Disciplined Agile

Disciplined Agile® Transformation Roadmap

The aim of the transformation process blade is to guide and govern your efforts towards becoming a learning organization. Your transformation journey isn’t just about adopting Disciplined Agile® (DA), and it certainly isn’t about adopting a specific agile framework such as Scrum or SAFe®. The DA transformation strategy is to improve in place rather than a high-risk “big bang” approach. Figure 1 shows the high-level, three-step strategy.

Align Greenfield Improvement Improve SAFe Improve a Specific Business Area Thrive as a Learning Organization

Figure 1. Improve in place to become a learning organization. Click on each box to see that portion of the roadmap and click here for a large version of the diagram.

The three steps of the DA transformation strategy are:

  1. Align. You start where you are and identify the transformation path(s) that are right for you given your current situation. Successful transformation strategies are fit-for-purpose, reflecting the context that you face.
  2. Improve. Take the right improvement path for your situation. An organization that has never attempted an agile transformation, or who has had several failed attempts, should follow a different improvement path than an organization that has successfully adopted an agile framework such as Scrum or SAFe. The transformation of a business area such as Marketing, Finance, or People Management (Human Resources) requires a different approach than the transformation of a software development team. As you see in Figure 1, the DA transformation roadmap provides multiple, contextualized improvement paths.
  3. Thrive. In all cases you will apply the DA tool kit to help evolve into a learning organization. This should be your true improvement goal.