SAFe® Coaches Handbook E-Book

Darren Wilmshurst

• Herausgeber: Packt Publishing
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 480

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe®) is widely recognized as an eff ective methodology for implementing Agile practices at the Enterprise level. However, the complexity of SAFe® can make it challenging for Teams and organizations to determine which practices can be safely adapted to their unique needs. Although SAFe® is a framework rather than a set of rules, promoting adaptation, it’s crucial to understand why SAFe® practices are designed the way they are along with the consequences of modifying them.
The SAFe® Coaches Handbook is a comprehensive resource that goes beyond a how-to guide, providing a deep understanding of SAFe® principles and practices. The chapters are designed in a way to teach you how to successfully implement SAFe® in your organization and eff ectively manage the Team’s Backlog while avoiding common pitfalls. You’ll discover optimal ways to create SAFe® Teams and run successful Events. You’ll also learn how to plan Agile Release Trains (ARTs), manage the ART Backlog, conduct PI Planning, and grasp the importance of Value Stream Identifi cation in driving value delivery.
By the end of this book, you’ll be armed with practical tips and advice to help you successfully customize the Scaled Agile Framework to your Enterprise’s needs while preserving the aspects that make it work successfully.

Leseprobe

SAFe® Coaches Handbook

Proven tips and techniques for launching and running SAFe® Teams, ARTs, and Portfolios in an Agile Enterprise

Darren Wilmshurst SPCT, SAFe® Fellow

Lindy Quick SPCT

BIRMINGHAM—MUMBAI

SAFe® Coaches Handbook

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This book is dedicated to Liz, for your unwavering support, endless love, and remarkable ability to make me laugh, even on the toughest of days. Your constant encouragement and belief in me have been the driving force behind my successes. You give me the strength to push through the most challenging times and to never give up on my dreams. And, oh, your sense of humor! Your infectious laughter and witty quips always manage to brighten up my day and bring a smile to my face. You are my rock, my confidant, and my soulmate. I am so grateful for every moment we share, and I cannot imagine going through life without you by my side. So, with all my heart, I dedicate this book to you, Liz. Thank you for being my everything.

- Lindy Quick

To my wife, Joanne, who has constantly supported me on my career journey and been my loving partner throughout our joint life journey. And to our children, Alex and Tamsin, who make us proud every day.

- Darren Wilmshurst

Foreword

“… the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”

—Apple, 1997

Over my long career, I’ve had the privilege to witness people at their best in some of the most difficult business circumstances. Some of the most remarkable examples took place during the early years of Agile when I was in the field trying to convince people that they needed to change their thinking about the way they developed software and systems.

After a few years, the Agile Manifesto was published in 2001; I found myself at a career point where I was free to explore entirely new and more Agile ways to help the people that build significant technology-based systems. After a few successful field experiments, I found a renewed purpose: to see if it was possible to bring agility to large and complex enterprises, building some of the world’s largest and most important systems. The organizations delivering these systems needed a way to accelerate innovation and stay competitive in their markets. The systems—which we depend on daily—ran the gamut from medical equipment, transportation systems, and information systems to satellites, submarines, insurance, financial and banking systems.

Using an empirical and incremental approach, I started working with several large enterprises to apply Agile methods and practices. Where needed, I extended these practices with Lean and systems thinking. It was hard, labor-intensive work that required deep engagement within the enterprise. At times, the constraints that those companies placed on themselves, and those they assumed their industries placed on them, were truly daunting. But person by person, meeting by meeting, practice by practice, and course by course, we were able to develop the tools and insights needed to help these enterprises transition to a leaner, more Agile—and most importantly— more effective way of working. The outcomes were truly amazing. Thousands of jobs were saved, and new jobs were created. New and innovative systems reached the market more quickly than before. Over time, we integrated all those learnings into a new Scaled Agile Framework® (SAFe®), which quickly became the world’s leading framework for rapidly deploying innovative technological systems.

Building a community for change

As you would imagine, I wasn’t alone on this journey. Adopting SAFe® requires a new way of working and interacting that involves a significant shift in daily practices, mindset, and culture. And that requires thoughtful and skilled individuals to introduce and facilitate this way of working. Over time, first hundreds, then thousands of SAFe® Practice Consultants (SPCs) were trained to be change agents.

SPCs share a common foundation of how SAFe® works and why. They have the knowledge, talent, mass, and geographic distribution to help an enterprise implement SAFe®, and they reached over 10,000 businesses in just a few short years. Training SPCs required scale too, so we developed the SAFe® Practice Consultant-T (SPC-T) program, a select group of individuals that were further trained, evaluated, certified, and licensed to train SPCs worldwide. And finally, another unique community was formed: the SAFe® Fellow program, which recognizes individuals with the depth and breadth of experience to work at the highest levels of complexity in enterprise digital transformation and who contribute to the evolution of SAFe®.

The authors of this book are two exceptional people who have been with us on this journey. Darren “Daz” Wilmshurst, SPCT and SAFe® Fellow, was an early proponent of SAFe® and helped us formulate content and implementation strategies to transform many enterprises in the commercial and government markets. Lindy Quick, SPCT, has over 15 years of U.S. government IT experience and ten years of SAFe® consulting for delivering software and highly complex cyber-physical solutions. She addressed some of the most significant technical and commercial challenges facing industries and government as they adopted the new ways of working. These two thought and practice leaders are uniquely qualified to write this book.

Why I love this book

This book is written for people who do the important work of implementing SAFe®. SPCs, Scrum Master/Team Coaches, Release Train Engineers, Product Owners, Product Managers, and Business Owners will better understand their roles and responsibilities for the transformation. It brings clear and immediate focus to some of the most essential elements of SAFe®, including the nature and organization of Agile Teams and Agile Release Trains and how they iterate to deliver valuable solutions to their customers quickly. It provides enough portfolio management context to ensure the implementation aligns enterprise strategy to execution. It also describes the important Lean budgeting practices that facilitate agility.

This book will be a super companion for SPCs and others who implement SAFe® and teach the courses that provide people with the knowledge and skills needed to master this new way of working.

