Disciplined Agile (DA)

Disciplined Agile (DA) is a toolkit acquired by PMI that provides a more comprehensive, context-sensitive agile approach than any single framework. Rather than prescribing one way of working, DA provides guidance on how to choose and evolve your approach based on your team's context.

DA's central philosophy is 'choose your WoW' (Way of Working). It provides process goal diagrams that show multiple options for achieving common project outcomes, allowing teams to select the approach that best fits their situation rather than blindly following a prescriptive method.

Key Points

• DA philosophy: 'Choose your WoW' — no single prescribed approach
• DA is a toolkit, not a methodology — it helps you build your own process
• Process Goal Diagrams provide multiple options for achieving goals
• DA Roles: Team Lead, Product Owner, Architecture Owner, Team Member, Stakeholder
• DA Lifecycle options: Agile (Scrum-based), Lean, Continuous Delivery, Exploratory
• DA integrates multiple frameworks: Scrum, Kanban, SAFe, LeSS, XP, etc.
• Context factors determine which practices to apply
• DA promotes 'enterprise agility' beyond just delivery teams

Key Terms & Definitions

Way of Working (WoW)

The practices, methods, and tools that a team uses to accomplish their work.

Process Goal Diagram

A DA diagram showing the goal of a process and multiple decision points with options for how to achieve that goal.

Architecture Owner

The DA role responsible for guiding the creation and evolution of the technical architecture of the solution.

DA Lean Lifecycle

A DA lifecycle option based on Kanban and lean principles for more continuous flow delivery.

Guided Continuous Improvement (GCI)

DA's approach to continuous improvement using context-sensitive advice rather than prescriptive practices.