How Does SAFe 4.5 Implementation Help An Organization Grow Fast?
By Shubhranshu Agarwal
All the enterprises, irrespective of their size, nature, and strengths, must learn to adapt quickly to ever-changing technology, trends, and economic conditions. Only the companies understanding the urgency to change the ways of managing the challenges and working can succeed in the highly competitive environments. The Scale Agile Framework (SAFe), originally released in 2011, helps businesses to counter the complex challenges of developing and delivering projects in the shortest period, while sustaining the profit ratio by using the advanced methodologies.Here are 5 key areas where you can endlessly improve with Leading SAFe 4.5.What is SAFe & SAFe 4.5?SAFe, also known as ‘enterprise-scale development methodology’ is a framework designed by Dean Leffingwell. This freely available ‘information base’ guides the organisations to apply Lean-Agile practices to improve the overall performance and bring in better alignment, transparency and built-in quality within the organisation. The successful SAFe implementation helps the organisations to work with portfolio, program, team, and optionally large solution levels with much improved capabilities through the optimised use of available resources.SAFe 4.5, the latest version of the popular SAFe framework is the result of unabated pursuit of Scaled Agile Inc. to match the diverse needs of different sized organisations. SAFe 4.5 is focused more on four key areas:Essential SAFe & ConfigurabilityLean Startup & Lean UX Scalable powered innovationDevOps & continuous deliveryImplementation roadmapSafe 4.5 For The Organizations Poised For Rapid Growth:The number of organizations large and small both are getting outstanding competitive benefits by SAFe 4.5 implementation. The more in common revealed SAFe 4.5 implementation benefits apart from several others include:10 – 50% more motivated happier employees30 – 75% quick value delivery to market 20 – 50% improvement in productivity25 – 75% reduction in defectsBefore going ahead for discussing the most experienced SAFe 4.5 benefits in detail, I would like to highlight 8 key SAFe 4.5 characteristics inspiring more and more organisations to adopt it:Publicly available & free to useAvailable in a highly usable formPractical for most of the organizationsSpecifies terms, concepts & practices clearlyConveniently codifies agile practicesOffers extensions to follow Agile practicesRegularly updated with reliable support modelSo, coming to the point ‘how the SAFe 4.5 implementation helps the organizations’; here are 5 key areas where the improvement is experienced and shared the most after SAFe 4.5 implementation:Essential SAFe Offers Flexible Configurability:The ‘Essential SAFe’ feature of SAFe 4.5 helps the organisations to start up swiftly by understanding the required products/services earlier. Essential SAFe identifies the key elements to make the organisations assured of achieving the desired results. By incorporating Essential SAFe in organisations realise more benefits of implementing SAFe.Lean Startup & Lean UX Scalable Power the Innovation:Lean UX & Lean portfolio management features of SAFe 4.5 help the organizations innovate and implement a strategy in the swift mode to taste the benefits earlier. Agile Teams & UX designers, using Lean Startup & Lean UX Scalable model, accept that the ‘accurate answer’ is not known in advance; so, they apply Agile methodologies to avoid Big Design Up-front (BDUF). Lean UX innovation methodology instills the confidence, sense of ownership, and the feel of ‘1 team, 1 product’; as a result, organizations deliver the better quality products in a shorter time span.DevOps improves Stability, Availability, Reliability, and Security:DevOps, a new feature in SAFe 4.5, is a cultural mindset defining a set of technical practices. It improves communication, automation, close cooperation and integration among the professionals engaged in planning, developing, testing, deployment, release, and maintaining the solution. SAFe 4.5 empowers the organizations to break down the silos and to empower Agile Release Trains (ART) & Solution Trains to deliver innovative features to end users.Implementation Roadmap to Accumulate Substantial Benefits:Implementation Roadmap, the key feature of SAFe 4.5, addresses the role of SAFe program consultants working externally and internally both as the change agents. SAFe Program Consultants are the change agents hired to apply their expertise in SAFe implementation with intrinsic motivation to improve the processes. The new way of working helps the organisations accumulate the substantial benefits like enhanced productivity, better employee engagement etc.Conclusion:To experience SAFe 4.5 benefits, the organisations need to embrace the Lean-Agile mindset to apply Lean-Agile principles. The leaders must identify the Value Streams and Agile Release Trains (ARTs) to implement the Lean-Agile portfolio, to build the quality, and to sustain the continuous value delivery system. And, the ‘culture evolvement’ is the key to success. Are you ready for it – to accept the changes?Creating the SAFe 4.5 Implementation roadmap is all about an incremental approach to plan and learn a bit. To continue SAFe 4.5 implementation effectively and to ensure the workforce engagement, the projects leads in Agile organisations must share their view of SAFe implementation. The certified SAFe 4.5 experts are expected to maintain the energy and enthusiasm that they devote to short iteration cycles.