But even that understates the case a bit. Due to its synopsis-level brevity and readability, this book can help everyone who wants to be successful with SAFe®.

In other words, if you are in a SAFe® transformation, considering one, just want to learn about SAFe®, or simply want to know how to build and deploy significant technology-based systems faster, this book is for you!

Great job, Darren and Lindy!

—Dean Leffingwell, Creator of SAFe®

Contributors

About the authors

Darren Wilmshurst is the UK director of Cprime, a leading global Agile, product, and technology solutions provider, delivering transformations. Having spent almost 30 years in the corporate world, first in retail banking and then later in the IT industry, he moved to consulting to help organizations in both the private and public sectors to be more effective and efficient. He is a SAFe® Practice Consultant Trainer (SPCT) and is also recognized as a SAFe® Fellow. He co-authored the BCS book Agile Foundations – Principles Practices and Frameworks, was a contributor and reviewer of The ART of Avoiding a Train Wreck, and was a reviewer of Valuing Agile: The Financial Management of Agile Projects.

Lindy Quick is the owner and principal at LNQ Consultants. She has more than 15 years of federal government IT experience and 10 years of SAFe® and Lean-Agile consulting and Coaching experience. Lindy has Coached and trained numerous individuals, teams, ARTs, and solutions, delivering both software and highly complex cyber-physical solutions. Lindy is a SAFe® Practice Consultant Trainer (SPCT) and holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and German and a Master of Business Administration (MBA).

About the reviewers

Alex Gray is a professional, versatile, fun, and enthusiastic Certified Scrum Trainer®, Path to CSP Educator®, LeSS Friendly Scrum Trainer, ICAgile Authorised Trainer, and leader of Lean/Agile practices. He has been delivering CSM® training since 2016 and uses his 25+ years of experience working in technology teams and 15+ years of experience working in agile transformations to the class’s benefit.

Alex has experience working in banking and financial services, medical, gaming, telecoms, and other industries. His work involves training and guiding organizations on aspects of Lean-Agile transformations, from team-level agility and scaled agility through to business-wide agility and agile leadership.

Glenn Smith is a respected business agility consultant and Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe®) SPCT. He works internationally, blending his consultation, Coaching, facilitation, and training skills to empower his clients. Described by clients as having the superpower to make the complex seem simple, he supports organizations in improving their bottom line in delivering and operating their products and services.

Patrick Campbell is a veteran of 20+ years of Project and Program leadership and management, as a Program Manager as well as a practice director while working at Digital Equipment, Compaq, and Hewlett Packard. Since 2006, Pat has been practicing, implementing, teaching, and Coaching in agile and lean principles and frameworks, and has helped multiple Fortune 500 companies discover their benefits. Originally certified by Ken Schwaber, one of the creators of Scrum, Pat brings a combination of background and experience to facilitate teams in the discovery of delivering Business Value. Pat holds a PMP (’99) and ACP (’14) certification from PMI, and is a certified Scrum Master, a certified Product Owner, and a certified SAFe® Practice Consultant.

Tim Jackson is an experienced SAFe® Practice Consultant Trainer (SPCT) with over 20 years of experience in digital. He began his career as a full-stack developer building intranets before discovering his passion for product management. Tim worked in various agencies around London before becoming a director in a pharmaceutical company where he began exploring the world of SAFe®. He then led the transformation at a large airline, where he found his true calling as a transformation architect using SAFe®.

Tim is a respected expert in his field, and his contributions to the industry have been significant. His expertise has been instrumental in the success of many organizations, and his passion for SAFe® has helped him to achieve great things throughout his career.

Table of Contents

Prefacexvii

1

Thriving in the Digital Age1

The Five Technological Revolutions2

Casualties of the Digital Age4

The Dual Operating System5

Core Competencies of Business Agility7

Team and Technical Agility (TTA)8

Agile Product Delivery (APD)9

Enterprise Solution Delivery (ESD)9

Lean Portfolio Management (LPM)10

Organizational Agility (OA)10

Continuous Learning Culture (CLC)11

Lean-Agile Leadership (LAL)11

Values and Principles12

Lean12

Agile13

SAFe® Core Values14

SAFe® Lean-Agile Principles15

Summary16

Further reading16

Part 1: Agile Teams

2

Building the Team19

What is an Agile Team?19

Agile Team Roles and Responsibilities21

Product Owner (PO) and the Agile Team22

Scrum Master/Team Coach and the Agile Team24

The Agile Team Responsibilities26

Team Types29

System Team30

Shared Services30

Summary30

Further reading31

3

Agile Team Iteration and PI Execution33

Day-To-Day within an Iteration33

Iteration Events and the Product Owner34

Iteration Events and the Scrum Master/Team Coach36

Iteration Activities and the Agile Team38

Day-To-Day within a PI40

ART Events and the Product Owner41

ART Events and the Scrum Master/Team Coach42

ART Events and the Agile Team44

Summary45

Further reading46

4

Team Backlog Management47

The Team Backlog47

What is a User Story?49

Types of Stories52

Why do we have different types of Stories?53

Estimating User Stories54

Story Splitting55

User Story Prioritization57

Getting your Team Backlog to Flow58

Kanban Team Stories59

Team Backlog Preparation for PI Planning59

Summary60

Further reading60

5

Team Iteration Events61

SAFe® Scrum Team Events62

Iteration Planning62

Team Sync64

Backlog Refinement65

Iteration Review65

Iteration Retrospective66

Iteration System Demos66

SAFe® Kanban Team Events66

Planning68

Team Sync68

Retrospective68

Team Artifacts70

Definition of Done70

Definition of Ready71

Working Agreements71

Summary71

Further reading72

Part 2: Agile Release Trains

6

Building the Agile Release Train75

Why Your Train isn’t Your Department75

How should we Build our ART?75

How Identifying the Correct Value Stream Impacts the ART 78

How should we Identify our Value Streams and what happens if we don’t?78

Release Train Engineers, Product Management, and the System Architect – Senior Leaders80

