The document discusses the benefits and challenges of lean-agile transformations, highlighting the importance of faster delivery, productivity, and value creation. It compares various models for scaling agile, particularly the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) and its principles, advocating for a shift from traditional budgeting and command-and-control structures to decentralized decision-making and integrated operations. The document emphasizes the need for flexible funding and the alignment of teams towards customer value in order to enhance efficiency and reduce waiting times in product development.

1. Lean-agile transformation:
comparing models for agile at scale
Chris Verlinden
cverlinden@adjugo.com
+32 474 891 705

2. Why do
companies
move to
agile
Source: VersionOne 12th
Annual State of Agile Report (2018)
The main business reasons

3. Top three
priorities
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Faster delivery Adapt priority Increase productivity
Main drivers

4. 0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Faster delivery Adapt priority Increase productivity Reduce cost
Main drivers
Cost … or
value
creation?
Value
creation

5. Top three
priorities
LEAN AGILE LEAN-AGILE
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Faster delivery Adapt priority Productivity
Main drivers and results
Expected Result

6. Do not look at the
people working, look
at the progress
“Organizations with
slack time are faster
than organizations
where the goal is to
keep people busy all
the time.”
Henrik Kniberg

7. Process of new product delivery
Once a
year
1 – 4
per year
Slows
everything
down?
Business case

8. Product
development
in projects
slows down
by waiting
Idea waiting to be explored
and become project
proposal
Project proposals waiting
for budget cycle (often
once per year)
Approved projects wait for
project manager and team
Waterfall:
• Functional analysis waits for
approval by ‘business’
• Technical design waits for peer
review and approval
• Programs wait for testers
Tested programs wait for
deployment into
production

9. Product
development
in agile
projects still
waits a lot
Idea waiting to be
explored and become
project proposal
Project proposals
waiting for budget
cycle (often once per
year)
Approved projects wait
for project manager to
be assigned and team
assembled
Agile project:
• Team delivers in iterations
• Waiting times largely
eliminated
Tested programs wait
for deployment into
production

10. Scrum
facilitates
continuous
development

11. Maintain the
teams
between
projects
Idea waiting to be
explored and
become project
proposal
Project proposals
waiting for budget
cycle (often once
per year)
Teams are long-
living and take up
work as it arrives
Agile teams
deliver in iterations
Tested programs
wait for
deployment into
production

12. DevOps and
frequent
deployment
eliminate
more waiting
Idea waiting to be
explored and
become project
proposal
Project proposals
waiting for budget
cycle (often once
per year)
Teams are long-
living and take up
work as it arrives
Agile teams
deliver in iterations
Integrate DevOps
and continuous
deployment

13. Traditional
walls of
confusion
Business Development Operations

14. Building
alignment is
a critical
goal • Different groups in the organization have different
goals and direction
• The lack of alignment means their different efforts
cancel each other out
• This creates a feeling of constant work with little
or no progress

15. SAFe DevOps
Dev Ops
Maximum
speed
Maximum
stability
Development
Operations
Business
SecurityArchitecture
Compliance
…

16. Fund
development
capacity, not
projects
Idea waiting to be
explored and
become project
proposal
Teams are funded
based on strategy
Teams are long-
living and pull work
in as it arrives
Agile teams
deliver in iterations
Integrate DevOps
and continuous
deployment

17. Strategic
themes fund
valuestreams

18. Focus on
value and
prioritization

19. Focus on
value and
prioritization
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
Fixed scope Agile scope
Value generated per effort
Very high High Medium Low
90 % of value for 75 %
effort
20 % more productive

20. SAFe: Prioritization of backlogs
Portfolio Backlog Program Backlog Team Backlog
Stories
Feature
Team’s part of a Feature / Enabler

21. Examine
ideas in a
continuous
Kanban flow
Ideas examined and
approved in
Portfolio process
Teams are funded
based on strategy
Teams are long-
living and pull work
in as it arrives
Agile teams
deliver in iterations
Integrate DevOps
and continuous
deployment

22. Portfolio Kanban

23. Continuous
and end to
end flow
increases
speed of
value creation
Strategic themes
translated into
priorities
Ideas examined and
approved in
Portfolio process
Teams are funded
based on strategy
Teams are long-
living and pull work
in as it arrives
Agile teams
deliver in iterations
Integrate DevOps
and continuous
deployment
Scope of SAFe Lean Portfolio Management

