Disciplined Agile DeliveryThe Foundation for Scaling Agile

© Scott Ambler + Associates 1

Scott W. Ambler

Senior Consulting Partner

scott [at] scottambler.com

@scottwambler

Let’s explore

a few important questions….

What does it mean to scale agile?

Are organizations really scaling agile?

What foundation do you need?

How do you scale agile?

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What Does it Mean

to Scale Agile?

-or-

Why Context Counts

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Team Size

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Geographic Distribution

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Organizational

Distribution

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Compliance

Domain

Complexity

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Technical

Complexity

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Are Organizations

Scaling Agile?

ambysoft.com/surveys/

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Agile Experiences with Team Size

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On your (un)successful agile projects, how many IT team members were there?

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Source: 2012 Agile Scaling Survey

www.ambysoft.com/surveys/

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IT Project Success Rates by Team Size

50%

40%

55%

55%

61%

58%

68%

70%

69%

74%

80%

83%

Traditional

Ad-Hoc

Iterative

Agile

Small Medium Large

Source: DDJ State of the IT Union Survey, July 2010

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Agile Experiences with Geographic Distribution

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On your (un)successful agile projects, how distributed were team members?

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Source: 2012 Agile Scaling Survey

www.ambysoft.com/surveys/

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48%

55%

55%

59%

65%

69%

73%

74%

72%

73%

79%

80%

Ad Hoc

Traditional

Agile

Iterative

Co-located

Near Located

Far Located

Success Rates for Geographically Distributed Development

Source: Dr Dobb’s 2008 Project Success Survey

Agile Experiences with Organizational Distribution

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

Outsourcing

Partner organizations

Contractors/consultants

Several countries

Several divisions

Same division

Had Successes Had Failures

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Question: In which of the following situations has the organization (un)successfully applied agile techniques? (Please check all that apply)

Source: 2012 Agile Scaling Survey

www.ambysoft.com/surveys/15

Agile Experiences with Compliance

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On your (un)successful agile projects, was compliance applicable?

Note: Self imposed = CMMI, ISO, …

16

Source: 2012 Agile Scaling Survey

www.ambysoft.com/surveys/

Agile Experiences with Domain Complexity

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

High Risk

Complex

Medium complexity

Straightforward

Pilot Projects

Had Successes Had Failures

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Question: From the point of view of the problem/business domain, at what level(s) of complexity has the organization (un)successfully applied agile

techniques? (Please check all that apply)

Source: 2012 Agile Scaling Survey

www.ambysoft.com/surveys/17

Agile Experiences with Technical Complexity

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

Multi-platform

Single platform

Fix legacy data

Access legacy data

Fix legacy systems

System integration

Package/COTS

Stand-alone

Greenfield

Had Successes Had Failures

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Question: In which technical situations has the organization (un)successfully applied agile approaches? (Please check all that apply)

Source: 2012 Agile Scaling Survey

www.ambysoft.com/surveys/18

What Foundation Do You

Need to Scale Agile?

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Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD)

Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD) is a process

decision framework

The key characteristics of DAD:

– People-first

– Goal-driven

– Hybrid agile

– Learning-oriented

– Full delivery lifecycle

– Solution focused

– Risk-value lifecycle

– Enterprise aware

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Good

People

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Scrum LeanKanban

DAD is a Hybrid Framework

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Unified Process Agile Modeling

Agile DataExtreme

ProgrammingSAFe

DevOps …and more

DAD leverages proven strategies from several sources,

providing a decision framework to guide your adoption and

tailoring of them in a context-driven manner.

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Enterprise

Awareness© Scott Ambler + Associates 23

A Full Delivery Lifecycle

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DAD Lifecycle: Advanced/Lean

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DAD Lifecycle: Continuous Delivery

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Disciplined Agilists Take a Goal Driven Approach

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Goal Issue

Advantages

Disadvantages

Considerations

* Option

Default Option*

Explore the Initial

Scope

Form the

Initial Team

Address Changing

Stakeholder Needs

Source

Team size

Team structure

Team members

Geographic distribution

Supporting the team

Availability

Co-located

Partially dispersed

Fully dispersed

Distributed subteams

Goal: Form

the Initial

Team

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How Do You

Scale Agile?

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“Scaling” Practices

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Consumable solutions

Development intelligence

Requirements envisioning

Architecture envisioning

API first

Test suite API

Parallel independent testing

IT intelligence

Active stakeholder participation

Continuous deployment

Release train Multiple “backlogs”

Work item lists

Continuous documentation

Continuous architecture

Work item pools

Exploring the Initial Scope

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Identifying the Initial Technical Strategy

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Move Closer to a Deployable Release

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Coordinate Activities

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Context Counts – Tailoring and Scaling Agile

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Agile

Disciplined

Agile

Delivery

Agility

at

Scale

• Construction focus

• Value driven lifecycle

• Self-organizing teams

• Prescriptive

• Project team aware

• Delivery focus

• Risk-value driven lifecycle

• Self-organization with appropriate governance

• Goal driven

• Enterprise aware

Disciplined agile delivery with one or more complexity factors:

� Large teams

� Geographically distributed teams

� Organizational distribution

� Compliance

� Domain complexity

� Technical complexity

Scaling Requires…

• A disciplined approach

– Full delivery lifecycle

– Enterprise awareness

– Goal-driven approach

• A bit more up-front thinking

– Explore the initial scope a bit deeper

– Identify the initial technical strategy in a bit more detail

• More sophisticated coordination

– Individuals and interactions

• More sophisticated governance

– The greater the risk, the greater the need for effective governance

• More sophisticated validation

– Teams at scale are typically tackling harder problems

• More sophisticated tooling

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Scaling From a Solid Foundation is Easier

• With a DAD-based approach, scaling becomes straightforward because a handful

of process goals take the brunt of the tailoring:

– Explore initial scope

– Identify initial technical strategy

– Move closer to a deployable release

– Coordinate activities

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Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD)

Disciplined Agile Delivery:

The Foundation for Scaling Agile

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Scrum LeanKanban

XP Agile Modeling

And more…SAFeOutside In Dev.

Team SizeGeographic

Distribution

Compliance Domain ComplexityTechnical

Complexity

Organizational

Distribution

DAD leverages proven strategies from several sources,

providing a decision framework to guide your adoption and

tailoring of them in a context-driven manner.

Got Discipline?

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DisciplinedAgileConsortium.org

DisciplinedAgileDelivery.com