Disciplined Agile Delivery: A Practitioner's Guide to Agile Software Delivery in the Enterprise

by Scott W. Ambler, Mark Lines

Master IBM's Breakthrough DAD Process Framework for Succeeding with Agile in Large, Complex, Mission-Critical IT Projects It is widely recognized that moving from traditional to agile approaches to build software solutions is a critical source of competitive advantage. Mainstream agile approaches that are indeed suitable for small projects require significant tailoring for larger, complex enterprise projects. In "Disciplined Agile Delivery," Scott W. Ambler and Mark Lines introduce IBM's breakthrough Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD) process framework, which describes how to do this tailoring. DAD applies a more disciplined approach to agile development by acknowledging and dealing with the realities and complexities of a portfolio of interdependent program initiatives. Ambler and Lines show how to extend Scrum with supplementary agile and lean strategies from Agile Modeling (AM), Extreme Programming (XP), Kanban, Unified Process (UP), and other proven methods to provide a hybrid approach that is adaptable to your organization's unique needs. They candidly describe what practices work best, why they work, what the trade-offs are, and when to consider alternatives, all within the context of your situation. "Disciplined Agile Delivery "addresses agile practices across the entire lifecycle, from requirements, architecture, and development to delivery and governance. The authors show how these best-practice techniques fit together in an end-to-end process for successfully delivering large, complex systems--from project initiation through delivery. Coverage includesScaling agile for mission-critical enterprise endeavorsAvoiding mistakes that drive poorly run agile projects to chaosEffectively initiating an agile projectTransitioning as an individual to agileIncrementally building consumable solutionsDeploying agile solutions into complex production environmentsLeveraging DevOps, architecture, and other enterprise disciplinesAdapting your governance strategy for agile projects Based on facts, research, and extensive experience, this book will be an indispensable resource for every enterprise software leader and practitioner--whether they're seeking to optimize their existing agile/Scrum process or improve the agility of an iterative process.

Genres: Business, Management, Computer Science, Technology, Programming

544 pages, Paperback

First published June 10, 2012

About the author

Scott W. Ambler is a Canadian software engineer, consultant and author, currently Senior Consulting Partner at Scott Ambler + Associates.

From Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Dee Cyr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mandatory training for work

[David Fournier · Rating 2 out of 5]

While in the short run the strategies offered appear to be good. In the long run companies who follow them will be delivering poor quality products either internally or externally. I don't recommend this book for any company that wishes to be successful.

[Yhan Styles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Learned a lot!

Necessary to read to fully understand DAD. I was skeptical of agile especially I thought it is not somehow applicable to SAP implementation or sustainment however, there are strategies we can really apply

[Edmond · Rating 2 out of 5]

I skimmed most of the book as it is mostly a reference material. I agree with some of the reviewers that it didn’t define agile vs waterfall and some of the case studies were really used as waterfall. Good overview though.

[Daniel Halliday · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, but not revelatory for me. Having read a lot of books on agile and mapped how these practices can work in a consulting business, some of the contents felt a bit obvious, or in other cases irrelevant. I would recommend the book more if it was slightly more accessible for those new to agile delivery.

[Ben Linders · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book provides solutions for activities that are needed to deliver software and satisfy the needs of all involved stakeholders, in a disciplined and agile way.

(Full book review is published on Dzone, and at Disciplined Agile Delivery)

Disciplined Agile Delivery is a hybrid approach, which includes practices from several agile methods. If you are familiar with RUP or the Unified Process, then you will also recognize a lot of the practices provided in the book. The phases Inception, Construction and Transition are described including agile practices that can be used in these phases.

Much emphasize is given to people aspects of agile development. For instance, by looking at what discipline is, and what means to be disciplined by discussing the rights and responsibilities of professionals doing software development. There’s information in the book on how to build effective teams, which digs into collaboration skills and the conditions needed for professionals to work together like the work environment, tools and organizational arrangements.

[gramakri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD),is a process framework that meets the challenge of bringing rigor in implementing Agile in an enterprise without compromising on Agile Values and Principles.
It takes a pragmatic approach that strikes a right balance between a lightweight, highly people dependent agile method and an overweight, highly documentation oriented traditional development.
DAD framework is fully described in this book by Scott Ambler and Mark Lines, who are its creators.
Highly recommended for anyone who needs a practical and pragmatic advice on first steps towards scaling Agile.
Read more about this book in my business blog http://www.rgopinath.com/2013/12/21/b...

[Greenicicle · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fascinating thing about this book is that it most eloquently and with great detail describes much of what wer're doing on a day to day basis, and thus helps getting proposals on how to elaborate further.

[Marek · Rating 1 out of 5]

Scott Ambler, using all currently popular buzzwords (sometimes wrong, for example DevOps), is trying to sell (again) his new acronym for a "new" process framework consisting of old methods and well known practices. No new ideas - useless and boring book.

[Ivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great realistic refererence book for creating and managing teams and projects in a responsible Agile way, tried and true to my own experience working in several multinationals which internally converted to Agiledevelopment both for hardware and software.

[James Snook · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tips on large-scale agile software development. Good opinions. As with all process advice, must be moulded to fit your unique organization.

[Robbert Brak · Rating 3 out of 5]

The main ideas were good, but the writing style was rather dry.