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Shubhranshu Agarwal
Shubhranshu Agarwal is a technical writer with special interest in business management and project management subjects. Over the 15 years of freelance content writing, he has written a lot to help the industries, businesses and project managers to achieve the sustainable growth by implementing strategic critical management methodologies.
Shubhranshu Agarwal Articles
How Does SAFe 4.5 Implementation Help An Organization Grow Fast?
By Shubhranshu Agarwal
All the enterprises, irrespective of their size, nature, and strengths, must learn to adapt quickly to ever-changing technology, trends, and economic conditions. Only the companies understanding the urgency to change the ways of managing the challenges and working can succeed in the highly competitive environments. The Scale Agile Framework (SAFe), originally released in 2011, helps businesses to counter the complex challenges of developing and delivering projects in the shortest period, while sustaining the profit ratio by using the advanced methodologies.Here are 5 key areas where you can endlessly improve with Leading SAFe 4.5.What is SAFe & SAFe 4.5?SAFe, also known as ‘enterprise-scale development methodology’ is a framework designed by Dean Leffingwell. This freely available ‘information base’ guides the organisations to apply Lean-Agile practices to improve the overall performance and bring in better alignment, transparency and built-in quality within the organisation. The successful SAFe implementation helps the organisations to work with portfolio, program, team, and optionally large solution levels with much improved capabilities through the optimised use of available resources.SAFe 4.5, the latest version of the popular SAFe framework is the result of unabated pursuit of Scaled Agile Inc. to match the diverse needs of different sized organisations. SAFe 4.5 is focused more on four key areas:Essential SAFe & ConfigurabilityLean Startup & Lean UX Scalable powered innovationDevOps & continuous deliveryImplementation roadmapSafe 4.5 For The Organizations Poised For Rapid Growth:The number of organizations large and small both are getting outstanding competitive benefits by SAFe 4.5 implementation. The more in common revealed SAFe 4.5 implementation benefits apart from several others include:10 – 50% more motivated happier employees30 – 75% quick value delivery to market 20 – 50% improvement in productivity25 – 75% reduction in defectsBefore going ahead for discussing the most experienced SAFe 4.5 benefits in detail, I would like to highlight 8 key SAFe 4.5 characteristics inspiring more and more organisations to adopt it:Publicly available & free to useAvailable in a highly usable formPractical for most of the organizationsSpecifies terms, concepts & practices clearlyConveniently codifies agile practicesOffers extensions to follow Agile practicesRegularly updated with reliable support modelSo, coming to the point ‘how the SAFe 4.5 implementation helps the organizations’; here are 5 key areas where the improvement is experienced and shared the most after SAFe 4.5 implementation:Essential SAFe Offers Flexible Configurability:The ‘Essential SAFe’ feature of SAFe 4.5 helps the organisations to start up swiftly by understanding the required products/services earlier. Essential SAFe identifies the key elements to make the organisations assured of achieving the desired results. By incorporating Essential SAFe in organisations realise more benefits of implementing SAFe.Lean Startup & Lean UX Scalable Power the Innovation:Lean UX & Lean portfolio management features of SAFe 4.5 help the organizations innovate and implement a strategy in the swift mode to taste the benefits earlier. Agile Teams & UX designers, using Lean Startup & Lean UX Scalable model, accept that the ‘accurate answer’ is not known in advance; so, they apply Agile methodologies to avoid Big Design Up-front (BDUF). Lean UX innovation methodology instills the confidence, sense of ownership, and the feel of ‘1 team, 1 product’; as a result, organizations deliver the better quality products in a shorter time span.DevOps improves Stability, Availability, Reliability, and Security:DevOps, a new feature in SAFe 4.5, is a cultural mindset defining a set of technical practices. It improves communication, automation, close cooperation and integration among the professionals engaged in planning, developing, testing, deployment, release, and maintaining the solution. SAFe 4.5 empowers the organizations to break down the silos and to empower Agile Release Trains (ART) & Solution Trains to deliver innovative features to end users.Implementation Roadmap to Accumulate Substantial Benefits:Implementation Roadmap, the key feature of SAFe 4.5, addresses the role of SAFe program consultants working externally and internally both as the change agents. SAFe Program Consultants are the change agents hired to apply their expertise in SAFe implementation with intrinsic motivation to improve the processes. The new way of working helps the organisations accumulate the substantial benefits like enhanced productivity, better employee engagement etc.Conclusion:To experience SAFe 4.5 benefits, the organisations need to embrace the Lean-Agile mindset to apply Lean-Agile principles. The leaders must identify the Value Streams and Agile Release Trains (ARTs) to implement the Lean-Agile portfolio, to build the quality, and to sustain the continuous value delivery system. And, the ‘culture evolvement’ is the key to success. Are you ready for it – to accept the changes?Creating the SAFe 4.5 Implementation roadmap is all about an incremental approach to plan and learn a bit. To continue SAFe 4.5 implementation effectively and to ensure the workforce engagement, the projects leads in Agile organisations must share their view of SAFe implementation. The certified SAFe 4.5 experts are expected to maintain the energy and enthusiasm that they devote to short iteration cycles.
