Often we hear the larger and well-established organizations struggling to be more Agile. Actually, it is very tough to work around the command-and-control mindset and settled hierarchies. Stacked against the expectations of the current generation of software professionals, Agile adoption and the resultant transformation was far from achievable in the early years. In such cases, professional certifications turned out be the more profitable thing as the vast majority of such organizations were seeking ‘specialists’ to work in such situations.
One such certification is the Scaled Agile Framework, more correctly and as per present times, Leading SAFe® 4.5. SAFe® gives a guide and best practices for embracing Agile at an organizational scale, and SAFe® accreditations cover each part of Agile at every level. Fairly at an early stage, parallel to the peaking popularity of Agile, Leading SAFe® started gaining a foothold in the corporate milieu. Over time, it has given a complete new meaning to Agility.
With the future of Agile in mind, it is therefore imperative to foresee and pre-analyse some of the key aspects of Leading SAFe® 4.5. One year from now, that way, we shall readily have the prospects and further future benefits of Leading SAFe® in clear sight.
Will Leading SAFe® 4.5 turn out be a one-size-fits-all technology?
Though it is too early to strongly assert, Leading SAFe® 4.5 will mostly resolve some of the long-lived issues pertaining to Agile implementation in organizations. Generally, Agile methodologies that worked for the small teams of 10 developers do not work for the multinational companies with a huge number of software teams spread over the globe. The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe®) settled this issue by providing a framework that can work for the larger and the complex organizations. This framework now has been counted in more than 70% of the US Fortune 100.
Soon, the organizations saw the merit to incorporating Leading SAFe® 4.5 principles into their frameworks. This marked the beginning of another enterprise-level transformation, mostly stimulated by the Scaled Agile Framework. Thereafter, the Leading SAFe® 4.5 trends evolved and grew by leaps and bounds, and even before the current decade is out, a lot will be speculated about the future of Leading SAFe® 4.5.
How will Leading SAFe ® 4.5 shape your future?
Debate abounds on how far Leading SAFe® 4.5 can take an individual in today’s adapt-or-perish market. Nevertheless, as an established fact, the key to implementing the Leading SAFe® 4.5 practices is to get certified. Many hundreds of professionals are keen to get the certification and find more job opportunities globally.
Trends from the past few years have revealed that after SAFe® 4.5 certification, individuals will get an opportunity to work as a-
Lead Agile Coach
Release Train Engineer
Digital Transformation Program Manager/Agile Coach
Agile Project Manager
Scaled Agile Coach
Agile Project Director
IT Program Delivery Lead
I/S Agile Project Manager
Scaled Release Train Engineer
Senior IT Project Manager
Product Owner
Agile Product Owner
Certified Kanban/Scrum Master
Test Engineer Coach
Lean-Agile Coach
SAFe® Scrum Master
Strategy and Delivery Project Manager
Product Owner Analyst
Program Agile Coach
Content System and Software Manager
Integration Engineer
Program Portfolio Management Director
Quality Payment Program Product Owner Analyst
S&L Program Agile Coach
Sr. Business Intelligence
Big Data Engineer
PMO Consultant
These are undoubtedly some of the best Leading SAFe® choices you can make after attaining Leading SAFe® training.
Leading SAFe® 4.5 was introduced in June 2017. The primary aim of the version update was to solve the Lean software and system engineering problems. Since it is not just limited to the IT organizations, the number of organizations utilizing SAFe® framework has been expanding exponentially ever since.
Will the updated features of SAFe® 4.5 be useful in the immediate future?
They already are! Leading SAFe® 4.5 has added the features that will focus on DevOps and Continuous Delivery Pipeline to meet the needs of the organization. This latest version of Leading SAFe® allows an organization to:
Use the Lean Startup Cycle and Lean User Experience(Lean UX) to test ideas faster.
Using Scalable DevOps and Continuous Delivery Pipeline, organizations can deliver more quickly.
With Lean Portfolio Management (LPM) and Lean Budget, enterprises can simplify governance and improve portfolio performance.
One year from now, would you still want to shift to Leading SAFe® 4.5?
Even a few years from now, the attendees of the present Leading SAFe® 4.5 training and workshops will reap the benefits. If you are working as an Agile team member in the upcoming years, the following will be the major reasons that will catalyze your transition to Leading SAFe® 4.5.
Become more flexible after introducing 4 new configurations
Leading SAFe® 4.5 has introduced a wide development environment which allows choosing the desired version level from the simplest to the most complex projects. This latest upgrade to the SAFe® is an attempt to meet the challenges of the growing organizations. It has come up with 4 new configurations:
Essential SAFe®- this level concerns with the benefits of the organizations.
Portfolio SAFe®- prepares a strategy for the project, Agile operations, and Lean governance.
Largesolution- constructs big systems including multiple ARTs and Suppliers.
Full SAFe®- allow larger organizations to experience Lean-Agile benefit.
Continuous Delivery Pipeline-
The aim of the continuous delivery pipeline is to deliver the advanced features to the end user. The Continuous delivery pipeline consists of following 4 elements.
1. Continuous Exploration-
Continuous exploration helps to get the market requirements and work accordingly. Collaborate, implement, synthesis and research are the major elements of this cycle.
2. Continuous Integration-
In Continuous Integration, features are taken from the product backlog. Further, these features are tested and integrated into user environment.
3. Continuous Deployment-
These elements are in use when the product is ready. This passes the same feature from the Continuous Exploration and the Continuous Integration elements to the production environment and makes that product ready for the users.
4. Release on-demand-
Release on-demand element releases the product to the users immediately and evaluates the demand from the continuous exploration stage.
Innovate more with Lean Start-up cycle and Lean UX
The Lean Startup cycle and Lean UX gives the prescribed procedures to enhance rapidly and embrace distinctive levels of methodologies and gathers the input from the clients to enhance the quality and comprehend the better business results.
Implementation Roadmap
To wind up clearly, the SAFe® lean enterprise is a thing of enormous significance. The latest version- SAFe® 4.5 gives the Implementation Roadmap on an outlined fundamental arrangement of targets, values, administration procedures and general understanding. With a specific end goal to accomplishing long and short-term objectives in SAFe®, the experts need to execute basic Roadmap methodologies.
Backward Compatibility
The most interesting feature of SAFe® 4.5 is that it is a backward compatible. This will allow the organizations to experience additional benefits in future, without disturbing the current processes.
Concluding Thoughts
The developing interest for SAFe® 4.5 in a wide range of enterprises will help you to comprehend the future prospect of the Leading SAFe®. Certifications are just a pointer that somebody has put in efforts to study the foundational standards of this strategy and could exhibit that for a test. For any organization, a cultural-shift is not so natural. It requires greater investment to set a mindset. An Agile mindset. By getting the prerequisites of the organization at the market level and to make the things less demanding, you need to utilize the SAFe® 4.5 certification in a legitimate way.
Lindy Quick
Blog Author
Lindy Quick, SPCT, is a dynamic Transformation Architect and Senior Business Agility Consultant with a proven track record of success in driving agile transformations. With expertise in multiple agile frameworks, including SAFe, Scrum, and Kanban, Lindy has led impactful transformations across diverse industries such as manufacturing, defense, insurance/financial, and federal government. Lindy's exceptional communication, leadership, and problem-solving skills have earned her a reputation as a trusted advisor. Currently associated with KnowledgeHut and upGrad, Lindy fosters Lean-Agile principles and mindset through coaching, training, and successful execution of transformations. With a passion for effective value delivery, Lindy is a sought-after expert in the field.
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