The software industry has grown by leaps and bounds which implies that even the challenges have multiplied too. For large programs and organizations, the challenges can come from any corner, and any imbalance can impact any of the three sides of the project management triangle – time, cost, and scope.
With a volatile industry, Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe®️) came in as a big rescue for the teams working on different sizes of solutions. It is an ability to help the teams in maintaining an alignment with the business goals. Also, helping organizations that need to work across teams is totally praiseworthy. Being deep-rooted in Agile and Lean principles, scaled agile remains more effective than traditional styles of software delivery. Leading SAFe training will help you learn to scale Agile across multiple teams.
Benefits of SAFe to Organizations
SAFe®️ tries to address these issues and companies who have adopted the framework have shown amazing results. With the need to deliver quality, time-to-market, and faster ROI, our leaders in the industry are shaped in a lot of models and frameworks to support software development, like Large Scale Scrum (LeSS), Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD), etc.
The flexibility these frameworks provide may be valued by those with a good understanding of agile, but it might not offer a sufficient track for those who are transitioning from traditional models. The usual reason we get to see agile failure lies in the mindset of cultural change, none of the frameworks apart from SAFe®️, takes care of this fact.
Back in 2011, Dean Leffingwell and Drew Jemilo together came up with a framework that has helped a wide variety of organizations, so far, they stay strong with their framework by introducing new features and making it more compatible with the needs of the organization.
Advantages of Scaled Agile framework, if taken into account, the ‘Full SAFe®️’ takes care of all the levels in the organization and provides end-to-end solutions at the organization level. Scaled Agile Framework was designed to sustain a big picture view of software development, it can effortlessly handle a synchronized plan for large-scale and complex projects with teams that can go beyond hundreds.
Organizations can opt for the benefits of the Scaled Agile Framework, if their focus is on scaling the agile processes up to the enterprise level, aligning business and technical goals for the company, utilizing the employee skills effectively, defining effective organizational structures around agility, scheduling for on-time delivery and improving the quality of solutions.
It is the framework that not only aligns at the team and program level but also helps us stay aligned with the organization's strategy. It provides a different level of configurations, that organizations can pull as per their needs. Scaled agile framework highlights predominant fears, like architecture, security, performance, and the resolution of dependencies and inconsistencies across the projects.
This framework takes care of the dependencies and complexity which helps in building more. This helps in aligning the right work to the agile teams, even the customer knows what to expect at the end of the release. Hence, the balance in work assigned and the work delivered greatly increases, and it comes back as an increase in productivity.
Quality is one of the foundations when we talk about SAFe®️, organizations using SAFe®️ reported an increase in quality ranging from 20% to 75%, ‘wow’ factor for any company.
Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility. Built-in quality is also a core principle of the Lean-Agile Mindset, helping to avoid the cost of delays (CoDs) associated with recalls, rework, and fixing defects. SAFe®️’s built-in quality philosophy applies systems thinking to optimize the whole system, ensuring a fast flow across the entire Value Stream, and makes quality everyone’s job. – Scaledagileframework.com.
Problems Faced During SAFe®️ Implementation
When LEGO adopted its scaled agile journey in 2015, they started their journey with moving 5 teams out of 20 to get into self-organizing mode. And later on the other teams followed the journey, but there was a challenge on coordination and collaboration. To make that happen, LEGO followed the SAFe®️ framework pattern and added another level of abstraction- the program level. They followed few practices, such as meeting in every 8 weeks for a planning session which lasted for one and a half days.
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Benefits After SAFe®️ Implementation
During this meeting, teams showcased their work, worked out the dependencies, estimated risks, and planned for the next release period. With their adoption on scaling, they found the following benefits of Scaled Agile Framework:
- The team was now more confident on giving the estimates and precise predictability on the delivery of their committed work.
- Employees felt more empowered to accomplish their work. They focused on adopting lean practices and minimized the documentation and other productive work.
- They leveraged all the possible options for face-to-face communication, and it really had a constructive impact on the way they worked and collaborated, increasing their efficiency and effectiveness.
- Another plus point was the use of visual boards which helped them stay focused.
Conclusion
Other success stories are from FitBit, Accenture, Bank of Canada, TomTom, Capital One, Sony, Cisco. The list is pretty long and has been increasing continuously. Every organization has a story to tell from their transformation journey. Being agile is not a destination, but it is a continuous journey. So, be a part of the scaled journey and enjoy the Scaled Agile Framework pros.
Summarizing all the aspects that we have been discussing so far, the crux of adopting the scaled agile framework could be, better predictability, higher productivity, increased quality, greater employee happiness, faster time to market.
This framework can be adopted by the larger organizations, we have already witnessed awesome feedbacks from companies implementing SAFe®️, though it has got its own set of prescription, it really helps if the values and principles suggested by the framework are applied at its best. Scaled framework supports the organization at all the levels ensuring they deliver excellence at every stage.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What are the benefits of SAFe?
Superior Quality: Businesses can only succeed if they compete in a cutthroat market and meet the customer's ever-changing wants. Built quality is one of the SAFe fundamental principles. It permeates all levels.
Increased Productivity: SAFe promotes cooperation and transparency, allowing for a clear knowledge of the deliverables and meeting stakeholder expectations.
Harbors Team Unity: Cross-functional agile teams consist of individuals from many departments. The team will work toward a single objective thanks to transparency, cooperation, and coordination.
Why do companies use SAFe?
SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) is a tool businesses use to organize and carry out large-scale projects and programs using an agile approach. SAFe offers a framework for integrating and organizing team dependencies and coordinating and aligning various teams working on a project.
Additionally, it offers a distinct framework for setting priorities, completing tasks, managing risks and dependencies, and tracking progress. SAFe aids organizations in enhancing project performance overall, team communication and coordination, and delivery speed.
What are the four core values of SAFe?
SAFe's (Scaled Agile Framework) four guiding principles are:
Build Rapidly Integrated Learning Cycles to Build Gradually
Base milestones on unbiased assessments of operational systems
Manage queue lengths, batch sizes, and work-in-progress visibility
Make the Flow of Value the primary consideration in engineering and design.
How do you implement SAFe in an organization?
Assessing preparedness, assembling a SAFe team, developing a vision and roadmap, offering coaching and training, defining roles and responsibilities, and regularly monitoring and refining the implementation are typical steps in adopting SAFe in a company. A focus on continuous improvement throughout the process, clear communication and alignment across teams, and leadership buy-in and support is crucial.
