Transition From SAFe® 4.0 to SAFe® 4.5: The Changes In Sight

By KnowledgeHut

Around 2 years ago, Scaled Agile Inc. launched SAFe® 4.0 as a methodology to broaden the existing Agile practices in the organizations. It soon gained a widespread popularity in the top organizations. But several barriers on a digital scale were preventing a full-fledged organization-level implementation of the new changes. So while organizations were engaged in acquiring new features in SAFe® by encouraging people to do SAFe® certification at different levels, the team at Scaled Agile Inc. were focussing on the framework that would completely align with the existing technology trends and the market needs. The Challenge Dean Leffingwell, Director and Chief Methodologist at Scaled Agile Inc., mentioned in one of his articles about the most important tenets in SAFe®, that can foster the quickest delivery once the same principles are adopted in the existing Scaled Agile Framework. Due to the resulting complexities of the SAFe® 4.0 framework, it was challenging to embark on the SAFe® Implementation Roadmap. Hence, organizations were seeking a path that can be specific and would require less efforts to achieve faster results. To overcome this challenge, Scaled Agile Inc. has released SAFe® 4.5, the improved version of SAFe® 4.0. It is the reflection of field research completed in the span of 1.5 years. The field research includes feedback from the clients and tons of implementations. SAFe® 4.5 is leaner, more Agile and easily learnable as compared to its predecessors and better at yielding faster outcomes. The Vision What is new in SAFe® 4.5? Let us discuss the major upgrades in the latest version of Scaled Agile- SAFe® 4.5. The key areas of improvements are as follows: Flexibility and Configurability Innovation with Lean Startup and Lean UX Scalable DevOps & Continuous Delivery Implementation Roadmap Backward compatibility Before moving on to a detailed discussion on the new features in SAFe® 4.5, it is important that you first know some of the best ways to implement Leading SAFe® 4.5 in your organization. 1. Flexibility and Configurability: SAFe® 4.5 configuration supports a wide range of development environments, from the simplest to the most complex one. This version is able to scale to meet the challenges of the growing organizations. SAFe® 4.5 has come up with four new configurations, viz.- Essential SAFe®- Realizes the benefits for the organizations. Portfolio SAFe®- Consists of preparing strategy and investment funding, Agile operations, and Lean governance. Large solution- Builds big systems that include multiple ARTs and Suppliers. Full SAFe®- Gives all Lean-Agile benefits to the larger enterprises. 2. Innovation with Lean Startup and Lean UX: The coordination of Lean startup and Lean UX in SAFe® not only initiates investments in the form of Minimum Viable Product (MVP), but also the feedback is carried out from the customers in order to make valuable decisions more quickly. 3. Scalable DevOps & Continuous Delivery: SAFe® 4.5 integrated with Lean ‘hypothesis-build-measure-learn’ cycle and Scalable DevOps & Continuous Delivery, delivers more innovative solutions more briskly. Being a big enterprise, you can innovate various solution elements with the help of SAFe® 4.5. 4. Implementation Roadmap: SAFe® Implementation Roadmap describes a strategy and field experience based on the organizational change management. It also describes the critical moves that an organization can make in order to achieve long-term gains with SAFe® and ensure early success in the project. 