1. Disciplined Agile Principles
Disciplined Agile Delivery
Disciplined Agile Principles
© Disciplined Agile Consortium
© Scott Ambler + Associates

2. The Seven Principles of Disciplined Agile
Disciplined Agile Delivery
The Seven Principles of Disciplined Agile
What does it mean to be disciplined? To be disciplined is to do the things that you know are good for you, things that usually require hard work and perseverance. It requires discipline to regularly delight your customers. It takes discipline for teams to become awesome. It requires discipline for leaders to ensure that their people have a safe environment to work in. It takes discipline to recognize that you need to tailor your approach for the context that you face, and to evolve your approach as the situation evolves. It takes discipline to 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. It requires discipline to evolve and optimize your overall workflow, and it requires discipline to realize that you have many choices regarding how you work and organize yourselves, so you should choose accordingly.
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© Disciplined Agile Consortium
© Scott Ambler + Associates

3. Disciplined Agile Delivery
Delight Customers
We delight our customers when our products and services not only fulfill their needs and expectations but surpass them
Supporting strategies:
Build with the customer in mind
Reduce the feedback cycle
Active stakeholder participation
Embrace change
Take an experimentation/hypothesis driven approach
We delight our customers when our products and services not only fulfill their needs and expectations but surpass them.
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© Disciplined Agile Consortium
© Scott Ambler + Associates

4. Disciplined Agile Delivery
Be Awesome
Awesome teams are built around motivated individuals who are given the environment and support required to fulfill their objectives
Supporting strategies for individuals:
Respect others
Be trustworthy
Willingly collaborate with others
Be an active learner
Master your craft
Become a generalizing specialist
Be quality driven
Supporting strategies for leaders:
Enable psychological safety
Build whole teams
Provide people with autonomy and opportunities to grow
Awesome teams are built around motivated individuals who are given the environment and support required to fulfill their objectives.
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© Disciplined Agile Consortium
© Scott Ambler + Associates

5. Disciplined Agile Delivery
Pragmatism
Let’s be as effective as we can be, and that may mean we go beyond being just agile/lean
Supporting strategies:
Look beyond agile and lean
Respect others
Take a context-sensitive approach
Be prepared to experiment
Let’s be as effective as we can be, and that may mean we go beyond being just agile.
For more details, see
© Disciplined Agile Consortium
© Scott Ambler + Associates

6. Disciplined Agile Delivery
Context Counts
Every person, every team, and every organization is unique.  Let’s find and evolve an effective strategy given the situation we actually face
Supporting strategies:
Observe your environment
Be prepared to experiment
Be prepared to evolve as the situation evolves
Teams should own their process
Leadership should support varying processes
Every person, every team, and every organization is unique.  Let’s find and evolve an effective strategy given the situation we actually face.
For more details, see
© Disciplined Agile Consortium
© Scott Ambler + Associates

7. Disciplined Agile Delivery
Choice is Good
Different contexts require different strategies. Teams need to be able to own their own process and to experiment to discover what works in practice for them given the situation that they face. Having process options to choose from, and understanding the trade-offs of those options, enables you to home in on better options sooner
Supporting strategies:
Multiple lifecycle support
Goal-driven strategy
Recognize that context counts
Be prepared to experiment
Recognize that others have solved similar challenges
Adopt a fail/learn fast mindset
Different contexts require different strategies. Teams need to be able to own their own process and to experiment to discover what works in practice for them given the situation that they face. Having process options to choose from, and understanding the trade-offs of those options, enables you to home in on better options sooner.
For more details, see
© Disciplined Agile Consortium
© Scott Ambler + Associates

8. Disciplined Agile Delivery
Optimize Flow
Your organization is a complex adaptive system (CAS) of interacting teams and groups that evolve continuously and affect each other as they do. To succeed you must ensure that these teams are well aligned, remained well aligned, and better yet improve their alignment over time
Supporting strategies:
Deliver continuously at a sustainable pace
Be enterprise aware (optimize the whole)
Eliminate waste
Improve continuously
Experiment to learn
Measure what counts
Prefer long-lived stable teams
Your organization is a complex adaptive system (CAS) of interacting teams and groups that individually evolve continuously and affect each other as they do. To succeed you must ensure that these teams are well aligned, remained well aligned, and better yet improve their alignment over time.
For more details, see
© Disciplined Agile Consortium
© Scott Ambler + Associates

9. Disciplined Agile Delivery
Enterprise Awareness
When people are enterprise aware they are motivated to consider the overall needs of their organization, to ensure that what they’re doing contributes positively to the goals of the organization and not just to the sub-optimal goals of their team
Supporting strategies:
Work closely with enterprise professionals
Adopt, follow, and evolve enterprise guidance
Leverage enterprise assets
Pay down technical debt
Share your learnings
Adopt appropriate governance strategies
Work transparently
When people are enterprise aware they are motivated to consider the overall needs of their organization, to ensure that what they’re doing contributes positively to the goals of the organization and not just to the sub-optimal goals of their team.
For more details, see
© Disciplined Agile Consortium
© Scott Ambler + Associates

10. © Disciplined Agile Consortium
Join Today
Sign up at DisciplinedAgileConsortium.org and become a member It’s free Have access to new and upcoming information about Disciplined Agile strategies
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11. © Disciplined Agile Consortium
The Disciplined Agile Consortium (DAC) supports and evolves the Disciplined Agile process decision framework. The DAC site, DisciplinedAgileConsortium.org, provides information on curriculum and learning resources for Disciplined Agile practitioners. It is also the home of the Disciplined Agile certification program. The Disciplined Agile blog, DisciplinedAgileDelivery.com, provides a wealth of articles and blog postings about Disciplined Agile topics. The Disciplined Agile discussion forum, LinkedIn.com/groups/ , is a meeting place for Disciplined Agile practitioners to share their experiences and to get questions answered.
© Disciplined Agile Consortium