Ask me questions about Disciplined Agile

Thanks for the question.

I was not there when the name was chosen but I'll tell you how I think about it. For years Agile has been more of a "way of being" to many people rather than "what you do." I do believe the human aspect of knowledge work is critical - so "being" is important. But defining an approach based on being is a slippery slope. It becomes too easy to just apply the "no true Scotsman" argument in any discussion.

When "being" is in question, I have always preferred to ask "what does a person 'being' Agile look like?" Unfortunately, if one applies this to the Agile community you find that many of the actions are far from Agile. They include dogmatism (Defending Old Glorified Methods in Agile), cargo cult, idolization of creators of methods, ad hominem attacks on people who question the underlying foundations of an approach, and more.

DA is committed to not behaving this way but to be consistent with the intention of Agile - "We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it." With the exception that instead of just developing software our domain is now enabling businesses to add value to their customers.

The "discipline" in Disciplined Agile incorporates the belief that, one, there is a discipline of knowledge to use. In our case, this has evolved to include theories of flow, Lean and Theory of Constraints as well as an understanding of organizational development and human behavior. We use this "discipline" in a pragmatic manner. We're not dogmatic about any particular practice as no practice is universal. So in addition to having a discipline, we believe in acting in a disciplined manner. That is, we always work in a pragmatic manner attending to the science and experience we, and others, have accumulated. This enables DA to be effective now and continue to evolve.

Hope this helps, and thanks again for asking.

Thanks for the elaborated and great answer
Al.

You refer to discipline as knowledge and behavior.

For me the behavior aspect is important and a positive trait, supporting achievements and success.

Regarding the knowledge pool, I feel a lack if fairness and honesty. Most practices label agile have been invented elsewhere and the IP is not correctly attributed in most agile literature. Take lean, Kanban, iterations, trial & error, even servant leadership.

Thomas