Rated 4.0/5
based on 47 customer reviews
159
- by Shubhranshu Agarwal
- 22 May 2018
All the enterprises, irrespective of their size, nature, and strengths... Read More
What is Agile Planning & Agile Planning Levels?
By Shubhranshu Agarwal
What is Agile Planning? Agile planning is focused on getting the answers to simple questions like - what is to be built, when will it be completed, how much will it cost and who should be involved etc. The project managers also explore hidden dependencies for various activities to minimize the idle time and optimize delivery period. Agile planning revolves around measuring the velocity and efficiency of an Agile team to assess when it can turn the user stories into processes, production-ready software, and quality product delivery. The ultimate goal of Agile planning is to have a clear picture of project vision, production roadmap with sprint schedule, and business interests. To simplify the things, Agile planning can be stipulated f different levels - product vision; product roadmap; release; iteration; daily commitment. Level 1: Agile Planning For Product Vision – Five Tips: Agile planning starts with product vision creation ensuring that strategies are aligned properly and the development team spends its time on creating the right valuable product. The product vision guides the team members for the shared goal like a lighthouse. The product vision statement tells about ‘how the product supports organization’s strategies.’ You can simplify the process of Agile product vision development by making it a four-step exercise – development, drafting, validation, finalizing. The following five tips will help you to get the most out of it: Product vision should deliver the unique feel of ownership to keep you motivated. Validate your product vision with all the stakeholders, Scrum team members, users etc. Develop the product vision iteratively & incrementally with the scope to make it better over time. The product vision pitch should address all the key concerns of different stakeholder groups pertaining to quality, product goals, competition, longevity and maintenance needs etc. Focus your product vision on the values for users and customers not merely on the most advanced technology. Level 2: Agile Product Roadmap Planning– Five Tips: An Agile product roadmap is a plan that describes the way the product is likely to grow; it also facilitates for learning to change. To succeed in Agile management, you need to have a goal-oriented roadmap as it provides crucial information about everyday work by the team. As a powerful Agile management tool, it helps to align all the stakeholders and to estimate sufficient budget for quality product development as per schedule. Creating effective roadmap is often a challenge because changes occur unexpectedly in an Agile environment; however, the following five tips will help you plan the most effective roadmap: Do all the necessary prep work including describing & validating the product strategy. To know more about ‘Product strategy in the Agile world’, visit - https://svpg.com/product-strategy-in-an-agile-world/ . Focus your product roadmap on goals, benefits, objectives, acquiring customers, removing technical debt and increasing engagement etc. Let your product roadmap tell a coherent story about the likely development of a product. To simplify the task, you can divide the product roadmap into two parts- internal product roadmap and external roadmap. The internal product roadmap is focused on development, service, supporting groups, marketing, sales etc; while, the external roadmap is focused on prospective & existing customers. Keep the product roadmap simple and realistic to make the features understood by everyone concerned. Make your product roadmap measurable; so, think twice before adding timelines and deadlines. Level 3: Release Planning – Five Tips: In Agile landscape, the release is a set of product increments released to the customer. The release plan defines how much work your team will deliver by the mentioned deadline. Release planning is the collaborative task involving Scrum master (facilitates the meeting), Product owner (shares product backlog view), Agile team (provides insights into technical dependencies & feasibility) and Stakeholders (the trusted advisors). The following five tips will help you in effective release planning: Focus on goals, benefits, and results. Take dependencies and uncertainties into account. Release early but don't release just for the sake of scheduled releasing. Only release the work that is 'Done'. To know more about ‘Definition of Done (DoD)’ in Agile, plz visit - https://www.knowledgehut.com/blog/agile-management/definition-of-done-use-in-agile-project . Each release process has the scope for betterment. Continuous release process improvement helps you deliver more values for the product. 