Scott Ambler

This book overviews key aspects of the Disciplined Agile® (DA™) tool kit. Hundreds of organizations around the world have already benefited from DA, which is the only comprehensive tool kit available for guidance on building high-performance agile teams and optimizing your WoW. As a hybrid of the leading agile, lean, and traditional approaches, DA provides hundreds of strategies to help you make better decisions within your agile teams, balancing self-organization with the realities and… Show more

This book overviews key aspects of the Disciplined Agile® (DA™) tool kit. Hundreds of organizations around the world have already benefited from DA, which is the only comprehensive tool kit available for guidance on building high-performance agile teams and optimizing your WoW. As a hybrid of the leading agile, lean, and traditional approaches, DA provides hundreds of strategies to help you make better decisions within your agile teams, balancing self-organization with the realities and constraints of your unique enterprise context. Show less

This handbook is an indispensable guide for agile coaches and practitioners to identify what techniques – including practices, strategies, and lifecycles – are effective in certain situations and not as effective in others. This advice is based on proven experience from hundreds of organizations facing similar situations to yours.

There are literally hundreds of books that have been written on agile and lean. So why one more? Most books focus on just a subset of what is required to… Show more

This handbook is an indispensable guide for agile coaches and practitioners to identify what techniques – including practices, strategies, and lifecycles – are effective in certain situations and not as effective in others. This advice is based on proven experience from hundreds of organizations facing similar situations to yours.

There are literally hundreds of books that have been written on agile and lean. So why one more? Most books focus on just a subset of what is required to delivery end-to-end solutions in an agile manner. Developing a coherent approach to the complete picture by piecing together these practices is difficult, especially when the advice in many of these books is conflicting and not well researched, often based on just a few successful applications in a specific context.

Disciplined Agile Delivery is the only toolkit available that combines the most effective practices across lean and agile methods into one comprehensive context-driven approach that you can use to optimize your way of working (WoW).
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he agile community has figured out how to build and then continually improve very high-performance software development teams. This is akin to creating a race car engine and then evolving it to get more power, better fuel efficiency, and greater speed. Sadly in many cases we take these great engines, put them into an organizational tractor, and then complain that we’re not winning the race. What we need to do is take our great race car engines (our development teams), put them into a race car… Show more

he agile community has figured out how to build and then continually improve very high-performance software development teams. This is akin to creating a race car engine and then evolving it to get more power, better fuel efficiency, and greater speed. Sadly in many cases we take these great engines, put them into an organizational tractor, and then complain that we’re not winning the race. What we need to do is take our great race car engines (our development teams), put them into a race car (a DevOps ecosystem), have a great pit crew and driver (an effective IT organization), and then provide somewhere to race (an organization that can leverage IT to make money). That’s what this book is all about – Moving from optimizing team performance to optimizing the entire enterprise.

Business agility – being an adaptive, lean, responsive, and learning organization – is the race that enterprises need to win today. Yet there is no quick fix, no silver bullet, to attain business agility. This is a multi-year journey requiring hard work, experimentation, and most importantly a willingness to improve. The Disciplined Agile framework lowers risks and provides a path to accelerate your journey to business agility. The framework is unique in that it is the only one that puts all the pieces together into a cohesive enterprise roadmap for business agility transformation.

This book begins with an overview of the challenges and opportunities that organizations face. We then describe seven principles that provide the underpinnings of the Disciplined Agile framework. Then the book works through Disciplined Agile Delivery (how to build a world-class engine), Disciplined DevOps (the race car), Disciplined Agile IT (the race car and its team), and what it means to be a Disciplined Agile Enterprise (the racing business). The book ends with a plan for starting with an Agile transformation and then evolving into a long-term continuous improvement strategy. Show less

This book provides a quick overview of how agile software development works from beginning-to-end. It describes the Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD) process decision framework and then works through a case study describing a typical agile team’s experiences adopting a disciplined agile approach. The book describes how the team develops the first release of a mission-critical application while working in a legacy enterprise environment. It describes their experiences from beginning-to-end… Show more

This book provides a quick overview of how agile software development works from beginning-to-end. It describes the Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD) process decision framework and then works through a case study describing a typical agile team’s experiences adopting a disciplined agile approach. The book describes how the team develops the first release of a mission-critical application while working in a legacy enterprise environment. It describes their experiences from beginning-to-end, starting with their initial team initiation efforts through construction and finally to deploying the solution into production. It also describes how the team stays together for future releases, overviewing their process improvement efforts from their Scrum-based beginnings through to a lean continuous delivery approach that fits in with their organization’s evolving DevOps strategy.

