that conference 2016 deconstructing the scaled agile framework

ThatConference 2016

[email protected] Twitter: @OakParkGirl

There are lots of agile frameworks, I do not know which one is best and I had to

start SOMEWHERE with my research? Tell me more!

My team has grown too big and we are struggling with scaling our efforts and still

being effectively agile!!

I’ve seen the SAFe diagram and it looks (scary |overwhelming | complex) and I

need the crib notes

I already use the SAFe framework, and am interested in hearing your perspective

SAFe seems like a bad idea, but I am open to hearing some ideas about how to

apply it

Library of Congress

Problems

discovered too

late

No way to

improve

systematically

Hard to

manage

distributed

teams

Late

Delivery!

Too little

visibility

Too early

commitment to a

design that

didn’t work

Massive

growth in

complexity

Phase gate

SDLC isn't

helping reduce

risk

Under-estimated

dependencies

Maybe your retrospectives read like this

“The Business”

thinks agile

doesn’t work

Poor

morale


LEADERSHIP

Re

sp

ect fo

r

pe

op

le a

nd

cu

ltu

re

Flo

w

Inn

ova

tio

n

Re

len

tle

ss

imp

rove

me

nt

VALUE

House of Lean

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Working software over comprehensive documentation

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

Responding to change over following a plan

Agile Manifesto

Value in the sustainably

shortest lead time

That is, while there is value in the items on the

right, we value the items on the left more.

We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it

and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:


4 444 :

Documents Documents Unverified System System


Scrum Team 1

Scrum Team 2Scrum Team 3

Scrum Team 4

DevOps Team

Scrum Team 1

Scrum Team 2

Scrum Team 3

Scrum Team 4


THE

LEVELS


THE

PEOPLE

Program Portfolio Management team = strategy and investment funding, program

execution, and governance.

Enterprise Architect = works across Value Streams and Agile Release Trains to provide

strategic technical guidance in such areas as technology stack recommendations,

interoperability of solutions, and hosting strategies

Epic Owner = takes responsibility for the business case and implementation guidance of

initiatives (called Epics in SAFe)


Release Train Engineer = facilitates activities of the Agile Release Train

Product Management = responsible for the Program Vision and Roadmap

The System Architect/Engineer plays a critical role in helping align teams in a common

technical direction toward accomplishment of the mission, Vision, and Roadmap.

Business Owners share responsibility for the value delivered by a specific Agile Release

Train


Product owners own the vision of the product

Scrum masters own the process and coaches/supports the team

The agile team delivers on their commitments, and pursues

excellence continuously and relentlessly


THE

BACKLOGS


THE

CADENCE


Deliver on Demand

Major

Release Customer

Upgrade

Customer

Preview

Major

Release New

Feature

Develop on Cadence

PSI PSI PSI PSI PSI

THE

QUALITY


RELENTLESS

IMPROVEMENT


Fear? Uncertainty? Doubt?

Maybe they haven’t ever really looked at SAFe beyond the

“Big Picture”

I honestly don’t know. But keep an open mind and check it out.

And in the end, maybe it just really isn’t right for your team…


Do you have a single product worked on by many teams?

Do you have a single team working on many products at the

same time?

Do you deliver many products that are worked on by many

teams?

Do you have one product worked on by a single team?


Focus on having a single product owner, not a product owner per team

Minimize sources of work, if possible use one consolidated portfolio backlog

Consolidate onto a minimum set of ALM/DevOps tools

Encourage and continually support EFFECTIVE and CONSTANT communication

Make sure progress across teams is transparent and easily discoverable


Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize

Context switching to work on multiple products should NOT be tolerated

Keep sprints short to allow for fast pivoting and integration of learnings

Scrum may not be the only solution, be creative!

Extreme focus on quality – crap doesn’t scale!


First off OH MY!!

Second off, this is where SAFe strategies shine

Leverage techniques already discussed

Bring the work to the team, always!

All teams must already be operating as highly effective agile

teams before you bring in SAFe strategies!!


Move along… SAFe is probably not for you

Embrace lean principals

Keep focusing on continuous improvement


©2008-2014 Scaled Agile, Inc. and Leffingwell, LLC. All rights reserved.

A proven, publicly-facing framework for applying Lean and Agile practices at enterprise scale

ScaledAgileFramework.com

Synchronizes

alignment,

collaboration and

delivery for large

numbers of teams

CORE VALUES

1. Program Execution

2. Alignment

3. Code Quality

4. Transparency

49

SAFe Guidance: http://www.scaledagileframework.com/guidance/

Principals of Product Development Flow:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1935401009

Lean Change Management by Jason Little: www.amazon.com/Lean-

Change-Managment-Innovative-Organizational/dp/0990466507/

Comparisons of scaling frameworks (SOS and Nexus):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnXDrOGEk9g


http://www.scaledagileframework.com/guidance/

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1935401009

http://www.amazon.com/Lean-Change-Managment-Innovative-Organizational/dp/0990466507/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnXDrOGEk9g

Email: [email protected]

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andugan

Slideshare.NET: http://www.slideshare.net/angelabinkowski

Twitter: @OakParkGirl, @ChicagoALM, @TeamPolaris

Blog - http://www.tfswhisperer.com/

Chicago Visual Studio ALM User Group - http://www.chicagoalmug.org/

Polaris Solutions website - http://www.polarissolutions.com/


mailto:[email protected]

https://www.linkedin.com/in/andugan

http://www.slideshare.net/angelabinkowski

http://www.tfswhisperer.com/

http://www.chicagoalmug.org/

http://www.polarissolutions.com/

that conference 2016 deconstructing the scaled agile framework

Software