10 safe essential elements to achieve the benefits of safe

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10 SAFe Essential Elements for Achieving the Benefits of SAFe

Sue Shreve – cPrime SAFe Practice Lead, SPCT4, Enterprise Agile Coach and Trainer, CSP, CSPO, CSM


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AGILE

Who is cPrime?


Today’s Presenter

Certifications• SPCT4• SPC• CSM, CSP• CSPO• ICAgile Certified Professional

Enterprise Coach - ICP-ENT• ICAgile Certified Professional

Coaching Agile Transformations - ICP-CAT• Innovation Games Certified Yellow BeltEducation• STANFORD UNIVERSITY,

• M.S., Mechanical Engineering• Lockheed Honors Program.

• SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY• B.S., Civil Engineering• Graduated with Great Distinction.

• AGILE COACHING INSTITUTEwww.agilecoachinginstitute.com• Integral Agile Wizard• The Coaching Stance• Leading from the Next Level• TCS Coaching Circle

Sue Shreve –cPrime SAFe Practice LeadAgile Coach and Product Management Executive with over 20 years experience. Areas of particular expertise include enterprise Agile transformation – training, coaching, Scrum Master, also, application life cycle product management in commercial enterprise software and platform development. Possesses strong skills as a leader, mentor, coach, achieving great success in developing high performance teams using a blend of technical knowledge and leadership ability with a constant focus on customer satisfaction. Assisted in enterprise Agile transitions at Syniverse, Greendot, LG Electronics, Philips Medical, Greenplum, CIG insurance, othersOne of first 35 SPCTs globally – passionate about how SAFe provides alignment and traceability from Architecture and Business Initiatives down to development and release. Certified Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) Program Consultant Trainer (SPCT), Certified Scrum Professional (CSP), Certified Product Owner (CSPO), Certified Scrum Master (CSM) Strong expertise in coaching. Completed courses through the Agile Coaching InstituteM.S. Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University


AgendaTodays discussion:

ü What is “Essential” for doing SAFe – the minimum set of practices, roles for doing SAFe

ü See some of the pitfalls when we drift away from these 10 Essentials of SAFe


Poll QuestionHow many ARTs have you launched?

a) None, but thinking about itb) None, but no plans currentlyc) 1-‐2d) 3 or more


The Scaled Agile Framework


Essential SAFe


Over Time

Time

*Not all companies use the Value stream and/or Portfolio Levels


SAFe Essentials 1. SAFe Lean-‐Agile Principles2. Agile Teams and Release Trains3. Cadence and Synchronization4. Essential Team and Program Roles5. PI Planning6. System Demo7. Inspect and Adapt8. IP Iteration9. Architectural Runway10. Lean-‐Agile Leadership


Timeline for an ART Launch

Executing the PI

Time


Building in SAFe Essentials in an ART Launch Timeline

Executing the PI

9. Architectural Runway

3. Cadence and Synchronization

2. Agile Teams and Release Trains

4.Essential Roles

8. IP Iteration

5. PI Planning

1. Principles

1. Principles

Essential SAFe

10. Lean-‐Agile Leadership

6. System Demo

7. I&A Workshop


1 – SAFe Lean-‐Agile Principles#1 -‐ Take an economic view#2 -‐ Apply systems thinking#3 -‐ Assume variability; preserve options#4 -‐ Build incrementally with fast, integrated learning cycles#5 -‐ Base milestones on objective evaluation of working systems#6 -‐ Visualize and limit WIP, reduce batch sizes, and manage queue lengths #7 -‐ Apply cadence, synchronize with cross-‐domain planning#8 -‐ Unlock the intrinsic motivation of knowledge workers#9 -‐ Decentralize decision-‐making

“We learned the principle in our training class but we put our training slides on the shelf…”

• The lean-‐agile mindset does not develop • Lock yourself into a solution too soon• Misalignment comes back, hard to resolve

…It is useful to revisit the principles and consider how they are used in your day to day decision making process.


2 – Agile Teams and Release Trainsü You have an Agile Release Train – a team of agile teams

ü Agile teams are cross-‐functional

ü The ART is cross-‐functional

Signs that you need to revisit the formulation of the teams and ART:• Features need to be touched by many teams to be completed• Features are often late• Very unpredictable on delivery

Are your agile teams working on an Agile Release Train and organized around Value? Teams formulated to minimize dependencies?Does Value flow smoothly and quickly with minimal overhead?


3 – Cadence and Synchronizationü All teams on the train work on the same iteration cadenceü Iterations are always the same lengthü The ART always operates with the same Program Increment cadence

Are you seeing:• Dependencies that are uncoordinated?• No enforced integration and objective evaluation points?• Integration is late; the system is not iterating?

