Presentation given at Agile 2014. Are you working with multiple agile teams on a single software application? Are you looking for help with making agile work for you at the program level? Have you considered leveraging the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) but been scared off by its prescriptive nature? Are you confused about how program level SAFe applies in your context? Every organisation is different and what works for one organisation may not work for another. One of the benefits of a framework, is that they can and should be adapted to your context. Based on learnings derived from practical experience, this session will illustrate how focusing on values and principles over practice and processes, can help you design a pragmatic approach to program level SAFe suitable for your unique situation. By contrasting principles and practises this session will: * draw out the principles behind SAFe and the standard SAFe practises that apply to them, * show how practises from other scaling models align to SAFe principles and compliment program level SAFe; and, * share real word examples of how adapting SAFe practises, while remaining aligned to the principles, can help you create a working model applicable to your program

1. Em Campbell-Pretty
Partner, Context Matters
@PrettyAgile
www.prettyagile.com
au.linkedin.com/in/ejcampbellpretty/
em@contextmatters.com.au
The Key to the SAFe:
Principles over Practices
Agile 2014

2. http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2009-05-25/
2010

3. http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2007-11-26/
2011

4. 4

5. Leffingwell Book Club Kanabn
http://www.prettyagile.com/2013/10/book-clubs-at-work-are-you-serious.html

6. Used with permission of Scaled Agile, Inc. © 2008 – 2014 Scaled Agile, Inc.
and Leffingwell, LLC. All rights reserved.

7. Your enterprise can and should use only what
it needs from this model; otherwise it isn’t the
simplest thing that can possibly work.
- Dean Leffingwell

8. But how?

9. Used with permission of Scaled Agile, Inc. © 2008 – 2014 Scaled Agile, Inc. and Leffingwell, LLC. All rights reserved.

10. When someone learns to drive a car, it is not
enough to tell him or her, “The general
principle is to arrive at a certain place without
hurting or killing anyone. Good luck!”
- Jurgen Appelo

11. Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless,
and add what is specifically your own.
- Bruce Lee

12. PRINCIPLE: THE GOAL IS VALUE
The goal of Lean is unarguable – to
sustainably deliver the maximum amount of
value to the customer in the shortest possible
lead time…
– Dean Leffingwell

13. SAFE PRACTICE: VALUE STREAM MAPPING
Used with permission of Scaled Agile, Inc. © 2008 – 2014 Scaled Agile, Inc. and Leffingwell, LLC. All rights reserved.

14. ADDITIONAL PRACTICE: IMPACT & STORY MAPPING
http://www.prettyagile.com/2014/02/how-i-fell-in-love-with-impact-mapping.html

15. To manage one must lead. To lead, one must
understand the work that he and his people
are responsible for
- W. Edwards Deming
PRINCIPLE: LEAN LEADERSHIP

16. 1) Take a Systems View
2) Embrace the Agile Manifesto
3) Implement Product Development Flow
4) Unlock the Intrinsic Motivation of Knowledge
Workers
SAFE PRACTICES: LEAN | AGILE LEADERS

17. ADDITIONAL PRACTICE: EVERYONE HAS A TEAM
Deployment
Services
Development Services
Pipeline
Service
s
Used with permission of Scaled Agile, Inc. © 2008 – 2014 Scaled Agile, Inc. and Leffingwell, LLC. All rights reserved.
http://www.prettyagile.com/2014/03/launching-agile-release-train-while.html

18. ADDITIONAL PRACTICE: EVERY TEAM IS AN AGILE TEAM
Continuous Improvement Operations

19. ADDITIONAL PRACTICE: AGILE BUSINESS TEAMS

20. “…we must constantly be aware that it is our people
who actually do all the value added work…”
- Dean Leffingwell
PRINCIPLE: RESPECT FOR PEOPLE

21. SAFE PRACTICE: TEAMS. CUSTOMERS & PARTNERS
Customers Partners
Teams

22. ADDITIONAL PRACTICE: THE NET PROMOTER SYSTEM
Source: http://www.netpromotersystem.com/about/measuring-your-net-promoter-score.aspx
http://www.prettyagile.com/2013/11/measuring-team-happiness.html

23. PRINCIPLE: KAIZEN
“We can do better.”
- Dean Leffingwell

24. SAFE PRACTICE: SPRINT & PI RETROSPECTIVES

25. Leadership
System
Improvment
Bubble
Up
Chapters
ADDITIONAL PRACTICES

26. ADDITIONAL PRACTICE: BUBBLE UP
http://www.prettyagile.com/2013/06/bubble-up.html

27. ADDITIONAL PRACTICE: SPECIALIST CHAPTERS

28. ADDITIONAL PRACTICE: LEADERSHIP IMPROVEMENT KANBAN
http://www.prettyagile.com/2014/04/being-agile-team-of-agile-leaders.html

29. ADDITIONAL PRACTICE: LEADERSHIP IMPROVEMENT KANBAN
http://www.prettyagile.com/2014/04/being-agile-team-of-agile-leaders.html

30. PRINCIPLE: PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT FLOW
1. Take an economic view
2. Actively manage queues
3. Understand and exploit
variability
4. Reduce batch sizes
5. Apply WIP constraints
6. Control flow under uncertainty:
cadence and synchronization
7. Get feedback as fast as possible
8. Decentralize control

31. PRINCIPLE: TAKE AN ECONOMIC VIEW
If you only quantify one thing, quantify the cost
of delay.
– Don Reinertsen

32. SAFE PRACTICE: WEIGHTED SHORTEST JOB FIRST
BUSINESS VALUE
+
TIME CRITICALITY
+
RISK REDUCTION/
OPPORTUNITY ENABLEMENT
______________
JOB SiZE

33. ADDITIONAL PRACTICE: PLANNING POKER WITH EXECS

34. PRINCIPLE: ACTIVELY MANAGE QUEUES
Queues delay feedback, and delayed feedback
leads to high costs.
– Don Reinertsen

35. SAFE PRACTICE: SINGLE QUEUE MULTI-SERVER
Used with permission of Scaled Agile, Inc. © 2008 – 2014 Scaled Agile, Inc. and Leffingwell, LLC. All rights reserved.