The Troika80

The Release Train Engineer (RTE)82

Responsibilities of a Release Train Engineer84

Product Management85

The Responsibilities of Product Management86

System Architect87

The Responsibilities of the System Architect89

Do we need a System Team?90

What is a System Team?90

Summary91

Further reading92

7

Release Trains Day-to-Day93

Synchronization and Cadence93

The Continuous Delivery Pipeline95

What is the CDP?96

Who is Responsible for the CDP?97

Why do we need a CDP?98

Integrate Often and Early98

Tooling99

Day-to-Day – Product Management102

ART Events and Product Management102

Product Management and ART Backlog Refinement103

Product Management and Preparing for PI Planning103

Ongoing Activities for Product Management103

Day-to-Day – System Architect104

ART Events and the System Architect104

Ongoing Activities for the System Architect106

Day-to-Day – the Release Train Engineer107

Keeping the Train (ART) on the Tracks107

Facilitating the Events107

General Responsibilities of the RTE109

The RTE and Agile Tools110

The RTE and preparing for PI Planning and I&A111

Get Help!111

The Innovation and Planning Iteration113

IP Iteration Schedule114

Measure and Grow Assessments116

Responsibilities in the IP Iteration117

We don’t need an IP Iteration119

Summary119

Further reading120

8

ART Backlog Management121

The ART Backlog121

What is a Feature anyway?123

Enablers124

Capacity Allocation125

Feature Sizing125

What about Points?126

Feature Splitting and Combining127

Feature Prioritization128

Why WSJF?128

Applying WSJF128

Backlog Preparation for PI Planning132

Summary133

Further reading133

9

Events for the Train135

The Syncs135

Coach Sync136

PO Sync137

ART Sync137

The Technical Sync139

The Troika Sync141

Release Management Sync141

Scheduling the Syncs141

Bonus Sync Recommendations142

Don’t Skip the ART Board143

What is the ART Board?143

Iteration System Demo147

How to execute an Iteration System Demo147

Considerations for the Iteration System Demo148

Summary149

Further reading149

10

PI Events151

PI Planning151

The RTE and PI Planning152

Preparing for PI Planning152

Executing PI Planning154

Day 1 Kick-Off154

Presentations155

PI Objective Tips and Tricks163

Team Breakouts171

Draft Plan Reviews171

Management Review and Problem-Solving172

Day 2174

Remote/Distributed PI Planning178

The I&A Event180

The PI System Demo180

Quantitative and Qualitative Measurement181

The Retrospective and Problem-Solving Workshop183

Summary187

Further reading187

Part 3: Portfolio

11

Enterprise Strategy191

What is Enterprise Strategy?191

Strategy Agility193

How is Enterprise Strategy different from Portfolios?195

Summary196

Further reading197

12

Building Your Portfolio199

Starting with Education for the Leaders201

Painting your Portfolio with Color202

Value Stream Identification (VSI)206

Pre-Work and Preparation207

Step 1 – Identifying the OVS208

Step 2 – Identifying the Solutions the OVS use or provide to Customers208

Step 3 – Identify the People who Develop and Support the Solutions209

Step 4 – Identify the DVS that Build the Solutions210

Step 5 – Realize DVS into ARTs211

Summary213

Further reading214

13

Establishing Lean Budgets215

Seeing the Horizons215

We fund Value Streams, not Projects217

Participatory Budgeting (PB)222

Summary224

Further reading225

14

Portfolio Backlog Management227

Portfolio Epics227

The Portfolio Kanban229

The Funnel230

Reviewing231

Analyzing232

The Portfolio Backlog234

Implementing234

Done235

Lean Portfolio Management Events and Governance236

The Portfolio Sync236

The Strategic Portfolio Review237

Participatory Budgeting (PB)237

Summary238

Further reading238

15

Measuring Progress239

Leading and Lagging Indicators240

Domain 1 – Team Health241

Domain 2 – Quality243

Domain 3 – Productivity246

Domain 4 – Predictability249

Summary252

Further reading252

16

Leadership Alignment253

Moving from a Fixed Mindset to a Growth Mindset254

Leading by Example256

Insatiable Learning256

Authenticity257

Emotional Intelligence (EI)257

Courage258

Growing Others259

Decentralized Decision-Making260

Leading an Agile Organization261

Step 2 – Creating a Powerful Guiding Coalition262

Other Important Steps to Implement Organizational Change265

Steps 3 and 4 – Developing and Communicating the Vision and Strategy265

Step 6 – Generating Short-Term Wins266

Step 7 – Consolidating Gains and Producing More Wins267

Step 8 – Anchoring New Approaches in the Culture267

A Continuous Learning Culture (CLC)268

Summary270

Further reading270

17

Embracing Agility and Nurturing Transformation271

Appendix A273

Appendix B283

Standard 2-day agenda283

Distributed 3-day agenda284

Day 1284

Day 2284

Day 3285

4 Half-day agenda285

Glossary287

Index291

Other Books You May Enjoy304

Preface

We often meet organizations and the conversation starts along these lines:

Organization: “We want to go Agile.”

Us: “Great!”

Organization: “And we want to adopt SAFe®.”

Us: “Even better because we are pretty good at SAFe®. But first, can we ask why you are doing so?”

Organization: (long pause) “Because other big organizations are doing it!”

Generally, that is not a good reason to undertake a significant change within your organization. The goal is not to be Agile or SAFe® but to make your organization more effective using Lean-Agile and to utilize a supporting scaling framework such as SAFe® to support that goal.

We see a lot of ill-informed commentary on various social media platforms about SAFe®, including a video that was described as a “candid and unscripted conversation about SAFe®” with two people that declared that they had no experience of SAFe® and all their thoughts were based on anecdotal evidence. As a consequence, it was littered with misinformation.

So, let’s start here.

SAFe® is not a prescription or a rule book, it is a Framework!

A standard definition of a Framework is as follows: “A framework is a supporting structure around which something can be built.”

Every time we have implemented SAFe® in an organization, we have implemented it differently because each organization is different and the appetite for change and disruption varies significantly.

You can not implement SAFe® in an algorithmic way; you need to implement it in a heuristic way. That is, you have to implement it with your brain switched on! You cannot just follow a book.

