5 Reasons Why Agile Hive Will Help Your SAFe Rollout with Atlassian Jira

5 Reasons Why Agile Hive Will Help Your SAFe Rollout with Atlassian Jira - picture of boardgame pawns connected with lines on a table

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If you’ve arrived at this article, our guess is you’ve been googling variations of any or all of the following;

“Scaled Agile Framework”
“SAFe in Jira”
“Transition to SAFe”
“How not to go insane transitioning to SAFe in Jira”

Well maybe not that last one, maybe that’s what you only say to yourself, but we feel your pain.

The Scaled Agile Framework®, also known as SAFe®, is a methodology and set of practices for implementing agile practices at an enterprise scale. SAFe® enables a structured approach for scaling agile as companies grow. There are four configurations in SAFe®, one of which will be the proper fit depending on the size and complexity of the organization: Essential SAFe®, Large Solution SAFe®, Portfolio SAFe®, and Full SAFe®.

This article discusses the benefits and challenges of transitioning your organization to this framework, and specifically how Agile Hive can be both the bridge to get you there, but also act as your guide moving forward from there on.

SAFe® - The Elevator Pitch

SAFe® had its first iteration when released back in 2011. Its creators, Dean Leffingwell and Drew Jemilo, worked to develop a methodology that differed from the project management practices of the day. Scaled Agile is an approach that regardless of the specific methodology, is a set of principles, processes, and best practices that allows larger organizations to adopt agile methodologies. This includes everything from Lean, Kanban to Scrum, accommodating the development and delivery of high-quality products and services at a faster rate.

The present-day version is built around the Seven Core Competencies;

Lean-Agile Leadership
Team and Technical Agility
Agile Product Delivery
Enterprise Solution Delivery
Lean Portfolio Management
Organizational Agility
Continuous Learning Culture

SAFe® allows each organization its own unique implementation and configuration of the combined benefits of Agile, Lean, and DevOps frameworks. However, many companies struggle to implement it for a variety of reasons; leadership and staff are unwilling to transform existing behaviors and practices, concerns that SAFe® cannot be tailored and configured to their specific needs, perceived lack of guidance or support. There are other examples for certain, however these touch on some common concerns or misunderstandings.

The Gist on Agile Hive

Agile Hive is the creation of Seibert Media, based in Wiesbaden, Germany. Developed in conjunction with Germany’s leading SAFe® experts and early adopters, KEGON, Agile Hive uses a strong interaction between Jira and Confluence, automating work when possible and providing valuable references such as Epic Hypotheses, Lean Business Cases or PI Planning checklists in order to make SAFe® happen without having to jump between several tools.

Agile Hive supports PI (Program Increment) preparation as well as planning and execution on all SAFe levels, from the Team level up to the Portfolio level.

Agile Hive offers customizable templates and checklists directly within Confluence. Simply fill out the information needed by the participants so they’re prepared before attending the PI Planning. All event information is captured to provide full transparency within the dashboard.

And Now Onto Those Five Reasons

Without further ado, the five (among many others) important reasons why Agile Hive will help your organization implement SAFe® within Jira;

Saves You Valuable Time With Easy Configuration
Your Guide To SAFe® Done Right
No Need To Learn New Tools
Simplifies The Complexity of SAFe®
Combines The Best of Both - Confluence & Jira

1. Saves You Valuable Time With Easy Configuration

With Agile Hive, time savings can be realized in your SAFe® rollout in a variety of ways. First, Agile Hive supports all SAFe® configurations and provides preconfigured project templates. So regardless of the configuration that best fits your organization, Agile Hive already comes equipped to get you started.

Second, the Program Board and Reports are all calculated and configured automatically for you based on the information provided in the PI Planning. There’s no need to recreate diagrams and dependencies made in a separate, stand alone diagramming tool or create reports from scratch.

Third, when planning your ART issues and PIs, this can be accomplished directly on the timeline with drag and drop. PI and date details are then automatically reflected back in the issues themselves.

2. Your Guide To SAFe® Done Right

Agile Hive delivers the right nomenclature complying with SAFe® methodology. It is integrated into your existing Jira instance ensuring a familiar tooling environment. It’s easy to use thanks to an intuitive set of features and functionality while still giving your organization the flexibility you want while scaling agile. Agile Hive comes ready to go with pre-built, powerful automated reports and SAFe® project templates.

While working in Jira on a team level is great, at the ART level SAFe® needs to use the artifacts Features and Enablers. Features provide substance or noticeable value to the user. Enablers lay the groundwork for extending future business and feature functionality.

However, Jira only offers Jira Epics at the top of the issue hierarchy. Often, Jira Epics are then used as Features. Enablers are not supported at all. The SAFe® nomenclature does not exist within Jira. Important SAFe® artifacts are missing and as a result, hierarchical linking is limited to Jira Epics and their Stories. At least two SAFe® levels are not supported at all. Large organizations using SAFe® rely on a strong hierarchical context in order to foster alignment throughout the enterprise from strategy to execution.

Who are the team members involved? What is the overall progress? What are the active Sprints and issues for each? These and a myriad of other pieces of critical information are communicated easily within Agile Hive’s pre-built SAFe® reports.

3.No Need To Learn New Tools (Seamlessly Integrated In Jira)

As Jira is one of the essential project management tools for companies, with Agile Hive you don't have to switch the platform or learn another tool. Agile Hive uses a strong interaction between Jira and Confluence, automating work when possible and providing valuable references such as Epic Hypotheses, Lean Business Cases or PI Planning checklists in order to make SAFe® happen without having to jump between several tools.

For example, as you begin your PI Planning, Agile Hive supports the various agenda items in combination with Confluence. Agile Hive and Confluence help to present the Business Context, Product Vision, Architecture Vision, and Planning Context as templates. Then again for Team Breakouts, the Draft Plan Review, Final Plan Review, and Program Risks agenda items, Agile Hive initiates these processes and Confluence works as more of a supportive role.

4. Simplifies The Complexity of SAFe®

With the digital Breakout and Program Boards, users can plan iteration capacities, break down features into stories, estimate story points, and get an overview of how things work together in the team. This is critically important as each team must be able to identify and visualize dependencies with each other’s tasks and then work with the other teams to find solutions. Agile Hive provides users one simple overview, including the correct hierarchical linking, without requiring jumping from ticket to ticket.

Combines The Best of Both - Confluence & Jira

Reporting within Agile Hive is made simple via automated interaction with Confluence as well as comprehensive content templates for SAFe® compliant.

For example, AutoPage creates, links, and updates Confluence pages, page trees and the page content automatically through Jira. This functionality is mostly used to automate the creation of the 'Epic Hypothesis Statement', the WSJF documentation, and the 'Lean Business Case'. Other examples include automated Sprint review and retrospective pages or Release documentation.

What’s Next? Reaching Out To Us!

Seibert Media is a certified Scaled Agile Platform Partner. This status is awarded exclusively by Scaled Agile, Inc., which develops SAFe®. Therefore, Seibert Media is officially accredited and part of the worldwide SAFe® partner network from which the further development of the product Agile Hive benefits.

Would you like to know more about Agile Hive and the software-supported implementation of SAFe®? We would be happy to discuss your requirements for enterprise-wide agile product development and product management with you. Take a look at our Implementation Project documentation to see an overview of what an implementation would entail.

Get in touch with us today and let us demonstrate how it works in a personal session.