5 levels of #Agile planning ... and the DoD. #ProjectManagement #pmot https://t.co/qTalLiJS1S by John Goodpasture pic.twitter.com/dlWuMTnC8e — JoseAntonio Martinez (@MartinezBuenoJA) November 14, 2016 Level 4: Iteration Planning – Five Tips: The iteration planning is done by holding a meeting, where all the team members determine the volume of backlog items they can commit to deliver during the next iteration. The commitment is made according to the team's velocity and iteration schedule. The following five tips will help you in effective iteration planning: Span the iteration planning meeting maximum up to 4 hours. The planning meeting is organized by the team and for the team; so, everyone should participate. Avoid committing anything that exceeds the historical team’s velocity. Keep time for ‘retrospectives’ in the past sprints before planning for the next one. To know more about ‘Agile retrospective’, visit - https://www.agilealliance.org/glossary/heartbeatretro/. Follow the four principles – prepare, listen, respect & collaborate. Level 5: Daily Commitment Planning– Five Tips: Like many other planning activities for Agile management, the daily commitment planning also needs the synchronized partnership of teams. The daily planning meeting is focused on completing the top-priority features. The 15-minute standup meeting facilitates face-to-face communication on individual’s progress and impediments if any. The following five tips will help you in progress-oriented daily commitment planning: Keep it around the task board. Start on time regardless of who is present or not. Let each team member go through the questions like - what he did yesterday, what is his plan for today, and, is there any impediment?. Use ‘Parking Lot’ for the unresolved issues. The purpose of daily Agile-Scrum planning is to let the team members know about ‘being done’, ‘needs to be done’ and ‘hindrance if any’. Anything out of this scope should be listed in ‘Parking Lot’ to be dealt later. Do preparation ahead of time. The team members should know ‘what they need to share’. Conclusion: Agile planning levels are not time-consuming or complex; instead, these help product owners focus on the right group of professionals and the product development stage. The strategic Agile planning for different levels reduces considerable time, effort, and cost that is otherwise invested in repetition, correction, and last minute meetings etc.
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- by Shubhranshu Agarwal
- 11 May 2018
What is Agile Planning? Agile planning is focused on getting the an... Read More
Does The Lack Of Knowledge Sharing Affect Your Scrum Productivity?
By Shubhranshu Agarwal
Knowledge sharing is the biggest advantage of working in a group or as a team. The proper utilization of knowledge of every team member contributes to successful project delivery. However, a number of organizations have experienced major setbacks just because of not detecting and resolving the issue of ‘lack of knowledge sharing’ on time. In a Scrum – Agile organization, knowledge sharing becomes more important because Scrum, an Agile framework, is designed to complete the software development project through the collective efforts of the team. Knowledge Sharing Barriers –You May Not Know: To deal with the issue effectively, we can divide the commonly identified knowledge barriers into three categories: 1. Individual Knowledge Sharing Barriers: Low awareness about the benefits of knowledge sharing with others. Insufficient evaluation, feedback & communication. Lack of interaction between the team members 2. Organisational Knowledge Sharing Barriers: Lack of managerial direction for clear communication Inadequate spaces, resources and time to share and gain new knowledge Lack of transparency in recognition of performance 3. Technological Knowledge Sharing Barriers Improper integration of IT systems & processes Frequent obstructions to communication flows lack of compatibility between working process, project planning, execution and management Reluctance to use the latest technology due to lack of training Scrum helps teams deliver products with constant adaptation & improvement. A social entertainment and gaming company also reported a 73% gain in productivity.#agile #scrum #game #gaming #entertainment #tech #technology #software #adapt #adaptation #productivity #improvement pic.twitter.com/OjKsMutKR1 — Exceptional_LLC (@Exceptional_LLC) May 6, 2018 Negative Impacts of Knowledge Sharing Barriers on Scrum Productivity: A number of times the well-maintained velocity of Scrum projects takes a big hit when a star performer resigns all of sudden. The best you can do is to extract the maximum knowledge out of him during his stay period and to share the gathered information to another team member; it slows down the project besides developing uncertainties in the minds of your Scrum team members. The numbers of Scrum team members are questioned when an employee quits.Many a time, this questioning negatively affect their productivity and commitment both. The very common silo in Scrum Project Management you experience is when a newcomer joins your team and the team members are asked to pull that new member up to the required velocity. Many times, Scrum team responds to changes to deliver the best but few members still don’t believe in comprehensive documentation; it creates the dependency on each other. In the absence of proper training and commonly accepted Agile – Scrum culture, primarily focused on knowledge sharing, most of the projects run at a low velocity. Lack of knowledge sharing is the major cause of reworking that increases the delivery period and the cost as well. Effective knowledge sharing, essentially is the key to building self-organizing Agile teams. This is best described in the following video- 5 ways to