DAD is a hybrid of existing methods such as Scrum, Kanban, Agile Modeling, SAFe, Extreme Programming, Agile Data, Unified Process and many others. DAD provides the flexibility to use various approaches and plugs the gaps not addressed by mainstream agile methods. In a nutshell, DAD is “pragmatic agile.” DAD describes proven strategies to adapt and scale your agile initiatives to suit the unique realities of your enterprise without having to figure it all out by yourself.
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This paper focuses on how to scale agile solution delivery strategies.
We begin with an overview of how to go about scaling agile delivery. We show how agile methods such as Scrum, Extreme Programming (XP), Kanban, Agile Modeling (AM), and others provide the process building blocks from which an overall agile delivery process can
be tailored to meet your needs. We then overview the Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD) framework, describing how it does the “heavy lifting” regarding putting… Show more

This paper focuses on how to scale agile solution delivery strategies.
We begin with an overview of how to go about scaling agile delivery. We show how agile methods such as Scrum, Extreme Programming (XP), Kanban, Agile Modeling (AM), and others provide the process building blocks from which an overall agile delivery process can
be tailored to meet your needs. We then overview the Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD) framework, describing how it does the “heavy lifting” regarding putting together all of these process building blocks in a coherent manner. We then describe the complexities faced by agile teams at scale.
With this understanding of what it means to scale agile delivery, we’re then in a position to see how to do so. The secret is in DAD’s process goal-driven approach which guides you through the process options, and their trade- offs, available to agile teams. We focus on four of DAD’s 22 process goals:
1. Explore Initial Scope
2. Identify Initial Technical Strategy
3. Move Closer to a Deployable Release
4. Coordinate Activities
These four typically take the brunt of the tailoring to deal with scaling challenges. We work through three different scaling scenarios and describe how an agile team would modify its strategy to succeed in those situations. We finish with an overview of what it means to be a truly agile enterprise, one that can scale agile strategies for both solution delivery and across the entire organization. Show less

This paper describes, step-by-step, how to evolve from today’s Scrum vision of agile so?ware development to a disciplined agile solu?on delivery. It begins with a brief overview of the agile so?ware development movement and its implica?ons. We then overview the Scrum method with its associated benefits and drawbacks, and then how to move beyond Scrum to a full delivery process frame- work called Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD). DAD is a governed, hybrid approach that provides a solid founda-… Show more

This paper describes, step-by-step, how to evolve from today’s Scrum vision of agile so?ware development to a disciplined agile solu?on delivery. It begins with a brief overview of the agile so?ware development movement and its implica?ons. We then overview the Scrum method with its associated benefits and drawbacks, and then how to move beyond Scrum to a full delivery process frame- work called Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD). DAD is a governed, hybrid approach that provides a solid founda- ?on from which to scale agile solu?on delivery within enterprise-class organiza?ons. Show less

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… Show more

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. Show less

Confused by all the agile advice? Relax! With Agile for Dummies (IBM Edition) by your side you’ll learn the fundamentals of agile and how to increase the productivity of your software teams while enabling them to produce higher-quality solutions that better fulfill customer needs much faster.

A database refactoring is a small change to your database schema which improves its design without changing its semantics (e.g. you don't add anything nor do you break anything). The process of database refactoring is the evolutionary improvement of your database schema so as to improve your ability to support the new needs of your customers, support evolutionary software development, and to fix existing legacy database design problems.

The book describes database refactoring from the… Show more

A database refactoring is a small change to your database schema which improves its design without changing its semantics (e.g. you don't add anything nor do you break anything). The process of database refactoring is the evolutionary improvement of your database schema so as to improve your ability to support the new needs of your customers, support evolutionary software development, and to fix existing legacy database design problems.

The book describes database refactoring from the point of view of:

1.Technology. It includes full source code for how to implement each refactoring at the database level and for most refactorings we show how the application would change to reflect the change in the database. Our code examples are in Oracle, Java, and Hibernate meta-data (the refactorings are easy to translate to other environments, and sometimes we discuss vendor-specific features which simplify some refactorings).


2.Process. It describes in detail the process of database refactoring in both the simple situation of a single application accessing the database as well as the situation of the database being accessed by many programs, many of which are out of the scope of your authority.

3.Culture. Cultural challenges within your organization will likely prove to be the most difficult hurdle to overcome.


This book is organized into two sections:

1.Evolutionary database development and database refactoring. This section covers the fundamentals evolutionary database techniques in general and of database refactoring in detail. More importantly it presents strategies for implementing and deploying database refactorings, in the context of both "simple" single application databases and in "complex" multi-application databases.