That said, there are certain foundations that need to be in place; if you bake a cake, then there are certain ingredients that you must use, while fillings and decoration can certainly vary.

SAFe® is like a wonderful toolbox but you have to know what tools to use in the right circumstances. If I am putting a picture on a wall, I will use a hammer and a nail; I don’t need a chainsaw! And a chainsaw in the wrong hands can be very dangerous.

SAFe® for Lean Enterprises is a knowledge base of proven, integrated principles, practices, and competencies for achieving business agility using Lean, Agile, and DevOps. (© Scaled Agile, Inc.)

Let’s break that down! It is not based on some folks sitting in Colorado and coming up with ideas; the 10 versions since 2011 have all been built on feedback from practitioners (like the authors) and from organizations that have implemented SAFe®.

Moreover, it is underpinned by some genuine thought leadership from Deming, Reinersten, Kotter, Moore, Ward, and many more.

Now that we have got that off our chest, who is this book for?

Who this book is for

This book is not a reference guide it is a handbook. A reference guide would be far too long but critically you have the Framework site, which is the most comprehensive knowledge base of all things SAFe®.

We have aimed this book at those newly qualified SAFe® Practice Consultants (SPCs) who have maybe just completed and passed the 4-day Implementing SAFe® class.

Certified SPCs are change agents who combine their technical knowledge of SAFe® with an intrinsic motivation to improve the company’s software and systems development processes. They play a critical role in successfully implementing SAFe®.

As we all know, there is a world of difference between attending a class and passing an exam to actually implementing SAFe® in an organization.

One of our colleagues used to say “Would I get on a plane with a pilot that has just read a book and passed an exam?” For those that drive, there is a world of difference between passing your theory test and actually learning to drive. And who remembers that first solo drive?

However, this book is not just for newly qualified SPCs. Are you an SPC trying to get SAFe® to work in your organization? Are you a Scrum Master/Team Coach or Release Train Engineer wondering why SAFe® is hard? Are you a Product Owner or Product Management and need to help your teams deliver? Are you an Architect and wondering what your role is? Are you a team member and just want to know why you are doing these crazy events? This is also the book for you.

Whether you are new to SAFe®, or you’ve struggled with how to make it work in the real world, this book is for you. It is also helpful for new Agile Coaches, or teams without the benefit of an experienced Agile Coach.

Are there any prerequisites?

You should have some experience with SAFe®. We’re not going to cover the basics; we’re going to explain why SAFe® says to do it a certain way. If you’ve been through a Scaled Agile Framework® class, or have equivalent experience with working in a SAFe® environment, but still have questions about how to successfully put the concepts into practice or why they are the way they are, then this is the book for you. It’s also useful when you begin to adapt and adjust SAFe® to your particular work environment, and you aren’t sure what you can safely change and what needs to be done “by the book.”

What this book covers

The book has been divided into three sections:

Part 1 focuses on the Team levelPart 2 focuses on coordination at the ART levelPart 3 concentrates on the Portfolio level

Because it is structured in this way, it does mean that you don’t have to read the book in order. If you are a Scrum Master then maybe Part 1 is all you need to read, although it might be helpful to understand the coordination at the ART level. If you are an RTE, then you definitely need to read Part 2, but having insight at the team level will certainly be valuable. If you are a senior leader or a portfolio Manager, then it will come as no surprise that Part 3 is for you.

Here is a summary of the chapters:

Chapter 1, Thriving in the Digital Age, sets the foundation for why SAFe® and the value it brings to organizations.

Part 1, Agile Teams.

Chapter 2, Building the Team, delves into the structure and key roles of the Agile Teams.

Chapter 3, Agile Team Iteration and PI Execution, looks at the day-to-day operation of these teams.

Chapter 4, Team Backlog Management, looks at why backlogs are important for surfacing, prioritizing, and tracking the work of the team and how they should be managed to be most effective.

Chapter 5, Team Iteration Events, examines how the SAFe® events work best and what happens when we try to do them a different way, or even eliminate them altogether.

Part 2, Agile Release Trains

Chapter 6, Building the Agile Release Train, helps you understand some of the key considerations when you are launching your first ART, recovering an ART, or maturing an ART.

Chapter 7, Release Trains Day-to-Day, looks at making sure ARTs operate correctly so that they are successful.

Chapter 8, ART Backlog Management, looks at what the ART backlog is and how it differs from other backlogs. It also discusses how to create and manage the backlog and ensure it is the right size.

Chapter 9, Events for the Train, looks at the various activities and events that occur each iteration for an ART, including all the Syncs, the ART Board, and the Iteration System Demo.

Chapter 10, PI Events, looks at the several key events that happen as part of the PI boundaries and that only occur once in a PI.

Part 3, Portfolio

Chapter 11, Enterprise Strategy, considers what Enterprise Strategy is and how Enterprise Strategy for an organization needs to adapt in the same fashion that the teams do.

Chapter 12, Building Your Portfolio, looks at the various tools to help build out and define your portfolio and the critical task of Value Stream Identification.

Chapter 13, Establishing Lean Budgets, looks at how we move from traditional Project-Cost Accounting to Lean-Agile budgeting.

Chapter 14, Portfolio Backlog Management, in a similar fashion to the ART Backlog, explores how a Portfolio Backlog should be managed to be most effective.

Chapter 15, Measuring Progress, looks at the metrics that help determine whether the ARTs within your portfolio are performing well and also considers some additional Portfolio Measures as well.

Chapter 16, Leadership Alignment, looks at how to equip your leaders for this new environment.

This book covers some of the common pitfalls that people encounter when they adopt and customize SAFe® for their organization. Whether as development team members, Product Owners or Product Managers, Release Train Engineers, System Architects, DevOps practitioners, or other Stakeholders, this book will help you understand why SAFe® works, and how to customize it for your needs safely.

Remember this is a handbook, not a reference guide, so we only cover 80% of what you will encounter day-to-day. For example, we have specifically not included large solutions because the first rule of scaling is DON’T!

