The Pros And Cons Of The Scaled Agile Framework ⋆ News: Art, Travel, Design, Technology

“When you walk to the edge of all the light you have and take that first step into the darkness of the unknown, you must believe that one of two things will happen. There will be something solid for you to stand upon or you will be taught to fly.” ― Patrick Overton

The Hurricane impact:  

In 2005, the US Government declared a state of emergency in Florida and a couple of neighbouring coastal areas. They had been making ready for what was going to be one of the most devastating pure forces in trendy historical past – Hurricane Katrina. The scenario was chaotic with tens of millions of individuals being evacuated from their houses, shelters working out of provides and climate forecasts reaching new ranges of unknowns.  

However, there have been two individuals who had been making an attempt to do the unthinkable. A reporter from a number one broadcasting firm and a scientist from NWS had been planning to know the phenomenon higher. They had been making ready themselves to seize footage and knowledge, by coming into the inside of the ‘Eye’ of the hurricane; one thing unthinkable given the hazards of being at the epiheart of such an enormous storm. The advantages although had been remarkably essential, with the knowledge captured for use for essential scientific evaluation and analysis, to assist put together higher for such hurricanes. However, the large query was, would they survive?  

Much like the above situation, SAFe® (Scaled Agile framework) is a modern-day IT storm that has hit the business. When SAFe was launched in 2011 not everybody was ready for its landfall second, however as extra area of interest models got here out and the flexibility to use it at numerous ranges was rolled out with enchancment of enterprise agility at its core (the eye), many organizations have began to grasp the advantages.  

However, the large query on this situation is, what number of of us have managed to get a peek inside the eye of this storm?  Have we managed to utilise SAFe to grasp potential enterprise agility?  In this text, we might be exploring precisely this together with the execs and cons of making use of SAFe framework at your group.  

What is SAFe? – a quick introduction  

SAFe is a means of taking any iterative Agile means of working (usually restricted to a couple groups) and scaling it up at numerous ranges of the group, while making use of a mindset of Lean manufacturing. SAFe feeds on the issue that there’s an unlimited want for adaptability in the business, particularly for giant enterprises that are slowed down by legacy processes and outdated technological hierarchies however someway want to remain related in the market, unable to answer a quickly altering buyer want. If utilized appropriately, SAFe will empower companies to compete in immediately’s market and assist them thrive in what’s already a chaotic period of digital transformation.  

It is to be famous that since its launch, SAFe has had many variations rolled out, with the newest being SAFe 5.0, which is a major replace from the framework perspective itself. This model handles key steering over a number of core competencies that will finally rework an organization right into a Lean Enterprise and obtain Business Agility. 

Being an Agile fanatic myself, I very often get requested about when and why ought to we begin utilizing SAFe? Will it actually work? and so forth. Hence the essential function of this text is to is to deliver out some normal Pros and Cons (For and Against ideas) which can be on the market in the public. This article will focus solely on SAFe and is not going to be used to check it with every other scaling framework. 

Pros of SAFe: 

SAFe could be very related and designed to thrive in conditions the place there are vital cross useful dependencies between agile groups and help / useful groups (infrastructure groups, architect neighborhood and so forth). Although there are quite a few advantages of correctly implementing SAFe, under are some of the key Pros which we might be highlighting on this article.  

“There is no magic in SAFe® except maybe for PI Planning”. – The authors of the SAFe framework. 

In large organizations with a number of distributed groups throughout a number of distributors, work streams and so forth. groups must run independently while nonetheless having to ship an incremental program. SAFe through the PI planning train talked about above, helps with finding out these points by recognising cross staff dependencies upfront and consistently negotiating & visualising them. This doesn’t simply cease with the PI planning, however the framework additionally proposes a cadenced means of persevering with this through the scrum of scrums. The Program Board is an ultimate strategy to presentcase the cross-team dependencies.

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A buyer story from Scaledagile.com web site has a quote from a number one monetary companies firm’s Agile coach – “Our time-to-value has gone down using the SAFe process. If reaching production would normally take 1 1/2 years, now it could be eight months with the new processes and approach.” An exquisite achievement certainly. Isn’t it? 

Cons of SAFe:  

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Conclusion: 

If your head is spinning proper now, don’t fear, it is completely OK to be in that thoughts state for a second, considering that implementing SAFe is a significant determination for any organization and shouldn’t be taken calmly. It will contain a major quantity of effort, coaching time and of course value. Understanding SAFe could show to be a gargantuan activity, however it’s a necessity to know the framework appropriately. My suggestion is easy. If you need to implement SAFe, please go forward, however don’t rush it. Take it one step at a time and comply with the SAFe implementation roadmap. This roadmap (depicted in the diagram under) is a really helpful technique and charts out some crucial strikes that are wanted as a way to obtain organizational change.  Image supply

Any main determination like whether or not to implement or to not implement SAFe is virtually prone to be very contextual. I’m certain the adoption of SAFe is just going to extend as enterprises flip to one thing that’s available to undertake and will undoubtedly open up their cheque books for SAFe and its companions. However, the key can be in making an attempt to know and measure what impacts it is leading to.  Measuring some of the key points & enterprise outcomes (like cycle time, launch frequency, NPS, key enterprise metrices like buyer retention and so forth.) might be crucial together with the adoption of SAFe. Remember, just like the hurricane impact, SAFe is a storm in the present business local weather and is bound to take us all on a whirlwind tour. The trick is to be sensible and have a peek into the eye of the storm, as a way to reap the advantages and lay out sturdy foundations for the future of agile scaling at enterprise ranges.  

Thanks on your endurance and want you all the perfect in your Agile journey. In case you need me to write down about any particular subject, please be at liberty to remark under and I’ll be very happy so as to add them to my ‘Blog Backlog’. If you preferred the article, please do share it amongst your agile neighborhood to assist unfold the phrase.  

Hope to see you quickly, with extra such attention-grabbing subjects.