Webinar: 3 Lessons Learned Guiding SAFe® Implementations with Mike Hall | Agile Velocity

AgileVelocity.com | 512.298.2835
3 LESSONS LEARNED
GUIDING SAFe®
IMPLEMENTATIONS

PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL ACCELERATE AGILITY
Mike Hall
Senior Agile Coach
mike.hall@agilevelocity.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/agile-leader/
@MikeH_Agile

Technology Today

Lesson #1:
Starting with a scaling
framework instead of desired
OUTCOMES can lead to
unpredictable results.

Does implementing a SAFe configuration guarantee that
your specific business outcome will be achieved?
?

Starting with a scaling framework and expecting it to
achieve some glorious business outcome
Don’t put your
cart before
your horse.

Always start with a Business Outcome, not a framework!
“Improve our market responsiveness to 2
months or less when new security breaches
are found.”
“Reduce defects found after release by
50% this year.”
“Increase our customer satisfaction NPS
score to 85, a 20% increase within 6 months.”
“Decrease help desk tickets by 40% when
compared to last year through self-service
and robot automation.”
“Reduce our unused feature % from 60% to
20% within 2 years.”
“Increase our number of releases to 4 this year,
instead of our average of 1 per year.”

Business Outcomes
Productivity
Predictability
Innovation
Quality
Speed
Employee
Engagement
Customer
Satisfaction
Continuous
Improvement
Market
Responsiveness

Business
Outcomes
SAFe
Practices
What’s
Missing?

Business
Outcomes
Agile
Outcomes
Agile
Capabilities
SAFe
Practices
“Why”
Dictates
Priorities
Which Are
Achieved
Through
By
Implementing
Accomplish
Enables
Drives
The “connective tissue” of an
Agile transformation!

Example Agile Outcomes

The 120-person shared services organization provides
technical services to the rest of the company.
The org is filled with talented engineers and leaders
that are truly motivated to make a difference!
Customer Perception: Org is slow, consistently misses
dates, low communication to the portfolios, ART flow
inhibitor!
Reality: Siloed org, massive handoffs, unengaged
employees, plans based on wishful thinking, significant
technical debt.
Case Study: Large US-based Airline
Customer
Satisfaction
Predictability
Speed
Employee
Engagement
BUSINESS OUTCOMES IDENTIFIED

Customer
Satisfaction
Predictability
Speed
Employee
Engagement
BUSINESS OUTCOMES AGILE OUTCOMES
OrgSystemTeam
Leaders are articulating value and
sequencing the work at the appropriate
level and then allowing the next layer to
pull and decompose so teams can focus
on delivering the highest value work.
Ability to Focus
Predict | Org
Path to Agility 2.2.2 | pathtoagility.com
The ability to make fast decisions at all
levels in order to effectively react to
business needs.
Decision Agility
Accelerate | Org
The organization is constantly
implementing ways to reduce time to
deliver end-to-end value and are
collaboratively maximizing the flow of
value beyond traditional spheres of
control.
Faster Time to Value
Accelerate | System
The team continuously implements ways
to reduce the time it takes to deliver value
into production.
Reduced Cycle Time
Accelerate | Team
Teams are able to safely deploy code,
release on demand to production, and
operate with minimal manual effort.
Release Continuously
Accelerate | Team
Cross-functional teams deliver developed
and tested code each iteration with
minimal carryover.
Predictable Delivery Cadence
Predict | Team

Customer
Satisfaction
Predictability
Speed
Employee
Engagement
OrgSystemTeam
BUSINESS OUTCOMES AGILE OUTCOMES
Leaders recognize and embrace the shift
in their role, from directing the work to
supporting their staff, enabling high-
performing teams, and changing the ways
they interact and lead in service to others.
Agile Leadership
Predict | Org
How work and value flow is understood
and teams are identified and formed to
reduce dependencies and optimize flow.
Teams Aligned to Value
Align | System
The team has established agreements,
owns them, and updates them over time
as needed.
Team Formed
Align | Team
Foster self-organizing teams where
ownership is transferred from
management to team.
Team Empowerment
Learn | Org

Example 1: Agile Capabilities and SAFe Mapping
- Value Stream workshop
- Operational value stream
- Development value streams
- Value streams at Portfolio,
Large Solution, and Essential levels
- Organize around flow of value
- ARTs consist of cross-functional Agile
teams
- Minimal component teams
- Evolve cross-functionality to reduce
dependencies
- Team charter
- WSJF prioritization
- PO Sync event
- Vision capability in spanning palette
- Business value in PI Planning
The ways in which value is delivered and how it flows is
understood.
Align | System | Teams Aligned to Value
Value Streams Identified
Path to Agility 2.2.2 |pathtoagility.com
Cross-functional teams have been created for the value
streams with minimal dependencies and handoffs.
Streams
The needs of the market and/or stakeholders define the teams
purpose and guide value delivery.
Clear Value Proposition
AGILE OUTCOME SAFe MAPPINGAGILE CAPABILITIES
How work and value flow is understood
and teams are identified and formed to
reduce dependencies and optimize flow.
Align | System

