Certified Disciplined Agile Instructor (CDAI) Certification

Disciplined Agile (DA) is a process-decision toolkit that provides straightforward guidance to help people, teams, and organizations to streamline their processes in a context-sensitive manner.  DA is the most comprehensive agile and lean body of knowledge in existence.  It can be used as a toolkit to help you to choose the way of working (WoW) for the unique situation that you find yourself in.  DA is a people-first, learning-oriented hybrid agile approach to IT solution delivery. It has a risk-value delivery lifecycle, is goal-driven, and is enterprise aware.  DA describes how to effectively combine strategies from Scrum, Agile Modeling, Extreme Programming, Kanban, Agile Data, SAFe, and many others in a tailorable and scalable manner.  For a quick introduction to Discipline Agile watch Disciplined Agile in a Nutshell - An animated overview of Disciplined Agile (9 min).

DA provides a solid foundation for business agility by showing how the various activities such as Solution Delivery (software development), IT Operations, Enterprise Architecture, Portfolio Management, Security, Finance, Procurement, and many others work together. DA also describes what these activities should address, provides a range of options for doing so, and describes the trade-offs associated with each option

We're seeing a lot of organizations that are struggling with SAFe are now investing in getting their people trained and certified in DA so that they can effectively evolve SAFe to meet the needs of the situation that they face.  So, in that respect DA and SAFe complementary.  The philosophy is DA is to start where you are, do the best that you can in the situation that you face, and always strive to improve. So, if SAFe is what you're currently doing, then that's the starting point and DA will help you to improve from there.

Of course, we're also seeing organizations start with DA, to begin with and thereby avoid the cost of adopting a framework that doesn't fit their situation well. So, in that way they're competitors. Every organization follows their path, and hope that eventually, they come to realize that DA is the better path to take them into the future.

Yes! In Disciplined Agile, the philosophy is to start where you are, do the best that you can in the situation that you face, and always strive to improve.  So instead of making a huge, and often risky, change to the way of working (WoW) you could instead choose to make small, safe improvements over time.  We call this approach Guided Continuous Improvement (GCI).

The DA toolkit is architected into four views:

Mindset. Builds on the foundations of agile and lean to address enterprise realities.
People. Roles, responsibilities, and team structures.
Flow. This captures the dynamic aspects of processes via lifecycle diagrams and workflow diagrams.
Practices. Small strategies/techniques. Goal diagrams are a high-level pick list of practices.

Disciplined Agile, originally Disciplined Agile Delivery, was developed within IBM Rational, an effort led by Scott Ambler.  DAD was based on empirical observations made by Scott, Mark Lines, other IBMers, and several IBM business partners.  These observations of what was occurring in practice, how well it was working, and in what situations it was working were first captured in articles, blog postings, and courseware.  This effort culminated in the book Disciplined Agile Delivery: A Practitioner's Guide to Agile Software Delivery in the Enterprise, published in June 2012.  Since 2012, the DAD has evolved into a comprehensive agile and lean toolkit called Disciplined Agile (DA).  The toolkit is described as in-depth at DisciplinedAgileDelivery.com. 

As of 01 August 2019, all Disciplined Agile intellectual property (IP) is owned by the Project Management Institute, Inc.

For more information about DA, visit the Resource pages, Disciplined Agile, and read the latest three books on Disciplined Agile.  There is also a DAD FAQ.

The Disciplined Agile Consortium, operations by Project Management Institute Inc., is the governing body for certification in Disciplined Agile (DA). We help other organizations to offer training and certification services to those requesting to become certified instructors, coaches and partners.  We provide information on curriculum, certification, an online directory, and resources to support Disciplined Agile activities.

The Disciplined Agile Consortium was created by founding members Scott Ambler and Mark Lines in early 2013.  Since then, more than 600 workshops have been facilitated for more than 12,000 practitioners representing over 100 businesses. Disciplined Agile is recognized as the most successfully adopted agile toolkit. 

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For information on having the teams increase their knowledge and advance skills by becoming certified have them visit the free Resources.

We have a growing list of authorized partners that offer training, coaching, and consulting services to help the organization benefit from Disciplined Agile.

Disciplined Agile Certification is for agile professionals working in enterprise-class settings such as banks, insurance companies, retailers, and government agencies.  You’re not working in ideal situations – you have legacy cultures, legacy systems, and legacy processes to overcome – but that doesn’t mean you can’t make things better.  You take pride in your work and you want to create environments where you can be effective, and you can do that by adopting Disciplined Agile strategies.  The Disciplined Agile Certification program is a principled approach based on the Shu-Ha-Ri philosophy of learning. 

Certification in Disciplined Agile enables you to differentiate yourself in the marketplace. It helps practitioners increase knowledge, employability, and career options. Certification in Disciplined Agile tells the market place you understand how to deliver an agile solution from end-to-end with experience in enterprise-class development. 

Certification in Disciplined Agile means something to clients and employers because it needs to be earned. For organizations, it is meaningful, forms the basis of measurable skills assessment, and is trustworthy.

You need to first choose a certification level to apply for and then submit an application. For more information on the certification program refer to click here for a detailed description.

Each test involves randomly selected, multiple-choice questions.  To prepare for a test, you must take the corresponding certification workshop.  For example, once you take a Disciplined Agile Lean Scrum Master workshop you may then take the corresponding Disciplined Agile certification test.

As a prerequisite to the Disciplined Agile Lean Scrum Master course is for each student to purchase and use during the workshop: Choose Your WoW!: A Disciplined Agile Delivery Handbook for Optimizing Your Way of Working (WoW) – Jun 1, 2020, by Scott Ambler & Mark Lines, you should expect this book to be a source of questions.

As a prerequisite to the Certified Disciplined Agile Coach course is for each student to purchase and use during the workshop: An Executive's Guide to Disciplined Agile: Winning the Race to Business Agility (Volume 1) – July 15, 2017 by Scott W Ambler & Mark Lines, you should expect this book to be a source of questions.

There are two strategies for awarding points based on the type of question:

1. True-false questions.  You get one point for a correct answer, zero for the incorrect answer.
2. Multiple-option questions. There is one correct answer to these questions.  You are awarded one point for each correct answer, zero for an incorrect answer.

This marking scheme is described in greater detail, with examples, in the following sample test.

We've developed a sample test that you can take to give you a feel for what the two tests are alike.  There are 10 questions in the sample test, the answers to the questions at the back of the test, a marking sheet to help you calculate your score, and a detailed description of how your score is calculated (including an example of how a question is marked).  Our recommendation is to print the PDF, take the test, and then calculate your score.

Click here for the Sample Test.

• The Disciplined Agile certification test is a closed book exam with 50 questions.
• The test has a 60-minute time limit.
• Once started, you WON'T be able to pause the test. We recommend a reliable internet connection, not a public location.
• You will not be able to go back to previously answered questions.
• You must achieve 70% to pass the test.  

• The Certified Disciplined Agile Coach test is a closed book exam with 50 questions.
• The test has a 60-minute time limit.
• Once started, you WON'T be able to pause the test. We recommend a reliable internet connection, not a public location.
• You will not be able to go back to previously answered questions.
• You must achieve 70% to pass the test