Improve Knowledge Sharing for Better Scrum Productivity: The proper flow of knowledge sharing within Scrum team dramatically improves the productivity with quality. Scrum Master indeed is a manager as he/she manages the process of exchanging information. There is a lot of knowledge in the Scrum team members; and, getting it out on time for the people who need it is a challenge for Scrum leaders. The following 5 hacks will surely help you improve knowledge sharing: Store the Documents for Anytime Usage: Document all the knowledge and put it safely in an easy-to-access repository. The scope of this tactic covers the project relevant data of all the laptops and tablets also. 2. Conduct Demo meetings Within Team Or With Client: While preparing yourself for the demo meeting, you will need the documents to show the development; as a result, all the shared information will be available to you and for all. 3. Pair Programming: The idea behind ‘Pair Programming’ is to assign a particular code work to two programmers at the same time to prevent knowledge silos and to encourage transparency as well. It also helps both the developers to improve the quality by going through the ideas of each other. In addition, it takes care of ‘surprise resigning’. 4. Motivate Scrum Team Members: Most of the people don’t want to share their knowledge unless they expect something in return; therefore, Scrum members need motivational support by extrinsic and intrinsic rewards. 5. Go for Extreme Programming (XP) Extreme Programming (XP) is an Agile framework powered by the practical values of courage, communication, feedback, simplicity, respect. Make it a part of your Scrum strategy. Conclusion: The zero-gap knowledge sharing through the fastest route is the key to success in Scrum projects. It is also true that one roadmap doesn’t take everyone to the desired destination but the strategy with clear vision and goal matters; and, same is the case with knowledge sharing in Scrum. The ‘Professional Scrum Product Owner (PSPO)’ and ‘ScrumMaster (CSM) Certification Trainings’ help you deliver the best quality product at the earliest through strategic knowledge sharing system.
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- by Shubhranshu Agarwal
- 10 May 2018
- 4 mins read
Knowledge sharing is the biggest advantage of working in a group or as... Read More
Importance of Sprint Retrospective In Agile Project Management
By Shubhranshu Agarwal
There is a buzz in the community of IT service providers and software developers about the terms like Agile software development, Agile project management, Agile transformation, Agile methodology, Agile adoption etc. After coming across encouraging Agile journey experiences within the industry, a number of software development companies are switching over to an Agile culture. Once the Agile teams achieve efficiency, the team members start missing some important steps well defined in Agile project management; one of those is ‘sprint retrospective’ – a very important Agile activity to improve the process, quality, client’s side satisfaction and profitability. What is Sprint Retrospective? During the sprint retrospective, the entire team inspects the iteration and decides what can be done to improve the process. The outcomes of retrospective meetings are communicated to all the members; and, the suggestions are incorporated in the next iteration. It makes the retrospectives a never-to-miss exercise for short-cycled improvement and modification to varied circumstances. Here, I would refer “Getting Value out of Agile Retrospectives – A Toolbox of Retrospective Exercises” written by Luis Gonçalves and Ben Linders. The ideal way to get the most of retrospective is to use the user stories describing ‘who, what & why’ for planning and tracking the improvements. 7 Key Benefits of Sprint Retrospectives: It helps the support team to identify and resolve the conflict areas. It helps the Agile team to improve the processes continuously by knowing ‘what can be improved’. It allows all the members to share their views for improvement with the feel of ownership. It provides the roadmap for ‘start, stop doing & continue’. It helps the project managers to keep the project on the right track by fixing the priorities and directions. It helps to identify the risk and problem factors at an early stage. It creates transparency and builds trust among the team members that strengthen the team spirit. 5 Stages of Sprint Retrospective That Make it Important: Setting the environment and the stage to make the team members prepared for Agile retrospective is the first step. The 2nd stage is to gather and analyze the data of previous projects to have insights in to previous actions. It helps to fix the quality benchmarks for specific tasks. The collected insights including facts & feelings are shared to help the team members address all the relevant issues in particular sprint retrospective as well as to find the most secure and effective way to proceed further. The tasks are assigned with fixed responsibility to avoid any misunderstanding among the team members. Each sprint retrospective ends with the acknowledgement and appreciation to contribution of each member. The Five Agile - Sprint Retrospective Techniques to Deliver Better: 1. 