Using SAFe™ In Small to Mid Scale Organizations...Budgeting Cycle Requirements Sequence work Manage workload Visibility Work initiation Release Planning Cadence Missing any roles?

Al ShallowayCEO, Net Objectives

Using SAFe™ In Small to Mid-Scale Organizations

Day of Elaborating SAFe™

© Copyright Net Objectives, Inc. All Rights Reserved 2

Al Shalloway

[email protected]

@AlShalloway

CEO, Founder

Co-founder of Lean-Systems SocietyCo-founder Lean-Kanban University (no longer affiliated)Contributor to SAFe


Lean ManagementProject Management

Leanban / Kanban / Scrum ATDD / TDD / Design Patterns

technical

ASSESSMENTS

CONSULTING

TRAINING

COACHING

Lean for ExecutivesProduct Portfolio ManagementBusiness Product OwnerProduct Owner

Onsite SPC Leading SAFe

SAFe ArchitecturePM/PO




The SAFe Big Picture


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enough business value?

enough ROI? technically feasible?

E p i c s M B I s

enough capacity?

P I & F e a t u r e s

P R I O R I T Y P L A N N I N G

S T A G I N G R E A D Y T O P U L L

Q U A R T E R L Y

B I W E E K L Y

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S t o r i e s & T a s k s

B I W E E K L Y

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Program Vision

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Kanban (flow) Kanban (flow)

B I W E E K L Y T O Q u a r t e r l y

A G I L E R E L E A S E d e l i v e r o n d e m a n dd e v e l o p o n c a d e n c e

Copyright Net Objectives © 2015

ALIGN TEAMS WITH SHARED

BACKLOGS

BUSINESS STAKEHOLDERS IDENTIFY, SIZE AND

SEQUENCE WORK

PRIORITIZE ACROSS THE TEAMS

We’ve abstracted the “big picture” of SAFe so we can better talk about the germane issues.

http://www.netobjectives.com/minimum-business-increment


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enough capacity?




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BACKLOGS


SEQUENCE WORK


Budgeting Cycle Requirements

Sequence work Manage workload

Visibility

Degree of test automation

Use test-first methods?

What is design approach?

Integration cadence?

Size of stories

How are teams organized?

Eco-system structure

Use of ATDD

Test harness for acceptance tests?

Team method/process/framework

Work initiation

Release Planning Cadence

Missing any roles?

Managing tactical work

Aligning Portfolio with teams

Portfolio

Program

Team Level Process

Team Level Technical



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BACKLOGS


SEQUENCE WORK






Size of stories



Use of ATDD





Visibility

Work initiation


Missing any roles?



Portfolio

Program

Team Level Process




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BACKLOGS


SEQUENCE WORK




Visibility

Work initiation


Missing any roles?







Portfolio

Program

Team Level Process


Size of stories



Use of ATDD





Release PlanningMay be able to just do 2-week planning across teams

May be able to do pure flow

Keep other product inception / discovery aspects the same


Partially done workPaperworkHand-offsExtra featuresTask switchingDelaysDefects

Cross-Functional Teams Manifest Lean and Eliminate Waste


Many Ways to Achieve Teams

Cross-functional teams a la Scrum

Core with temporarily embedded team members

Core with shared extended team members

Dynamic Feature Teams


Inflection Point Description: Decide how people should be organized into teams.

All decisions should include: A description of how all of the functionality required for the work is obtained.

Inflection Point Options:

• Scrum style cross-functional teams

• Core teams with temporarily embedded team members

• Core with shared extended team members

• Dynamic feature teams

• No team structure – manage via flow / Kanban

SAFeTM decisions:

• Feature teams (recommended)

• Component teams

Inflection Point:Team Level Structure


Team Organization

UI Team

Mid-tier Team

Database Team

Team

1

Team

2

Team

3

UI Team

Mid-tier Team

Database Team

Cross-team cross-tribe collaboration is difficult

Inter-tribal

Intra-tribal


Inflection Point Description: Decide how to organize your people on the working surface. It is important that they be organized so as to allow for:

Work to come in and be worked on in an concerted manner

Have visibility of the work across the team level eco-system

Be optimized for throughput (flow)

All decisions should include:

Teams/people working in cadence (recommended cadence of 1 or 2 weeks).

