Disciplined Agile

On March 31^st, 2022 we released Disciplined Agile (DA) v5.5. The focus of this release was to:

1. Update several process blades:
   • Portfolio Management. We added the Address Portfolio Risk decision point to capture strategies for aggregating and addressing risk at the portfolio level.
   • Program Management. Added the Address Program Risk and Measure Program decision points which were previously options of Govern the Program. Address Program Risk is similar to Address Portfolio Risk, albeit at a different level, and Measure Program focuses on how to aggregate and work with metrics at the program level. We also refactored the Organize Teams decision point, pulling out a new Organize Program Leadership decision point to focus on those options and making Organize Teams an ordered list of strategies.
   • Product Management. Added the Citizen Development option to the Evolve Vision decision point in our ongoing work to support the great work going on in the CD space.
   • Vendor Management. Added the Intake Requests decision point to capture strategies to bring work into the VM team.  We renamed the Choose Commercial Model decision point to Choose Contract Model to increase consistency within this blade.
2. Update several process goals:
   • Accelerate Value Delivery. We added the three new decision points: Optimize Team, Optimize Work, and Optimize Flow. As the names imply, they capture strategies to optimize how you have organized your team, your overall work strategy, and how to improve flow within your team and with teams that you collaborate with. These decision points capture great strategies for accelerate value delivery by your team.
   • Align With Enterprise Direction. In recent releases of DA we've added significant support for metrics, and recently we realized that we haven't explicitly called out strategies to align your team's measurement strategy with areas of the organization that you are part of.  As a result we added the Align Measurement Strategy decision point.
   • Form Team. We renamed the Structure of Team strategy Internal Open Source to Innersource to reflect current naming conventions for that strategy.
3. Add and update reference links to existing techniques. This is an ongoing effort and there is more to come.
4. Update descriptions of techniques. It is also an ongoing effort to keep our material up to date.

We released Disciplined Agile (DA) v5.3 earlier today, September 30th 2021.  While there are several visible changes that we've made, discussed below, most of this release is "behind the scenes" in that we've updated descriptions of many techniques and added many new references that link to articles, blogs, or books describing a given technique.

The "visible changes" include updates to several process goals:

• Intake Work. We refactored out several options from the Manage Work Items decision point to introduce a new decision point, Manage Backlog. We also updated the options for backlog management to reflect current industry practice.  This is a fairly important change that will be described in a detailed blog post.
• Explore Scope. We updated the Choose a Backlog Management Strategy decision point to reflect changes to Intake Work. Early in a project it's critical to identify how you will manage your backlog later during Construction as this decision will inform your decision around how much detail to gather during Inception.
• Measure Outcomes. We added several new potential metrics to existing options, and introduced the Increase Initiative Health decision point.
• Organize Metrics. Added Aggregate Measures and Report Measures decision points.  An earlier blog, Apply Consistent Metrics Categories Across an Agile Portfolio, covers the key strategy for aggregating measures.  The report measures decision point is self explanatory, covering strategies such as status reports, metrics reports, automated dashboards, and more. 
• Plan The Release. Updated estimation strategies.

We also updated the following process blades:

• Continuous Improvement – Added the Analyze Root Cause decision point to the goal diagram.
• Product Management – Added the Measure Offering decision point to describe explicit measurement options. Added the Capture Roadmap decision point to describe options for documenting/communicating your product roadmap.

It is important to note that for the DASM and DASSM exams that we are still testing you against the DA 5.0 version of the model.

Related Resources

• DA 5.3 Release Notes
• The Disciplined Agile (DA) Browser

Remote agile teams typically use more video conferencing and extra written communication than collocated teams to stay synchronized. While perhaps not as effective as direct face-to-face communication, these approaches make up some of what is lost from sitting together and provide the advantage of being easily recorded for later access.

This asynchronous access to information is especially valuable for globally remote teams that may not share the same work hours. By accessing content on-demand, people can contribute when works best for them and sync up with the rest of the team at preset events.

Remote Onboarding Challenges

Onboarding new team members can be a challenge for remote teams. Introducing team members, explaining agreed to norms around process and tools are traditionally done in-person. Writing all of this information down along with the justifications and discussions around the decision process is a significant undertaking.

GitLab, one of the most successful all-remote agile development organizations, has onboarding materials that would occupy over 8,000 pages if printed. As organizations transition to more remote-friendly structures, documenting how teams work is becoming more critical.

Disciplined Agile for Onboarding

Fortunately, Disciplined Agile (DA) can help. It contains a vast tool kit of approaches accompanied by industry vetted analysis of when they add value when they do not, along with the pros and cons of implementing them. Teams can use the DA tool kit as the starting point for describing their way of working.

Using the upcoming DA Profiler tool, teams can debate, discuss and decide on their ways of working. The tool captures the goals, decision points and trade-off tables of each selected process or technique. Then, when new team members join, they can be pointed to the saved profile representing the team’s way of working. This saves creating lengthy onboarding materials and descriptions of processes.

Of course, processes should not remain static but instead, continue to evolve as teams and businesses learn and develop. So, at regular intervals, teams are encouraged to review and update their way of working and create a new definition. DA provides a robust strategy to support this and the goal “Evolve Way of Working.”

Keeping it Real

A strength of DA is its realism and pragmatism towards how organizations work. Not all organizations are fully agile yet, nor perhaps want to be. So, if some traditional, serial practices are still in use, that is OK; DA supports it. If Team A uses Scrum with two-week Sprints, Team B uses Kanban with continuous flow, and Team C uses SAFe, that works too.

DA is approach agnostic and capable of supporting a variety of popular techniques along with custom hybrid solutions. It also embraces a set of principles that make building guidance for remote agile teams more successful. These include: “Be pragmatic,” “Context counts,” “Choice is good” and “Enterprise awareness.”  These principles provide practical advice teams can apply to define their remote ways of working.

Mind Your Toes

Returning to the GitLab onboarding process, they promote a fun principle called “Short toes,” which comes from when people join the company and frequently say, “I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes.”

At GitLab, they aim to be accepting of people taking the initiative in trying to improve things. They recognize that as organizations grow, their decision-making speed often slows since more people are involved. However, this can be counteracted by having short toes and feeling comfortable letting others contribute to their domain.

Short toes is a great concept that is required if organizations are to scale and evolve successfully. It aligns well with another of DA’s principles, “Be awesome,” which is all about striving to be the best that we can and to always get better.

Summary

Adapting to the challenges of more remote team members and new all-remote teams creates the need for better onboarding resources.

DA provides great scaffolding to build onboarding handbooks that document how teams have selected to work without making manuals with thousands of pages.  It supports group-based discussion and selection of techniques, ongoing refinement and offline access. Perfect for onboarding today’s increasingly remote workforce.

Why Energy Enhancement is Important

“Your energy introduces you before you even speak” – I strongly believe in this famous quote and I am writing this article to enhance the positive energy level of every agile team, irrespective of their agile maturity level and experience.

If your Enterprise is not very mature in Disciplined Agile (DA) implementation, then you need to work with a CDAC to increase this maturity. I’m not focusing on those aspects of DA implementation in this article. You can get that knowledge from the DA website, blog, any CDAC or many great books written by Scott Ambler and Mark Lines.

I’m a certified Reiki Master Teacher and Disciplined Agile Coach & Instructor (CDAC & CDAI), who has been coaching and training agile teams, plus successfully healing people (in person or located thousands of miles away) by my Reiki knowledge. I’ve identified some basic Reiki practices which every agile practitioner can follow to increase their own positive energy level.

No prior Reiki or Energy Healing knowledge is required to follow these time-tested practices and you can even measure the increase in this positive energy by Pendulum Dowsing, if you are interested in collecting the evidence.

Background of Energy Healing and Reiki

With the advancements of quantum physics, evidence supporting the concept that matter is made up of layers of energy came to light. For centuries, indigenous cultures have been positively influencing the body’s health by working with its energy fields, and many traditions around the world speak about how it can be used in medical practices.

It was first observed by the eastern healers who identified seven Chakras and twelve major Meridians, or pathways of energy, in the body. They enhance the flow of energy to improve the health of the physical body. This is called Energy Healing.

The word Reiki is made of two Japanese words – “Rei” which means “Universal” and “Ki” which is “Life Force Energy”. Reiki flows through all living things. It utilizes the Ki to strengthen and help others using a lot of hand techniques and specific symbols which channel the energy of the universe to heal the body, mind and spirit.

With this background information, let’s explore some simple practices to enhance the positive Energy Level of your agile teams:

Meditation on Five Reiki Principles (10-15 Minutes Daily)

The following five Reiki principles are guidelines that everyone can live by, to promote a healthy, loving way of living.

1. Just for today, I will let go of worry

Worry causes stress which is a major issue in our daily lives. So, for a day try to stop worrying. It will make your life peaceful which in turn, will also bring peace to others. Lowering down stress will also enhance your physical health. Just for today trust in the universal life force and it will help you in fixing your problems!

2. Just for today, I will let go of anger

If a typical morning for you involves getting bug reports from the testers or high priority production tickets from the users, you probably default to anger. Why not just take a deep breath, relax and let it go? What will you achieve by remaining angry and increasing your own blood pressure? Nothing. All that you’ll end up with is an elevated heart rate (and more stress!) which is not good for your well-being.

3. Just for today, I will be grateful

We are always asking for more and only seeing what we don’t have. Let’s try for one day to be grateful for what we do have — like a job, a car, a roof over your head, good health, a family and your DA team that supports you. If you are grateful for what you have, you will attract more good. The law of attraction states that like attracts like and lack attracts lack, so stay positive and be grateful for what you have.

4. Just for today, I will do my work honestly

Doing your work honestly brings more purpose and meaning into your life. When you do your work honestly and with purpose, at the end of the day you’ll feel good about yourself and more fulfilled about your work. Just remember the following quote of quality guru Dr. W. Edwards Deming – “Quality is pride of workmanship.”

5. Just for today, I will be kind to every living thing

What you give out, you receive back multifold. Be nice, loving and caring to everyone, even if it’s not your favorite person in the world. We all deserve love and kindness. At the end of the day we will feel better about ourselves for bringing some light and love into someone else’s day, even if it’s just for a moment.

Please note, all these principles start with “Just for today” phrase because our life is agile and every new day can be treated as a new iteration. You don’t need to plan your whole life today in Waterfall style. Just meditate on these principles and live one iteration (day) at a time. You will be much happier at the end of the day, I promise.

Forgiveness Prayer (10-15 Minutes in Every Retrospective Meeting)

Every team can spend 10-15 minutes in every Retrospective meeting to chant and meditate on the following forgiveness prayer:

• I am a divine soul.
• I invoke all powers within.
• All including myself, please forgive me and all connected to me, for creating any negative energy, anytime & in any life, knowingly or unknowingly.
• I forgive & seek divine forgiveness for all including myself, that have anytime & in any life, created any negative energy, for me & all connected to me, knowingly or unknowingly.
• I am perpetually Healed, Protected & Guided.
• I willingly forgive, forget and heal to effortlessly give and receive love only.
• I am so happy and grateful now.
• Every day in every way I am getting better and better.

Affirmation Slips (10-15 Minutes in Every Iteration Planning Meeting or as Needed)

An affirmation is a simple, positive phrase that is meant to change our habit, belief, behavior, approach, emotion, feeling or opinion. For many people, it’s a great tool of healing and improving life. After all, it’s a tool of working with your inner self.

How to make affirmation slips? Keep it as simple as possible. No need to be formal and go for fancy words or big-big affirmations. You can note down this wish on a piece of paper in clear words or use any simple affirmation related to your wish.

Hold this slip between your palms and meditate for 5-10 minutes with the intention to manifest it for your highest good.

To understand and explain affirmations better, here are two simple examples.

I, YOUR NAME, write perfect code and delight our customers!

I, YOUR NAME, catch every bug in testing and enhance the reliability of our software!

Using this affirmation properly will establish a new opinion in your mind. And because our opinions create our reality (have you read/watched The Secret?), then with a bit of healing, you will be able to do your job perfectly and with pleasure.

How to write affirmations? Well, there are few “rules” and some “guidelines”. First, the affirmation must be a positive phrase. So don’t use “no”, “never”, “not” and things like that. Always try to make sure that your affirmation sounds positive. Next, write affirmations for yourself, not for others.

These are the basics of writing affirmation. You can also listen to a recorded affirmation or recite the affirmation, because it works, as well.

My experiments with various DA teams have convinced me that these Energy Healing practices will work for your DA team as well. Even if you are not sure about the outcome or don’t know how to measure this enhanced positive energy by a Pendulum Dowser, I suggest you run it as an experiment for 2-3 iterations and observe the difference.

Do share your experiences with me after conducting this experiment.

May the force be with you!

– Written by Dr. Sanjay Saxena, Ph.D., CDAC, CDAI, SPC4, PgMP, Reiki Master Teacher ([email protected])