SAFe Lean-Agile Principles

"SAFe Lean-Agile Principles

Building endeavor class programming and digital actual frameworks is quite possibly the most intricate difficulties our industry faces today. Furthermore, obviously, the ventures that form these frameworks are additionally progressively complex. They are greater and more disseminated than any other time in recent memory. Consolidations and acquisitions, disseminated worldwide (and multilingual) advancement, offshoring, and quick development are all important for the arrangement. But at the same time they're a contributor to the issue. Luckily, we have an astonishing and developing assemblage of information that can help. It incorporates Agile standards and techniques, Lean and frameworks thinking, item advancement stream practices, and Lean cycles. Thought pioneers have voyaged this way before us and left a path in many books and references to draw on. The objective of SAFe is to blend this assemblage of information, alongside the exercises gained from many organizations. This makes an arrangement of incorporated, demonstrated practices that have further developed worker commitment, time-to-advertise, arrangement quality, and group efficiency. Given the intricacies, be that as it may, there's no off-the-rack answer for the exceptional difficulties every venture faces. Few out of every odd SAFe suggested practice will apply similarly in each situation. This is the reason we make a solid effort to guarantee that SAFe practices are grounded in generally stable standards. That way we can be sure the practices apply much of the time. Furthermore, if those practices do miss the mark, the hidden standards will direct the groups to ensure that they are moving consistently on the way to the objective of the House of Lean: ""most limited economical lead time, with best quality and worth to individuals and society."" There is esteem in that, as well. SAFe depends on ten essential ideas that have advanced from Agile standards and strategies, Lean item improvement, frameworks thinking, and perception of fruitful ventures. Each is portrayed exhaustively in an article by that rule's name. Moreover, the epitome of the standards shows up all through the Framework. They are summed up in the accompanying segments, and each has a full article behind the connection.

#1 – Take an economic view Delivering the ‘best value and quality for people and society in the shortest sustainable lead time’ requires a fundamental understanding of the economics of building systems. Everyday decisions must be made in a proper economic context. This includes the strategy for incremental value delivery and the broader economic framework for each value stream. This framework highlights the trade-offs between risk, Cost of Delay (CoD), manufacturing, operational, and development costs. In addition, every development value stream must operate within the context of an approved budget, and be compliant to the guardrails which support decentralized decision-making.

#2 – Apply systems thinking Deming observed that addressing the challenges in the workplace and the marketplace requires an understanding of the systems within which workers and users operate. Such systems are complex, and they consist of many interrelated components. But optimizing a component does not optimize the system. To improve, everyone must understand the larger aim of the system. In SAFe, systems thinking is applied to the system under development, as well as to the organization that builds the system.

#3 – Assume variability; preserve options Traditional design and life cycle practices encourage choosing a single design-and-requirements option early in the development process. Unfortunately, if that starting point proves to be the wrong choice, then future adjustments take too long and can lead to a suboptimal design. A better approach is to maintain multiple requirements and design options for a longer period in the development cycle. Empirical data is then used to narrow the focus, resulting in a design that creates optimum economic outcomes.

#4 – Build incrementally with fast, integrated learning cycles Developing solutions incrementally in a series of short iterations allows for faster customer feedback and mitigates risk. Subsequent increments build on the previous ones. Since the ‘system always runs’, some increments may serve as prototypes for market testing and validation; others become minimum viable products (MVPs). Still others extend the system to with new and valuable functionality. In addition, these early, fast feedback points help determine when to ‘pivot,’ where necessary to an alternate course of action.

#5 – Base milestones on objective evaluation of working systems Business owners, developers, and customers have a shared responsibility to ensure that investment in new solutions will deliver economic benefit. The sequential, phase-gate development model was designed to meet this challenge, but experience shows that it does not mitigate risk as intended. In Lean-Agile development, integration points provide objective milestones at which to evaluate the solution throughout the development life cycle. This regular evaluation provides the financial, technical, and fitness-for-purpose governance needed to assure that a continuing investment will produce a commensurate return.

#6 – Visualize and limit WIP, reduce batch sizes, and manage queue lengths Lean enterprises strive to achieve a state of continuous flow, where new system capabilities move quickly and visibly from concept to cash. Keys to implementing flow are: 1. Visualize and limit the amount of work in process (WIP). This increases throughput and limits demand to actual capacity. 2. Reduce the batch sizes of work to facilitate fast and more reliable flow. 3. Manage queue lengths to reduce the wait times for new functionality.

#7 – Apply cadence, synchronize with cross-domain planning Cadence creates predictability and provides a rhythm for development. Synchronization causes multiple perspectives to be understood, resolved, and integrated at the same time. Applying development cadence and synchronization, coupled with periodic cross-domain planning, provides the mechanisms needed to operate effectively in the presence of the inherent development uncertainty.

