Q&A For my talk "The Next Chasm to Cross: The Science of Agile"

I gave this talk a couple of weeks ago and finally got around to answering all the questions I couldn't handle in the talk. You can get a replay here.

And here are the questions with answers:

Q: we say Agile methodologies could evolve to DA? or they complement/sync each other?

A: I would not be so bold as to say Agile in general will evolve into Disciplined Agile's approach. Disciplined Agile is a particular approach to helping organizations manifest agility. Instead of a framework as most suggest, DA is based on the science incorporated in Lean, Flow, Theory of Constraints and organizational development. It is framework agnostic and drives from principles, not practices. It also is focused on all levels of the organization, from the team to the enterprise.

Q: In your opinion, what is the most important thing we should take into consideration in Agile project management during the downturn?

A: My answer would be the same whether we are in the downturn or not. We have to attend to the law of flow and lean. These are always useful, and because they are not absolute practices, they can be applied to any context. Flow suggests we attend to the cost of delay. This suggests that we reduce delays by working on smaller items and avoiding overloading your teams. Lean is consistent with this and underscores the need to attend to the entire value stream.

Q: How to keep the customer motivated during the pandemic time? And engaged

A: We can inspire people. They have intrinsic motivation which is often masked. Inspiration often comes by being true to ourselves and having others see that. Reminding people of who they are and what their vision is can help. The main thing is to take care of ourselves and be true to our own vision and trust that that will have a good result.

Q: Stable solutions team in the organisation or a virtual team ?

A: I've renamed the stable solutions team to be a focused solutions team to underscore the key aspect of it is that they are focused on building a minimum business increment or MVP. First and foremost, it is a virtual team - a team working together. Teams should be organized around domains and skills.

Q: What are your hints to get people understanding Agile is not doing what they want when they want ?

A: I am not sure about this question. Can you make a comment to explain it more fully.

Q: Is having DA being agnostic enough to make it and “scientific approach”

A: No. The scientific approach requires several things. Being agnostic is another way of saying "not dogmatic" and is required. But being agnostic also means that it can be applied to any approach. The scientific method involves:

• having a model that explains the observable behavior (rationalism)
• validate or invalidate the model with experiments (empiricism)

Scrum has focused on empiricism only and insists on certain roles, events, artifacts and rules being followed. This makes it not attend to many things. By being scientific when we want a result and a Scrum practice doesn't work we can look at our model of Flow and Lean and see if there's another way to achieve that result.

Q: Scrum is for small team, what is the size of Focused Solutions Team please?

A: It has to be larger than a team, or we’d just call it a cross-functional team. There is no real limit but they are usually between 10-30 people. 

Q: How MBI, MVP are related to PBI?

A: They are kinds of PBIs. Here’s a reference comparing MBIs and MVPs.

Q: Is it possible to use DA and Flex for startup company?

A: Absolutely. Given that DA and FLEX both incorporate Scrum and Kanban but can be tailored to the context at hand I’d highly recommend it. We just promote DA FLEX for large scale because it’s seriously needed there.

Q: Could you point out the main differences btw DA and the other agile frameworks?

A: First of all, DA is not a framework. That’s the biggest difference right there. DA is a toolkit. That is, it provides you a way to see where you are, what you need to do and how you can chose your way of working. All frameworks have pretty much set starting points. So in them you learn the framework, but you never learn how to go beyond it. In DA you learn how to create a well-defined starting point that works for you. In the process of learning this you also learn how to continuously improve. See Why Choosing Your Way of Working Is So Important for more.

Q: Does DA follows the agile manifesto?

A: I would say we’ve extended it. It’s actually the Manifesto for Agile Software Development. We’ve gone well beyond this in that the manifesto is focused on the team and software development. DA goes beyond both. But it is consistent with it.

Q: Can we consider the concept of progressive elaboration in classic project management as a concept of Agile?

A: Absolutely. Also a concept of Lean, Flow, Theory of Constraints.

Q: How can companies can have relevant perspectives with short view in term of time do to iteration ?

A: This is where you’ve got to go past the Agile Manifesto and the view of the sprint. Companies should be looking for achieving business agility- the quick realization of business value consistently, sustainably and with high quality. You must take a systems thinking perspective as well. See What if Russ Ackoff Gave a TED talk (best talk on systems thinking and only 12 minutes).

Q: Did you develop the PMBOK 7th edition as a project, and if yes, did you do it with the help of Disciplined Agile?

A: No I’ve had nothing to do with it. Nor with Disciplined Agile. But, I’m happy to say DA is very consistent with my own work. I am not really familiar with the PMBOK.

Q: I'm believer in agnostic agile, however I wonder if that all in one frameworks as SAFe could be easier for most of traditional organization in order to start on Agility at Scale, then find their own new way of working with Flex and DA when they're get ready. What is your opinion ?

A: This mirrors a theme I hear a lot – that when you have lots of options you make things more complicated. That’s not true. It’s just that it’s very hard to design a system that doesn’t do this. Both DA and FLEX have managed this. I like what Jeff Anderson says (paraphrased) in his Organize Forward (recommended):

People think of frameworks as a short cut. “If I learn this big framework i don't have to learn all of this stuff.” But the framework doesn't stop you from having to learn all of this stuff.

What ends up happening is if you want to be successful with this framework you have to learn everything you needed to learn anyway and then learn it some more so you know which parts to get rid of and which parts not to. It ends up being a unicorn.