The document outlines a case study of an American software company's agile transformation using the SAFe framework, highlighting a digital experience initiative that spans teams across the U.S. and India. Key achievements include improved team capacities, stabilizing velocity and predictability, and addressing challenges in planning and resource allocation. The study emphasizes the importance of organizational change management, training, and effective collaboration for successful agile implementation.

1. SAFe Case Study:
Digital Experience
Pete Rim
rimpete11@gmail.com

2. Background
• American software company in Silicon
Valley; cloud computing platform to help
manage digital workflows for enterprise
• $3.4B annual revenue with 6,200
employees
• Digital Experience (DotCom) scaled agile
adoption via SAFe in Marketing
Operations.
• 60 persons, 6 teams across U.S. and
India
• Started in May, 2021; 1st PI in August
Scrum
XP
Kanban
Team Agile
Scaled Agile
SAFe
LeSS
Nexus
DAD
SoS
Lean-Agile
Agile Land Scape Case Context

3. Results
Agile Release Train ”Q2” Capacity & Velocity
Stabilizing
value
production!
Team4 Sprint Capacity
(stry pts)
Committed
(stry pts)
Velocity
(complet'd stry pts)
Normalization
(% Vel/Cap)
Predictability
(% Vel/Commit)
Team 1 SP 4 45 37 24 53% 65%
SP 5 70 72 50 71% 69%
SP 6 45 57 53 118% 93%
Team 2 SP 4 40 40 8 20% 20%
SP 5 43 50 59 137% 118%
SP 6 43 42 45 105% 107%
Team 3 SP 4 27 35 22 81% 63%
SP 5 27 26 8 30% 31%
SP 6 27 36 28 104% 78%
Team 4 SP 4 80 186 14 18% 8%
SP 5 64 250 111 173% 44%
SP 6 70 240 174 249% 73%
ART SP 4 192 298 68 35% 23%
SP 5 204 398 228 112% 57%
SP 6 185 375 300 162% 80%
Over
commit

4. Agile Transformation
Why now and why SAFe?
30 – 75% faster time-
to-market
10 – 50% happier,
more motivated
employees
20 – 50% increase in
productivity
25 – 75%
defect reduction
See ScaledAgileFramework.com/case-studies
• Siloed Digital workstreams with competing
goals, ad hoc roadmap assessment &
prioritization.
• Unclear approach to planning & execution,
with no visibility into resourcing.
• Overly dependent on outsourcing key Digital
functions and expertise.
• Inefficient utilization of our technology
platforms and tools, with limited localization
strategy and support to global regions.
• Achieve business results

5. Change Risk Assessment
We perceive agile transformation to be a high-risk
change for most organizations:
• There is frequently change resistance among
some leaders and team members.
• This is a very high impact change, requiring
teams to adopt new tools, processes, and
most importantly a new “mindset”
• Our experience indicates a high risk of
abandonment if the new mindset does not
take hold.

6. Agile Transformation
• Q2 & Q3 Epic Road Mapping
• Q2 – As-Is
• Organization Change
Management
• Agile Teams Set-up via Value
Stream Mapping
• SAFe Training for everyone
• Q3 Program Increment Epic
Planning Workshop
How are we going to get there together?
SAFe Implementation Roadmap:

7. Agile Release Train Formation Challenges
© 2021 ServiceNow, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 9
Digital Experience Agile Teams Setup
Digital
Marketing
Health &
Localization
Design - 2
Content – 1
Pub - 2
Digital
Marketing
Health
Eng – 2
Design - 2
Content – 1
Pub – 1
Traffic &
Conversion
Eng – 4
Design -2
Content – 1
Pub – 2
Traffic &
Conversion
Eng – 4
Design -2
Content – 1
Pub – 2
Traffic &
Conversion
Eng – 4
Design - 2
Content – 2
Pub – 1
Digital
Platform &
Infrastructure
Eng – 6
Scrum Teams Shared Services
Research
Researchers
– 2
CI/CD/
DevOps,
Release
Eng - 3
Special
Eng/Arch
Eng - 5
Vendor(?) –
e.g. Adobe,
Outsourcing
**Targeting Teams setup & training in SAFe for Program Increment
(quarterly) delivery starting July

