Disciplined Agile (DA®) DASSM Certification Training

1. Roles and Responsibilities of a DASSM

• 3 issues that affect team performance
• 4 stages of team development and how each relates to the content, process, and feelings issues
• Tuckman Team Development Model (Tuckman, 1965)
• Tuckman’s observations about team development
• Factors that impact the time a team takes to evolve
• Adapt Tuckman model to the modern real-world

2. Team Development Activities

• Forming Stage
• Forming stage behaviours
• Teams’ needs during the forming stage
• Tasks for the leader to develop teams in the forming stage
• Storming Stage
• Storming stage behaviours
• Teams’ need during the storming stage
• Tasks for the leader to develop teams in the storming stage
• Norming Stage
• Norming stage behaviours
• Teams’ needs during the norming stage
• Tasks for the leader to develop teams in the norming stage
• Performing Stage
• Performing stage behaviours
• Teams needs during the performing stage
• Tasks for the leader to develop teams in the performing stage

3. Methods of Team Decision making

• Consensus based decision-making
• Balancing learning about new information with moving quickly
• Techniques: Roman voting, Fist of Five, Highsmith’s Decision Spectrum

4. Factors that influence Team Performance

• Emotional intelligence model and its components
• Assess what practices you can adopt to build outlook and resilience.
• Assess what practices you can adopt to enhance your “with self” dimension of emotional intelligence
• Assess what practices you can adopt to enhance your “with others” dimension of emotional intelligence.
• Describe why one should create psychological safety and embrace diversity
• Define emotional intelligence and explain why it is essential to team performance.
• Explain how to achieve each component of resilience and outlook.
• Explain how to achieve each component of emotional intelligence “with self.”
• Explain how to achieve each component of emotional intelligence “with others.

5. Business Agility

• Importance of business areas such as finance, legal, marketing, sales, and procurement and contribution to an organization’s overall business agility
• Spider chart to identify and analyse tactical scaling factors in more complex situations
• Explain how to scale for agility
• Define "tactical agility at scale" and "strategic agility at scale"
• List the five process goals most affected by tactical scaling
• Connect the dots between the dimensions in the spider chart and the top-5 tactical scaling process goals
• Factors used to determine when planning is sufficient
• Compare the waste and risk levels of four types of planning strategies

6. Disciplined DevOps Layer

• Scope and purpose of the Disciplined DevOps layer
• Definition of Disciplined DevOps layer
• Process blades in the Disciplined DevOps layer
• DA toolkit to optimize the team’s work with the Disciplined DevOps layer:
• Optimize delivery and security concerns (DevSecOps)
• Move to a continuous delivery model (and life cycle)
• Data management concerns (Database DevOps)
• Enterprise release management, support, and operations concerns
• Resolve challenges in the Disciplined DevOps layer with DA toolkit
• Relevant goal diagrams to consider
• Relevant decision points within the selected process goal
• Solve the challenge, based on the team’s context
• Organizational allies to resolve the delivery teams’ challenges in the Disciplined DevOps layer

7. Continuous Delivery

• What is “test-first” method in continuous delivery
• Optimize delivery with the “test-first” method as it relates to the quality of requirements

8. Value Stream Layer

• Criteria for “done”, the scope and purpose of the value stream layer
• Process blades in the value stream layer and scope of layer
• Process blades shared with the Disciplined Agile Enterprise (DAE) layer
• Optimize the teams work using DA toolkit at the value stream layer
• MBIs, intake process, design thinking, user experience
• Tying the portfolio, program and product level to what delivery teams work on
• Resolve challenges in the Value Stream layer with DA toolkit
• Relevant goal diagrams to consider and decision points within the selected process goal
• What options are most likely solve the challenge, based on the team’s context
• Organizational allies that can help resolve the delivery teams’ challenges in the value stream layer
• Purpose and Importance of the Coordinate Activities process goal
• Decision points of the Coordinate Activities process goal
• Outline the most important questions that arise when seeking to coordinate activities
• Options for sharing information, facilitating working sessions, coordinating release schedules, and coordinating across locations
• Contrast the options for dealing with artifact ownership
• Strategies for coordinating a team of teams
• Explain how to improve the value creation structure of teams
• Optimize the work flow and solve challenges related to coordinating and collaborating across teams, or within a larger team of teams using DA toolkit

9. Managing Conflict

• Healthy conflict within an individual and within a group
• 5 levels of conflict
• Constructive disagreement (level 1) for evaluating decisions
• Fear of conflict causes additional forms of dysfunction within a team
• Process to de-escalate conflict at each of the five levels
• Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Resolution Model
• Explain the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Resolution Model and its components
• Examples of each quadrant of the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Resolution Model
• Healthy and unhealthy language to solve a conflict
• DA role for planning
• Sufficient planning

10. Scope and Planning

• List and define 5 levels of scope and who focuses on each.
• Resolve a planning problem using the Release Planning goal diagram
• Decision points identification
• An appropriate strategy based on the team’s context
• Implement just-in-time planning using a Gantt chart.
• Improve planning using two goal diagrams: Release Planning and Produce a Potentially Consumable Product (Plan Your Work decision point)
• Forecast release dates and costs accurately
• Difference between an MVP and an MBI
• Using MBIs to plan
• Handle dependencies between teams

11. Metrics

• Teams approach to metrics
• Metrics principles
• Effective measurement strategies for teams
• Collection and usage of Universal metrics
• Measuring quality issues
• Organizations approach towards metrics
• Conditions under which system-wide metrics should be used
• Several levels of “Rolling up” metrics
• Types of measurement work and what do not work
• What to consider, including value, when measuring what matters
• Why status reports are ill suited to lean and agile ways of working
• Design specific metrics to measure improvements (GQM, OKRs)
• Solve a measurement problem using the Govern Delivery Team goal
• Relevant decision point identification
• Choose the appropriate strategy, based on the team’s context