Agile Methodologies Comparison for Deloitte

This report compares three Agile methodologies—Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD), Scaled Agile Framework (SAFE), and Scrum—focusing on their roles, processes, artifacts, benefits, and tools. It highlights the effectiveness of these methodologies in managing projects, particularly for Deloitte, a leading accounting firm. The analysis concludes that Scrum is the most suitable framework for Deloitte, enhancing productivity and project management efficiency.

Running head: COMPARISON
Comparison
Name of student
Name of University
Author note

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
DAD - Disciplined Agile Delivery..................................................................................................3
SAFE - Scaled Agile Framework....................................................................................................4
Scrum agile framework....................................................................................................................4
Comparison of three methodologies................................................................................................4
Most effective methodology for Deloitte......................................................................................14
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................15
References......................................................................................................................................17

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Introduction
The report covers the different kinds of aspects of the most effective methodologies that
are used such as Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD), Scaled Agile Framework or SAFE and
Scrum. All these methodologies are used by many business organisations in the United States for
conducting researches in an effective manner, and here in this report, all these three
methodologies have been compared regarding the various domains within which the
methodologies have been managed. The comparison is between the methodologies in different
domains including roles, processes, artifacts, benefits, complexity, usage and tools among which
five different roles have been focused on for the three methods (Ambler & Lines, 2012). After
comparing all these three methods, lastly, a brief description will also be provided about which
methodology has been the most effective and how it has managed to bring good outcomes for the
accounting firm in the United States. The accounting firm named Deloitte has been considered as
the case study, and it is a large multinational professional services company with its major
operations and processes managed in its headquarters in the United States (Ambler & Lines,
2012).
DAD - Disciplined Agile Delivery
Disciplined Agile Delivery, also referred to as DAD is a hybrid approach which enables
learning of individuals and focuses on the needs and requirements of the people first to sustain in
the market place with ease and effectiveness. This methodology is an effective way of managing
IT solutions delivery and consists of a risk value delivery cycle to focus on goals and objectives
and remain scalable all throughout. Deloitte has managed its disciplined agile approach by
considering the Scrum for developing a useful strategy to lead the software teams in the right

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direction and allow them to achieve the goals and objectives with ease and efficiency (Ambler &
Lines, 2013).
SAFE - Scaled Agile Framework
The Scaled Agile Framework or SAFE is used by business organisations to identify the
major issues and challenges faced during the development and delivery of systems and software
within quick time. The Scaled agile framework is an effective online platform that allows
knowledge acquisition and creates proper success patterns for the implementation of Lean agile
software at the enterprise scale (Astromskis et al., 2013). The major components required for
configuring the SAFE are essential SAFE, large solution SAFE, portfolio SAFE and full SAFE.
Scrum agile framework
Scrum is considered as an effective and reliable agile framework that manages the
complex projects with ease. It was developed for management and delivery of software
development project and provide innovative scopes of work to ensure that the end products are
properly handed over to the customers (Brenner & Wunder, 2015).
Comparison of three methodologies
Roles
Disciplined Agile Delivery Scaled Agile Framework Scrum
Roles Roles Roles
Disciplined Agile Delivery
manages extension of Scrum
The roles of Scaled Agile
Framework are to improve the
The roles are managed by the
product owner, scrum master

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by utilising Agile modelling,
Extreme programming,
Unified processes and various
other methods.
The primary roles of
Discipline Agile Delivery
include the activities by team
lead, owners of products, team
members and individual who
manage architecture to fulfill
the requirements and
preferences of stakeholders
(Brown, Ambler & Royce,
2013).
Specialist, individual tester,
individual who possess
relevant expertise of the
domain, technical expert as
well as an integrator, manages
the secondary roles. The
secondary roles help in
gaining ideas about the
products, operations and
outcomes of system
development by aligning the
organisation towards the
major business and technical
goals and objectives. This
would furthermore help in
improving the economic
outcomes by making proper
decisions in business
(deloitte.com, 2017). The roles
also include organising teams
to deliver value as well as
prevent bureaucracy inherent
within a traditional and
hierarchical structure.
The Scaled Agile Framework
also develops a good
environment for organisations
to enable collaboration,
promote innovation
procedures and make
necessary improvements to
and scrum team. The product
owners gain the responsibility
to manage their products
properly while the master of
scrum can act as leaders
within the teams, who manage
the sustainable development
practices.
The product owner
communicates the vision and
priorities of a particular
venture to the development
teams. The scrum master has
the roles of reducing chances
of impediments, which can
hinder the successful
accomplishment of
organisational goals and
objectives (Eklund, Olsson &
Strøm, 2014). The scrum
master also discusses with
product owner about ways of
enhancing the rate of return on

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various iterations all
throughout the lifecycle for
delivery of products
(Leffingwell, 2016). As the
methodology acts as a free
framework, so it supports
several delivery life cycles to
addressing the end to end
delivery life cycle as well as
implement proper governance
strategies that were found
missing from XP and Scrum.
derive positive outcomes.
The essential SAFE helps in
providing a starting point to
address the most critical
components and furthermore
define, develop and test
various aspects from the
backlog within a wide range
of iterations (Larman &
Vodde, 2013).
The large solution SAFE
allows the Agile trainers and
suppliers to contribute largely
and prepare a good
organisational construct too.
The budgeting and governance
procedures are major roles
which can help the company
to ensure that good amounts of
return are achieved based on
the investments made to
accomplish the desired
investments. The roles of
teams include software
architecture development,
testing, designing the user
interface, etc (Laanti, 2014).

