© 2014 IBM Corporation

SAFe in the Wild: Lessons from Real World Scaled Agile Implementations

Si Alhir @SAlhir

Tom Sylvester @tsylvest

Blue Agility @blueagility

My Gift to You… A Free Pass

“When you walk into a classroom, you have 2 jobs:

one is to teach and the other is to recruit everyone in

that classroom to join the pursuit of truth.”

– Robert Ballard, Titanic Explorer

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Presenters

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• Enterprise Transformation Coach

Email: salhir@blue-agility.com

Enterprise Transformation Coach,

Trainer, Consultant, and Practitioner

catalyzing Individuals, Teams, and

Organizations to achieve greater

Business Agility and Antifragility

http://about.me/SAlhir

http://linkedin.com/in/SAlhir

http://salhir.wordpress.com

http://twitter.com/SAlhir

@Salhir we miss you! #ibminterconnect

Presenters

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• Agile Transformation Consultant

Email: tsylvester@blue-agility.com

Enterprise Transformation Consultant &

Entrepreneur, leveraging lean and agile

practices to create great teams that lead

to great businesses.

http://about.me/TomSylvester

http://linkedin.com/in/SylvesterTom

http://Tom-Sylvester.com

http://twitter.com/tsylvest

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Source: http://scaledagileframework.com/

How I Introduce SAFe

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Dean Introducing SAFe

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Source: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSRf1YEPZ7uQ8YXr_tF_FxPwyLohTsqpv

SAFe readily acknowledges that

"SAFe does not implement itself and indeed makes no attempt to

describe the significant organizational change management,

cultural impacts, implementation strategies, and training and

services provisioning that are typically required for successful

implementation"

and only offers brief

"recommendations for implementation".

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The Crux

Source: http://scaledagileframework.com/implementing/

Failure Pattern: Not Understanding Context

“I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a

hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.”

― Abraham Maslow

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Success Pattern: First Identify the Need

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Failure Pattern: Attempting 100% SAFe

“You are TOO SAFe”

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Source: http://scaledagileframework.com/

Success Pattern: Start with a Blank Slate

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Failure Pattern: Ignoring Underlying Principles

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Source: http://scaledagileframework.com/implementing/

Success Pattern: Guidance Based on Principles

1. Take an economic view

2. Actively manage queues

3. Understand and exploit variability

4. Reduce batch sizes

5. Apply work in process (WIP) constraints

6. Control flow under uncertainty through cadence and synchronization

7. Get feedback as fast as possible

8. Decentralize control

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Source: http://www.scaledagileframework.com/the-safe-way-to-lean-software-development/

Failure Pattern: By the Book

• A Program Increment (PI) must be 10 weeks because “SAFe

says so”

• You can only use Scrum at the team level

• You need to normalize story points

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Source: http://www.scaledagileframework.com/release-planning/

http://www.scaledagileframework.com/agile-teams/

Success Pattern: Adapt as Needed

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Failure Pattern: Focusing Only on Mechanics

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Source: https://salhir.wordpress.com/2014/11/01/dynamics-over-mechanics/

@Salhir we miss you! #ibminterconnect

Success Pattern: Focus First on Dynamics

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Source: https://salhir.wordpress.com/2014/11/01/dynamics-over-mechanics/

“People first, then money, then things”

– Suze Orman

“People first, then process, then tools”

– Adapted

Failure Pattern: Missing the Objective

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Success Pattern: Focus on Business Results

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Your Experiences?

Questions?

Summary: The Why and Impacts

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Summary: The Why and Impacts

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60,000 3,500

Blue Agility

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