DAD would need to consciously and explicitly broaden their definition of “stakeholder” and “value,” and explore alternative models of ownership and governance.

8. Resources & References

Essential Reading

  1. Ambler, S. W., & Lines, M. (2019). Choose Your WoW!: A Disciplined Agile Delivery Handbook for Optimizing Your Way of Working. Project Management Institute. This is the definitive guide to the Disciplined Agile Delivery framework, written by its creators. It provides a comprehensive overview of the DAD toolkit, including its principles, lifecycles, and process goals.

  2. Ambler, S. W., & Lines, M. (2012). Disciplined Agile Delivery: A Practitioner’s Guide to Agile Software Delivery in the Enterprise. IBM Press. The original book that introduced the DAD framework. While some of the content has been updated in “Choose Your WoW!”, this book still provides a valuable introduction to the core concepts of DAD.

  3. Lines, M., & Ambler, S. W. (2014). Implementing Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD) at Panera Bread: A Recipe for Success. Agile Alliance. This case study provides a detailed account of how Panera Bread successfully implemented DAD. It offers valuable insights and practical advice for organizations looking to adopt the framework.

Organizations & Communities

  • Project Management Institute (PMI): As the home of Disciplined Agile, PMI offers a wealth of resources, including articles, webinars, and certifications.
  • Disciplined Agile Consortium: The official community for Disciplined Agile practitioners. It provides a forum for sharing knowledge and experience, as well as access to the latest developments in the DAD toolkit.

Tools & Platforms

DAD is a process framework and is not tied to any specific tools. However, a number of tools can be used to support a DAD implementation, including:

  • Jira: A popular project management tool that can be configured to support various agile methods, including DAD.
  • Trello: A simple and intuitive Kanban-style tool that can be used to manage the flow of work.
  • Miro: A collaborative online whiteboard that can be used for a variety of DAD activities, such as story mapping, retrospectives, and process modeling.

References

[1] Project Management Institute. (n.d.). Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD). Retrieved from https://www.pmi.org/disciplined-agile/process/introduction-to-dad

[2] Wikipedia. (2023, October 27). Disciplined agile delivery. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disciplined_agile_delivery

[3] Ambler, S. W., & Lines, M. (2019). Choose Your WoW!: A Disciplined Agile Delivery Handbook for Optimizing Your Way of Working. Project Management Institute.

[4] Lines, M., & Ambler, S. W. (2014). Implementing Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD) at Panera Bread: A Recipe for Success. Agile Alliance. Retrieved from https://www.agilealliance.org/resources/experience-reports/implementing-disciplined-agile-delivery-dad-panera-bread-recipe-success/

[5] Project Management Institute. (n.d.). Success Stories. Retrieved from https://www.pmi.org/disciplined-agile/resources/disciplined-agile-success-stories