Come learn with me AgilePM The DSDM Process

In this episode, I explain the DSDM Process, with emphasis on the phases involved and their roles in the project life cycle.

The DSDM approach to development and delivery is both iterative and incremental, such that features are delivered in order of importance starting with the most important. DSDM integrates project management and product development into a single process. Often, DSDM alone is sufficient but may be combined with another methodology.

The DSDM Process Module comprises a framework that shows the DSDM phases and is used to derive the project life cycle. The Pre-project phase ensures that the right projects are started and set up based on clear objectives. 

The Feasibility Phase determines whether the proposed project is technically feasible and cost-effective. This decides if further investigation is justified or if the project should be stopped. 

The Foundation Phase takes preliminary investigations from feasibility to the next level. It establishes a fundamental general understanding of the business rationale and the potential solution to be created without deep detail included. It lasts just a few weeks despite the size of the project. The aim here is to understand broadly the scope of the work and determine the project life cycle based on how DSDM will be applied to the specific need of the project. For smaller projects, it may be merged with the feasibility phase. Foundations may be revisited after each deployment phase. 

The Evolutionary Development Phase is to evolve the solution, hence it requires the solution development teams to apply certain crucial practices to ensure the solution meets the business needs and technical standards. Using timeboxes, the solution development team creates solution increments iteratively, testing continuously while moving forward. 

The objective of the Deployment Phase is to bring a baseline of the evolutionary solution into operational use. The release may be the ultimate solution or a subset of it, and after the last release, the project is closed. The Post Project Phase assesses how well the expected business benefits have been met. The lifecycle of the project is defined and agreed upon as part of the foundation phase. 

DSDM recogn