#8 – Unlock the intrinsic motivation of knowledge workers Lean-Agile leaders understand that ideation, innovation, and employee engagement are not generally motivated by individual incentive compensation. Such individual incentives can create internal competition and destroy the cooperation necessary to achieve the larger aim of the system. Providing autonomy and purpose, minimizing constraints, creating an environment of mutual influence, and better understanding the role of compensation are keys to higher levels of employee engagement. This approach yields better outcomes for individuals, customers, and the enterprise.

#9 – Decentralize decision-making Achieving fast value delivery requires decentralized decision-making. This reduces delays, improves product development flow, enables faster feedback, and creates more innovative solutions designed by those closest to the local knowledge. However, some decisions are strategic, global, and have economies of scale that justify centralized decision-making. Since both types of decisions occur, creating a reliable decision-making framework is a critical step in empowering employees and ensuring a fast flow of value.

#10 – Organize around value Many enterprises today are organized around principles developed during the last century. In the name of intended efficiency, most are organized around functional expertise. But in the digital age, the only sustainable competitive advantage is the speed with which an organization can respond to the needs of its customers with new and innovative solutions. These solutions require cooperation amongst all the functional areas, with their incumbent dependencies, handoffs, waste and delays. Instead, Business Agility demands that enterprises organize around value to deliver more quickly. And when market and customer demands change, the enterprise must quickly and seamlessly reorganize around that new value flow. ""The Program Backlog is the holding region for impending Features, which are proposed to address client needs and convey business benefits for a solitary Agile Release Train (ART). It additionally contains the empowering agent highlights important to fabricate the Architectural Runway. The Solution Backlog is the holding region for impending Capabilities and Enablers, every one of which can traverse numerous ARTs and is proposed to propel the Solution and construct its structural runway. Item Management has obligation regarding the Program Backlog, while Solution Management is answerable for the Solution Backlog. The things in these accumulations result from research exercises and dynamic joint effort with different partners—Customers, Business Owners, Product Management, Product Owners, System and Solution Architects/Engineering, and the sky is the limit from there, that are important for the Continuous Exploration measure. The build-up things are overseen through their particular Program and Solution Kanban frameworks. The work goes through the conditions of 'channel' and 'dissecting' and the most elevated need highlights and capacities that were adequately explained and endorsed, move to the 'build-up' state. Then, at that point they're focused on comparative with the remainder of the accumulation to anticipate execution. Adequately recognizing, refining, focusing on, and sequencing build-up things utilizing Weighted Shortest Job First (WSJF) is the way in to the financial achievement of the arrangement. Since the overabundance contains both new business usefulness and the enablement work important to expand the Architectural Runway, a 'limit distribution' is utilized to assist with guaranteeing prompt and long haul esteem conveyance, with speed and quality. Subtleties

The program and arrangement overabundances are the archives for all the impending work that influences the conduct of the Solution. Item and Solution Management create, keep up with, and focus on the program and arrangement excesses individually. The overabundances are a momentary holding region for highlights and abilities that have gone through their individual Kanban frameworks and have been supported for execution.

Refining the Backlog Agile Release Trains and Solution Trains run a steady 8-12 week Program Increment (PI) cadence of planning, execution, demo, and Inspect and Adapt (I&A). This regular rhythm is the heartbeat that drives backlog readiness as well. Appearing at a Pre-PI Planning or a PI Planning without a well-elaborated backlog adds unacceptable risk to the upcoming PI. The time between PI planning events is a busy time for Product and Solution Management, as they are always in the process of refining their backlogs in preparation for the next PI planning. Making this process visible and achieving backlog readiness for the upcoming PI is one of the primary purposes of the program and solution Kanbans. Backlog refinement typically includes: Reviewing and updating backlog item definition and developing acceptance criteria and benefit hypothesis Working with the teams to establish technical feasibility and scope estimates Analyzing ways to split backlog items into smaller chunks of incremental value Identifying the enablers required to support new features and capabilities, and establishing their capacity allocation

Program and solution backlogs are not queues, as items can leapfrog others for faster delivery. If, however, all the items in a backlog are committed to stakeholders, then the backlog behaves like a queue. And the longer it is, the longer your stakeholders are going to have to wait for service. And if they have to wait too long, they will find another coffee shop, as the current shop can’t meet their rapidly changing market needs. Therefore, teams and ARTs must actively manage their backlogs and keep them short to be fast and responsive. They must also limit commitment to longer-term work because some other item may come along that’s more important than a prior commitment. If an ART has too many fixed and committed requirements in the backlog, it cannot respond quickly, no matter how efficient it is. Teams and ARTs can be both reliable and fast only if they actively manage the backlog and keep it short.

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