SAFe® – Creating a culture for continuous improvement

Agile, SAFe® and Lean - all these terms are becoming common in everyday language. But what exactly do they mean, what is behind them and how are they connected?

More and more companies are realizing that they need to respond quickly to today's competitive market which is why agile methods are becoming increasingly popular. There are always challenges when using these methods - how do you scale an approach where teams work in a self-organized way and how can you create company-wide alignment? The Scaled Agile Framework for Lean Enterprises (=SAFe®) offers answers to these questions!

The first iteration of the Scaled Agile Framework (=SAFe®) was released in 2011. Inventors Dean Leffingwell and Drew Jemilo reacted to increasingly fast-paced market conditions with a lean project management approach that was different from existing methods.

The production principle is the key component - the focus lays on the actual value creation and reduces unnecessary processes as well as waste to a minimum (investopedia).

In addition, SAFe® uses well-documented, specified and repeatable processes that are characterized by agility and a team-focus environment.

Why should companies use SAFe®?

Companies that have switched to SAFe® collectively report amazing results. A major benefit of SAFe® is the better, more efficient and faster flow of work. The high level of team ownership and the resulting closeness to the project enables small teams to respond to change extremely quickly and flexibly.

The most recent version of SAFe® was released in January 2020 and allows a customized implementation if done correctly. Each implementation is unique, but always based on seven core keystones:

1. Lean Portfolio Management

  • Align strategy, funding, and execution
  • Optimize operations across the portfolio
  • Lightweight governance empowers decentralized decision-making

2. Organizational Agility

  • Create an enterprise-wide, Lean-Agile mindest
  • Lean out business operations
  • Respond quickly to opportunities and threats

3. Continuous Learning Culture

  • Everyone in the organization learns and grows together
  • Exploration and creativity are part of the organization's DNA
  • Continuously improving solutions, services, and processes is everyone's responsibility

4. Lean-Agile Leadership

  • Inspire others by modeling desired behaviors
  • Align mindset, words, and actions to Lean-Agile values and principles
  • Actively lead the change and guide others to the new way of working

5. Team and Technical Agility

  • High-performing, cross-functional Agile Teams
  • Teams of business and technical teams build solutions
  • Quality business solutions delight customers

6. Agile Product Delivery

  • The customer is the center of your product strategy
  • Decouple the release of value from the development cadence
  • Continuously explore, integrate, deploy, and release

7. Enterprise Solution Delivery

  • Apply Lean system engineering practices to build really big systems
  • Coordinate and align the full supply chain
  • Continually evolve live systems

In the organization-wide development process Agile Release Train (ART), goals are defined, solutions are developed, validated and released.

When implementing SAFe®, different configurations are available:

  • Essential SAFe®
  • Large Solution
  • Portfolio
  • Full SAFe®

Essential SAFe® provides a basic, necessary foundation and starting point for a SAFe® implementation with Team and Program levels.

The Large Solution level, which lies between Program and Portfolio levels, is only relevant for organizations that develop complex solutions or are involved in the development of such solutions. It is often used in aerospace, government agencies and the automotive industry.

Enterprise agility is enabled at the portfolio level. At this level, the foundation is laid for targeted release trains that operate as independently as possible.

Full SAFe® is the most comprehensive solution and includes all configurations and levels. This manifestation of SAFe® is used by the largest companies with the most complex solutions.

Which configuration suits your requirements best, how you can implement SAFe® in your company and which companies are already using it can be found here:
https://seibert.biz/whatissafe

The best journeys are taken together. Let us accompany you on your SAFe® journey, every step of the way.

We know that a SAFe® implementation can seem daunting, but with the right tools and the right partner it doesn't have to be. Whether you're about to take your first steps or ready to scale up, we will be there to help you evaluate and guide you through the process. With KEGON - Germany's leading SAFe® partner & SAFe® first mover in Europe - we will use our expertise in Agile Hive, Jira, and Jira Align to help you find the right methods and tools to fit your needs wherever you are on your SAFe journey.

Further Reading

Forget Less and Ensure Quality with didit Checklists for Atlassian Cloud Forget Less and Ensure Quality with didit Checklists for Atlassian Cloud Forget Less and Ensure Quality with didit Checklists for Atlassian Cloud

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