4.5 Backward compatible: A good news for all Agile teams is that SAFe® 4.5 is backward compatible. Those who were implementing SAFe® 4.0 principles can carry on with these without moving a rock in the current version as all the features of SAFe® 4.0 are still in place. You just need to be familiar with the updated practices in SAFe® 4.5. Why is SAFe® 4.5 Certification crucial? SAFe® 4.5 certification renders the proficiency to effectively apply Scaled Agile Framework, Lean Thinking and Agile principles for product development flow in the enterprises. After the training, you can utilise your practical experience in implementing the SAFe® framework in the scaled organizations. Nowadays, enterprises have started implementing SAFe®, as they are getting more benefits like- Employee engagement, Faster time to market, Improved productivity and Quality Today, employees are seeking more meaningful and challenging jobs to keep abreast of the digitized world. Employees can shape their careers by taking part in training sessions and accessing various knowledgeable resources. Scaled Agile Inc. always believes in uplifting the status of the employees in this regard. The institute has an inventory of role-based courses and certifications. Let us explore the myriad certification options available for SAFe® 4.5: 1. SAFe® Course: SAFe® 4.5 for teams- SAFe® 4.5 for teams is a professional course. It is a course for the dedicated team members who are skilled in designing, building, and testing in a very short timeline. Team members who are looking to working in SAFe® environment as part of ART (Agile Release Train) should consider this training for understanding of Agile, Scrum & SAFe®. Career prospect: Team member as part of ART in SAFe® 2. SAFe® Course: SAFe® 4.5 Scrum Master (SSM) Certification Training- SAFe® 4.5 Scrum Master Certification (SSM) is a team-based course, in which the Scrum Master helps teams to manage and deliver quality products implementing effective Agile practices. The Scrum Master is a servant-leader and carries out fruitful coordination between teams on the Agile Release Trains (ARTs) by conveying a status to the management when needed. Career prospect: SAFe® Advanced Scrum Master, SAFe® Product Owner/Product Manager, SAFe® Release Train Engineer, SAFe® Agilist 3. SAFe® Course: SAFe® 4.5 Advanced Scrum Master course- The SAFe® 4.5 Advanced Scrum Master course (SASM) allows Scrum Masters to use their broader knowledge of Agile and Scrum anti-patterns to facilitate multiple cross-team interactions, thereby getting rapid continuous value delivery. Career prospect: SAFe® Product Owner/Product Manager, SAFe® Release Train Engineer, SAFe® Program Consultant, SAFe® Agilist 4. SAFe® Course: SAFe® 4.5 Product Owner/ Product Manager- The SAFe® 4.5 Product Owner/ Product Manager course based on Lean-Agile principles, allows Product Owner/ Product Manager to improve certain areas like architecture, funding, integrations, governance, and roles to get Agile success at an enterprise level. Career prospect: SAFe® Agilist, SAFe® Advanced Scrum Master, SAFe® Release Train Engineer, SAFe® Program Consultant 5. SAFe® Course: SAFe® 4.5 Release Train Engineer Certification course- The SAFe® 4.5 Release Train Engineer Certification course (RTE) helps manage Agile Release Trains (ARTs) and value execution. These professionals become well equipped to remove obstacles, mitigate risks and yield continuous improvement. The RTE can be a part of the Lean-Agile transformation by training Managers, teams and Scrum Masters. Also, they help to adopt SAFe® principles in the team. Career prospect: SAFe® Agilist, SAFe® Program Consultant 6. SAFe® Course: Leading SAFe® 4.5 training course- Leading SAFe® 4.5 certification course is a complete solution for the scaled Agile teams in the organizations to carry out Agile transformation smoothly. Applying Lean-Agile principles is considered as the first step towards a change, which includes synchronizations, collaborations, and quality delivery. Career prospect: SAFe® Release Train Engineer, SAFe® Program Consultant Conclusion: In the aggregate, all the SAFe® 4.0 features are updated in the new SAFe® 4.5 version. Since SAFe® 4.5 is fully backward compatible, you can learn a lot more things, and benefit from the additional features along with the principles present in the older version. With the different levels of SAFe® 4.5 certifications, you can upgrade to new features to keep pace with the technology revolution.