36. SAFE PRACTICE: PROGRAM INCREMENTS
Used with permission of Scaled Agile, Inc. © 2008 – 2014 Scaled Agile, Inc. and Leffingwell, LLC. All rights reserved.

37. ALTERNATIVE PRACTICE: ROLLING WAVE PLANNING
http://www.prettyagile.com/2014/02/from-psi-planning-to-unity-day-and-back.html

38. ADDITIONAL PRACTICE: VISUALIZE EVERYTHING

39. PRINCIPLE: UNDERSTAND & EXPLOIT VARIABILITY
100% utilization drives unpredictability.
– Don Reinertsen

40. SAFE PRACTICE: INNOVATION & PLANNING (IP) SPRINT
Used with permission of Scaled Agile, Inc. © 2008 – 2014 Scaled Agile, Inc. and Leffingwell, LLC. All rights reserved.

41. ALTERNATIVE PRACTICE: 10% TIME

42. ALTERNATIVE PRACTICE: GET TO FEATURE TEAMS FAST

43. PRINCIPLE: REDUCE BATCH SIZE
The most important batch is the transport
batch.
- Don Reinertsen

44. SAFE PRACTICE: BREAKDOWN REQUIREMENTS
Used with permission of Scaled Agile, Inc. © 2008 – 2014 Scaled Agile, Inc. and Leffingwell,
LLC. All rights reserved.

45. SAFE PRACTICE: CONTINUOUS INTEGRATION
Used with permission of Scaled Agile, Inc. © 2008 – 2014 Scaled Agile, Inc. and Leffingwell, LLC. All rights reserved.

46. ADDITIONAL PRACTICE: CONTINUOUS HUMAN INTEGRATION
9:00am 9:15am 930am
9:45am
http://www.prettyagile.com/2014/03/communication-cadence-heartbeat-of.html

47. PRINCIPLE: APPLY WIP CONSTRAINTS
It is easier to start work than it is to finish it.
It is easier to grow WIP than it is to reduce it
– Don Reinertsen

48. SAFE PRACTICE: EPIC KANBAN
Used with permission of Scaled Agile, Inc. © 2008 – 2014 Scaled Agile, Inc. and Leffingwell, LLC. All rights reserved.

49. ADDITIONAL PRACTICE: VISUALIZE CAPACITY

50. ADDITIONAL PRACTICE: FEATURE FLOW

51. ADDITIONAL PRACTICE: HOURLGLASS

52. PRINCIPLE: CONTROL FLOW UNDER UNCERTAINTY
Develop on Cadence. Release on Demand.
- Dean Leffingwell

53. SAFE PRACTICE: PROGRAM CADENCE
Used with permission of Scaled Agile, Inc. © 2008 – 2014 Scaled Agile, Inc. and Leffingwell, LLC. All rights reserved.

54. SAFE PRACTICE: PLANNING CADENCE

55. ADDITIONAL PRACTICE: UNITY DAY
http://www.prettyagile.com/2014/01/unity-day-creating-one-team-culture.html

56. • Planning
• Demos
• Retros
• Backlog Refinement
ADDITIONAL PRACTICE: PUT EVERYTHING ON CADENCE

57. PRINCIPLE: GET FEEDBACK AS FAST AS POSSIBLE
A little rudder earlier is better than a lot
of rudder late.
- Don Reinertsen

58. SAFE PRACTICE: INSPECT & ADAPT
Used with permission of Scaled Agile, Inc. © 2008 – 2014 Scaled Agile, Inc. and Leffingwell, LLC. All rights reserved.

59. ADDITIONAL PRACTICE: BUBBLE UP
http://www.prettyagile.com/2013/06/bubble-up.html

60. PRINCIPLE: DECENTRALIZED CONTROL
…emerging information is visible first to
the people who are closest to the front
lines of the battle.
- Don Reinertsen

61. SAFE PRACTICE: AGILE RELEASE TRAIN
Used with permission of Scaled Agile, Inc. © 2008 – 2014 Scaled Agile, Inc. and Leffingwell, LLC. All rights reserved.

62. ALTERNATIVE PRACTICE: EPIC SPONSORS & FEATURE OWNERS
EpicSponsor
Feature Owner
Feature Owner
Feature Owner

63. I've learned that people will forget what you
said, people will forget what you did, but
people will never forget how you made them
feel.
- Maya Angelou

64. Success with Scaling Agile starts and ends
with leadership.
- Em Campbell-Pretty

65. Em Campbell-Pretty
Partner, Context Matters
@PrettyAgile
www.prettyagile.com
au.linkedin.com/in/ejcampbellpretty/
em@contextmatters.com.au
WANT TO KNOW MORE?
• Attend my session with Jean Tabaka on “Creating Agile Tribes”
• Visit my blog: www.prettyagile.com
• Come and say G’day at #Agile2014
THANK YOU!