This document summarizes the agile transformation journey of Pôle emploi, the French national employment agency. It discusses seven key things Pôle emploi did to scale agility, including training everyone in SAFe, establishing a Lean/Agile Center of Excellence team, leveraging communities, and continuously improving. Some results of adopting SAFe included improved customer satisfaction, increased transparency and collaboration. The main challenges were reducing time to market and focusing on business value.

1. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
7 things we do for our agile
transformation at scale
A Pôle emploi case study,
French government agency
Agile Cambridge 2019
V0.11

2. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
Our journey through
agility at scale

3. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
Bonjour!
Jérôme Froville Cécile Auret
Internal change agent and SAFe® 4 Program Consultant (SPC)
3
https://www.linkedin.com/in/froville/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/auret/

4. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
OUR PLAN OF THE DAY
4
What is Pôle emploi ?
7 things we do
Results
Our greatest challenges
Conclusion

5. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
WHAT IS Pôle emploi?
5

6. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
French national
employment agency
Public service, unemployment benefit payment, intermediation…
36 billion euros, 54,000 employees including 1,600 in IT*
6
*2017 numbers

7. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
7
▰ 21% of IT staff in Paris
▰ Most developments are
geographically distributed
IT division Geographical distribution
A potential for a lot of silos…

8. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
8
The hierarchy in the IT division
looks like this!
▰ 5 levels
Management leaves some freedom
to try new things
Can result in alignment difficulties

9. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
9
1. I don’t
know
what
SAFe is
2. I know what
SAFe is but I
don’t use it
3. I’m using
SAFe

10. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
10
https://www.scaledagileframework.com/

11. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
11
https://www.scaledagileframework.com/

12. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
7 THINGS
Past and ongoing actions
12

13. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
Business Strategy Diagrams for PowerPoint
Results to
increase
spreading
Time to
understand
the
concepts
Train
everyone
Launch
trains
Start with
Vision + some
management
sponsorship
7 things we do for our agile transformation at scale
13

14. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
A bit of history on our transformation
2003
2010
2015
2015
2016
Scrum
kanban
Agile
premises
First PI
Planning
Considering
SAFe® to
help reorg
Training 9
SPCs
LACE team
Early
Nov
January
14

15. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
15
As staff started to endorse the
practices brought by SAFe®…
... convincing moved up the
ladder
... middle managers embraced
the train concept
we are
here
Middle Management level adoption

16. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
Within 6 months, we had
4 trains running!
SPREADING FAST
16
Today, we have 9 trains, over 400 SAFe® certificates, a history
of 13 PIs, over 800 travelers and 100 PI planning hosted

17. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
Business Strategy Diagrams for PowerPoint
Results to
increase
spreading
Time to
understand
the
concepts
Internal
and
external
communication
Communicate!!
Train
everyone
Launch
trains
Start with
Vision
+ some
management
sponsorship
7 things we do for our agile transformation at scale
17

18. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
“SAFe®, what the heck is that thing?
18
Anonymous director within the IT division
EARLY 2015…

19. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
FIRST FOCUS : INTERNAL COMMUNICATION
Case studies
Bring in experience from outside
Select speakers for different
levels, whether it is directors,
managers or all employees
19

20. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
BE OPEN AND SHARE INFORMATION
Internal social network publications
▰ Share external case studies from al
over the world
▰ Share early adopters feedback
▰ Articles, videos on the Intranet
PI planning tours
▰ 15’ guided tours for anyone 20

21. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
THEN START EXTERNAL COMMUNICATION
21
PUBLISH YOUR CASE STUDY
First government based case study on the SAFe®
web site, 6 months after the first train launch

22. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
WHY USE EXTERNAL COMMUNICATION?
22
External
influencingInternal
legitimacy
External
reputationAttracting
talents

23. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
DEVELOP PUBLIC COMMUNICATION
Conferences
▰ Give back to the
community
▰ Get feedback
▰ Develop relationships
LinkedIn event posts LinkedIn Articles
23

24. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
24
“Le club
SAFe®
francophone
PI Planning
external
guests
“Les RTE
Francophones
CORTEX
28 guests 51 companies 11 sessions
Establish relationships with other companies

25. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
Business Strategy Diagrams for PowerPoint
Results to
increase
spreading
Time to
understand
the
concepts
Internal
and
external
communication
Communicate!!
Train
everyone
Launch
trains
Start with
Vision
+ some
management
sponsorship
7 things we do for our agile transformation at scale
25
Transformation
needs
coaching
Invest in
LACE team

26. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
26
THE MEERKATS TEAM

27. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
WHY DO WE HAVE A LACE TEAM?
27
Too important to delegate
Better understanding of the culture
Continuity in the relationship
Cost effectiveness
13th state of agile report
from VersionOne

28. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
OUR LACE TEAM’S RESPONSIBILITIES
28
SAFe® and
agility
coaching
Code
quality
practices
IBM RTC™
and other
internal tools

29. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
PAIR COACHING
There is a lot to learn and discover.
Pairing 2 internal coaches helped us learn faster.
29
TIP

30. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
THE MEERKATS’ ORGANIZATION TODAY
Quarterly planning
Plan our actions by
combining Michel’s
vision to emergent
actions driven by
trains’ progress
Kanban board
30

31. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
Business Strategy Diagrams for PowerPoint
Results to
increase
spreading
Time to
understand
the
concepts
Internal
and
external
communication
Communicate!!
Train
everyone
Launch
trains
Start with
Vision
+ some
management
sponsorship
7 things we do for our agile transformation at scale
31
Transformation
needs
coaching
Invest in
LACE team
Knowledge
sharing
is a must
Leverage
communities

32. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
LEVERAGE COMMUNITIES
32
PROFESSION BASED ROLE BASED

33. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
RAISE AWARENESS CORPORATELY
▰ Webinars
▰ A day in the life of…
▰ Case studies
▰ Scrum café
33
750
participations on Agile topics
200
participations to SAFe®
webinars
2018 data
and here
we expand here
Internal communication extract to our managers
“More than a trend, agility is
a substantial evolution that is
essential for all, and
managers play an important
part in it

34. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
34
Webinars
Examples of theory
sharing using
webinar
presentations

35. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
35

36. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
During 10 seconds you supported the association
« Pediatricians of the world »
▰ If you want to know more :
36
https://cutt.ly/dwZWXHT

37. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
Business Strategy Diagrams for PowerPoint
Results to
increase
spreading
Time to
understand
the
concepts
Internal
and
external
communication
Communicate!!
Train
everyone
Launch
trains
Start with
Vision
+ some
management
sponsorship
7 things we do for our agile transformation at scale
37
Transformation
needs
coaching
Invest in
LACE team
Knowledge
sharing
is a must
Leverage
communities
Small steps
improvements for
scaling agility
Improve
continuously

38. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
38
Continuous movement?
CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT!

39. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
Central calendar for synchronized sprints and PI duration 39
PI Seasons

40. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
ADAPTING INSPECT AND ADAPT
▰ Standard SAFe® agenda for
I&A is one of many choices
▰ Solution focus inspired I&A
brings positive energy to
the train
40

41. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
41
From post-its on
a whiteboard…
… to post-its
and thread
…to using
generated
post-its
based on
RTC
…to the digital program board
Digitalizing the program board

42. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
42

43. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
43
Maturity evaluation
▰ Same maturity assessment
for all 9 trains
▰ Benchmark with 93 other
trains in France
TRAIN NAME

44. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
Business Strategy Diagrams for PowerPoint
Small steps
improvements for
scaling agility
Results to
increase
spreading
Time to
understand
the
concepts
Internal
and
external
communication Transformation
needs
coaching
Knowledge
sharing
is a must Improve
continuously
Leverage
communities
Invest in
LACE team
Communicate!!
Train everyone
Launch
trains
Start with
Vision
+ some
management
sponsorship
7 things we do for our agile transformation at scale
44
1
2
3
4
5
6
7

45. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
RESULTS
45

46. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
Independent national survey carried out by BVA
OUR SERVICES RESULTS
▰ 94.4% of jobseekers received their benefits on time at end of
2017 (+ 5.3 points compared to 2014)
▰ 91% of jobseekers were satisfied with Pôle emploi’s digital services
(+ 18.3 points compared to 2014)
46

47. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
INTERNAL SURVEY RESULTS SPRING 2018
47
250 people surveyed
72% respondents
SAFe® leads
to trust
SAFe® increases
responsiveness
SAFe® increases
transparency
SAFe® foster
collaboration
SAFe® helps
alignment
SAFe® foster
engagement
SAFe® helps
focus on value
SAFe® improves
quality
Should we
abandon SAFe®?
SAFe® brings
value to our IT?
Are you satisfied
with our SAFe®
implementation?
People in trains

48. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
48
SAFe® is the chosen framework for
all strategic programs since 2017
Trains operations work well
Trains scope tend to expand
CIO level adoption
we are
here

49. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
OUR GREATEST CHALLENGES
50

50. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
51
Reduce
TTM
Focus on
value

51. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
2018
July
2015
Mid
DevOps, and …
2018 2018
TMJ
initiative
launch
DevOps
program
launch
First VSM
sharing
Frankfurt SAFe®
Summit
1st SAFe® DevOps
certificate
SAFe®
DevOps
trainings
June September
52
2018
April

52. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
54
…Value
▰ Raise awareness -
training built in-house
▰ New UX approach
▰ Get inspired with a book
And these are only examples
from the IT division…

53. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
CONCLUSION
55

54. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
COMBINE INTENTION AND EMERGENCE
56

55. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
Special thanks to our 9 trains! 57
THANK YOU
EVERYONE!!

56. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
58
MERCI!Any questions?
Jérôme Froville Cécile Auret
jerome.froville@pole-emploi.fr cecile.auret@pole-emploi.fr
https://www.linkedin.com/in/froville/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/auret/
https://frama.link/kcNC0P_b
Presentation:

57. SAFe® is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.
CREDITS
Special thanks to all the following people:
▰ Presentation template by SlidesCarnival, diagram by SlideModel and allppt.com
▰ Photographs by Jack Anstey, Michele Bergami, Leonardo Cardozo-Ferreira, Robin
Garnier, Ken Treloar, Fabrizio Verrecchia, Matt Bowden, Michael Bergmann, Nikita
Kachanovsky, Mirko Bellabarba and superidol on Unsplash
▰ Presentation reviewed several times by Michael Stump and Jerome Froville, then also
by Shane Harrison, Colin Knill, Michel Levaslot, Jean-Marc Peaucelle, Didier Drouin,
Yvan Dantec, Mélanie Laurent, Violaine Boisseau and Elisabet Gunnlaugsdottir.
▰ Special contributions by Remy Spagnoli on the vision, Aline Renan, Nathalie Bur and
Cynthia Garcia on template selection. 59