Transition From SAFe® 4.0 to SAFe® 4.5: The Changes In Sight

by KnowledgeHut
15th Dec, 2017
Last updated on 10th Sep, 2019

The Challenge

Dean Leffingwell, Director and Chief Methodologist at Scaled Agile Inc., mentioned in one of his articles about the most important tenets in SAFe®, that can foster the quickest delivery once the same principles are adopted in the existing Scaled Agile Framework. Due to the resulting complexities of the SAFe® 4.0 framework, it was challenging to embark on the SAFe® Implementation Roadmap. Hence, organizations were seeking a path that can be specific and would require less efforts to achieve faster results.

To overcome this challenge, Scaled Agile Inc. has released SAFe® 4.5, the improved version of SAFe® 4.0. It is the reflection of field research completed in the span of 1.5 years. The field research includes feedback from the clients and tons of implementations. SAFe® 4.5 is leaner, more Agile and easily learnable as compared to its predecessors and better at yielding faster outcomes.

The Vision

What is new in SAFe® 4.5?

Let us discuss the major upgrades in the latest version of Scaled Agile- SAFe® 4.5. The key areas of improvements are as follows:

Flexibility and Configurability
Innovation with Lean Startup and Lean UX
Scalable DevOps & Continuous Delivery
Implementation Roadmap
Backward compatibility

Before moving on to a detailed discussion on the new features in SAFe® 4.5, it is important that you first know some of the best ways to implement Leading SAFe® 4.5 in your organization.

1. Flexibility and Configurability:

SAFe® 4.5 configuration supports a wide range of development environments, from the simplest to the most complex one. This version is able to scale to meet the challenges of the growing organizations. SAFe® 4.5 has come up with four new configurations, viz.-

Essential SAFe®- Realizes the benefits for the organizations.
Portfolio SAFe®- Consists of preparing strategy and investment funding, Agile operations, and Lean governance.
Large solution- Builds big systems that include multiple ARTs and Suppliers.
Full SAFe®- Gives all Lean-Agile benefits to the larger enterprises.

2. Innovation with Lean Startup and Lean UX:

The coordination of Lean startup and Lean UX in SAFe® not only initiates investments in the form of Minimum Viable Product (MVP), but also the feedback is carried out from the customers in order to make valuable decisions more quickly.

3. Scalable DevOps & Continuous Delivery:

SAFe® 4.5 integrated with Lean ‘hypothesis-build-measure-learn’ cycle and Scalable DevOps & Continuous Delivery, delivers more innovative solutions more briskly. Being a big enterprise, you can innovate various solution elements with the help of SAFe® 4.5.

4. Implementation Roadmap:

SAFe® Implementation Roadmap describes a strategy and field experience based on the organizational change management. It also describes the critical moves that an organization can make in order to achieve long-term gains with SAFe® and ensure early success in the project.

4.5 Backward compatible:

A good news for all Agile teams is that SAFe® 4.5 is backward compatible. Those who were implementing SAFe® 4.0 principles can carry on with these without moving a rock in the current version as all the features of SAFe® 4.0 are still in place. You just need to be familiar with the updated practices in SAFe® 4.5.

Why is SAFe® 4.5 Certification crucial?

SAFe® 4.5 certification renders the proficiency to effectively apply Scaled Agile Framework, Lean Thinking and Agile principles for product development flow in the enterprises. After the training, you can utilise your practical experience in implementing the SAFe® framework in the scaled organizations. Nowadays, enterprises have started implementing SAFe®, as they are getting more benefits like-

Employee engagement,
Faster time to market,
Improved productivity and
Quality

Today, employees are seeking more meaningful and challenging jobs to keep abreast of the digitized world. Employees can shape their careers by taking part in training sessions and accessing various knowledgeable resources. Scaled Agile Inc. always believes in uplifting the status of the employees in this regard. The institute has an inventory of role-based courses and certifications. Let us explore the myriad certification options available for SAFe® 4.5:

1. SAFe® Course: SAFe® 4.5 for teams-

SAFe® 4.5 for teams is a professional course. It is a course for the dedicated team members who are skilled in designing, building, and testing in a very short timeline. Team members who are looking to working in SAFe® environment as part of ART (Agile Release Train) should consider this training for understanding of Agile, Scrum & SAFe®.

Career prospect: Team member as part of ART in SAFe®

2. SAFe® Course: SAFe® 4.5 Scrum Master (SSM) Certification Training-

SAFe® 4.5 Scrum Master Certification (SSM) is a team-based course, in which the Scrum Master helps teams to manage and deliver quality products implementing effective Agile practices. The Scrum Master is a servant-leader and carries out fruitful coordination between teams on the Agile Release Trains (ARTs) by conveying a status to the management when needed.

Career prospect: SAFe® Advanced Scrum Master, SAFe® Product Owner/Product Manager, SAFe® Release Train Engineer, SAFe® Agilist

3. SAFe® Course: SAFe® 4.5 Advanced Scrum Master course-

The SAFe® 4.5 Advanced Scrum Master course (SASM) allows Scrum Masters to use their broader knowledge of Agile and Scrum anti-patterns to facilitate multiple cross-team interactions, thereby getting rapid continuous value delivery.

