In today’s fast-paced and ever-changing business world, organizations are constantly looking for ways to improve their productivity, efficiency and overall effectiveness. Agile methodologies have emerged as a means of addressing these challenges, enabling teams to be flexible and adaptable in delivering high quality products, complex projects and services. However, as organizations grow and scale, the need for a more cohesive and structured agile approach becomes apparent. This is where the Scaled Agile Framework, or SAFe for short, comes into play.
Understanding the agile approach and the need for scaling
Before we get into the specifics of SAFe, it’s important to understand agile principles and how they can benefit organizations. Agile is an iterative and incremental approach to project management and product development that emphasizes collaboration, adaptability and customer satisfaction.
It enables teams to respond quickly to changing market demands, deliver value early and often, and continuously improve their processes. Agile methods such as Scrum have proven to be very effective for small to medium sized teams working on single projects. However, as organizations grow and multiple teams need to collaborate on larger initiatives, a more structured and coordinated approach becomes necessary. Scrum is taking the first scaling steps here with Large Scale Scrum. However, this can also reach its limits. This is where scaled agile frameworks such as SAFe come into play.
What is the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)?
SAFe is a comprehensive and coherent framework that provides organizations with a structured approach to scaling agile practices across the enterprise. It provides a set of principles, practices and roles that enable organizations to achieve business agility and create value at scale.
SAFe builds on the foundations of agile principles and extends them to address the challenges of scaling agility in large organizations. It provides a common language and a shared experience for agile teams and ensures alignment and collaboration between different business units and departments.
How does SAFe differ from traditional Scrum?
Although both SAFe and Scrum are based on agile principles, they differ in their approach and scope. Scrum is a lightweight and flexible framework designed for small teams working on individual projects.
It focuses on self-organization, iterative development and regular feedback loops. SAFe, on the other hand, was developed to extend agile practices to multiple teams, programs and portfolios in a large organization. It offers a more structured and prescriptive approach with defined roles, events and artifacts that enable coordination and alignment on a large scale.
However, the two are not in competition with each other. On the contrary. At the team level, SAFe also recommends Scrum. Although there are small nuances in the terminology, as SAFe relies on iterations instead of sprints, essentially much remains the same. There is a team backlog, the Scrum roles are represented, a Scrum of Scrum is carried out as a team synch and much more besides.
Like other agile frameworks, SAFe only works with an agile mindset and the integration of lean agile leadership. Especially in scaled areas, it is no longer expedient to think about Scrum teams that are essentially decoupled from the organization.
General roles and events in SAFe
SAFe introduces several key roles and events that contribute to the successful implementation of agile practices at scale. Some of the roles are:
- Agile teams: these are cross-functional teams responsible for creating value in short iterations. They work closely with other teams and stakeholders to ensure alignment and maximize value creation.
- Agile Release Trains (ARTs): ARTs are long-lived, self-organizing teams that deliver value in the form of working software or other tangible results. They work in a fixed rhythm, usually 8-12 weeks, and are responsible for planning, executing and releasing value. Together with PI Planning, which is explained below, ART is one of the key elements of SAFe.
- Lean Portfolio Management: This function is responsible for aligning the business strategy with the execution of the portfolio and ensuring that the company invests in the right initiatives and maximizes the value achieved.
SAFe also introduces several events that facilitate coordination and collaboration between the teams. PI Planning is the centerpiece of SAFe, along with the aforementioned Agile Release Train. This is a two-day event where the agile teams come together to plan their work for the upcoming planning interval (8-12 weeks) and define a common goal. This ensures that all teams have a uniform view of the upcoming tasks with transparency, dependencies and risks are discussed and a focus is placed on the outcome to be achieved (similar to sprint goals from Scrum). The agile release train creates a common result.
Like other agile frameworks, SAFe also uses a demming cycle (PDCA) and evaluates the results achieved after the interval. The PI System Demo is used here in particular. At the event, the teams present their work to the stakeholders and receive feedback. This event promotes transparency, collaboration and continuous improvement.
Successful introduction of SAFe
Many large companies have successfully introduced SAFe and achieved significant benefits. When implemented correctly, it is quite a coherent framework, designed to scale agility to potentially all areas of the business. Companies such as IBM, Lockheed Martin and Philips have adopted SAFe to improve their agility and create value at scale.
Some of the goals that organizations have achieved with SAFe include:
- Improved collaboration and alignment between teams and departments.
- Faster time-to-market and shorter time-to-value.
- Increased productivity and efficiency through better coordination and resource utilization.
- Increased quality and customer satisfaction through continuous integration and delivery.
- Improved visibility and transparency on the progress of initiatives and projects.
Conclusion
In summary, the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) provides organizations with a structured and comprehensive approach to scaling agile practices across the enterprise. By using SAFe, organizations can increase their business agility, improve collaboration and create value at scale. With its defined roles, events and principles, SAFe provides a coherent framework that enables large organizations to adopt agile practices and succeed in today’s fast-paced business world. SAFe also integrates different approaches such as Design Thinking, Kanban, OKR or DevSecOps into its framework.
The trainers at Nerd Republic share their many years of experience in SAFe transformation in selected SAFe certification courses. You can find them here:
Of course, we also offer in-house training and help with implementation through coaching and consulting. You are welcome to contact us for this:
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