Project Management

The four levels are unpacked in an endeavor to show how SAFe would be applied in the SCC by demonstrating key roles at each level. Key roles at the team level are an agile team which ensures quality work is delivered, product owner which determines priority areas and makes detailed descriptions so that whatever is done is understood explicitly, and scrum master that oversees the working of the team (Agility.im. n.d). This shows that when key roles are executed on the team level, people working on the project will get to know what is expected of them, act accordingly to deliver the project as stipulated on the schedule hence addressing the problem of over budget and lateness in the delivery of the project.

At the program level, 5 key roles would be useful in the project management at SCC. These include product manager who is concerned with features of the product hence ensure all components of the project are understood by people working on the project, release train engineer who ensures that the agile team works and follow outlined process, business owner include executive management, system architect who design vision of the project and ensure it is done according to set purpose and goals, the customer that determines whether the output is valuable (Agility.im. n.d). Incorporating these roles in the agile framework would help to ensure quality work delivered meeting customer specifications such as timely delivery and cost hence addressing some challenges experienced with the current SCC project management process.

At the solution level key roles that are incorporated in the project management are solution manager define the roadmap for the solution by capitalizing on the competencies and capabilities ensuring they are well defined, solution architect who design architectural designs sharing them across release trains, and solution train engineer who provides guidance to agile release train to ensure the desired results are attained (Agility.im. n.d). Integrating the roles at the solution level in the project management, desired goals and deliverables such as completion time and budget because there are experts that better understand what is required in the project hence providing their expertise through evaluation framework where they identify possible areas of deviation and advise on the corrective measures that are taken to get things on track.

The portfolio level incorporates the following roles: epic owners who define epic and guides on the implementation process to ensure activities scheduled are implemented appropriately, enterprise architect who drives product portfolio (Agility.im. n.d). In the nutshell, provision of details of what one has to do and expected of them, implementation framework that meets needs of stakeholders to the project and creation of lean enterprise which minimizes wastage, coined with incorporated roles in each level, demonstrates that SAFe is the project methodology that would maintain quality standard, and address problem of over budgeting and late delivery of projects at SCC. A pictorial representation of SAFe is shown in figure 1.

Figure 1 SAFe agile methodology: Source; Putta, Paasivaara & Lassenius, 2018.

Deliverables for the Project Teams

In project management, deliverables are the components of the project scope. Deliverables are the milestones that would be attained at a particular time in the process of the implementation of the project. Pinto (2019) defines deliverable better by stating that it is measurable, tangible and verifiable outcome that must be produced to complete the project or part of the project.

To develop a deliverable is important to have a scope baseline, which is the summary for each project goal, including budget and schedule. However, to have a project scope, a work breakdown structure is developed which outlines the hierarchical composition of activities for the project (Pinto, 2019).

To come up with activities, it is important to acknowledge there are different project teams because SCC has many projects that correspond to the number of clients that are attended to. However, even though there are many projects, there are common activities that cut across each project which include defining the project, identifying stakeholders to the project and defining their roles, defining activities for the project, scheduling activities, allocating resources to the activities, attending meetings, implementing the project, control and evaluation of the project, documentation of the project, handing over the project, close out the project. These are the activities that form WBS and based on them, deliverables are developed.

Deliverable one: implement control and evaluation when the project is expected to be half-complete and three-quarters complete. Implementing control and evaluation will help to identify whether are any deviation that could increase in the cost or delay the project and institute necessary remedial actions to the project on the track. Deliverable 2: Complete on or with ±5% budget. This deliverable intends to ensure the problem of completing the project with 25 to 50% over budget is solved. Deliverable 3: complete the project on the schedule. It is expected that control measures that will be taken when the project is ½ and ¾ complete will help to ensure that the project is completed on time.

The process to Review Changes in Methodology

Quality assurance is the process that would be used to review changes in the methodology, evaluate compliance and risks areas that require corrective actions to be taken. Quality assurance uses the approved methodology as the basis for developing the baseline, which is used to assess whether deviations are and have appropriate actions recommended (Briscoe, Baccineli & Chambless, 2000).

Quality Assurance uses a disciplined review approach which takes into consideration the project life cycle, specific procedures for effective and timely review of deliverables cognizant of complexity and criticality of the project recommended (Briscoe, Baccineli & Chambless, 2000). Quality assurance assigns team members to conduct review process, establishes findings, and writes a report on implementation scope on whether it is compliant or at risk, and eventually recommend action steps to correct findings.

Prioritization technique to apply

Some of the methods that can be used to prioritize work to be delivered are net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IRR), payback period and present value. Aware of four techniques, a preferred method that would be used by the project manager to prioritize work to deliver in the process is NPV. This is because the work with higher NPV would mean more returns hence it would be worthwhile prioritizing it.

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