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strategic objectives
(Leffingwell et al., 2013).
Processes
Disciplined Agile Delivery Scaled Agile Framework Scrum
Processes Processes Processes
This kind of methodology can
fill in the process gaps as well
as fulfill the needs and
requirements of stakeholders.
It also addresses the entire life
cycle for delivery and
initiation of the project. DAD
manages various technical
methods too such as Extreme
Programming and prepares
documentation, modelling and
development of strategies
related to corporate
governance too (Lines &
SAFE also allows for aligning
the organisational goals and
objectives, enable
collaboration and deliver
skillful and knowledgeable
teams, which can make the
company adapt to the needs
and requirements of the
business. To develop an
extensive platform for
enhancing the learning and
knowledge acquisition
approaches, the SAFE
methodology describes the
Scrum methodology enables
agile processes which can help
to gain alternatives for
managing a traditional project
with ease and effectiveness.
The agile processes can also
allow the team members to
respond to issues easily with
the help of incremental,
iterative and obtaining the
empirical feedbacks
(Papadopoulos, 2015). These
kinds of processes can deliver
alternative ways of achieving

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Ambler, 2012). roles, responsibilities,
artifacts, processes, benefits,
usage that are needed to
implement the Lean Agile
development appropriately
(Nguyen et al., 2013).
The system development
outcomes have improved as
the SAFE methodology has
aligned the enterprise towards
the technical and business
objectives and even delivered
normal schedule for letting the
business plan be executed
properly and quality of
solutions get enhanced. This
promotes continuous learning
and prevents delays by
maintaining a good
hierarchical structure (Poort,
2014).
good outcomes as the
waterfall or traditional
sequential development
models.

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Artifacts
Disciplined Agile Delivery Scaled Agile Framework Scrum
Artifacts Artifacts Artifacts
The artifacts found at the agile
team level include team
backlog, team PSI objectives,
Sprint goals, working
software, spikes, metrics, etc.
The artifacts of Scaled Agile
Framework are present within
the spanning palette and can
be applied to the various
teams, programs and
portfolios for delivering the
best solutions with much ease
and convenience.
The artifacts are metrics,
shared devices, CoP,
milestones, roadmap, vision,
system team, etc (Stettina &
Hörz, 2015). The metrics are
the primary ways of
measuring the working
The most essential artifacts of
scrum are product backlog,
sprint backlog and product
increment.
The product backlog combines
all the requirements of
baseline to manage
availability by the product
owner to re scrum team. The
owner of the product is found
responsible for managing the
validity and content of the
artifacts.
The sprint backlog is a
component of the product
backlog that enables the team

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solutions by defining some
intermediates and furthermore
use portfolios to measure
progress.
The CoP or community of
practice is a group consisting
of team members who can act
according to the organisation's
mission for sharing knowledge
and information in various
domains (Ambler & Lines,
2012).
The system team is another
artifact, which guides the
development team to utilise
the Agile development area
properly and ensure
integration, testing automation
procedure and delivery
process in a consistent
manner.
Other artifacts include product
to work faster and manage
proper testing, documentation
and integration in an effective
manner too (Ambler & Lines,
2012).
The product increment is the
most important scrum artifact
that enables the development
team to produce products that
can be shipped. The owners
must align the product
increment artifact with the
goals of the development team
so that the products are
acceptable (Ambler & Lines,
2013).

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roadmap, team backlog,
metrics, etc.
Benefits
Disciplined Agile Delivery Scaled Agile Framework Scrum
Benefits Benefits Benefits
DAD is a hybrid framework,
and it is proved that it follows
lean and agile approaches. The
different phases of DAD
follow milestones to focus on
large-scale agile delivery in an
effective way. The advantages
also include strong technical
architecture and focus on the
concepts of engineering and
furthermore ensure clarify the
governance mechanisms to
proper management of
products and services delivery
The artifacts of scaled agile
framework consist of epic
owners, enterprise architect,
business owners, etc. The
artifacts of SAFE are essential
SAFE, Large solution SAFE,
Portfolio SAFE and Full
SAFE.
The essential SAFE is the
basic artifact that acts as a
configuration tool as well by
proving a start point to
implement the methodology. It
also describes most of the
The sprint backlog artifact
helps the development team to
perform to the potential at a
faster rate to deliver shippable
products and services. The
alignment of product
increment with the
development team goals has
further enhanced the quality of
services and managed proper
hierarchical structure
(deloitte.com, 2017).
A scrum develops better
features in sprints

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(Astromskis et al., 2013). important components for
understanding the benefits of
the framework with ease and
effectiveness (Brenner &
Wunder, 2015).
The large solution SAFE is
another artifact that develops
large and complex solutions to
contribute to the Agile training
members and suppliers. It also
manages large sized and
complex IT systems to
develop independent systems.
The portfolio SAFE delivers a
strategy and manages the
investment funding for the
people and resources. This
also promotes lean governance
along with guiding the
members to develop programs
to enhance the efficiency of
portfolio execution (Brown,
Ambler & Royce, 2013). It
incrementally that allows the
products to be available much
earlier in the development
cycle. The scrum helps in
maintaining the good quality
and enables transparency by
involving the stakeholders and
engaging the product owners
too. It is also easier to identify
risks and respond to those at
the earlier stages of the
development life cycle
(Laanti, 2014).