2.Database refactoring reference catalog. This section, the majority of the book, describes over 65 database refactorings, presenting data models overviewing the each refactoring and the code to implement it.
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This book defines the Enterprise Unified ProcessTM (EUP), which was first introduced by myself in 1999 and later enhanced to support a wider variety of clients. The EUP is an extension to the industry standard IBM Rational Unified Process (RUP). Both the EUP and RUP are instantiations of the Unified Process (UP). The UP, also known as the Unified Method or the Unified Software Development Process (USDP), was originally a framework from which system processes were to be instantiated. A system… Show more

This book defines the Enterprise Unified ProcessTM (EUP), which was first introduced by myself in 1999 and later enhanced to support a wider variety of clients. The EUP is an extension to the industry standard IBM Rational Unified Process (RUP). Both the EUP and RUP are instantiations of the Unified Process (UP). The UP, also known as the Unified Method or the Unified Software Development Process (USDP), was originally a framework from which system processes were to be instantiated. A system process defines the roles that people fulfill, the activities that they perform, and the artifacts that they create to develop, operate, and support one or more computer systems. Over the years the primary focus of IBM Rational has been evolving the RUP.

Whereas the RUP defines a software development lifecycle, the EUP extends it to cover the entire information technology (IT) lifecycle. The EUP extends the RUP to include the operation and support of a system after it is in production and its eventual retirement. Furthermore, because all but the smallest organizations have more than one system, the EUP also handles cross-system enterprise issues such as portfolio management, enterprise architecture, and strategic reuse. Although the RUP defines a very good software development lifecycle, it is only a start: you need the EUP to address the entire IT lifecycle and to provide a mechanism for true IT governance of RUP projects.
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The Object Primer is a straightforward, easy-to-understand introduction to agile software development (ASD) using object-oriented (OO) and relational database technologies. It covers the fundamental concepts of ASD, OO, and FLOOT, describing how to take an Agile Model Driven Development (AMDD) approach to requirements, analysis, and design techniques applying the diagrams of the Unified Modeling Language (UML) 2 as well as other leading-edge modeling techniques. The Object Primer goes further… Show more

The Object Primer is a straightforward, easy-to-understand introduction to agile software development (ASD) using object-oriented (OO) and relational database technologies. It covers the fundamental concepts of ASD, OO, and FLOOT, describing how to take an Agile Model Driven Development (AMDD) approach to requirements, analysis, and design techniques applying the diagrams of the Unified Modeling Language (UML) 2 as well as other leading-edge modeling techniques. The Object Primer goes further to show you how to take a Test-Driven Development (TDD) to development using Java. During the 1990s, OO superceded the structured paradigm as the primary technology paradigm for software development. Now during the 2000s ASD is superceding traditional, prescriptive approaches to software development. While OO and ASD are often used to develop complex systems, learning them does not need to be complicated. This book is different than many other introductory books about these topics—it is written from the point of view of a real-world developer, someone who has lived through the difficulty of learning these concepts. Show less

Agile Modeling (AM) is a chaordic, practice-based methodology for effective modeling of software-based systems. The AM methodology is a collection of practices – guided by principles and values – that are meant to be applied by software professionals on a day-to-day basis. AM is not a prescriptive process, in other words it does not define detailed procedures for how to create a given type of model, instead it provides advice for how to be effective as a modeler. AM is “touchy-feely” in that… Show more

Agile Modeling (AM) is a chaordic, practice-based methodology for effective modeling of software-based systems. The AM methodology is a collection of practices – guided by principles and values – that are meant to be applied by software professionals on a day-to-day basis. AM is not a prescriptive process, in other words it does not define detailed procedures for how to create a given type of model, instead it provides advice for how to be effective as a modeler. AM is “touchy-feely” in that it is not hard and fast – think of AM as an art, not a science.

An important concept to understand about AM is that it is not a complete software process. AM’s focus is on effective modeling and documentation. That’s it. It doesn’t include programming activities, although it will tell you to prove your models with code. It doesn’t include testing activities, although it will tell you to consider testability as you model. It doesn’t cover project management, system deployment, system operations, system support, or a myriad of other issues. Because AM’s focus in on a portion of the overall software process you need to use it with another, full-fledged process such as eXtreme Programming (XP), DSDM, SCRUM, the Agile Unified Process (AUP), or the Rational Unified Process (RUP). You start with a base process, such as XP or RUP or perhaps even your own existing process, and then tailor it with AM (hopefully adopting all of AM) as well as other techniques as appropriate to form your own process that reflects your unique needs. Alternatively, you may decide to pick the best features from a collection of existing software processes to form your own process. For XP projects, AM explicitly describes how to improve productivity through addition of modeling activities whereas with for RUP projects it describes how to streamline modeling and documentation efforts to improve productivity.
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