The paper is a overview of how enterprises can adapt to agile software delivery. This is a high level overview of the 2 most common ideas in enterprise agile - Scaled agile framework and Lean PMO.

1. Enterprise
Agile
Prashanth
Madhavan
Narasimhan
Lead
Consultant,
Agile
Coach,
Product
Owner

2. Consumer
Vs
Enterprise
• Every
>me
there
is
a
consumer
use
product,
we
see
that
the
enterprise
comes
up
with
a
very
customized
version
so
that
the
enterprise
does
not
have
to
adapt.
This
is
with
good
reason.
• Enterprise
is
an
en>ty
that
is
too
complex
and
having
it
to
change
would
mean
a
disrup>on
to
the
business
-­‐
something
that
the
stakeholders
are
not
very
happy
about.

3. Consumer
Vs
Enterprise
• For
example,
take
the
iPhone
and
Blackberry.
iPhone
is
a
consumer
centric
product
while
Blackberry
is
a
very
enterprise
centric
product.
• However,
iPhone
introduced
major
disrup>ons
to
the
way
the
enterprise
security
func>ons
and
forced
enterprises
to
be
more
flexible
with
the
way
they
allow
employees
to
view
email.
This
increased
produc>vity
since
employees
could
view
their
emails
at
home
or
anywhere
on
the
move
and
respond
more
quickly.

4. Consumer
Vs
Enterprise
• Another
example
is
MicrosoM
word
Vs
Google
docs.
The
days
when
a
simple
document
would
have
to
go
through
mul>ple
revisions
with
the
whole
track
changes
turned
on
and
that
enormous
document
is
a
day
of
the
past.
• Google
disrupted
the
way
people
collaborated
on
documenta>on
with
people
being
able
to
collaborate
more
openly
and
cuPng
down
the
turn
around
>me.

5. Business
Disrup1on
• Both
the
examples
caused
major
disrup>on
to
the
business.
It
was
fraught
with
dangers
of
security
and
hacking
-­‐
in
this
every
open
world
where
every
one
is
paranoid
of
leaving
the
day
open
to
hackers.
However,
the
benefits
out
weighed
the
risks
• Business
disrup>on
has
always
been
weighed
in
terms
of
the
benefits
vs
risks.
There
has
always
been
a
inherent
pessimism
in
taking
up
anything
that
is
disrup>ve
to
the
business
-­‐
especially
with
new
technologies
-­‐
that
do
not
seem
to
have
a
direct
correla>on
to
the
nature
of
the
business.

6. So3ware
Delivery
• Almost
all
the
enterprises
-­‐
irrespec>ve
of
the
nature
of
the
business
-­‐
have
come
to
view
soMware
delivery
as
a
major
contributor
to
being
relevant
and
being
a
driver
in
their
respec>ve
fields.
• The
transi>on
from
the
tradi>onal
form
of
soMware
delivery
to
agile
has
been
very
rough.
Being
an
area
where
research
has
just
started
on
its
contribu>on
to
the
industry,
all
enterprises
tend
to
view
any
changes
to
the
tradi>onal
soMware
delivery
process
with
skep>cism.
With
very
few
case
studies
out
there
on
the
success
of
agile
in
enterprise,
most
of
the
enterprise
en>>es
are
only
ready
to
pilot
them
and
transi>on
to
enterprise
agile
slowly.

7. Scaled
Agile
Framework
(SAFe)
• Scaled
agile
framework
(SAFe)
has
been
a
very
good
candidate
in
terms
of
making
enterprises
comfortable
in
terms
of
soMware
process.
• SAFe
is
a
really
good
adapta>on
of
agile
processes
to
the
enterprise
without
compromising
on
any
of
the
agile
principles.
It
also
does
a
very
good
job
at
making
sure
that
the
enterprise
is
able
to
relate
to
the
whole
process
by
keeping
the
terminology
to
the
minimum.
• However,
it
is
SAFe’s
packaging
-­‐
that
endeared
it
to
the
enterprise
-­‐
that
is
going
to
be
its
downfall
as
well.