Working from a shared backlog in unison or in individual backlogs that came from a shared backlog


Feature teams working in common cadence

Component teams working in common cadence


Core teams with people who cannot be on a team being managed with Kanban

Pure flow with Kanban

SAFeTM decisions:

Feature teams working in common cadence each with their own backlog (backlogs coordinated during planning) (recommended)

Component teams working in common cadence each with the own backlog (backlogs coordinated during planning)

Inflection Point:Team Level Eco System Structure


Background

• 7 components on plane

• 70 person dev group (50 devs)

• 7 teams (4-10 each)

• 4 test platforms, 2 simulators, 1 plane

Challenge: Integration extremely difficult

Military Aircraft




63% increase in throughput

42% decrease in defects

Greater than 22% savings* ($1.73M)

Resulting Savings

* Was thought to be higher but not claimed due to political reasons


Many Ways to Achieve TeamsCross-functional teams a la Scrum

Core with temporarily embedded team members

Core with shared extended team members



DEFINITION

Core team(s) comprised of all skills (static)

Planning

Analysis

Development

Testing & Acceptance

Implementation

Extended (maybe dynamic)

Architecture

SMEs

Shared Services

Pod: “whole” teamcontinually producing Business value ‘chunks’


Skills Needed

Project Managers

Business Analysts / SMEs

Developers

Testers

Cross-Functional Team


Scrum Cross-Functional Team

Project Managers

Business Analysts / SMEs

Developers


Testers

Scrum Masters

Product OwnersTeam

Scrum Team


In Reality

Team has need for additional roles:• Architecture• SMEs• Shared Services



Cross-Functional via core andextended team


Sharing Component Team Members

Scrum Team Component Team

Instead of giving the Scrum team 25% of their backlog, give them 25% of their people.


Sharing Component Team Members

Scrum Team Component Team


Questions?

Challenges?


Coordinating Teams

2+2= ???1


Overall Team Organization

Product Line B applications

Component team for Product Line B

applications

System-Wide Component Team

Component team for Product Line A

applications

Product Line A applications


Teams on a Project

System-Wide Component Team

Product Line B applications

Component team for Product Line B

applicationsComponent team for




MBI

Split MBI according to Teams

Teams split according to components

Teams work on their parts Teams work on

their part until done

MBI

Eventually integrating them together

Feedback times for: Team

Across teams

Customer

Progress bar2 weeks

6 weeks

8 weeks


Principles to Guide UsDon’t optimize locally

Focus on business value delivery

Flow is about value, not within a group

Avoid delays within teams and across teams


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Priority Planning Staging Ready to Pull

CONTEXT OF THE SOLUTION

DecisionHigh enough business value?

DecisionTechnically feasible, sufficient ROI?

Iter

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0 IterativeDevelopment

IncrementalDeployment

Support & Feedback

DecisionReady to release?

DecisionIs there capacity?

Define acceptance criteria and feature sequence

Build iteratively, deploy incrementally

Review business value , approve, and prioritize

Define value increments and sequence

Define product backlog

BUSINESS DISCOVERY / BUSINESS DELIVERYIterative

Development

Iterative Development

Iterative DevelopmentSh

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ackl

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Inte

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Tra

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MBI

Split MBI into sub-features

Development teams split according to components

Teams work on their part

After one iteration, teams integrate their components

MBI

Progress bar

Integration still required but takes much less time

Feedback times for: Team

Across teams

Customer

2 weeks

2 weeks

2 weeks


Questions?

Challenges?


Case Study 2Coordinating Multiple Business Stakeholders with Multiple Team


Inflection Point Description: Connect the work being requested by business sponsors to teams. This challenge varies greatly depending upon the size of the organization. For small implementation teams or for larger group where there is a one-to-one relationship between business sponsors and teams Scrum’s product owner role works fine. However, if multiple business sponsors must use multiple teams to implement their work, this model breaks down.

