SAFe Agilist

The purpose of Lean is to achieve the sustainable shortest lead time with:
• Best quality and value for people and society
• High morale, safety, customer delight
‘Respect for People and Culture,’ ‘Relentless Improvement’ and ‘Innovation’ are values of Lean-Agile mindset.
For more details, please refer: http://www.scaledagileframework.com/the-safe-way-to-lean-software-development-2/

The decision-making framework overall helps in generating better economic values by reducing cycle time; the decisions need big economic trade off are done centralized, whereas decision which needs to be taken frequently and timely are decentralized.

In traditional systems, we keep accumulating the development cost without delivering value till late in project/product development, with incremental development we delivery value frequent and often.

it also helps in
– Reducing Uncertainty associated with Integration
– Provide Faster learning by feedback

For more details, please refer: http://www.scaledagileframework.com/build-incrementally-with-fast-integrated-learning-cycles/

All principles are foundation, so we do not have any sequence or preference for them.

DevOps is an Agile approach to bridge the gap between development and operations to deliver value faster and more reliable.
SAFe enterprise implements DevOps to break down silos and empower each Agile Release Train (ART) and solution Train to deliver new features to their end users continuously. Over time, the separation between the development and operations is significantly reduced and trains operate with an automated, continuous delivery pipeline.

For more details, please refer: http://www.scaledagileframework.com/devops/

Features and capabilities are developed and managed through the Program and Value Streams Kanbans, respectively. Capabilities are split into features. After the split, these features are moved from value Stream to Program backlog. Every backlog is emergent in nature, and some features may come directly in program backlog instead from the Value Stream backlog.

Having said that, at program level product management team is free to make some level of local decisions (centralized and decentralized decision making ). And they may pick up features which may come directly in program backlog, we can also have program epic at this level and may get features as a result of disaggregation of program epic.

For more reference, please refer: http://www.scaledagileframework.com/features-and-capabilities/

Training helps in creating the sense of need, urgency. Afterward, it is time for the actual SAFe implementation, which includes identifying Value Streams and Agile Release Trains (ARTs). Value Streams and ARTs are the organizational backbones of a SAFe initiative.
For more details, please refer: http://www.scaledagileframework.com/identify-value-streams-and-arts/

Objectives are business summaries of what each team intends to deliver in the next PI.
During PI planning, Strech Objectives are items which are low in confidence for commitment. Stretch Objectives are not included in Team commitment.
According to #3 of SAFe – ” Assume Variability; preserve options we do consider alternatives rather preserving options.
All the alternatives of implementation may not be committed. Thus, the scope is split into committed and stretch objectives

The cumulative flow diagram is used to measure the flow of Kanban system.
In CFD, The arrival curve shows the rate at which backlog items are pulled into the work. The departure curve shows when they have accepted. The X axis (horizontal distance) shows the average lead time. The vertical line represents the Work in Progress (WIP)

For more details, please refer: http://www.scaledagileframework.com/team-kanban/

In WSJF, important jobs have to be divided into smaller, pretty important jobs to cut easier ways of making money (i.e. small, low-risk jobs that your customers are willing to pay for now). Since the implementation is incremental, whenever a continuing job doesn’t rank well against its peers, then you have likely satisfied that particular requirements sufficiently that you can move on to the next job.

Let’s take an example, During Pre-PI Planning, Product Management realizes that three features require the participation of a Supplier, who has proven able to deliver but usually takes longer to coordinate and execute. In that case, the best approach is to make adjustments to the Job size of the WSJF value for each of these features, as it will take longer to implement them.

For more details, please refer: http://www.scaledagileframework.com/wsjf/

Portfolio in SAFe includes the set of development value streams. Program portfolio management manages the budget for each Train. Each Value Stream has its budget.
SAFe recommends funding value streams, not projects.

For more details, please refer: http://scaledagileframework.com/budgets/

Strategic Themes connect each SAFe portfolio to the enterprise business strategy. Strategic Themes influence ART funding, Portfolio Backlog, Program Vision, and Roadmap. Strategic Themes represent the key direction for the portfolio.
Strategic Themes provides business context for decision-making within the portfolio and influence investments in value Streams and serve as input to the Economic Framework, Budget, Portfolio, Solution, and Program Backlog decisions.
For more details, please refer: http://scaledagileframework.com/strategic-themes/

Portfolio Kanban system has following stages:
1. Funnel: new ideas are welcome here
2. Review: Here understanding is refined
3. Analysis: Go/ No-Go decision is taken
4. Portfolio Backlog: These are epics approved by PPM
5. Implementation: Epics are decomposed into Value Stream/ Program Epics
6. Done: Here success criteria for the Epics have been met.
The SAFe portfolio Kanban system is used primarily to identify and manage the flow of epics that affect the course of action for value streams and the Agile Release Trains (ARTs) that realize them.
For more details, please refer: http://www.scaledagileframework.com/portfolio-kanban/

The primary role of the SAFe portfolio is to finance and nurture a set of solution development activities. These set of solution development activities enables the business strategy. And to enable this, each portfolio must execute within approved operating budget.

Roles at the portfolio level are involved in PI planning and solution development activities to make sure an alignment with business strategy.

For more details, please refer: http://www.scaledagileframework.com/portfolio-level/

In a large value stream, the pre-and post-PI planning meetings allow Agile Release Trains to build an aligned plan for the next Program Increment.
These activities support and coordinate the various ARTs involved in the value stream. Planning at this level helps bring alignment to the building of the Solutions and provides direction and visibility into where the solution is going in the next Program Increment.

For more details, please refer: http://www.scaledagileframework.com/pre-and-post-pi-planning/

The solution demo is the top event of the PI cycle for a value stream. The results of all the development efforts from many ARTs—along with the contributions from suppliers—are integrated, evaluated, and made visible to the Customers and other stakeholders. This demo
provides a regular cadence for objective evaluation of the solution and for gathering stakeholder and Customer feedback.

Solution Management
The Solution management is the one responsible for refining and prioritizing capabilities, as per Solution Increment Definition of Done Solution Management accepts the capabilities after Solution Demo.

For more details, please refer: http://www.scaledagileframework.com/features-and-capabilities/

Enterprise Agility aligns the organization using a set of lightweight practices. By doing that, the organization as a whole can adapt quickly as the market changes.

Doing this at PI Boundary is a good idea , since when we go though the SAFe slides on Budgeting, we see these adjustments made on PI boundaries.

A PI planning meeting is a cadence-based, face-to-face event that serves as the heartbeat of the ART, aligning all the teams on the ART to a common mission and vision.

For more details, please refer: http://www.scaledagileframework.com/pi-planning/