4 Ls sprint Retrospective Technique: The 4 Ls is a widely used data collecting technique for sprint retrospective involving the individuals to express their opinions independently on Post-Its or in group discussions. The 4 Ls stand for: Liked – Things you like Learned – Things you learn Lacked – Things that could be improved Longed for – Things you wish for 2. Speedboat Sprint Retrospective Technique: The speedboat retrospective technique was first presented by Luke Hohmann in his book “Innovation Games”. The project manager draws a speedboat on a chart representing the Agile team. The team members put their ideas on the Post-Its; which are connected with speedboat like anchors. The intention is to find out the hurdles refraining the team members to move fast to deliver at the time. Now, the solution-focused approach turns each anchor into the gust of wind; and, the team starts delivering as it should. 3. Speed Car Sprint Retrospective Technique: It is the simplest retrospective technique to identify the hurdles and supporting powers both. The participants are asked to create post-its and place them over the ‘Engine’ and ‘Parachute’ of a speed car drawn on a chart. The post-its placed on the engine show the things that helped to perform and deliver; while, the post-its placed on the parachute show the things that slowed down the progress. The meeting ends with finding the solutions to each hurdle with the intention to apply the supporting forces in more areas. 4. Mad, Sad & Glad Sprint Retrospective Technique: The participants are asked to create post-its in three different colors. The idea behind the exercise is to identify the things that made the participants feel mad, sad & glad during the sprint. The post-its under ‘Mad’ highlight the problems, time-wasting exercises, unexpected results/developments etc. The post-its under ‘Sad’ highlight the issues within the team that slowed down the progress. The post-its under ‘Glad’ highlight the issues like successes, learning, and achievements. The discussion helps the team leader to find out the viable solution to each highlighted issue. 5. KALM Sprint Retrospective Technique: The KALM stands for- Keep - Something valuable you would love to repeat Add- A new concept you would love to try. Less - Something being done already, and; you would like to do it less. More- Something being done already; and, you would like to give it more value. The KALM retrospective technique stimulates the conversions over ongoing activities and perceived values. Ensure the team follows up on retrospective actions or there’s no point capturing them in the first place #scrum #retrospective — John Leighton (@johnjleighton) May 8, 2018 Summary: On being asked about the sprint meetings, the majority of Scrum Masters say that they simply ask- ‘What went well? ‘What didn’t work well?’ and ‘What can be improved?’. The importance of sprint retrospective in Agile –Scrum project management lies in learning because it leads the team members towards- ‘what did we learn?’ The continuous monitoring for improvement is the fundamental of Agile project management; and, the sprint retrospective brightens the success prospects.
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based on 42 customer reviews
150
- by Shubhranshu Agarwal
- 10 May 2018
There is a buzz in the community of IT service providers and software ... Read More
ITIL Key Concepts And Summary Of Processes- A Complete Guide
By Shubhranshu Agarwal
What is ITIL? ITIL, the acronym for ‘Information Technology Infrastructure Library’ is a set of IT service management services focused on deliverance in the line of customers’ needs. Today, it has become a de facto standard for providing IT services. Originated in the 1980s in the UK, the ITIL approach helps the IT industries to serve the customers in an economical and quality-driven manner. ITIL 2011 is the latest update released to help the industries refine IT services. What are the Concepts of ITIL? The key ITIL concepts are: Deliver the maximum value to customers without requiring them to own unpredicted costs & risks Deliver the maximum service value to customers. Optimize the use of ‘resources’ & ‘capabilities’ Services should offer the best utility and trustworthy warranty. All the processes should be planned for the specific objectives. Roles should be defined clearly for the task-oriented collective efforts. ITIL concepts are built over five core components with inherent supporting principles: 1. Service Strategy: ITIL service strategy defines the services as the assets, and then going forward to maintain and implement the strategy. The principles of ITIL service strategy address the issues pertaining to corporate governance & compliance, business processes, policies, decision making, corporate culture and service improvement. 