8. Continuous Planning:
Cadence based epic backlog development
Rel. 1.0 Rel. 2.0

9. Sample Epic/Feature Template
© 2021 ServiceNow, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 11
Objective: Enhance the data and processes around alert & incident records to allow faster MTTR through
greater context & efficient process.
Product Manager: Darius
PO/PE:
Personas Included:
• Responder, manager
Scope:
1. Ability to define and view tags in incident and alerts
2. Ability to check and set tags on alerts from response rules
3. Enhance response rules with tabs
4. Ability to identify parent & child incident relationships, grouping incidents
to a specific parent
5. Auto link the slack channel or zoom meeting to the incident when the
create incident action is enabled in a response rule, for a alert
6. Ability to see presence of users on alerts and incidents, and when fields
are updated in real time (nth)
7. Update to the columns and fields on the alert and incident forms
8. Ability to auto close open alerts & resolved incidents after a specific time
frame, per team (nth)
9. Advanced Condition Builder for Alert & Incident List Views {component}
Out of Scope:
Solution Approach:
Enhancements to Polaris UI &
features only, no legacy NDS
enhancements
Key Stories & Enablers:
1. Ability to define and view tags in
incident and alerts
2. Ability to check and set tags on
alerts from response rules
3. Ability to identify parent & child
incident relationships, grouping
incidents to a specific parent
4. Ability to see presence of users on
alerts and incidents, and when fields
are updated in real time
5. Incident & Alert form view updates
6. Automated incident & alert closure
policies on team settings
7. Advanced Condition Builder for Alert
& Incident List Views {component}
Acceptance Criteria:
1. As a responder, I want to understand
and process alerts and incidents in
context of tags
2. I want to group incidents so that
work on a parent resolves the
children
3. I want old incidents and alerts to
auto close incase they are not
actionable
4. I want to work in real time and
understand who else is doing what
Dependencies: Alert ingestion needs to be able to set the tags
Impacted Teams:
Feature: Incident & Alert Data Enhancements
Release: V3

10. New Proposed UX/Design & Development
Work Integration Flow
Ideal for “Big Design”. A potential
small, quick wins that require even a
small design effort may require a long
UX/design lead time

11. Scrum & PI Cadence Discipline
Name Cadence Duration Outcome
Daily Standup Daily 15 mins Provide team with visibility into progress and identify
blockers
Sprint Review 1/Sprint 1 hour Review all completed stories from a hosted environment
Sprint Retrospective* 1/Sprint 1 hour Review what went well and what can be improved from the
last sprint. “What would help improve our velocity the
most?”
Sprint Planning* 1/Sprint 1-2 hours Review and finalize commitments for the next sprint
Backlog Grooming 2/week 1 hour Review stories details and finalize estimates
Program Sync 1/week 1 hour Review at the 'PI level': status and issues
For scrum masters & product owners
PM/PO Sync 1/sprint 30 min Prep for upcoming PI
For PMs/Pos
Mid-PI Demo
End-PI Demo
1 each per PI
(quarter)
Time as needed
Team Level
Program Level

12. Updated Results
Team Sprint Capacity
(stry pts)
Committed
(stry pts)
Velocity
(complet'd stry pts)
Normalization
(% Vel/Cap)
Predictability
(% Vel/Commit)
Team A SP 1 47 45 37 79% 82%
SP 2 45 48 9 20% 19%
SP 3 47 95 104 221% 109%
Team B SP 1 32 26 24 75% 92%
SP 2 32 18 20 63% 111%
SP 3 32 28 20 63% 71%
Team C SP 1 40 109 27 68% 25%
SP 2 56 113 74 132% 65%
SP 3 52 75 61 117% 81%
Team D SP 1 32 17 17 53% 100%
SP 2 40 49 47 118% 96%
SP 3 40 38 33 83% 87%
ART SP 1 151 197 105 70% 53%
SP 2 173 228 150 87% 66%
SP 3 171 236 218 127% 92%
Agile Release Train “Q3” Capacity & Velocity
“Stabilizing”
velocity and
commit

13. Challenges
• Right sizing scaled agile framework:
• No existing product roadmap & epic
backlog
• Design Exp. vs Product Mgmt.
• PM vs PO
• Sr. Dev Mgr vs RTE
• Shortage of SMs
• Program Increment vs Release on
demand
• Coaching best practices:
• Cadence based epic planning
workshop
• Time boxing sprints
• Avoiding overcommit sprint goals
• Integrating design experience
between epic definition and
development

14. Opportunities
• Integrating “Big D”
• Virtual design concept
refinement scrum with
partially allocated team
members
• Epic Hypothesis
• Leading indicator;
telemetry & AB testing
• Maintenance Work
• On-going publishing and
platform operational
requests
• Program Cadence
• 6 Sprint/Program
Increment

15. Success Factors
• Organizational
Value Stream
• Cross-Functional
Executive
Partnership &
Engagement
• Lean Agile
Center of
Excellence
• SAFe training for
everyone by
agile role

16. Key Takeaways
• Organizational
Change
Management
• Guided
application of
SAFe
• Dual Stream:
Value &
Collaboration
• Recognizing
Magnitude of
Opportunity