Six Fixes to UnSAFe Starts

1Leffingwell et al. © 2014 Scaled Agile, Inc. All Rights ReservedLeffingwell et al. © 2014 Scaled Agile, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Francis Kelly

VP, Partner Development & Sales

[email protected]

Six Fixes to unSAFe StartsA People-Centric Approach to

Lean-Agile at Scale

mailto:[email protected]

What is it really about?

3Leffingwell et al. © 2014 Scaled Agile, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Agile

Works

SAFe

Proven

Public

Free

Leveraging Agile, Lean, and Development Flow

Repeatable Successes

ScaledAgileFramework.com/case-studies


And the

Problem Is ...

?


unSAFe Starts

1. Managers Not Thinking Lean

2. Alignment as Lip Service

3. Prioritization as a Game

4. Building a Portfolio Practice without

Strong Program Execution

5. Building Bad Code Faster

6. Never Looking Back


Managers Not

Thinking Lean(and Teams Believing

in Chickens and Pigs)

#1


Managers Not Thinking Lean

Come meet...

Tony

Taskmaster

How to Spot Tony...

1. Assigning tasks

2. Loves 100% capacity

3. Knows more about...

everything!

4. Center for solving

everyone’s problems

and ...



How to Spot Tony...

1. Assigning tasks

2. Loves 100% capacity

3. Knows more about...

everything!

4. Center for solving

everyone’s problems

5. Called a “chicken” by teams



SAFe Leaders

People build products...

and it’s more than money

Apply the principles of

Product Development

Flow

Know and teach Lean-

Agile principles

Respect for People

Product Development

Flow

Kaizen



SAFe Leaders

People build products... and

it’s more than money

Apply the principles of Product

Development Flow

Know and teach Lean-Agile

principles

Know and teach problem-

solving tools



How to Help Tony...

Train him in Lean-Agile

leadership and applying it

Teach him problem-solving

tools so he can teach others

Become more strategic, not

obsolete

Don’t ask him for support.

Ask for his LEADERSHIP!


Alignment

as

Lip Service

#2


Alignment as Lip Service

Come meet...

Simon

Sure

How to Spot Simon...

Uses “shuttle diplomacy” to

align...

“Guides” others’ decisions

Trade-offs? Code quality?

Architecture?

F2F planning is “too

expensive and inefficient”



SAFe Alignment

Clear content, design, and

release authority

Aligned, prioritized backlogs

Face to Face planning...

committed, prioritized

objectives

Cross-team and cross-

program coordination

Architecture/UX guidance

Po

rtfo

lioP

rog

ram

Te

am

Por

tfolio

Bac

klog

NFRs

Pro

gram

Bac

klog

NFRs

Tea

m B

ackl

og

NFRs

Enterprise

Architect

Program

PortfolioManagement

Release

Management

Product

Management

Business

Owners

Program

PI Objectives

UX SystemArchitect

RTE

Product

Owner

Scrum

Master

Developers

& Testers



A Leaner, more Agile...

Simon

Sure

How to Help Simon...

Help him understand content,

design, and release authority

• PM/PO team

• Agile architecture

• Releasable content

• Capacity allocation

Engage him in program events

• Release Planning Meeting

• System Demos

• Inspect & Adapt

• Program Backlog Refinement

Sessions


Prioritization

as a Game

#3


Prioritization as a Game

Come meet...

Patty

Pokerface

How to Spot Patty...

Back room deals

Always has extra tickets to

the game

When all else fails, applies

“she who screams the

loudest...”

Doesn’t like this thing called

Weighted Shortest Job First

(WSJF)



Principle #1:

Take an Economic View

SAFe Prioritization

Maximize the value of the work

done and not done

Apply prioritization and job-

sequencing tools

Decentralize for speed, quality,

and cost-effectiveness

Match capacity and demand

through Release Planning and

I&A




Patty

Pokerface

How to Help Patty...

Train her (and everyone) in

prioritization and sequencing

methods

• Content authority and

decentralization

• Portfolio Kanban System

• Program Backlog prioritization

and sequencing

Assure Business Owners fully

participate in Release

Planning


Building a Portfolio

Practice

without Strong

Program

Execution

#4


Portfolios without Strong Program Execution

Come meet...

Helen

Highflier

How to Spot Helen...

Wants to start implementing

SAFe at the portfolio level

Wants metrics, metrics, and

more metrics

Development teams? “The

real problem!”

Delays? “Push more projects

into the queue!”



SAFe Program Execution

Lean-Agile portfolios require

Lean-Agile assets

Centralize strategy,

decentralize execution

Be vision-driven

Use fact-based metrics

Have fixed, reliable cadence

for predictability

Regular I&A’s

1. Strategy and

Investment Funding

2. Program Execution

3. Governance




Helen

Highflier

How to Help Helen...

Understand decentralized

decision-making

Focus on launching ARTs while

transitioning from legacy

mindsets

Move from milestone-driven

metrics to value-driven metrics

Trust in Kaizen events


Using Agile to

Build Bad Code

Fasterand Sending Architects

to the Back of the Bus

#5


Build Bad Code Faster

Come meet...

Cory

Cowboy

How to Spot Cory...

Feature-driven – loves making

Patty Pokerface happy!

Likes watching code blow up

when it’s time to merge

“Test-driven development?

Silly!”

Writes code no one else can

understand

Avoids the architects



SAFe Code Quality

Higher quality products and

customer satisfaction

Predictability

Scalability

Velocity, system

performance and business

agility

Time to innovate

Agile

Architecture

Continuous

Integration

Test-First

Refactoring

Pair Work

Collective

Ownership




Cory

Cowboy

How to Help Cory...

Agile architecture

Continuous integration and

automated testing environments

Peer reviews and architectural

guidance will result in code he

can be proud of!


Never Looking

Back(and Never Inspecting

& Adapting Your Agile

Programs)

#6


Never Looking Back...

Come meet...

Michael

Move-On

How to Spot Michael...

Big ideas (and usually good

friends with Helen Highflier)

“Team retrospectives?

Program I&As? Stop

whining!”

Wonders why business

owners are never happy

and teams continuously

overcommit



SAFe Kaizen

“We can do better.”

Constant sense of danger

Small, steady improvements

Consider all data, implement

rapidly

Reflect at key milestones

Have a toolkit (retros, I&As,

and value stream mapping)



A Leaner more Agile...

Michael

Move-On

How to Help Michael...

Training on prioritization

and sequencing

Drive an I&A

Engage in Value Stream

Mapping

Quarterly customer

satisfaction and employee

engagement surveys

Is there hope for...

:-)


Thank You!

Six Fixes to UnSAFe Starts

Software

agile works

scaled agile framework

scale leffingwell

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