2. Service Design: ITIL service design deals with the issues of capacity management, continuity management, supplier management, service catalogue management etc. 3. Service Transition: ITIL service transition guidelines address the activities aligned to change evaluation, change management, project management, application development, release and deployment management, service validation, service assets management, knowledge management etc. 4.Service Operation: ITIL service operation guidelines address the activities aligned to event management, incident management, request fulfilment, access management, problem management, IT operations control, facilities management, application management, technical management etc. 5. Continuous Improvement: ITIL continuous improvement guidelines define the roadmap to manage service review, process evaluation, CSI initiatives and monitoring of CSI initiatives. What Are The Benefits Of ITIL Implementation? The growing demand of ITIL professionals all across the world proves that the IT industries are experiencing the tremendous benefits of ITIL framework. The following 6 benefits of ITIL are experienced by the majority of IT services providers: Better product delivery and enhanced customer satisfaction Better understanding between the IT and business Better risk management with a wider scope Better service management to accommodate business changes Better assessment of costs & assets Better cost management because of optimum utilization of in-house resources I am very excited about where the #ITIL Update is going in regards to introducing the concept of Systems Thinking! Finally going to see the integration of both Service Management & Build Practices! https://t.co/uMfS2OQZJh — Troy DuMoulin (@TroyDuMoulin) April 18, 2018 What are the ITIL Certification Levels? The 5-tiered structure of ITIL certification offers the candidates a much-desired flexibility relating to different areas of application. There are five levels of qualifications within the ITIL Qualification Scheme, as mentioned below: Foundation Level - The entry-level ITIL certification helps you understand all the terminologies, concepts and elements of ITIL service lifecycle. It helps you implement ITIL practices to streamline the processes for consistent improvement. ITIL Foundation Certification gives you 2 credits toward ITIL Expert certification. Practitioner Level: The next level after the foundation certification; It helps you improve the ability to follow ITIL framework. It imparts perfection to adopt and adapt ITSM system to support the business objectives. Encompassing all the three key areas for successful of improvement initiatives, namely communication, organizational change management, and measurement / metrics, ITIL Practitioner derives the comprehensive method for Continual Service Improvement (CSI). Intermediate Level: The next to practitioner level; ITIL Intermediate Service Operation Training provides you deep insights into the modular structure comprising of different modules focused on IT service management. ITIL Intermediate certification refines your perfection in service operation, technology considerations and managing the critical success factors. Expert Level: The next to intermediate level, expert-level ITIL certification is designed for the professionals interested to demonstrate their ITIL Scheme knowledge in its entirety. It needs you to have deep insights in ITIL best practices besides the ITIL Intermediate certification. Master Level: It is the most advanced ITIL certification designed for the ITIL experts with proven experience of selecting and applying the range of ITIL principles, methods & techniques to derive the best outcomes. To get the Master Level certification, you need the have five years’ experience in leadership, managerial, or higher management advisory positions. As said above, ITIL qualification gives you more numbers of options to choose the best-designed course/training tailored to your career plans. Other than traditional certification courses, you may opt for specific and purpose-oriented short term courses also like ITIL Intermediate Service Strategy Training, ITIL Intermediate Service Transition Training, ITIL Intermediate Operational Support and Analysis etc. What are the Career Prospects after Having ITIL certification? ITIL is tied to ISO/IEC 20000 norms; as more and more organizations are trying to become ISO/IEC 20000 certified, the demand for ITIL certified professionals is bound to go high. The hundreds of companies and top brands in diverse sectors including finance, retail, IT, technology, entertainment, manufacturing, medical etc have adopted ITIL framework; and many more are going to adopt it. The top brands relying on ITIL include Boeing, Sony, Honda, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, Citibank, Barclays, Disney, Toyota, Pfizer, Bank of America etc. Combining the ITIL certification with other project management certifications significantly increases the salary range. BusinessWire predicts that the ITSM industry will grow from $4.4 billion in 2016 to $8.78 billion in 2021. CRN Magazine included ITIL certification among the top 15 certifications that boost your career dramatically. ITIL Summary to Conclude: The globally acknowledged ITIL qualification is going to be the most desired prerequisite for IT project manager jobs in 2018 and after. The above detailed ITIL concepts, core components, benefits and career scope make it simple to understand why the ITIL certification is the most preferred choice of experienced IT professionals poised to boost their competency level. ITIL certification ensures that all the team members understand all the aspects of service management holistically and not just the tasks assigned to them. The online and classroom trainings for different level ITIL certification, as conducted by KnowledgeHut, are of great help for ITIL certification preparation; so, don’t wait – explore your options.