Darren taught Implementing SAFe® back in 2017 with one of the leading lights in SAFe®. At the time, that person had launched 50 ARTs and only 2 were large solutions; one was because it was a genuinely large solution, and in the other case, the organization insisted! We see too many examples of large solutions that are not warranted.

Remember Agile Principle number 10: “Simplicity—the art of maximizing the amount of work not done—is essential.”

Scaling brings a level of complication and coordination. If you don’t need to scale, then keep your implementation as simple as possible.

We have tried to cover the most common challenges that you will encounter with our collective experience with a number of pro tips, stories from the real world, and cautions. Our hope is that these will help with your implementations and also provide some great anecdotes if you decide to teach a class.

Download the example code files

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Conventions used

There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.

Bold: Indicates a new term or an important word. Here is an example: “We need four things when we look at WSJF:

User Business Value: How important is this to our businessor customer?”

Tips or important notes

Appear like this.

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1

Thriving in the Digital Age

One of the most influential books for SAFe® 5.x and SAFe® 6.0 is Project to Product: How to Survive and Thrive in the Age of Digital Disruption with the Flow Framework by Mik Kersten.

The following quote from his book could not be more appropriate following the Covid-19 Pandemic:

“A period of frenzied growth is turning into a mass extinction event for those companies that do not learn how to connect business operations to software delivery.

Those that master digital business models and software at scale will thrive. Many more, unfortunately, will not.”

(Project to Product, Mik Kersten)

So, welcome to the age of software and digital—an interconnected, real-time world in which every industry is dependent on technology and every organization (at least in part) is a software company. To remain competitive, enterprises need to transform their operations, business solutions, and customer experience into a digital interface. The larger challenge in many enterprises is that their current business models, organizational hierarchies, and technology infrastructures can’t keep pace with the rapid change required.

In this chapter, we will consider the following key topics:

The Technological Revolutions that have changed societySome of the casualties of the Digital AgeThe Dual Operating system for Business AgilityThe seven Core Competencies of Business AgilityLean, Agile, and SAFe® Values and the 10 SAFe® Lean-Agile Principles

The Five Technological Revolutions

In Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital, [1] Carlota Perez plots the evolution of societal, industrial, and economic capital based on Technological Revolutions that occurred over the last few hundred years. She opines that these disruptive trends happen every generation or so.

It started with the Industrial Revolution in the 1770s, followed by the Age of Steam and Railways in the early 19th Century, then the Age of Steel and Heavy Engineering in the late 19th Century bringing us to the Age of Oil and Mass Production in the 20th Century. We conclude with the current Age of Software and Digital into the 21st Century (see Figure 1.1):

Figure 1.1 – The five Technological Revolutions, adapted from Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital by Carlota Perez (© Scaled Agile Inc.)

Each revolution has a regular sequence of three distinct phases:

Installation Period: New technology and financial capital combine to create a “Cambrian explosion” (a geological term for a relatively short time over which a large diversity of life forms appeared) of new entrantsTurning Point: Existing businesses either master the new technology or decline and become relics of the last ageDeployment Period: The production capital of the new technological giants starts to take over

Carlota also explains that she has observed from history that during the Installation Period, while there is an influx of financial capital to support the new entrants, this is followed by some form of “crash” or multiple crashes.

If we consider the Age of Oil and Mass Production, we had the Roaring Twenties, but in 1929, we had the Wall Street Crash, which affected markets around the world. We then encountered the longest Turning Point in history, which is often when we see a period of political uncertainty, and in the 1930s, we saw the rise of fascism in Europe through to the conclusion of the Second World War in 1945. Those that survived took advantage of the biggest boom in history, with the likes of Toyota coming to the fore in car manufacturing.

If we turn to the Age of Software and Digital, we had the Dotcom crash that peaked in 2000 and the global financial crash in 2008. Carlota was on stage in Paris in 2019, presenting at Sogeti’s Utopia for Beginners’ Summit about our Digital Future [2], and she said:

“Maybe we will have another crash ahead, but after that, we should have the possibility of a sustainable global information technology Golden Age.”

(Carlota Perez, 2019)

Bearing in mind this was in 2019, and then in March 2020, we had the unprecedented Covid-19 Pandemic. It was as if Perez predicted this months earlier.

Pro tip

Watch the video of Carlota Perez on stage in Paris in 2019 because it will help with a great narrative if you are teaching lesson one in Leading SAFe®. You will find the link in the Further readingsection [2].

Post Covid-19 Pandemic, it is clear that we are now firmly in the Deployment Phase of the Age of Software and Digital.

We often get asked, “What is the next Technology Revolution?” We are neither Futurists, nor Clairvoyants. That said, we know that the rise of new technologies comes with the decline of the previous technology. We then have a period of bubble prosperity with financial capital supporting the new entrants.

If we follow the current financial capital, then we will see investment in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data, and the Cloud.

Research by PWC found 72% of executives believe that AI will be the most significant business advantage of the future.

The company Snowflake, which provides data warehouse-as-a-service, was the biggest software Intellectual Property Office (IPO) in 2021 and implied five-year sales growth of 819%. In the cloud, there are three or four major providers, and the worldwide end-user spending on public Cloud services was forecast to grow to $332.3 billion in 2021.

The future is ABC – AI, Big Data, and the Cloud, which is reflected in SAFe® 6.0, where all three elements are represented in the Big Picture.

Caution

In a survey, only 9% of respondents strongly agree that their companies have Leaders with the skills needed to thrive in digital workplaces. Therefore, if we are going to survive the next Technological Revolution, we need to upskill our Leaders, fast!

Casualties of the Digital Age

There is no doubt that we are in the deployment stage of the Age of Software and Digital following the devastating effect of Covid-19 not only on businesses but also on people’s lives and loved ones.

Part of your narrative when teaching SAFe®, running a workshop, or talking to Leaders is to remind them of some of those business casualties. The examples provided are UK based, but you will need examples that reflect your region and even industry.

Primark, a European fashion retail store, was forced to close all 375 stores 12 days after the initial Covid-19 lockdown in March 2020. They did not reopen for six months and reportedly lost £800m in revenue because they could not sell online. Two years later (yes, two years), in October 2022, Primark announced a trial of a click-and-collect service across just 25 stores. While Primark has survived, they still do not have full e-commerce capability.

