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SAFe Agile Experience?

Summer Hogan_q8imea

Hi everyone, at my company we are starting a SAFe Agile Implementation. A champions team has been created and the champions are responsible for rallying the troops, encouraging participation and excitement, answering questions and collecting feedback. Has anyone else been involved in a SAFe transformation recently and can share their experiences with me? Any information is greatly appreciated!

Comments

Robert Wen_Cprime_

Hi @Summer Hogan !

I'm an SPC (SAFe Program Consultant). Your champions team should be at the beginning stages of the Implementation Roadmap (link: https://www.scaledagileframework.com/implementation-roadmap/). They should be training to become SPCs like myself.

The next step they should do is identify what value streams you have at your company. From there, they can create the the Agile Release Train(s) that make sense. Then they should train those team/ART members on the practices in SAFe.

Tools-wise, you'll probably set up a project or projects in Jira and possibly use Marketplace apps and/or Advanced Roadmaps for tracking.

Some tips:

Keep it iterative. Short experiments and learn from each experiment.

Are you working with appropriate partners? Sometimes a guide helps.

Good luck!

Summer Hogan_q8imea

Hi @Robert Wen_Cprime_ - thanks for the reply! Yes, we are at the "Train Lean Agile Change Agents" step. I have training later this month. And yes, we are identifying the value streams. We also have a consulting vendor that is helping us with the implementation. Thanks for the all the tips! Those are good ones!
Just a follow up question, did you find the teams you worked with/in were open to the change or more resistant to it?

Wouter Bruinings

I don’t believe you can “implement” agile. An agile organisation is one that can change to circumstances quickly and focuses on customer value through continuous improvement and experimentation. Creating a culture of continuous improvement, experimentation and team autonomy is not a matter of implementing SAFe as a delivery program, it goes ways deeper than that.

Having said that, now that your company has chosen this path, continuously ask yourself the question: why do we want to use a scaled agile framework? Along the way continuously measure if you are getting closer to that objective.

Experiment and leave behind whatever part of the framework doesn’t work for your organisation. Experiment and figure out what does work. Shape a framework that works for your organisation, each organisation is unique.

Summer Hogan_q8imea

This is great advice @Wouter Bruinings - thanks so much and good points!

Wouter Bruinings

@Summer Hogan I am curious now though, what are you hoping to solve by implementing SAFe?

Summer Hogan_q8imea

Hi @Wouter Bruinings - in our current environment we have many cultural barriers including: too many scrum teams, communication silos, and constant shifting priorities which brings risk, sustainable practices and prolonged delivery. Our teams do not work together very well when it comes to setting priorities, planning, and sticking to commitments.

We are hoping that SAFe results in alignment across teams where we have one status, unknows are identified earlier on, we have shared ownership, dependency alignment, collaborative planning and shared accountability for continuous improvement!

Robert Wen_Cprime_

It runs the gamut. It's pretty much in line with the Rogers curve when there's any change. You'll have early adopters, and then mainstream, and then laggards, and finally, you'll have those you'll never convince. Those will be the last 10-15%. Don't worry about them. You may want to pick up Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore. This will give you some insights.

Good luck!

Summer Hogan_q8imea

Thanks again @Robert Wen_Cprime_

Matthieu Poupard -Klaxoon-

@Summer Hogan I hope your implementation is going strong.

Have you considered (or already rolled out) a collaborative whiteboard technology internally in order to run more interactive PI Planning sessions? Klaxoon and other whiteboard solutions providers available from Atlassian Marketplace have great turnkey canvases inspired from SAFe methodologies. All the items added, discussed and prioritized in a whiteboard can then be synced with Jira for a seamless project management experience.

Happy to share more info/case studies if you are interested.

Summer Hogan_q8imea

Thanks for the info @Matthieu Poupard -Klaxoon- - this is a great idea!

Matthieu Poupard -Klaxoon-

I'm glad you like the idea! Don't hesitate to reach out if you need more info and/or an intro with some of our PI Planning template users.

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