An Outcome-Oriented Approach to SAFe® Transformations by Mike Hall at Scaled Agile DFW

Horse Before the CartAn Outcome-Oriented Approach
to SAFe® Transformations

Mike Hall
Senior Agile Coach/Trainer
@MikeH_agile
mike.hall@agilevelocity.com
www.agilevelocity.com
Accelerate Agility
Transformation | Training | Coaching
2

?
Starting a Scaled Agile Transformation with SAFe®?

Cart Before the Horse!
Starting with SAFe® and expecting it to somehow achieve some grand Business
Objective is like putting the cart before the horse and expecting the horse to push it.
Good luck!
Wait - how
do I steer?

“Begin with the end in mind.”
- Habit 2, Stephen R. Covey
“A goal properly set is
halfway reached..”
- Zig Ziglar
“Effective leaders help others to understand the
necessity of change and to accept a common
vision of the desired outcome.”
- Leading Change, John Kotter
“When you know what you want
and you want it bad enough,
you’ll find a way to get it.”
- Jim Rohn
“In absence of clearly defined goals, we
become strangely loyal to performing
daily acts of trivia, until ultimately we
become enslaved to it.”
Outcome-Oriented Thinking

7
“Improve our market responsiveness to 2
months or less when new security breaches
are found.”
“Reduce defects found after release by
50% this year.”
“Increase our customer satisfaction NPS
score to 85, a 20% increase within 6 months.”
“Decrease help desk tickets by 40% when
compared to last year through self-service
and robot automation.”
“Reduce our unused feature % from 60% to
20% within 2 years.”
“Increase our number of releases to 4 this year,
instead of our average of 1 per year.”
Example Business Outcomes

PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL ACCELERATE AGILITY
Productivity
Predictability
Innovation
Quality
Speed
Employee
Engagement
Customer
Satisfaction
Continuous
Improvement
Market
Responsiveness
Business Outcomes

Starting with Business Objectives
Business Objectives
(START HERE)
What’s
Missing?

Business Objectives
(START HERE)
Agile Outcomes
Capabilities
Which Agile Outcomes
influence the Business
Objective?
What are the underlying
technical Capabilities for
each Agile Outcome?
What are the SAFe®
constructs that map to
these Capabilities?
Enables
Drives
Accomplishes
What is missing?
The “connective tissue” of
an Agile transformation!

Agile Outcomes represent a desired internal state,
a new status quo.
Agile Outcomes
Outcomes are intended to “bridge the gap” and
lead to the Business Objective.

12
Example Agile Outcomes
Path to Agility® (P2A) outcomes across 3 levels: Org, System, and Team.
Across 5 phases: Align, Learn, Predict, Accelerate, and Adapt.

Customer
Satisfaction
Predictability
Speed
Employee
Engagement
BUSINESS OUTCOMES AGILE OUTCOMES
OrgSystemTeam
The organization is constantly
implementing ways to reduce time to
deliver end-to-end value and are
collaboratively maximizing the flow of
value beyond traditional spheres of
control.
Faster Time to Value
Accelerate | System
Path to Agility 2.2.2 | pathtoagility.com
Leaders are articulating value and
sequencing the work at the appropriate
level and then allowing the next layer to
pull and decompose so teams can focus
on delivering the highest value work.
Ability to Focus
Predict | Org
The ability to make fast decisions at all
levels in order to effectively react to
business needs.
Decision Agility
Accelerate | Org
Cross-functional teams deliver developed
and tested code each iteration with
minimal carryover.
Predictable Delivery Cadence
Predict | Team
The team continuously implements ways
to reduce the time it takes to deliver value
into production.
Reduced Cycle Time
Accelerate | Team
Teams are able to safely deploy code,
release on demand to production, and
operate with minimal manual effort.
Release Continuously
Accelerate | Team

Customer
Satisfaction
Predictability
Speed
Employee
Engagement
OrgSystemTeam
BUSINESS OUTCOMES AGILE OUTCOMES
The team has established agreements,
owns them, and updates them over time
as needed.
Team Formed
Align | Team
Leaders recognize and embrace the shift
in their role, from directing the work to
supporting their staff, enabling high-
performing teams, and changing the ways
they interact and lead in service to others.
Agile Leadership
Predict | Org
Foster self-organizing teams where
ownership is transferred from
management to team.
Team Empowerment
Learn | Org
How work and value flow is understood
and teams are identified and formed to
reduce dependencies and optimize flow.
Teams Aligned to Value
Align | System

Capabilities are underlying behavioral or technical practices that
once in place will likely lead to the desired Agile Outcome.
Capabilities are what you should “anchor into
your culture” to affect change.
- John Kotter, Leading Change
Capabilities

EXAMPLE: Capability -> SAFe® Constructs

17
- Value Stream workshop
- Operational value stream
- Development value streams
- Value streams awareness at Portfolio,
Large Solution, and Essential levels
- Organize around flow of value
- ARTs consist of cross-functional Agile
teams
- Minimal component teams
- Evolve cross-functionality over time to
reduce dependencies
- Team charter
- WSJF prioritization
- PO Sync event
- Vision capability in spanning palette
- Business value in PI Planning
How work and value flow is understood
and teams are identified and formed to
reduce dependencies and optimize flow.
Align | System
The ways in which value is delivered and how it flows is
understood.
Align | System | Teams Aligned to Value
Value Streams Identified
Path to Agility 2.2.2 |pathtoagility.com
Cross-functional teams have been created for the value
streams with minimal dependencies and handoffs.
Streams
The needs of the market and/or stakeholders define the teams
purpose and guide value delivery.
Clear Value Proposition
AGILE OUTCOME SAFe MAPPINGAGILE CAPABILITIES
EXAMPLE 1: Agile Capability -> SAFe® Constructs