Career prospect: SAFe® Product Owner/Product Manager, SAFe® Release Train Engineer, SAFe® Program Consultant, SAFe® Agilist

4. SAFe® Course: SAFe® 4.5 Product Owner/ Product Manager-

The SAFe® 4.5 Product Owner/ Product Manager course based on Lean-Agile principles, allows Product Owner/ Product Manager to improve certain areas like architecture, funding, integrations, governance, and roles to get Agile success at an enterprise level.

Career prospect: SAFe® Agilist, SAFe® Advanced Scrum Master, SAFe® Release Train Engineer, SAFe® Program Consultant

5. SAFe® Course: SAFe® 4.5 Release Train Engineer Certification course-

The SAFe® 4.5 Release Train Engineer Certification course (RTE) helps manage Agile Release Trains (ARTs) and value execution. These professionals become well equipped to remove obstacles, mitigate risks and yield continuous improvement. The RTE can be a part of the Lean-Agile transformation by training Managers, teams and Scrum Masters. Also, they help to adopt SAFe® principles in the team.

Career prospect: SAFe® Agilist, SAFe® Program Consultant

6. SAFe® Course: Leading SAFe® 4.5 training course-

Leading SAFe® 4.5 certification course is a complete solution for the scaled Agile teams in the organizations to carry out Agile transformation smoothly. Applying Lean-Agile principles is considered as the first step towards a change, which includes synchronizations, collaborations, and quality delivery.

Career prospect: SAFe® Release Train Engineer, SAFe® Program Consultant

Conclusion:

In the aggregate, all the SAFe® 4.0 features are updated in the new SAFe® 4.5 version. Since SAFe® 4.5 is fully backward compatible, you can learn a lot more things, and benefit from the additional features along with the principles present in the older version. With the different levels of SAFe® 4.5 certifications, you can upgrade to new features to keep pace with the technology revolution.

KnowledgeHut

Author

KnowledgeHut is an outcome-focused global ed-tech company. We help organizations and professionals unlock excellence through skills development. We offer training solutions under the people and process, data science, full-stack development, cybersecurity, future technologies and digital transformation verticals.
Website : https://www.knowledgehut.com

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The Scrum Master is an Agile evangelist and promotes Scrum enterprise-wide.According to Scrum.org the Scrum Master serves the organization by: Leading, training, and coaching the organization in adopting Scrum Planning and advising Scrum implementations within the organization Coaching employees and stakeholders in the way Scrum works Helping stakeholders work with Scrum TeamsSome Servant-Leader Behaviours for every Scrum MasterBeing empathetic: This is the foremost personality trait required for anyone wanting to become a Scrum Master. Your empathy will shine through in your interactions with the team members and your dealings with the stakeholders. You should be able to see problems from the point of view of each party and work towards solving these problems. Caring: As a caring and empathetic Scrum Master, your team will feel free to approach you and share their concerns. Providing a listening ear will make you more approachable. You will be able to more clearly understand the impediments that are stopping project progress and work towards providing a solution. Managing Conflicts: Not all team members will get along with each other and this can cause disruptions and problems within the team, lowering their productivity. As a Scrum Master you need to be great at conflict management, help others solve their problems, work with each other and create a high performing and harmonious team. Building relationships: You need to build a rapport with your team, the product owner and the stakeholders. This will help you communicate freely and help others approach you with their problems and issues. You need to build that relationship of trust and take everyone along on the journey of success. Being ethical: Ethics play an important role in software development, especially since software now controls every aspect of our lives. The product created should be free of malice and fraud. The Scrum Master should guide the team in delivering the product at a value and standard that is expected and agreed upon with the stakeholder. There should not be any shortcuts or concessions made on the quality of the product delivered as this will affect not just the Scrum Master and the team’s reputation but will cause a dent in the reputation of the organization. Conclusion Servant leadership and the Scrum Master’s role is the backbone of Scrum. The Scrum Master as a servant leader re-emphasizes the values of Scrum and helps to enhance teamwork, collaboration, motivation and value. Under the able servant leadership of the Scrum Master, individual members and the team will grow, become more confident and help in delivering value.

