SAFe analysis

Introduction to SAFe

MSIS Core Fall 2019

Scenario – Part 1

• Your company (client) has deployed Agile (Scrum or Kanban) in a variety of small projects • These Agile teams have mostly worked on unique,

separated projects • Now your company (client) wants to adopt Agile

in a large scale project • In this large scale project there will be about 80

people separated into multiple teams, all of them working on a part of a large project

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Scenario – Part 2

• The company (client) has asked you to come up with a discussion of two items • What are the challenges the company will face in this

endeavor? • How should the company (client) address those

challenges? • Each team has 15 minutes to discuss and come

up with a list of challenges and related mitigation strategies

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Two “traditional” approaches to address the issue of large scale Agile projects

• “Waterscrumfall” • Keep Waterfall on top with Scrum applied only to the

development aspects • Huge onus on project management, anticipating and

reconciling the multiple work streams • Scrum of Scrums

• Additional meetings to coordinate work across multiple teams • https://www.agilealliance.org/glossary/scrum-of-scrums/

• Not very effective with really large projects

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Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) has become the standard solution

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http://www.scaledagileframework.com/

A more detailed view of SAFe

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http://www.scaledagileframework.com/

Major characteristics of SAFe

• Scrum and sprints are the baseline for the work to be done but with some elements of Kanban • For example, focus on Work-In-Process (WIP) limits

and visual displays • Planning is coordinated across multiple teams

though Program Increment (PI) Planning • Teams are synchronized and use the same

measure of work • New layers of management and decision making

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Scrum and sprints are the baseline for the work to be done

• However, there is also a heavy use of Kanban

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Planning is coordinated across multiple teams though PI Planning

• PI Planning is a highly structured two-day workshop in which all the work is planned for the next iteration

• Teams will plan their next four sprints during these events

• Teams are encouraged to work together to reduce dependencies • Dependencies are visualized and negotiated

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Visualizing and negotiating dependencies

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http://www.scaledagileframework.com/

Teams are synchronized and use the same measure of work

• Each iteration will have four two-week sprints, followed by an “Innovation and Planning (IP) Iteration” • The IP iteration might also be used to catch up with

remaining work • Each work item is measured by “days of work”

• That allows for a common measure of work and the understanding of potential dependencies

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New layers of coordination and decision making

• Scrum masters become more involved with delivery

• The Release Train Engineer (RTE) is ultimately responsible for delivery

• Product owners remain involved with features and user stories at a team level

• A product manager is responsible for the overall vision and value of the whole product

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SAFe has become the de facto standard for large projects using Agile

• If you have just a couple of teams, it might be worth sticking with Scrum of Scrums

• Waterscrumfall might work but it requires a good coordination between the top and lower levels

• SAFe requires a significant commitment but its track record is very positive

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