The same cannot be said for Sir Philip Green, an analog man in a digital world, who saw his retail empire turn to rags (no pun intended).

The statement “no one will buy fashion online” has been attributed to various people over the years, but it is difficult to pinpoint a single source, although reportedly Sir Philip Green did say it regarding ASOS – a British online fashion and cosmetic retailer.

In the early days of e-commerce, many people were skeptical about the idea of buying fashion items online, as they felt that consumers would want to try on clothes and see them in person before making a purchase. However, as online shopping has become more common and technology has improved, many people have changed their tune.

Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia Group went into administration (a precursor to try and avoid Bankruptcy) on November 30, 2020, an early casualty of Covid-19. The irony is that early in the following year, ASOS was in “exclusive” talks to buy Arcadia’s Topshop, Topman, Miss Selfridge, and HIIT brands out of administration, though it only wanted the brands, not the shops.

And in February 2021, ASOS bought the Topshop and Miss Selfridge brands for £330m.

Arcadia was not the only retail casualty, on December 1, 2020, Debenhams announced it was going into liquidation. On January 13, 2021, it announced the closure of six stores in England due to the Covid-19 Pandemic. On January 25, 2021, Boohoo acquired Debenhams for a reported £55m after Debenhams announced it would shut its remaining stores by May 15, 2021, closing the door on more than 200 years of trade on UK high streets having been founded in 1778. At its height, Debenhams was the largest department store chain in the UK and even, for a large part of the 20th Century, owned by Harvey Nichols of Knightsbridge.

Announcing the final closures, Debenhams said in a statement:

“Over the next 10 days, Debenhams will close its doors on the High Street for the final time in its 242-year history. We hope to see you all one last time in stores before we say a final goodbye to the UK High Street.”

In April 2021, Boohoo relaunched its website as Debenhams.com.

Pro tip

There are many examples of business casualties that did not survive the Turning Point of the Age of Software and Digital; always try and make your examples relevant to your audience and context.

The Dual Operating System

Over the years, we have had the opportunity to work with a number of founders of start-up companies or those Leaders that started a new business unit. Surprisingly, we have a very similar conversation with them, and it often goes something like this:

Founder: “I really loved it when we were a small start-up company. I had a small team around me, I knew everything that was going on, I was able to direct them all in the right direction, and conversations and collaboration were really easy. But then we became successful, and we grew the organization to the point that we had to introduce a hierarchy. And while I recognized that we need to be more ‘corporate’ and we needed this hierarchy for stability and, to some extent, efficiency, I now find that this hierarchy just gets in the way. It is now more difficult to get things done because I feel that I have to navigate the hierarchy and the functions within the hierarchy to achieve anything. So, can we get rid of the hierarchy, and I can go back to run my small team?”

Our response is always the same – “NO!” At this stage, we take comfort in the words of Dr. John Kotter and from his book Accelerate [3]:

“The solution is not to trash what we know and start over but instead to reintroduce, in an organic way, a second system - one which would be familiar to most successful entrepreneurs.”

- John Kotter, Accelerate

We have been doing this for years. We have a functional hierarchy and from that hierarchy, we create project teams. By their very nature, project teams are temporary organizations with people “loaned” from the hierarchy.

In Chapter 2, we will discuss in more detail about team formation. But for now, let’s accept that as we form a team, they go through Tuckman’s five stages of development – Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and then Adjourning. At the point that the team is high-performing, the project is now completed, and then we crash and burn the team, returning them to the hierarchy to wait for an assignment to another project team. The fifth stage is known as “Adjourning” or sometimes called “Mourning” because the project team member really liked working with that project team, and it is a form of “grieving” that they left a really great team and potentially now have to work with another team that they are not relishing.

“Disbanding high-performing teams is worse than vandalism: it is corporate psychopathy.”

- Allan Kelly, Project Myopia

So, rather than creating temporary teams around project, we want to create long-lived teams around products.These are long-lived, stable, persistent teams that cannot be static because people move on, and the nature of the product will change over its lifespan from a skills and funding perspective. And when we say product, it could be a product, a service, or even a system that we often call collectively a solution.

The concept is not widely different from a project; the difference is that we create long-lived teams from the hierarchy that are aligned around a product rather than a project. We call this complex adaptive network a Value Stream, and SAFe® is the operating system for this Value Stream network (see Figure 1.2):

Figure 1.2 – SAFe® as the second organizational operating system (© Scaled Agile Inc.)

The ability to respond quickly with innovative business solutions—what we call Business Agility—is the deciding factor between success and failure. Therefore, enabling Business Agility is a mission-critical goal for every organizational leader.

Achieving Business Agility requires this dual operating system and a significant degree of expertise across SAFe’s seven Core Competencies. So, let’s have a look at these Core Competencies next.

Core Competencies of Business Agility

First, let’s accept that every business is a software business – even BMW no longer regards itself as a car manufacturer but rather software on wheels. In a premium car, there are now over 100 million lines of code; in an autonomous car, over 1 billion lines of code.

So achieving a state of Business Agility requires the entire organization and everyone involved in delivering business solutions to use Lean and Agile practices.

Historically, Lean and Agile have just been applied to IT teams, and while Business Agility requires Technical Agility, it also needs a business-level commitment to product and Value Stream thinking.

There is no point in having super-efficient IT teams if it takes the team four months to procure a new piece of kit that is required for their product. There is no point in having super-efficient IT teams if it takes the team six months to replace a team member that has left and is part of their agreed headcount.

Business Agility requires not just development and operations but also Finance, People, Sales and Marketing, and Legal to all come together to use Lean and Agile practices. To achieve Business Agility, the organization requires a significant degree of expertise across seven Core Competencies. While each competency can deliver value independently, they are also interdependent in that true Business Agility can be present only when the enterprise achieves a meaningful state of mastery of all competencies.