The Train is not Agile

Team 1 Iteration 1 Iteration 2 Iteration 3 Iteration 4 IP Iteration 1 Iteration 2 Iteration 3 Iteration 4 IPTeam 2 Iteration 1 Iteration 2 Iteration 3 Iteration 4 IP Iteration 1 Iteration 2 Iteration 3 Iteration 4 IPTeam 3 Iteration 1 Iteration 2 Iteration 3 Iteration 4 IP Iteration 1 Iteration 2 Iteration 3 Iteration 4 IPTeam 4 Iteration 1 Iteration 2 Iteration 3 Iteration 4 IP Iteration 1 Iteration 2 Iteration 3 Iteration 4 IPTeam 5 Iteration 1 Iteration 2 Iteration 3 Iteration 4 IP Iteration 1 Iteration 2 Iteration 3 Iteration 4 IPTeam 6 Iteration 1 Iteration 2 Iteration 3 Iteration 4 IP Iteration 1 Iteration 2 Iteration 3 Iteration 4 IP


4 – Essential Team and Program Roles

Team Roles: Product Owner, Scrum Master, the cross-‐functional Team

Program Roles: Release Train Engineer, Product Management, System Architect, Business Owners, Customer

If these roles are unclear:• No clear vision and lack of prioritization

results in unhappy stakeholders• Design and architecture churn; missteps in

component integration


5 – PI PlanningKey Program Event-‐

Face-‐to-‐face meeting to create alignment and commit as an ART to a set of objectives

Objectives:Interface 10Feature 8Refactor UI 5


Objectives:Interface 10Feature 8Refactor UI 5Objectives:

Interface 10Feature 8Refactor UI 5




What if this PI Planning meeting shrinks and is delegated to a few?• No alignment between business and engineering• Commitment made “on behalf” of the teams• Dependencies not apparent and will be discovered

during execution

The teams are not committed


6 – System DemoSystem Demo

• Primary measure of ART progress• Provides objective evidence of the working system every two weeks

If: “We don’t have time for a System Demo, we already do team demos” Then:

• Business is unclear on the progress and quality of the system • Integration problems will be discovered late in the PI leading • Missing an opportunity for feedback


7 – Inspect and AdaptI&A Workshop at the end of the Program Increment to

• Reflect• Assess the system and process for building the system• Determine action to improve

Done in 3 Parts• PI System Demo• Quantitative measurement• Problem Solving workshop

“But there is no time and too many people…”• Management may mandate improvements that don’t address the

real problems• Stakeholders not involved in changing the system• No meaningful program level improvement

Do

CheckAdjust

Plan


8 – Innovation and Planning IterationInnovation and Planning Iteration provides

• Estimation buffer for current iteration• Dedicated time for innovation and exploration of hard problems• I&A workshop• Planning for upcoming PI

But you say… “Have an iteration where the teams are not delivering stories? We cant have that...”

• People will burn out• No time for needed points above• No time for continuing education


Poll QuestionWhat are you doing with your Innovation and Planning Iteration?

a) Not doing at allb) Doing but, not a full two-‐week iterationc) Doing per the framework guidance


Poll QuestionWhat are your obstacles with your Innovation and Planning Iteration:

a) Delivery timeline does not permitb) This is the spill-‐over time, we are finishing stories and features due to

estimation uncertainties. This is all we do.c) Lack of buy-‐in for this process change


9 – Architectural RunwayThere is architectural runway when there is enough technological infrastructure to support development of near term, high priority features without excessive refactoring.

Architectural runway is developed ahead of the business features through Enablers – exploratory spikes, infrastructure and architecture.

Make sure you have enough and areactively maintaining the runway.

When we don’t pay enough attention to Architectural Runway:

• Teams develop the architecture in “real time”• Solution robustness and quality decline over time• Development is slowed


10 – Lean Agile LeadershipLean-‐Agile Leadership Mindset represented by:

• House of Lean: Lean leadership foundation, pillars of: respect for people and culture, flow, innovation and relentless improvement

• Agile Manifesto and 12 principles• 6 lean-‐agile leadership traits

But…“Our management is really busy, no time for training class; they just want us to meet the dates and don’t really care how we do it…”

• Transformation wanes, no strong guidance• Still iron triangle thinking• Traditional mindset resulting in the true power of the team underutilized and

over controlled and demotivated


SAFe Essentials Self-‐Assessment

How is your ART doing with SAFe Essentials?


Resources and Further Readingwww.scaledagileframework.com

Guidance article and downloads:

http://www.scaledagileframework.com/guidance-‐essential-‐safe/

Download:ü Essential SAFe Draft White Paperü Essential SAFe Draft Self-‐Assessmentü Essential SAFe Image


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