Srinath Ramakrishnan gave a presentation on Scaling Agile with SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework). SAFe is a framework for scaling agile practices across large organizations with multiple teams. It addresses challenges in areas like coordination, synchronization, integration and communication that arise at scale. SAFe provides standard roles, processes and structures at the team, program and portfolio levels to help large organizations and programs of teams adopt agile practices and deliver value continuously.
16. Agile Software Development Series
Alistair Cockburn and Jim Highsmith,
Series Editors
Agile Software
Requirements
Lean Requirements Practices for
Teams, Programs, and the Enterprise
Dean Leffingwell
Foreword by Don Reinertsen
4 Creator: Scaled
Agile Framework
4 Agile Enterprise
Coach
To some of the
world’s largest
enterprises
4 Agile Executive Mentor
BMC, John Deere
4 Chief Methodologist
Rally Software
4 Cofounder/Advisor
Ping Identity, Roving Planet,
Silver Creek Systems, Rally
Software
4 Founder and CEO
ProQuo, Inc., Internet
identity
4 Senior VP
Rational Software
Responsible for Rational
Unified Process (RUP) &
Promulgation of UML
4 Founder/CEO
Requisite, Inc.
Makers of RequisitePro
4 Founder/CEO
RELA, Inc.
Colorado MEDtech
Scaled Agile Framework
SAFe®
is a freely revealed knowledge base of integrated, proven patterns
for enterprise Lean-Agile development
18. SAFe Principles
1. Take an economic view
2. Apply Systems Thinking
3. Assume variability; preserve options
4. Build incrementally with fast, integrated learning cycles
5. Base milestones on objective evaluation of working
systems
6. Visualize and limit WIP, reduce batch sizes, and manage
queue lengths
7. Apply cadence, synchronize with cross-domain planning
8. Unlock the intrinsic motivation of knowledge workers
9. Decentralize decision-making
23. SAFe at the Program Level
• Self-organizing, self-managing team-of-agile-teams
• Delivers working, tested full system increments every
two weeks
• Operates with Vision, architecture and UX guidance
• Common iteration lengths and estimating
• Face-to-face planning for collaboration, alignment,
and adaptation
• Value delivery via Features and benefits
25. SAFe at the Portfolio level
• Organized around the flow of value
• Lean-Agile budgeting empowers decision makers
• Kanban system provides portfolio visibility and WIP limits
• Enterprise architecture guides larger technology decisions
• Objective metrics support governance and improvement
• Value delivery via Epics
26. The Agile Release Train
• A virtual organization of 5 – 12 teams (50 – 125+ individuals)
that plans, commits, and executes together
• Program Increment (PI) is a fixed timebox; default is 10 weeks
• Synchronized Iterations and PIs
• Aligned to a common mission via a single Program Backlog
• Operates under architectural and UX guidance
• Frequently produces valuable and evaluable system-level
Solutions
Define new
functionality
Implement Acceptance test Deploy
AGILE RELEASE TRAIN DELIVERS SOLUTIONS
Repeat until further notice. Project chartering not required.
27. Release Planning
• 2 days every 8-12 weeks
• Every one attends in person, if at all possible
• Each team comes out with PI objectives which
are brief summaries in business terms what
each team intends to deliver at the end of the
PI
• There is a Program Board which
lists out all the features, the
milestones, the dependencies, and
anticipated delivery dates of all the
teams in a PI
28. New Roles
• Program level
• Release Train Engineer – Chief Scrum master for the train
• Product Management – owns, defines and prioritizes the program backlog
• System Architect – provides architectural guidance and technical enablement to the team
• System team – provides process and tools to integrate and evaluate assets early and often
• Business Owners – Key stakeholders of the Agile Release Train
• Value Stream level
– Value Stream Engineer – Facilitate Value Stream process and execution
– Solution Architect – Responsible for Tech and Architecture vision at Solution level
– Solution Management – Responsible for the Value Stream backlog
• Portfolio level
– Program Portfolio Management – responsible for Strategy and Investment funding, Program
Management and Governance
– Enterprise Architect – drive holistic technology implementation across the enterprise
– Epic Owners – responsible for driving individual epics from identification through to
implementation