The seven Core Competencies are as follows (see Figure 1.3):

Team and Technical Agility (TTA)Agile Product Delivery (APD)Enterprise Solution Delivery (ESD)Lean-Portfolio Management (LPM)Organizational Agility (OA)Continuous Learning Culture (CLC)Lean-Agile Leadership (LAL)

Figure 1.3 – SAFe® Core Competencies (© Scaled Agile Inc.)

Each core competency has three dimensions. We will briefly describe each Core Competency and its associated three dimensions:

Team and Technical Agility (TTA)

Team and Technical Agility focuses on the technical aspects of the solution within the context of a high-performing Agile Team. It emphasizes the need for the teams to have a strong technical foundation and the ability to deliver high-quality, reliable solutions for their customers:

Agile Teams: An Agile Team is the collective capabilities, skills, and behaviors of the cross-functional teams that are responsible for executing the work and delivering value within an Agile organization. Agile Teams are at the heart of SAFe® and play a crucial role in driving the success of Agile implementations.Team of Agile Teams: Agile Teams operate in the context of a SAFe® Agile Release Train (ART). It is a long-lived, self-organizing team of Agile Teams that work together to define, build, and deliver value in the form of solutions. The ART aligns the efforts of multiple Agile Teams towards a common mission and is the primary value delivery mechanism in SAFe®.Built-in Quality: All Agile Teams have the necessary technical practices in place to produce solutions that are reliable, maintainable, and scalable.

Agile Product Delivery (APD)

Agile Product Delivery focuses on the practices and techniques needed to continuously deliver valuable, high-quality solutions. APD ensures that teams can quickly and reliably release products and services in increments to customers and gather feedback for iterative improvement:

Customer Centricity and Design Thinking: Emphasizes the importance of understanding customer needs, delivering value, and leveraging design thinking principles to create customer-centric solutions.Develop on Cadence, Release on Demand: Focuses on achieving a balance between predictable, timeboxed development cycles (cadence) and the flexibility to release software solutions when needed (on-demand). This competency helps organizations establish a rhythm for development while enabling frequent and timely delivery of value to customers.DevOps and the Continuous Delivery Pipeline: Emphasizes the integration of development (Dev) and Operations (Ops) practices to enable faster and more frequent releases. It includes continuous exploration, continuous integration, and continuous delivery. DevOps and Continuous Delivery Pipeline allow the deployment of solutions into production quickly and reliably, reducing time-to-market and improving feedback loops.

Enterprise Solution Delivery (ESD)

Enterprise Solution Delivery focuses on the ability to deliver large and complex solutions in a coordinated and efficient manner. This competency enables organizations to align their efforts, teams, and resources to deliver value at the enterprise level:

Lean Systems Engineering: Focuses on applying Lean principles to system engineering activities to optimize the development process and deliver high-quality systems.Coordinating Trains and Suppliers: Focuses on establishing effective collaboration and coordination between ARTs and external suppliers or vendors. This competency helps organizations optimize the flow of value across the Value Stream by integrating and aligning the activities of multiple ARTs, including those from external suppliers.Continually Evolve Live Systems: Emphasizes the importance of ongoing improvement and adaptation of live systems to meet evolving customer needs and business objectives. This competency focuses on the continuous delivery of value by continuously enhancing and supporting systems throughout their life cycle.

Lean Portfolio Management (LPM)

Lean Portfolio Management focuses on aligning strategy, execution, and investment decisions to optimize the flow of value across the portfolio of initiatives and ensure Business Agility:

Strategy and Investment Funding: Focuses on aligning strategic objectives with investment decisions to maximize value creation. This competency ensures that the organization’s investment decisions are driven by a clear understanding of business goals and objectives.Lean Governance: Focuses on establishing a lightweight and effective governance framework that enables agility and accountability while ensuring compliance and risk management. It emphasizes the need for governance practices that support the Lean-Agile principles and values.Agile Portfolio Operations: Focuses on optimizing the flow of value across the portfolio of initiatives and ensuring effective execution and delivery. It involves aligning and coordinating the activities of ARTs and providing operational support to drive Continuous Improvement.

Organizational Agility (OA)

Organizational Agility focuses on developing the capability to rapidly adapt, learn, and respond to changing market conditions, customer needs, and emerging opportunities. It encompasses the ability to embrace change, foster innovation, and continuously improve the organization’s practices and processes:

Lean-Thinking People and Agile Teams: Focuses on developing individuals and teams with a Lean mindset and Agile capabilities. This competency aims to empower people to think Lean, embrace Agile values, and work collaboratively to deliver value effectively.Lean Business Operations: Emphasizes the application of Lean principles in various aspects of business operations to drive efficiency, quality, and value delivery to support the business’s products and services.Strategy Agility: Focuses on the organization’s ability to sense and respond to changing market conditions, customer needs, and emerging opportunities. It involves aligning strategy with execution, fostering innovation, and continuously adapting the strategic direction of the organization.

Continuous Learning Culture (CLC)

Continuous Learning Culture focuses on fostering a culture of learning, collaboration, and improvement at all levels of the organization. It recognizes that a learning organization is better equipped to adapt to change, innovate, and deliver value effectively:

Learning Organization: Focuses on creating an environment where continuous learning, improvement, and innovation are valued and encouraged at all levels of the organization. It aims to foster a culture of learning and adaptability, enabling the organization to respond effectively to change and drive sustainable growth.Innovation Culture: Focuses on fostering an environment that encourages and supports innovation throughout the organization. It recognizes the importance of innovation in driving growth, competitive advantage, and the ability to respond to changing market dynamics.Relentless Improvement: Emphasizes the continuous pursuit of improvement in all aspects of the organization’s operations. It encourages a culture of ongoing reflection, learning, and enhancement to drive increased efficiency, quality, and value delivery.

