How is Disciplined Agile More Disciplined?

 

A question we often get about Disciplined Agile (DA) is "But doesn't agile require more discipline than traditional approaches already?"  Why yes it does, but in DA we take it further so as to ensure that your agile approach works in enterprise-class situations.

So what are potential ways that Disciplined Agile (DA) is more disciplined than what you're doing today? It takes discipline to:

• Do the things that you know are good for you, things that usually require hard work and perseverance.
• Regularly delight your customers. We delight our customers when our products and services not only fulfill their needs and expectations but surpass them.
• Become awesome. Awesome teams are built around motivated individuals who are given the environment and support required to fulfill their objectives.
• Provide safety.  Agile organizations have leaders who ensure that their people have a safe environment to work in, where people can be who they are and be allowed to work with and learn from others.
• Recognize that you need to tailor your approach for the context that you face, and to evolve your approach as the situation evolves.
• Recognize that you are part of a larger organization, that you should do what’s best for the enterprise and not just what’s convenient for you.
• Evolve and optimize your overall workflow.  DA helps to make it clear that you have many choices regarding how you work and organize yourselves, so you should choose accordingly.

Yes, your existing Scrum team may be doing some of these things but it won't be doing all of them.  Disciplined Agile (DA) helps teams to recognize that there are a lot of great ways of working (WoW) available to them, that there are always opportunities to improve.