All decisions should include:

• A way of supporting sequenced work of business sponsors being selected by the teams in approximately that same order.

• Provide for visibility in what is being worked on across all business sponsors and all development teams

• A facilitation of flow


One-to-one relationship of business sponsor to development team

Add Business Product Owner (BPO) (Product Manager in SAFe terminology) role wherein BPO is responsible for:• Understanding needs of business sponsors

• Coaching business sponsors in use of MBIs

• Sequencing MBIs

• Acting as liaison to product owners

SAFeTM decisions:

Add BPO role (called Product Manager in SAFe) as described above

Inflection Point:Linking Business Sponsors to Teams


A2A1

The Simple Case1. Define Business

capabilities

2. Create MBIs Team Product Backlog

A1d

3. Prioritize MBIs4. Create high level

stories

5. Assign to team backlog

A1cA1bA1aTeam 1

A

ARCHITECTURE / TECHNICAL LEADS

STAKEHOLDERS DEVELOPMENT TEAMS

B U S I N E S S D I S C O V E R Y B U S I N E S S D E L I V E R Y

PRODUCT OWNERS


A1 A2

A Harder Case1. Define Business

capabilities2. Create MBIs

A1dA

3. Prioritize MBIs4. Create high level

stories

5. Assign to team backlogs

A2c

A1cA1bA1a

A2bA2a

Team Product Backlogs

Team 1

Team 2

Team 3

Team 4

PRODUCT OWNERS





Normal Problem: We Call it ToughTeam Product Backlogs

Team 1

Team 2

Team 3

Team 4

A

B

C

D

E




PRODUCT OWNERS


Product Owner Role Stretched Too Thin

Product Owners do project managementStakeholders can’t go to one source to see what to doTeams have to coordinate with themselves


Team 1

Team 3

Team 4

A

B

C

D

E

?

??

?

??

?

Team 2

PRODUCT OWNERS





Product Managers and Product Owners

Team 1

Team 2

Team 3

Team 4

A

B

C

D

E


PRODUCT OWNERSSTAKEHOLDERS DEVELOPMENT TEAMS

PRODUCT MANAGERS


PRODUCT OWNERS


Product Managers and Product Owners

Team 1

Team 2

Team 3

Team 4

A

B

C

D

E

Product Owner acts as SME to teamrepresent team to product managersbreak MBIs into components with Prod Mgrsbreak components into stories

Product Manager represent the stakeholdersprioritize MBIsbreak MBIs into componentsrepresent stakeholders to POs



PRODUCT MANAGERS


Architects / Technical Leadsresponsible for technical dependencies across teamsprovide high level costs to Product Managers


A1

B1

C1

A2

A1

B3

B2

B1

C2

C1

1. Define Business capabilities

2. Create MBIs

B1c

B2c

Blo

cked

B3c

A1dA2

B2B3

C2

3. Prioritize MBIs

4. Create high level stories

5. Assign to team backlogs

B1bB1a

A1cA1bA1a

B2bB2a

B3bB3a


Team 1

Team 2

Team 3

Team 4

A

B

C



PRODUCT MANAGERS



Questions?

Challenges?


Lean ManagementProject Management

Leanban / Kanban / Scrum ATDD / TDD / Design Patterns

technical

ASSESSMENTS

CONSULTING

TRAINING

COACHING

Lean for ExecutivesProduct Portfolio ManagementBusiness Product OwnerProduct Owner






Conferences07 June Better Software/DevOps West 201503 August Agile 2015

Public Courses 01 June Leading SAFe™ with Net Objectives Extensions and Full SAI Certification

Questionsemail: [email protected]

twitter: @alshalloway

Documents

Using SAFe™ In Small to Mid Scale Organizations...Budgeting Cycle Requirements Sequence work Manage workload Visibility Work initiation Release Planning Cadence Missing any roles?