Series description
This was a one-day event, December 16, 2014, 8:30 am – 4:00 pm, intended for SPCs and SAs who are wondering if and how their companies should adopt SAFe. It covered the material Net Objectives uses to extend SAI’s basic Leading-SAFe class to answer questions we’ve seen are virtually always asked at Leading-SAFe and SPC classes but for which this is no answer in the SAFe materials.
Net Objectives is led by Al Shalloway, an industry thought leader in Lean, SAFe, Kanban, Scrum and technical Agile. As good as SAFe is, it must be remembered that it is a framework-It can’t hold an answer for everything. However, in each SPC and Leading SAFe class Al has delivered, there are a few recurring questions that virtually always come up and are left unanswered by SAFe itself. These include:
- How can we adopt Lean-startup concepts to SAFe to discover what products are needed?
- How can we involve shared services (groups that work across several trains, some doing SAFe and some not) in SAFe implementations?
- How can we create cross-functional teams in our trains when it doesn’t look possible to do so?
- What do teams within a SAFe organization that aren’t large enough for SAFe do?
- How do I select a pilot project for SAFe?
- How do I know if SAFe is really for me?
Virtually every organization we’ve seen adopting SAFe needs answers to most of these questions. Fortunately, our decade long experience with Lean and Agility at Scale enables us to provide answers for our clients. Because of this, Net Objectives offers a 3-day Leading SAFe class with additional material to show how to resolve these issues. Because the course contains the full Leading-SAFe class, SA certification is still available, if you pass the test. This day of webinars covers most of the additional material. The exception is a section on Acceptance Test-Driven Development.
This class is intended to those already familiar with SAFe. However, the second webinar provides an overview of SAFe for those not familiar with it.
Resources for this Day of SAFe
An introduction to systems thinking and Minimum Business Increments: The need for SAFe
December 16, 2014 8:30am-9:30am
Al Shalloway | Recording | Slides (PDF)
Agile at scale requires an holistic approach with a focus on driving from business value. This talk discusses the inherent challenges in Agile at scale and how Lean-flow provides insights into achieving it. These insights make it clear what one must attend to achieve Agile at scale and paves the groundwork for the next talk on how SAFe does this.
An introduction to SAFe and business-driven software development
December 16, 2014 10:00am-11:00am
Al Shalloway | Recording
This talk provides an overview of SAFe from the perspective of why it facilitates effective delivery of software across multiple teams. (Note, licensing agreements prevent us from distributing the PDF for this recording).
Managing Shared Services in SAFe with an introduction to Kanban
December 16, 2014 11:30am-12:30pm
Al Shalloway | Recording | Slides (PDF)
Kanban is already a part of SAFe – in the portfolio level. But Kanban can also be used at the team level to manage the work of shared services (those groups that work across trains).
Enhancing the SAFe Team-Level: Creating teams and having common methods
December 16, 2014 1:30pm-2:30pm
Al Shalloway | Recording | Slides (PDF)
The secret to Agile success is having as much collaboration as possible. Scrum and SAFe suggest cross-functional teams. While this is usually straightforward in small development groups, in larger organizations it ranges from difficult to impossible. This talk first introduces a Lean-Team Level approach that adjusts to both the lack of true teams or the desire to not have iterations all the while being consistent with SAFe. This common method allows us to create teams to a greater extent than normally possible.
When to use or not use SAFe and how to select a SAFe pilot project
December 16, 2014 3:00pm-4:00pm
Al Shalloway | Recording | Slides (PDF)
SAFe was designed for large organizations. It is not about scaling projects up, but how to have already large projects work effectively. This talk discusses the ideal case of when to use SAFe and what to look for in a SAFe pilot. However, many organizations believe they need SAFe when they have several 10-30 person projects intertwined with each other. While this is not the ideal situation for SAFe, it can be used as a starting point to untangle these projects. Ironically, this de-scales the work being done and eventually obviating the need for SAFe.