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based on 41 customer reviews
141
- by Shubhranshu Agarwal
- 09 May 2018
What is ITIL? ITIL, the acronym for ‘Information Technology ... Read More
5 Reasons To Have Fixed-Length Sprints
By Shubhranshu Agarwal
Should the sprint length in Scrum be fixed or variable? It has been a hot topic of discussion for years but most of the experiences shared by Scrum Masters go in favour of fixed length sprints; and, I too follow the rule of fixed length sprints. According to Agile Cadences and Technical Debt Survey report, 68% Scrum Masters favoured fixed length sprints while 29% accepted to make infrequent changes in the sprint length. Only 7% Scrum Masters accepted to change sprint length frequently as and when required. No doubt, flexible sprint length releases work pressure on the members but this practice develops a number of undesired apparent or hidden snags pertaining to quality, cost, time and scope. Here in this article, I will explore 5 more commonly accepted reasons to adopt fixed-length sprints framework. 1. Teams Benefits from a Regular Rhythm Regular time-boxed delivery is the core Scrum discipline; therefore, we can’t take the liberty to have flexible sprint lengths. In case of flexible sprint lengths, team members are unsure of schedule. The fixed duration sprint benefits the Scrum teams because each member has to be settled with a rhythm. 2. Sprint Planning Becomes Easier The fixed sprint length makes the sprint planning easier because the team members know how much work they are supposed to deliver in the forthcoming sprint. 3. Tracking Velocity Is Easier Tracking Scrum velocity is easier with same length sprints. You can’t be sure of completing twice the amount of work if the one-week sprint period is extended up to two weeks. The alternative practice may be to normalize the velocity on per-week basis, but it seems a needless and complex exercise if the Scrum sprints are kept at the same length. 4. On the Time Course Corrections It is very common to find a gap between the demand of the product manager and the amount of work delivered. Fixed-length sprints minimize that gap by bringing the product manager and engineers together at a fixed interval. The findings at each sprint guide the Scrum team to incorporate the required changes before the particular task is done, tested & documented. 5. Maximizes Responsiveness to Customer Fixed-length sprints improve the responsiveness to customer requests. True, instant turnaround to customer requests is not possible; yet, it can be addressed quickly at priority. The only way to satisfying the customer at the best is to deliver the new feature or to fix the bug quickly in short fixed-length sprint cycles. How to Fix the Ideal Sprint Length – 5 Tips: Ideally, sprint is a fixed time period of 1-4 weeks; it depends upon the team to schedule the sprint. The shorter Sprints spanned for one - two weeks help the Scrum teams identify the problems faster; but sometimes it seems uncomfortable. Many times, Scrum teams decide for the 3 - 4 weeks longer sprints to avoid indulgence towards these problems/ impediments; however, it is not a Scrum-like approach because Scrum principles guide to identify and deal with the problems at the earliest. So, the question is how to fix the ideal sprint length holding the balance between focus and opportunistic adaptiveness. The following 5 tips will help you optimize the sprints schedule: 1. Uncertainty may come in a variety of forms like not properly defined requirements, new technology, high-risk potential, difficult-to-implement interface etc. In case of significant uncertainty, you should go for shorter sprints - the most effective way to refine the project requirements or to try the new technology before getting set for solution development. 2. The volume of tasks and the expected time required affect the selection of sprint length. The team members should be comfortable to accomplish the task to complete a user story during the gap between the two sprints; and, as a Scrum Master, you should have a fair idea of the time required. 3. If you are facing a lot of disruptions, shorten the Sprint length to match the occurrence of disruptions. 4. The project duration is the key deciding factor for Scrum sprint duration. A short-period project such as one of three-month benefits from shorter sprints because of more reviews at shorter periods. If the project is long in duration, continue to look at the other factors. 5. Each Scrum sprint provides an opportunity to the Scrum Master to document the progress to stakeholders. Each sprint provides an opportunity to stakeholders to request for revisions. If you expect the stakeholders to provide input, prefer to set shorter periods for the sprints. Setting your iterations too short in #scrum can have a damaging effect. "Failed" sprints and poor morale. #agile #teams — John Cutler (@johncutlefish) June 10, 2017 Concluding Thoughts: Shorter Sprints are preferred because of many reasons as discussed above but these need to be scheduled perfectly at comfortable intervals so that the sprint planning, sprint reviewing, sprint retrospective can be meaningful. Instead of fixing the sprint length to fit the ‘Product Backlog Items’ size, it is better to make the items smaller. The Certifications like CSM and other project management training and courses provide the deep insights into the perfect sprint planning.
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- by Shubhranshu Agarwal
- 08 May 2018
Should the sprint length in Scrum be fixed or variable? It has been a ... Read More