24. Portfolio layer in SAFe

25. Ability to
react to
changes in
priority
Upfront
central
decision
Project
scope
Project
budget
Project
manager

26. From fixed to
flexible,
responsive
scope
Responsive
scope
Product
backlog
Product
demo’s
Product
owner

28. Adaptive
periodic
planning
Adaptive
planning
Periodic
planning
Agile
team
Scrum
master

29. Increase
productivity
 more value
per effort and
unit time
Business
case
Single point
solution
Fixed scope
Business
case time
independent

30. Do not build
what is not
used

31. Focus on
value,
not on cost
Business
case
Keep
alternatives
open
Do not build
the useless
parts
Time to
market
matters

32. Be more
productive
without
working
harder
People,
not
resources
Stable
teams
Limit Work
in Progress
Do not
waste
talent

33. Top three
priorities
LEAN AGILE LEAN-AGILE
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Faster delivery Adapt priority Increase productivity
Main drivers

34. So what are
some of the
challenges
here
Move from Command and Control
to decentralized decision making
Replace yearly budget cycle with a
more flexible system
Make business and IT work together
to create value for the customer
Make agile work at corporate level
instead of just team level
Integrate development and
operations

35. Decentralize decision making

36. Beyond
budgeting
principles of
Leadership
Purpose - Engage and inspire people
around bold and noble causes; not around
short-term financial targets
Values - Govern through shared values
and sound judgement; not through
detailed rules and regulations
Transparency - Make information open for
self-regulation, innovation, learning and
control; don’t restrict it

37. Beyond
budgeting
principles of
Leadership
Organisation - Cultivate a strong sense of
belonging and organise around accountable
teams; avoid hierarchical control and
bureaucracy
Autonomy - Trust people with freedom to
act; don’t punish everyone if someone
should abuse it
Customers - Connect everyone’s work with
customer needs; avoid conflicts of interest

38. Compare
results to
competitors
(significant
KPI’s)

39. Traditional budgeting
Detailed upfront (financial)
projections and business plans
Use this year or lose next year
Rigidity: budgets are hard to change
Detailed upfront (financial)
projections and business plans
Often complex: one project
touching many cost centers

40. Planning up front in a fast changing world
Reality has a way of surprising us
Plans are useless but planning is
essential (Eisenhower)
The farther away, the less certain
future is
Budget is more detailed than what
we know about the future
We cannot make accurate plan 15
months ahead

41. Follow the plan over adapt to reality
Plan deviations are result of poor
management and execution
On Budget On Scope On Time
Nobody got fired over following a
plan and staying within budget

42. Budget thinking leads to resource utilization
maximization
Financial thinking: best result when
everybody 100 % active
100 % resource utilization leads to
slower flow
Watch the baton, not the runners
Fast delivery has value

43. Value creation
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
Fixed scope Agile scope
Value generated per effort
Very high High Medium Low
90 % of value for 75 %
effort
20 % more productive

44. We focus on
cost far more
than on
creation of
value
IT used to be about ‘cost reduction’ (less administrative
work)
But is now part of value creation
And flexible IT opens new markets (Google  self-driving
cars)
IT plays a
major role
now in
company
valuestreams
Budget negotiations made it worse
Companies offering fixed price make money on change
requests
We never
were very
good at
estimating
cost of
projects
Customer has far more information
Major influence of social media
The
customer has
become far
less
predictable

45. SAFe is the leading scaled agile framework

46. Scaling agile
•Nexus
•Scrum of
Scrums
•LeSS (Large
Scale Scrum)
Small
scale
(up to
8
teams):

47. Scaling agile
•SAFe
•LeSS Huge
•DaD
•Spotify
Large
scale
(> 50
people):

48. SAFe: Scaled
Agile
Framework
Agile teams work together in
lean product development
constrained by system thinking
Scaled (Lean)- agile
Framework

49. What is SAFe
Freely available
Best practices of lean-agile
product development at scale
(> 50 people)
In a model …

50. Spotify
Spotify plays down the role of Scrum Master (team
self-organizing), but calls for an Agile coach instead

51. SAFe caveats
More revolutionary
than it looks
01
Role for management
but important
changes
• Managers try to map their
role on the SAFe-model
02
It is still a big
transformation
03

52. Spotify caveats
Not a model, explicitly stated Developed in specific circumstances
Companies want to adopt the Spotify model in
order to become more like Spotify

53. SAFe provides
a solution for
these topics
Move from Command and Control
to decentralized decision making
Replace yearly budget cycle with a
more flexible system
Make business and IT work together
to create value for the customer
Make agile work at corporate level
instead of just team level
Integrate development and
operations