Lean-Agile Leadership (LAL)

Lean-Agile Leadership focuses on developing Leaders who can effectively guide and support the organization’s Agile transformation. It involves adopting a leadership style that promotes the principles of Lean-Agile development and supports the success of Agile Teams and initiatives:

Mindset and Principles: Focuses on adopting the Agile mindset and embracing the guiding principles that underpin the framework. This competency emphasizes the importance of mindset and values in driving successful Agile transformations and achieving Business Agility.Leading by Example: Focuses on the role of Leaders in modeling and embodying the desired behaviors, values, and practices of an Agile organization. It recognizes that leadership plays a critical role in shaping the culture, mindset, and behavior of teams and individuals.Leading Change: Focuses on equipping Leaders with the knowledge and skills to effectively lead and navigate organizational change during the Agile transformation. It recognizes that change is inherent in adopting new ways of working and that effective leadership is crucial for successful change management.

Pro tip

If you are teaching Leading SAFe®, only provide a brief overview of the seven Core Competencies because the competencies are covered in more detail in the various lessons that follow the opening lesson.

We will explore these competencies in more detail in the following chapters, in particular, Part 1, Team and Technical Agility, Part 2, Agile Product Delivery, Part 3, Lean Portfolio Management, and Chapter 16, Lean-Agile Leadership.

Caution

If you are teaching Leading SAFe®, only three of the seven Core Competencies are covered - Lean-Agile Leadership (LAL), Team and Technical Agility (TTA), and Agile Product Delivery (APD), plus part of Lean Portfolio Management (LPM). As a consequence, you need to remind your learners that they will only be examined on these competencies.

However, you should encourage your learners to explore the other competencies in the framework.

Values and Principles

SAFe® is a knowledge base of proven, integrated principles, practices, and competencies for achieving Business Agility by implementing Lean, Agile, DevOps, System Thinking, and Design Thinking at Scale.

SAFe’s® roots are underpinned by Lean Product Development and Agile Development, so we should really have a brief reminder of these principles.

Lean

In SAFe® 6.0, the SAFe® House of Lean was deprecated in favor of adopting Lean Thinking [5] from the book of the same name and is a combination of beliefs, assumptions, attitudes, and actions and is summarised by five principles. To help you explain them if you are teaching a SAFe® course, we have provided a brief summary of each:

Precisely specific value by product: Focus on delivering value to the customer by understanding their needs and preferences and creating products and services that meet or exceed their expectations.Identify Value Stream for each Product: Identify the Value Stream, which is the entire process of delivering a product or service, and eliminate any steps that do not add value or that create waste.Make value flow without interruptions: Ensure that the Value Stream flows smoothly, without interruptions, delays, or bottlenecks, by reducing variability, improving communication, and synchronizing activities.Let the customer pull value from the producer: Create a pull system where products and services are produced based on customer demand rather than pushing them into the market or storing them in inventory.Pursue perfection: Strive for Continuous Improvement by relentlessly pursuing perfection in all aspects of the Value Stream, using feedback, data analysis, and experimentation to identify and eliminate waste and inefficiencies.

Pro tip

Pursue perfection feels slightly incongruous with Agile thinking when we talk about “good enough,” especially when we want fast feedback. I try to remind the class that I would consider this principle as Relentless Improvement.

Agile

The other significant historical body of work is the Agile Manifesto [6], when 17 thought Leaders from the software industry got together in February 2001 at The Lodge at Snowbird ski resort in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah.

They wanted to try to find common ground, and what emerged was the Agile Software Development Manifesto with representatives from Extreme Programming, Scrum Dynamic System Development Method (DSDM), Adaptive Software Development, Crystal, Feature-Driven Development, Pragmatic Programming, and others sympathetic to the need for an alternative to documentation driven, heavyweight software development processes convened. The values of Agile can be seen in Figure 1.4:

Figure 1.4 – Manifesto for Agile Software Development

Caution

Even experienced software developers will misread the manifesto by replacing “over” with “instead.” For example, “Working software INSTEAD of comprehensive documentation.”

You will often hear, “We don’t do documentation or planning because we are ‘agile.’” Well, that is clearly not the case. People never read the last sentence at the bottom of the values:

“That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.”

If you have ever worked in the medical industry, then you will know that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will not approve your device unless you have the documentation to support it. They won’t care that you did it in an Agile way!

I would also contend that we do more planning in Agile than in any other software process; in Scrum, we plan every iteration, and you could argue every day at the Team Sync.

SAFe® Core Values

SAFe® has four Core Values [7]. These tenets are so fundamental to the practice of SAFe® that without them, the practices in the framework will inevitably fail to deliver the intended business results that prompted the decision to “go SAFe®.” These core values are briefly described here:

Alignment: This value emphasizes aligning all teams and Stakeholders around a common goal and vision. It involves developing a shared understanding of objectives, priorities, and dependencies across the organization.Transparency: This value emphasizes the importance of transparency and visibility at all levels of the organization. It involves creating an environment where everyone has access to the same information and can work collaboratively towards common goals.Respect for people: This value emphasizes the importance of treating people with dignity, trust, and compassion. This principle recognizes that people are the most valuable asset in any organization and that their creativity, expertise, and engagement are essential to achievingorganizational goals.Relentless improvement: This value emphasizes the importance of continuously striving to improve all aspects of the organization, from processes and systems to products and services. The value of Relentless Improvement lies in its ability to drive innovation, increase efficiency, and enhance customer satisfaction while reducing waste, errors, and inefficiencies.

These represent the foundational beliefs that are key to SAFe’s® effectiveness. These tenets help guide the behaviors and actions of everyone participating in a SAFe® Portfolio. Those in positions of authority can help the rest of the organization embrace these ideals by exemplifying these values in their words and actions.

Pro tip

When describing these values, try and relate with a story of a leader that you know demonstrated these values.

SAFe® Lean-Agile Principles

Like the Agile Manifesto, the SAFe® Principles have not changed much over the years; however, more recently, there have been a couple of evolutions; originally, there were 9 Principles, then a 10th was added in version 5, and in version 6.0 Principle 6 was changed to “Make value flow without interruptions.” The full 10 Principles are shown in Figure 1.5:

Figure 1.5 – SAFe® Lean-Agile Principles (© Scaled Agile Inc.)

We do not intend to go through all the 10 Principles in this book but instead, refer you to an article on the SAFe® Framework [8]. However, it is vital that as a Coach, you fully understand these Principles because, as Deming puts it so eloquently: