Disciplined Agile

The results of the 2018 State of Agile survey (StateOfAgile.com) have just been released.  This survey, while not particularly scientific in its approach, is a widely read and frequently quoted survey of what people are actually doing on a variety of agile topics.  It is good to see that Disciplined Agile continues to grow in popularity, up from 5% marketshare to 7%, behind only  SAFe which commands a 30% market share and is the clear leader (Scrum of Scrums is ahead of DAD, but it is just a practice, not a method).  While we are very pleased that people are finally starting to understand what DA is and how it can help them, I am not particularly fond of the way the question is framed in the survey and would like to share my thoughts for how it could be improved, and my interpretation of the findings.

1. Disciplined Agile (DAD) is listed as an option in the “Which scaling method/approach do you use?”.  People who understand DA know that it is actually not specifically a scaling framework.  It is rather a toolkit of strategies, a hybrid of practices from many methods and frameworks which can help you optimize your way of working (WoW) regardless of which approach you use.  It can be used on one small Scrum team, or dozens of SAFe teams.  Whatever approach you use, DA can help you to become even more awesome! #beawesome
2. As I said above, Scrum of Scrums should not be one of the choices as it is simply a coordination practice for Scrum at scale, not a method.
3. “Don’t know” is interesting as an option.  It puzzles me that people that are answering this survey aren’t aware of their organization’s approach.  My suspicion is that many of the people picking this selection actually mean “Not applicable” as many organizations do not scale agile.  I think that this should available as a selection.
4. The question really should be a multiple choice, rather than single.  Most organizations use a variety of approaches.  It would be more useful to ask “What percentage of your IT spend uses each of the following approaches?”
5. Spotify is actually not a framework.  It is how a Swedish music company circa 2014 had adapted agile at that point in time, to optimize their WoW for their unique context.  If you copy their approach you are copying an old approach of a company in a situation unlike yourselves, and for which they have evolved away from significantly.
6. I find “Internally created methods” intriguing as a choice.  We think that this is what all companies should aspire towards.  Start with either where you are currently, or one of the other methods (recipes), and then use the DA Toolkit to either evolve away from, or to improve your approach for your unique organization and team context.
7. Spotify actually embodies this approach.  They have continually evolved, improving, and optimizing their way of working.  Menlo Innovations also has done the same thing, starting with Extreme Programming (XP) as their core method, and then optimized for what works for them.  Rather than copying other companies approaches we should “learn how to learn” about what works best for us. We describe this approach of leveraging proven fit-for-context practices in our Choose your Wow! book as “Continuous Guided Improvement”.  Starting with some basic scaffolding of an existing method (what we refer to as “lifecycles” in DAD) provides a jumpstart on your WoW optimization.

We would recommend that you do not aspire to “be Spotify”, but rather “be like Spotify”.  Start with a basic method/lifecycle (recipe), then spice it up with the help of proven strategies from the DA Toolkit (ingredients).

Become your own Spotify or Menlo, not somebody else’s.

Thoughts?

Please don’t call yourself a “Disciplined Agile shop”.  It is the kiss of death.  I was recently having a discussion with a client about visiting them on an upcoming visit to the UK.  At one point in the past they had proudly declared themselves a Disciplined Agile “shop”.  The senior exec that I spoke with told me “We have moved on now from DA to SAFe”.  Upon further discussion he admitted that SAFe is being used on just a few initiatives, but that they had sent lots of people to SAFe training.  The inference seemed to be that since they had previously taken DA training, but had now taken SAFe training that they have now changed “shops”.  Ironically while a lot of budget was committed to SAFe training and related consulting, most of the work done at this organization actually used other agile and lean lifecycles such as Scrum and Kanban.  You know, DAD stuff.

Why is it that our industry has an obsession with labelling themselves as a type of “shop”, when the reality is that they will likely use a variety of approaches depending on the context? You could be building something from scratch, extending a solution, or implementing a commercial off the self package.  You could be in a straightforward situation, or building defence or life critical systems.  Our industry has become extremely fragmented, with organizations trying to put themselves in a certain box such as Scrum, SAFe, Scrum/XP, LeSS, DAD, Kanban, Spotify, and it goes on and on.  So let’s stop doing this.

Unfortunately, Disciplined Agile (aka DAD) has gotten lumped in with scaling frameworks such as SAFE, LeSS, Nexus etc, when the reality is that DA is not a purpose-built framework for scaling situations exclusively, like a true scaling framework.  It is, rather, a rich and flexible toolkit than can be used to apply fit-for-context strategies for your unique situation for initiatives of all sizes and types.  If you need to apply them at scale, you can.  But our preferred approach is to descale where possible rather than apply a prescriptive recipe to a large and risky problem.

When we take a closer look at different types of shops, we see a lot of MethodBut.  For example, ScrumBut is where teams use Scrum but they don’t do retrospectives or some other ceremony.  Or teams use SAFe but management doesn’t buy in to doing quarterly 2-day big room planning sessions.  Practitioners in these “shops” are ostracized and may be excommunicated from their religion for not following one of their prescribed ceremonies.  Disciplined Agile’s core principles include context counts, choice is good and pragmatism.  While we believe that skipping parts of a method early in your adoption is likely a mistake, as your teams mature and understand options that can make them more efficient we support the idea of being freed from the “method prisons” (as described by Ivar Jacobson) so that they can optimize their WoW (Way of Working).  This essentially is why the DA “toolkit” was created.  It contains hundreds of strategies to help you to make better decisions on your journey to high performance agility.

As you can see from the diagram, regardless of what framework or method you are using, there will likely be strategies that supplement your approach which are not described in the method recipe(s) that you have chosen.  DA is a toolkit of ingredients, to enable you to be a better chef.  If you don’t know what is in the pantry, and which combinations will delight the unique preferences of your guests/stakeholders, then you probably won’t meet your potential as a Michelin Star Chef.

We have come to realize that the methods/framework industry is a moving target.  Waterfall shops, then RUP, then SAFe, then….?  There will be more frameworks, indeed it seems that we learn of a new one every few months.  As consultants seek to differentiate themselves, and have something new to sell, or organizations fail in their agile adoption and look for the “next big thing”, new frameworks/recipes will continue to emerge, with related training programs and certifications.

Regardless of the recipe, the main ingredients for them don’t change that much.  Yes, new ingredients emerge, such as mob programming, UX practices, WSJF, etc.  But generally accepted fit-for-context principles tend to last.  Disciplined Agile is an agnostic approach to solution delivery.  A rich toolkit to help you to make better decisions, leading to better outcomes.

At Disciplined Agile, we are beginning to make a concerted effort to separate ourselves from the toolkits, as we really shouldn’t be competing with them.  It is not DA or .  It should be DA and .  So our recommendation is to take a DA workshop to expand your pantry of ingredients, and learn how to be a better cook. Or a good starting point is to read the Choose your Wow! book (Ambler/Lines).  But please, don’t call yourselves a “Disciplined Agile shop”.