Agile

DA 105: Disciplined Agile in a Nutshell

Agile transformation is hard because cultural change is hard. It’s not one problem that needs to be solved, but a series of hundreds decisions affecting lots of people over a long period of time that affects relationships, processes, and even the state of mind of those working within the change.

Disciplined Agile (DA) is unique because it’s based on empiricism, industry data and adoption of proven practices. The result is a huge wealth of structured information that allows you to map your challenges into a tree structure of proven strategies that other people have found to work in practice. In effect you can apply Disciplined Agile to identify process improvements that reflect the actual situations faced by your teams.

This workshop focuses on how to apply Disciplined Agile (DA) to deliver sophisticated agile solutions in the enterprise. It builds on the existing proven practices from agile methods such as Scrum, Extreme Programming (XP), Lean software development, Unified Process, and Agile Modelling to include other aspects necessary for success in enterprise-class settings. Filling in the gaps left by mainstream methods, DA provides guidance on how to effectively plan and kickstart complex projects as well as how to apply a full lifecycle approach, with lightweight milestones, effective metrics, and agile governance.

This workshop is not technical and is suitable for all team members. Group exercises reinforce the principles learned. The workshop is valuable for anyone who wants to understand how agile solution delivery works from end-to-end or anyone tasked with moving from traditional approaches to agile, particularly in enterprise settings.

Audience

• IT practitioners new to agile who want to get an effective start at agile solution delivery
• Experienced agile practitioners who want to take it to the next level
• Senior IT Management who want to gain a deep understanding of how to take a disciplined approach to agile solution delivery
• Agile practitioners who seek Certification in Disciplined Agile

Prerequisites

• Basic concepts of agile methods such as Scrum useful but not required.

Pre-workshop Prep

• Please view the “Being Agile” and “Being Disciplined” sections on the Introduction resource page before the first day of the workshop.

What You’ll Learn

• Discover how agile solution delivery works in enterprise-class settings
• Learn how to avoid costly “agile beginner mistakes” by starting with a full delivery lifecycle
• Learn how all aspects of software delivery – architecture, design, testing, programming, leadership, quality assurance, data administration – come together in a cohesive whole
• Discover how to tailor your agile process to reflect the actual situation you find yourself in
• Learn how people in traditional roles can transition into an agile team

Benefits

• Attendees earn the designation of Disciplined Agilist, with free first year membership and full benefits, a $50 US value
• One free Certified Disciplined Agilist test attempt when written within 30 days of the course end date, a $200 US value
• See how you can claim PMI PDU’s

Outline

Introduction to Disciplined Agile (DA):Learn about the four delivery lifecycles supported by DA; how DA is a hybrid that shows how proven practices from a range of sources fits together; how to take a flexible, non-prescriptive approach to agile development; the importance of being enterprise aware.

Disciplined Agile roles:Team Lead (ScrumMaster), Product Owner, Architecture Owner, Team Member, Stakeholder + five more optional scaling roles.

Inception Phase:Covers key activities for initiating a DA team, including initial requirements modelling, initial architecture modelling, initial release planning, strategies for your physical and virtual work environments, initial risk identification, and driving to a shared vision with your stakeholders.

Construction Phase:Describes many technical strategies for building consumable increments of your solution, including test-driven development (TDD), acceptance TDD, how to initiate an iteration/sprint, look-ahead modelling and planning, spikes, regular coordination meetings, continuous integration, continuous deployment, whole-team testing, parallel independent testing, information radiators, Kanban boards, burn up charts, and many more. In this module we also look at agile construction from a traditional point of view, showing how activities such as architecture, analysis, design, testing, management, and user experience (UX) are addressed all the way through the lifecycle.

Transition Phase:Overviews strategies for releasing the solution to your stakeholders.

Summarizing the Workshop:A Retrospective.

Preparing for the Certification Test.We wrap up the workshop with some guidance for how to prepare for certification testing.

Workshop Logistics

• Level: Introductory
• Length:
• In person training – One day – 7 hours of classroom time plus breaks
• Approach: For each major topic in the agenda there will be instruction and group work

Coming Soon.