Demystifying SAFe

LACE (Lean-Agile Center of Excellence) is a small agile team dedicated to implementing the SAFe Lean-Agile way of working in an organization. It proves to be one of the key differentiators between organizations who only practice Agile in name to organizations fully committed to getting the best outcomes of Lean-Agile practices. In this blog, we will read in detail about what exactly LACE is and what is its responsibilities. What is LACE? Across our journey, we have realized how important it is to have leaders within the organization who can lead the transformation towards reaping the benefits of SAFe. The challenge towards that is people most qualified to fill that role already have full-time responsibilities in their current role. This is where the SAFe implementation promotes building the LACE, staffed with people whose primary task is implementing and sustaining the change. Effective LACEs are made up of people that have some common characteristics. It is beneficial to identify peo...

  The growing complexity of modern software systems can dramatically affect the speed, quality, and flow of delivering value to customers. In this blog, we delve into how System Teams play a pivotal role for a organization and what are their responsibilities. But before we jump in, let’s take a quick look at what exactly is a System Team? What is a System Team? The System Team is a specialized Agile team that assists in building and supporting the Agile development environment, including developing and maintaining the Continuous Delivery Pipeline. They may also support the integration of assets, end-to-end solution testing, DevOps mindset and practices, deployment, and release on demand. The System Team accelerates the ART’s velocity and reduces the cognitive load on development teams by building and maintaining the Agile development environment infrastructure, for example: The creation and maintenance of a Continuous Delivery Pipeline toolchain. This toolchain encompasses continu...

Welcome to an enlightening journey that unveils the significance, responsibilities, and strategic impact of an Enterprise Architect within the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe). In this blog, we delve into the pivotal role that Epic Owners play in harmonizing innovation, technology, and business objectives. But before we jump in, let’s take a quick look at who exactly an Epic Owner is? Who is an Epic Owner? In the SAFe framework, the Epic Owner is a visionary leader who is being entrusted with steering the course of significant initiatives and translating business strategies into actionable plans and tasks. In brief, Epic Owners are responsible for coordinating epics through the portfolio Kanban system. Epic Owners (EO) work collaboratively with stakeholders to define the Epic, the Lean business case, and the definition of a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and are responsible for shepherding the epic through the portfolio Kanban system. If Lean Portfolio Management (LPM) approves the epic, t...

Welcome to an enlightening journey that unveils the significance, responsibilities, and strategic impact of an Enterprise Architect within the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe). In this blog, we delve into the pivotal role that architects play in harmonizing innovation, technology, and business objectives. But before we jump in, let’s take a quick look at who exactly an Enterprise Architect is? Who is an Enterprise Architect? In the SAFe framework, the Enterprise Architect takes on multi-faceted role who plays a crucial role in bridging the gap between technical design and strategic alignment. They are responsible for establishing the portfolio’s technology vision, strategy and roadmap. They provide the vision, evolution and communication of an organization’s technical architecture. This often involves incorporating Cloud, Big Data and AI technologies to create strategic advantage. They also guide the portfolio’s value stream as they develop new elements for the organization’s enterprise ...

Welcome to a transformative exploration of the crucial intersection between metrics and growth within the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) Measure and Grow Business Agility sets new performance standards for organizations, requiring fast and effective responses to emerging business opportunities. However, there needs to be a way to measure the current state and identify areas of improvement. Measure and Grow is an approach organizations use to evaluate progress towards their goals and determine areas of improvements. The first and most important thing we need to begin is with understanding what to measure. The main goal of business agility is to identify business opportunities and come up with solutions. The figure below represents the Business Agility Value Stream which visualizes the steps needed to achieve the first goal. Outcomes, Flow and Competency are the three SAFe domains which help provide a comprehensive yet simple model for measuring progress towards the business goal. SAFe d...