Scrum Master – The Scrum Team’s Servant-Leader!

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Scrum Master – The Scrum Team’s Servan...

by KnowledgeHut
06 Aug 2021
9 mins read

The term servant leader is synonymous with a Scrum... Read More

A Guide to Scaling Scrum

By KnowledgeHut

Scrum has been proven to work well for small teams. But the true benefits of Agile can only be reaped if Agile and Scrum are scaled at the enterprise level. However, this is easier said than done. According to statistics, 47% of Agile transformations are not successful. While this is a worrying trend, there are still hundreds of organizations who have got it right and are able to survive the competition by innovating faster, delivering value and adapting to changing markets. How are they doing it? By using scaled Scrum.There are several tools and frameworks available for scaling Scrum at the enterprise level. In this blog, we attempt to look at a few of these. Scaling Scrum with NexusNexus is among the most popular frameworks for scaling Scrum. According to the Nexus Guide, “Nexus is a framework for developing and sustaining scaled product delivery initiatives. It builds upon Scrum, extending it only where absolutely necessary to minimize and manage dependencies between multiple Scrum Teams while promoting empiricism and the Scrum Values.” How is Nexus different from Scrum? Scrum defines three primary roles: The Product Owner, the Scrum Master and the development team. These three roles work together in one team.The Nexus framework consists of several Scrum teams that work together toward a common product goal and defines the Nexus Integration Team as an additional accountability. Nexus helps to build on the values of Scrum and also solves the collaboration and dependency challenges that tend to occur between teams in Scrum.Benefits of using Nexus Nexus extends Scrum in the following ways: Accountabilities: Nexus introduces the Nexus Integration Team, which consists of the Scrum Master, Product Owner, and members. This team is accountable for delivering a workable product at the end of each sprint. Events: Nexus events aim to add to or supplement Scrum events and serve not just individual teams but also the Nexus Integration Team. The objective of a sprint is to achieve the Nexus sprint goal. Artifacts: Although the teams are different, within the Nexus framework they all work towards a single goal and follow a single product backlog. There’s a high amount of transparency and work is allocated to each team. The Nexus Integration TeamAccording to the Nexus Guide, “the Nexus Integration Team exists to coordinate, coach, and supervise the application of Nexus and the operation of Scrum so the best outcomes are derived.” The Nexus Integration Team or NIT comprises of the Scrum Master, the Product Owner and Nexus integration team members. There are generally three to nine Scrum teams working together in Nexus. All of them follow a single product backlog and work towards delivering a single product. The Nexus Integration Team forms an essential role within Nexus and is tasked with providing transparent accountability among the teams in Nexus.Product OwnerThe Product Owner is accountable for maximizing the product value and the work carried out in Nexus. Their primary task is to order and refine the product backlog. Being a member of the Nexus Integration Team, the product owner will work with all the Scrum teams in the Nexus Integration team. The product owner and the teams work towards better defining and refining the product backlog.Scrum MasterJust like in regular Scrum, the Scrum Master in the Nexus Integration Team is also responsible for ensuring that the Nexus framework is understood by everyone on the team as prescribed by the Nexus Guide. MembersThe members of the Nexus Integration Team are the Scrum team members who aid the Scrum teams in adoption of tools and practices that will help the team and members deliver value at the end of each sprint that meets the definition of done. Nexus Integration Team membership should be considered more important than the individual Scrum Team membership and members should work towards first fulfilling their Nexus team responsibilities.What are the Events in Nexus?Nexus adds or augments the events as defined by Scrum. The Nexus event durations are like Scrum event durations and are guided by the Scrum Guide. Nexus events consist of: Sprint- A Nexus sprint is the same as in Scrum, at the end of which a single increment is delivered. Cross team refinement- The aim of Nexus is to enhance collaboration and reduce cross team dependencies. Cross team refinement helps to make dependencies and responsibilities more transparent. This makes it easier for Scrum teams within the Nexus to clearly identify and deliver their allocated tasks. Nexus Sprint Planning- Nexus sprint planning will involve the participation of the Product Owner and concerned teams' members from each team. The