Disciplined Agile

The Architecture of the Disciplined Agile® Tool Kit

The Disciplined Agile® (DA™) tool kit is architected. What we mean by this is we have carefully worked through how to organize and capture the material in the tool kit. The architecture of the tool kit is depicted in Figure 1. There are three architectural concepts to be aware of: 

  • Layers. An architectural layer is a cohesive subset of the DA tool kit which builds upon the layer immediately “below” it. As you see in Figure 1 the layers build upon each other, starting with the Foundation layer, then Disciplined DevOps, then Value Streams, then Disciplined Agile Enterprise (DAE).
  • Views. Architectural views are themes that cut across all layers of the DA tool kit. As you see in Figure 1 there are four views. In order of importance, they are Mindset, People, Flow, and Practices.
  • Process blades. Process blades are sometimes referred to as process areas, business functions, or even key process areas.
DA Architecure

Figure 1. The architecture of the DA tool kit.

Why is process architecture important?  We believe there are several reasons:

  • Consistency. Having a solid architecture enables us to present the DA tool kit in a consistent manner.
  • Consumability. As the consistency within the DA tool kit increases, particularly with how it is rendered here on the web site, it becomes easier to work with and to understand.
  • Extensibility. The DA tool kit is continually evolving, and as a result we are highly motivated to ensure that is as easy as possible to update and extend.
    July 2022