Example 2: Agile Capabilities and SAFe Mapping
AGILE OUTCOME SAFe MAPPING
Cross-functional teams deliver developed
and tested code each iteration with
minimal carryover.
Predictable Delivery Cadence
Predict | Team
AGILE CAPABILITIES
Acceptance Criteria
Potentially Shippable Product Increment created every iteration
Potentially Shippable Product Increment has business value for the customer
Potentially Shippable Product Increment is released to the customer on
demand
Potentially Shippable
Product Increment
Predict | Team | Predictable Delivery Cadence
Path to Agility 2.2.2 Framework: © 2017-2020 Agile Velocity, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Acceptance Criteria
Forecasts created based on team velocity and history of delivering product
increments
Forecasts are accurate enough to deliver the business value that stakeholders
expect (even if the scope is not precisely the same)
Forecasting
Acceptance Criteria
Iteration commitment in the form of a potentially shippable product increment
is typically met
Work is pulled as capacity becomes available
Limit WIP
- Every team builds PSPI every iteration!
- XP practices to ensure Quality
- System Demo every 2 weeks of PSPI
- Program Increment every 8-12 weeks
- Roadmap of 3 PIs based on empirical
data,1 committed PI, 2 forecast PIs
- Normalized story point estimates
- Aggregate story points for Feature/
Epic estimates
- Metrics at all levels
- Team kanban with WIP limits
- Program kanban with WIP limits
- Portfolio kanban with WIP limits
- Backlogs at all levels
- Pull only when capacity is available!

Business
Outcomes
Agile
Outcomes
Agile
Capabilities
SAFe
Practices
“Why”
Dictates
Priorities
Which Are
Achieved
Through
By
Implementing
Accomplish
Enables
Drives
TAKE AWAY:
Agile Outcomes and Capabilities are
the “connective tissue” that link your
Business Outcomes to your chosen
framework!

Lesson #2:
“Number of ARTs Launched” is
a vanity metric.

65K employees, 80 million customers.
Large number of highly complex systems,
massive dependencies, government
regulations with fixed dates, very long
release cycles (1 - 2 years).
“We want to go Agile. We have lots of inter-
org dependencies that need to be managed.
So, let’s implement SAFe!”
“Success = number of ARTs launched. Let’s
measure it.”
Case Study: Fortune 50 Health Insurance Company

ART #1
ART #1

ART #2
ART #2

ART #3
ART #3

Subsequent ARTs
ARTs “launched” within siloed orgs to get a +1 effect on the major metric. No focus on the real delivery value stream across
multiple orgs. No focus on true long-lasting change. “But we launched 55 ARTs in 2 years!”
ART #4
ART #5 ART #6 ART #7 ART #8

ARTs are designed to span organization verticals!
Flow of Value

Take-Away
Avoid vanity metrics, such as # ARTs launched, # of Agile Teams, etc.
What matters most is long-lasting change for the better.
So measure:
• Quality: defect leakage
• Average feature cycle time
• ART and team predictability
• Adaptability
• Etc.
“Tell me how you measure me and I will tell you how I will behave.
If you measure me in an illogical way… do not complain about illogical behavior…”
- Bertrand Dupperrin

Lesson #3:
Launching ARTs without
forming cross-functional teams
is Cargo-Cult Agile.

Cargo Cult Agile
Adherence to the
s u p e r ﬁ c i a l ,
outward signs of
some idea without
an understanding
of how and why
that idea actually
works.

The 300-person product development
organization provides critical “always on”
systems to run the daily operations.
Org is dynamic and resilient, loaded with talent.
ARTs were launched with all component teams
instead of cross-functional Feature teams.
“We just went through a re-org, so we will create
cross-functional teams later…”
Case Study: Large US-based Airline

ARTs Without Cross-Functional Teams
Each Team produces more & more component output every iteration, very little if any product integration.
Long queue of unvalidated/untested code
Integration Final QA
Deferred Integration and QA

ARTs with Cross-Functional Teams
Each Agile Team produces a “potentially shippable product increment” of value every iteration!
System Demo: fully integrated “potentially shippable program increment” of value every iteration!

Take-Away
Get Agile at the team-level working well first before even considering scaling. All
flavors of Agile (Scrum, Kanban, XP) require cross-functional teams. It is NOT optional!
Form cross-functional ARTs using cross-functional Teams. Delay launching your ART
until your teams are cross-functional.

TIPS FOR STAYING
ON THE PATH

Tips For Staying On The Path
1. SAFe is all about integration, integration, and integration.
Form your System Team early and issue the challenge!
2. Map existing job titles into your SAFe roles early on. It will
reduce confusion on “who does what?”
3. Tailor and right-size SAFe to fit your needs. The only thing
prescriptive about SAFe is the 10 Lean-Agile principles!

Align
Accelerate
Adapt
Predict
Learn
Chaos & Resistance
Integration &
Practice
New Status Quo
Status Quo
Path to Agility® Framework

AgileVelocity.com | 512.298.2835
Email us at
info@agilevelocity.com
If you need to re-focus your organization on
outcomes…
Our free, 2-hour Path to Agility® Outcomes workshop guides your
organization’s leadership through the process of determining the most important
business outcomes needed and deﬁning a path to achieving those outcomes.
If you need help understanding where to go from
here…
Our Agile Assessment services will identify gaps, establish a baseline for the
transformation moving forward, and determine key next steps for achieving your
goals.
If your organization is ready to get started…
Our SAFe Training and Implementation services help your organization
understand and integrate the Scaled Agile Framework while maintaining an ongoing
focus on delivering business outcomes.
Thanks for Watching
Learn more about Agile Velocity services & our Path to Agility® Framework

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