purpose of the Nexus Sprint Planning is to assign and co-ordinate activities for a single sprint. Nexus Daily Scrum- This is like the daily stand up in Scrum. Nexus daily scrum is used to identify any issues and track progress. Any issues are immediately prioritized and solved so that they do not hinder the work of the developers. Nexus Sprint Review- This event is held at the end of sprints to provide feedback on the increment that has been built and on any future updates that have to be made. Nexus Sprint Retrospective- Like in Scrum, Nexus retrospectives are an important part of the project and are used to reflect on how quality and consistency can be improved. Some Nexus ArtifactsNexus artifacts are the same as Scrum artifacts and when implemented correctly ensure transparency and value maximization. Every artifact is designed to give a commitment. For example, the product backlog is the artifact and its commitment is the product goal. Other artifacts and their commitments include: Nexus Sprint Backlog-Nexus Sprint Goal Integrated Increment-Definition of Done Along with Nexus, LeSS is another popular framework for scaling agile. Scaling Scrum with LeSS The Large-Scale Scrum (LeSS) framework is an offering from Atlassian and is a framework for scaling Scrum to multiple teams that are working on the same product. The idea behind LeSS is to start with a single Scrum team as defined in the Scrum Guide and then replicate it to multiple teams who are working on a single product. LeSS has earned the label of being “barely sufficient” as it is a simple framework to apply and uses the basic concepts of Scrum to scale. How do Sprint Planning meetings in LeSS work? LeSS generally carries out sprint planning in two stages. Sprint Planning One focuses on selecting items that are of topmost priority, solving unanswered issues and defining the sprint goal. The Sprint Planning Two is like the sprint plan of regular Scrum and focuses on creating a plan of action for getting things done. Daily meeting The daily Scrum meeting in LeSS is similar to how it is done in normal single Scrum teams and involves team members discussing the work accomplished and the work to be done during the day. It is a time-boxed meeting and helps teams address any issues that may be hindering work. Sprint Delivery Meeting (Review) The sprint review meeting is an essential part of LeSS and helps teams and stakeholders review the product built during the sprint and suggest changes and new ideas. Retrospective The retrospective for LeSS is similar to one team Scrum. These retrospectives held at the end of the sprint will help teams to reflect on the progress of tasks, and identify the obstacles that may hinder or impede the overall project. Let’s take a look at some of the other frameworks that are used for scaling agile. Scaling Scrum with SAFe®The Scaled Agile Framework, SAFe in short, follows the principles of lean and agile and helps in scaling Scrum to the enterprise. It helps to manage alignment, collaboration, and delivery from multiple agile teams to ensure enterprise success. It systematically focuses on applying Scrum at each level of the enterprise, to maximize value and ensure a successful agile transformation.A successful SAFe adoption ensures end-to-end business agility with significant improvements in strategy, delivery, execution and business competencies. It helps organizations overcome competition and ensure innovative business solutions to gain customer trust and partnership. The SAFe framework is continuously improvised in order to help organizations cope with the digital age and ensure that business outcomes are delivered.Scaling Scrum with the Scrum@Scale frameworkAnother framework that allows organizations to implement Scrum at scale is the Scrum@Scale framework. This framework expands on the core principles of Scrum and helps to scale Scrum over a wide range of industries and sectors, ensuring customer satisfaction and creation of successful products. It promotes communication across all teams and departments, and optimizes resources, removes roadblocks and ensures creation of innovative products.A Final Word By driving Agile at the organizational level, companies can gain all the benefits of team-level Scrum at scale. More often than not the principles of team level Scrum are not sustainable at the enterprise level and the transformation fails. Tested and proven Agile scaling frameworks are now able to turn this around, and help organizations scale up the principles and practices of Scrum to become more adaptable, flexible and responsive. Professionals can master these frameworks and help their organization adopt the culture, mind-set and principles of Scrum and agile.

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5497

A Guide to Scaling Scrum

by KnowledgeHut
06 Aug 2021
8 mins read

Scrum has been proven to work well for small tea... Read More

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