Enabling SAFe Framework

INTRODUCTION: 

You must be wondering about the word SAFe in the main header SAFe is basically – SCALED AGILE FRAMEWORK. Now, what is AGILE? An Agile framework, in simple terms, can be defined as an unambiguous software-development approach based on the agile philosophy articulated in the Agile manifesto. SAFe is just like a template for scaling agile principles and tools to large organizations. SAFe is a framework that is meant to cover the whole organization. It operates on three-level:  

1. portfolio management 
2. program 
3. Team 

You can  consider SAFe as a well-structured and interactive knowledge base to guide you in work planning, team management, organizational value upholding, role distribution, and handling of responsibilities at various levels. 

For organizations with multifarious structures and processes, SAFe is the effective method to leverage the advantages of Lean-agile methodologies and systems development through design thinking. If implemented carefully, SAFe will help you in  scaling agile faster for your organization. 

 Core Values: 

To deploy agile to any  organization, SAFe suggests a set of values that leadership must have. It focuses on  the ideal culture for the business setup for the impactful implementation of the framework. The core values promoted by the SAFe are: 

Transparency 

Transparency is the key mechanism for trust-building in an organization. Therefore, SAFe encourages adding numerous milestones in each project and planning work in small batches. By doing this, businesses can notice the shortcomings quickly, check  processes in real-time, and inspect the workflow without hassles. 

Program Execution 

Teams and programs must both deliver value. For this, program execution must be handled very thoroughly. SAFe encourages frequent delivery of value through software products as well as business processes. 

In-built Quality 

The QoS and products is very important in SAFe. It considers that prepared is an objective term and must be defined when used. For example, when a team member makes a change to the status of a task and updates progress made, or has concerns, it must be written. This is done because, by using quality-oriented practices, service and product ,quality can be maintained very easily. 

In the context of software development, this core value should be attained for: 

1. Process flow. 
2. Design quality. 
3. System quality. 
4. Release quality. 
5. Code quality. 

Alignment 

All individuals who are relevant and all  hierarchy levels in the organization must understand the current state of the business, its approaching goals, and plan execution strategy. For this ,both  the downward and upward  flow of info must be timely, uniform, and should be well-controlled. Businesses also need to have a trustworthy communication channel, rhythm in feedbacks (and their execution), and effective strategies for the implementation of plans.  

Leadership 

All core values listed above depend directly or indirectly on the organization’s headship. SAFe promotes lean-agile leadership behavior. Creating the required environment and improving the systems to help the other gears (human and non-human) of the business embrace the core values suggested. 

The Scaled Agile Framework Principles 

SAFe framework principles focus on improving each constituent of your organization through better decision-making. It tries to help businesses do well on the functional as well as the organizational face. For this, it encourages enhancing decision-making for everyone — including managers and the people in the lower levels of the organization chain of command. 

 Lean Portfolio Management techniques are used in  deploying SAFe principles, while the purpose of this execution being — enables everyone to cultivate a lean-agile mindset. 

The SAFe Principles: 

• Principle 1: Sort jobs in a sensible order, figure out economic trade-offs, execute the plan as per the resources. 
• Principle 2: Use Systems thinking for the solution, business ecosystem and value streams. Here, value streams refers to the flow of significance in functional and organizational domains. 
• Principle 3: Always have in mind possible risk and the pits . Have a secondary action plan to handle the uncertainty. 
• Principle 4: With the project milestones, also deploy the  learning milestones. An organization should target to come up with a scalable, viable, efficient, well-designed, and quality-oriented product. For this to achieve, regular self-reflection phases and learning milestones are essential. 
• Principle 5: Perform objective assessment of your working systems and take milestones-related decisions as per that. 
• Principle 6: Create small batch sizes and milestones for your work in order to efficiently handle errors at the early periods as they arrive. 
• Principle 7: Reflect on your work through continous reviewing and feedback sessions. Such type of tempo should be put in place for everything in the organization and harmonized with cross-domain strategy-making process. 
• Principle 8: Rather than instructing and showing off the power to the lower gears, top-level officials must guide their team members through knowledge and coaching skills. 
• Principle 9: Give your teams the opportunity to make some decisions on their own and maintain the decision-making authority for yourself when the subject seems more critical. 

Deployment of SAFe at Work 

To implement The SAFe in your workplace, you must take the following steps: 

• stick to SAFe core principles and values for your practices. 
• Figure out the main gears of the SAFe framework in your organization, such as value streams, Agile Release Trains. 
• Train your teams (all levels) to handle lean-agile change management and tell them systematically about SAFe. 
• Plan the SAFe deployment tactic and implement it. 
• Prepare for ART Launch, make your team competent enough to handle ART, and launch ART in the end. 
• ART execution, value streams management, and administer a portfolio. 
• Continual monitoring for strengthening  and regular improvements on the go. 

The Final Word 

SAFe and some other similar frameworks help organizations to improve their feasibility, scale agile, achieve more and transform digitally. Though initial deployment may take some time, deploying The SAFe for your organization is totally worth it. 

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