18
AGILE OUTCOME SAFe MAPPING
Cross-functional teams deliver developed
and tested code each iteration with
minimal carryover.
Predict | Team
AGILE CAPABILITIES
Acceptance Criteria
Potentially Shippable Product Increment created every iteration
Potentially Shippable Product Increment has business value for the customer
Potentially Shippable Product Increment is released to the customer on
demand
Potentially Shippable
Product Increment
Predict | Team | Predictable Delivery Cadence
Path to Agility 2.2.2 Framework: © 2017-2020 Agile Velocity, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Acceptance Criteria
Forecasts created based on team velocity and history of delivering product
increments
Forecasts are accurate enough to deliver the business value that stakeholders
expect (even if the scope is not precisely the same)
Forecasting
Acceptance Criteria
Iteration commitment in the form of a potentially shippable product increment
is typically met
Work is pulled as capacity becomes available
Limit WIP
- Every team builds PSPI every iteration!
- XP practices to ensure Quality
- System Demo every 2 weeks of PSPI
- Program Increment every 8-12 weeks
- Roadmap of 3 PIs based on empirical
data,1 committed PI, 2 forecast PIs
- Normalized story point estimates
- Aggregate story points for Feature/
Epic estimates
- Metrics at all levels
- Team kanban with WIP limits
- Program kanban with WIP limits
- Portfolio kanban with WIP limits
- Backlogs at all levels
- Pull only when capacity is available!
EXAMPLE 2: Agile Capability -> SAFe®

19
AGILE OUTCOME SAFe MAPPING
ARTs of 5-12 long-lived teams
All Essential level roles fulfilled: SM, PO,
Team, RTE, Prod Mgmt, SA, Business
Owner
Stakeholders and Customer identified
Aligned iteration cadence
Aligned PI cadence
ART Sync event 1-2 times/week
PI Planning with all teams
All ART teams integrate continuously
System Demo every 2 weeks of
potentially shippable product increment
CD pipeline
Trunk-based commits, limited branching
Release on Demand
DevOps culture for pipeline optimization
AGILE CAPABILITIES
Team of Teams are predictably delivering
value.
Multi-Team Predictability
Predict | System
Acceptance Criteria
Composition of teams aligned to a value stream are stable
Multi-Team Stability
Predict | System | Multi-Team Predictability
Acceptance Criteria
Groups of teams are defined that have high requirements for coordination
Coordinating teams have aligned Iteration cadences and planning increments
Planning sessions should be conducted at least every 3 months to align vision,
divide work, identify dependencies, mitigate risks
A cross-team forum (e.g. Scrum of Scrums) is effectively maintaining the
alignment and resolving dependencies quickly
Multi-Team
Synchronization
Acceptance Criteria
Teams are integrating frequently
Teams deliver a fully tested integrated potentially shippable product increment
on cadence
Teams share and achieve common definitions of done
Multi-Team Delivery
EXAMPLE 3: Agile Capability -> SAFe®

The collection of Agile Outcomes and underlying Capabilities which inﬂuence your desired Business
Objective become your initial “Transformation Backlog” consisting of prioritized work items. Think of Agile
Outcomes as “features” and Capabilities as “stories” with acceptance criteria.
This is much better than a Candy Land circuitous journey!
Also, a good way to thin down the size of SAFe to a targeted set focused on the business outcome!
X
Transformation Roadmap
Transformation Backlog

Business Objectives
(START HERE)
Agile Outcomes
Capabilities
Which Agile Outcomes
influence the Business
Objective?
What are the underlying
technical Capabilities for
each Agile Outcome?
What are the SAFe®
constructs that map to
these Capabilities?
Enables
Drives
Accomplishes
Wrap

Align
Accelerate
Adapt
Predict
Learn
Chaos & Resistance
Integration &
Practice
New Status Quo
Status Quo
Path to Agility® Framework

AgileVelocity.com | 512.298.2835
Email us at
info@agilevelocity.com
If you need to re-focus your organization on
outcomes…
Our free, 2-hour Path to Agility® Outcomes workshop guides your
organization’s leadership through the process of determining the most important
business outcomes needed and deﬁning a path to achieving those outcomes.
If you need help understanding where to go from
here…
Our Agile Assessment services will identify gaps, establish a baseline for the
transformation moving forward, and determine key next steps for achieving your
goals.
If your organization is ready to get started…
Our SAFe Training and Implementation services help your organization
understand and integrate the Scaled Agile Framework while maintaining an ongoing
focus on delivering business outcomes.
Thanks for Watching
Learn more about Agile Velocity services & our Path to Agility® Framework

“You must be the change you
wish to see in the world.”
- Mahatma Gandhi
Q&A
24

SAFe® deﬁnes an implementation roadmap for organizations undergoing a Lean-Agile transformation.
SAFe® Implementation Roadmap

P2A® Outcomes Mapped to SAFe®
ADAPTACCELERATEPREDICT
LEARNALIGN
Compelling Purpose
Rollout Strategy
Team Formed
Team Empowerment
Action Enabled
Cross-Team Coordination
Ability to Measure
Visibility Created
Team Ownership
Agile Leadership
Ability to Focus
Multi-team Predictability
Complexity Reduced
Ability to Forecast
Quality Feedback Loop Shortened
Sustaining Improvement
Decision Agility
Faster Time to Value
Reduce Cycle Time
Release Continuously
P2A® outcomes are the “north star” for the SAFe® implementation roadmap.

An Outcome-Oriented Approach to SAFe® Transformations by Mike Hall at Scaled Agile DFW

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An Outcome-Oriented Approach to SAFe® Transformations by Mike Hall at Scaled Agile DFW