An agile approach is being widely adopted by organisations to deliver exceptional value to customers, but scaling agile at the organisational level is a complex approach and needs an effective framework like SAFe. Many organisations today are using the framework, irrespective of their size, to manage the change effectively. The framework helps the organisations to reduce the risk while scaling and build positive stakeholder satisfaction. The framework has five levels of implementation with a distinct focus. The current blog lists out why organisations are using SAFe to scale agile.
What is SAFe?
SAFe is a framework with a set of principles and roles to aid large enterprises in adopting agile successfully. The framework fosters alignment, adoptability, and speed. It combines the flexibility of Agile and the mindset of DevOps into a single framework and organises the work around value delivery. There is no need for the teams to handle the projects like a race. The framework structures the teams into ARTs to deliver the value in a synchronised cadence.
How can SAFe help Scale Agile Successfully?
SAFe bridges the gap between Strategy and Execution
Many organisations fail to translate their strategy into execution. The effects of the strategy will be nullified before it reaches the delivery teams. SAFe bridges the gap between planning and execution by building alignment points, such as PI planning, which allows the teams to work on shared priorities. Proper alignment through the SAFe framework ensures that everyone on the team is moving in the same direction and working toward shared goals. The leaders who will be earning a SAFe Certification can earn the needed skills to bridge the gap between strategy and execution.
Deliver Value at Speed
SAFe is about delivering value faster. It helps the business arrange work around value streams by offering continuous feedback, and the framework allows organisations to adopt change quickly.
Build the Culture of Continuous Improvement
Scaling SAFe in the organisation is about changing the mindset. With the growing trends in the market, the technology evolves, and the priorities change, influencing the needs of the customers. The framework promotes a lean agile culture in the organisation and encourages continuous experimentation and learning. The culture of continuous learning in every iteration keeps the enterprises resilient during uncertain times.
Flexibility of Configurations
The objective behind scaling agile practices varies as per the company’s needs. Using the SAFe framework to scale agile gives organisations a wide range of options. They can implement the SAFe in a way that best fits the organisational needs for maximum efficiency and effectiveness. It has four configurations that suit the different needs of the organisations.
- Essential SAFe to help agile release trains deliver solutions.
- The large solution SAFe helps in building complex solutions that require the right coordination between multiple ARTs.
- Portfolio SAFe is an extended version of essential SAFe that helps align strategy with execution across multiple value streams.
- Full SAFe is a comprehensive configuration that includes all the above elements and helps organisations with complex systems and multiple value streams.
The framework allows the organisations to start small, experiment with, and implement patterns that fit their needs.
Customer-centric Framework
Today’s organisations focus on delivering customer value to stay competitive. The SAFe framework prioritises implementing customer-centric practices into product development to ensure the solutions delivered by organisations meet customer needs. It helps the teams develop a customer-centric approach to deliver value and satisfy customer needs. Regular feedback loops established in the framework gather customer insights and refine the product development. The framework also fosters cross-team collaboration and helps in creating a seamless user experience. SAFe prioritises features as per user needs and refines them through the backlog process.
Scope for Innovation
SAFe fosters innovation in the organisation, supporting experimentation and continuous improvement across all levels. It encourages iterative development by allowing teams to experiment, get feedback, and refine solutions safely. The PI planning, a part of the framework, allows teams to explore and address new challenges. The cross-functional collaboration fostered by SAFe sparks creativity through teams and brings diverse expertise into the organisation. It empowers agile teams by giving them autonomy and allows them to explore innovative solutions while staying aligned to organisational goals. The framework aligns innovation with value creation and delivers practical outcomes.
Improved Quality
The SAFe framework focuses on delivering continuous value through feedback and ensuring that errors are identified early and quality is maintained throughout the development process.
Reduced Risks
The SAFe framework breaks the projects into small pieces and delivers them incrementally to reduce the risk in project development and large-scale initiatives in the organisation. SAFe also increases transparency at all levels of the organisation and helps the team members stay aligned and accountable to organisational goals.
Conclusion
The SAFe framework improves business agility and organisational responsiveness to changing customer requirements. The framework breaks down the project into smaller pieces and releases functional increments to customers to meet the customer needs quickly. Rapid feedback loops in SAFe help in early identification of risks and address them effectively, resulting in enhanced productivity. SAFe will help scale agile by improving coordination between the teams and removing unnecessary work. It empowers employees to take ownership of the work and make informed decisions to take the project forward.
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