The Disciplined Agile^® Mindset

The Disciplined Agile^® (DA^™) mindset is captured in the form of principles, promises, and guidelines. Disciplined agilists believe in the DA principles, so we promise to adopt these behaviors and follow these guidelines when doing so. There is a purpose for each aspect of the mindset:

• Principles. The principles provide a philosophical foundation for business agility. They are based on both lean and flow concepts.
• Promises. The promises are agreements that we make with our fellow teammates, our stakeholders, and other people within our organization whom we interact with. The promises define a collection of disciplined behaviors that enable us to collaborate effectively and professionally.
• Guidelines. These guidelines help us to be more effective in our way of working (WoW) and in improving our WoW over time.

Each process blade extends the DA mindset with one or more philosophies that are specific to that process blade. We do this because practitioners of each professional domain each have their own specific belief systems, priorities, and experiences. By extending the foundational principles, promises, and guidelines with philosophies, the DA tool kit embraces and respects the different viewpoints that people bring to the mix. Figure 2 overviews the DA portfolio management mindset, for example.