8. Scaled
Agile
Framework
(SAFe)
• SAFe
is
packaged
very
similar
to
IBM’s
Ra>onal
Unified
process.
It
is
got
very
clear
process
flows,
actors
and
descrip>on.
It
is
very
lucid
in
terms
of
the
details
that
needs
to
be
fleshed
out
at
what
level.
• What
it
lacks
is
the
same
level
of
support
that
IBM
offered
to
back
up
RUP.
SAFe
is
being
implemented
by
tons
of
vendors
in
mul>ple
enterprises
and
each
of
them
sell
it
in
their
own
way.
• So
SAFe
does
not
have
a
standard
implementa>on.
The
process
does
not
have
a
good
offline
enterprise
support
once
the
consultants
exit
a
SAFe
implementa>on
at
an
enterprise.

9. Scaled
Agile
Framework
(SAFe)
• One
of
the
implementa>ons
that
I
saw
had
omied
the
en>re
concept
of
Business
Value
-­‐
which
is
blasphemy
in
the
agile
world.
While
SAFe
does
men>on
about
business
value,
the
vagueness
in
its
offline
documenta>on
and
the
lack
of
offline
support
meant
that
the
enterprise
has
got
it
wrong.

10. Lean
Project
Management
Office
• The
whole
concept
of
a
Lean
PMO
concept
is
to
start
with
the
simplest
process
and
mature
it
as
we
move
along
and
have
more
learnings.
It
gets
customized
for
the
enterprise
by
the
enterprise
themselves.
Some
of
the
key
concepts
of
a
lean
PMO
-­‐
Business
value
based
priori>za>on,
Level
the
workload,
Pull
based
project
intake
process
-­‐
helps
in
resource
op>miza>on
and
business
value
enhancement.
• The
central
theme
of
the
lean
PMO
-­‐
reducing
water
&
subordina>on
to
the
boleneck
-­‐
guides
the
PMO
is
making
choices
and
is
not
process
driven.
While
this
aspect
of
the
lean
PMO
does
not
endear
itself
to
the
enterprise,
it
works
a
lot
beer
and
more
efficiently
over
a
period
of
>me

11. Scaled
Agile
Framework
Vs
Lean
PMO
• With
the
entries
en>>es
having
to
make
a
choice
between
SAFe
vs
Lean
PMO,
most
of
the
enterprise
en>>es
go
with
SAFe
because
of
the
following
approach
– SAFe
looks
more
familiar
than
lean
PMO
– Lean
PMO
introduces
change
more
constantly
than
SAFe
which
is
just
a
one
>me
change.
Enterprise
en>>es
do
not
like
change
that
oMen
– Lean
PMO
needs
more
mature
people
with
specialized
skill
to
be
successful.
It
is
not
that
SAFe
does
not
need
them,
it
is
just
that
Lean
PMO
needs
these
people
through
out
since
it
is
about
constant
process
improvement.

12. Conclusion
• Enterprise
en>>es
looking
at
adap>ng
agile
in
their
soMware
delivery
process
will
look
at
going
ahead
with
SAFe
for
now.
However,
Lean
PMO
would
start
playing
a
bigger
part
at
a
later
point
of
>me
when
the
lean
way
of
thinking
in
the
soMware
delivery
process
becomes
more
mainstream
thinking
and
less
of
a
specialized
skill
.Till
then,
it
is
going
to
be
SAFe.
• We
do
hope
that
SAFe
handles
all
its
challenges
-­‐
of
having
beer
consul>ng
partners
and
beer
offline
support
-­‐
as
its
implementa>on
across
communi>es
grow
and
a
more
vibrant
SAFe
community
comes
up.

13. About
Me
• The
author
is
a
lead
consultant
/
agile
coach
at
Thoughtworks
and
has
10
years
of
experience
in
so:ware
delivery
–
5
of
which
has
been
with
enabling
enterprise
adapt
agile.
• The
author
regularly
writes
at
www.madhavanwrites.blogspot.com