The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) is the most used framework in the world to “scale” Agile which guarantees to enhance business agility and enterprise agility making the company more agile in all organizations, even the most complex and rooted. Business agility, in particular, is the most necessary for any company, in order to be competitive in a constantly evolving world where the only certainty is uncertainty.
Agile Enterprise with Scaled Agile Framework 5.1
The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) methodology was developed starting from the study of the existing workflows between product management, governance, project management, development teams, users, and last but not least customers.
From the very beginning, the belief of those who developed the SAFe methodology is that “ Better software and systems make the world a better place”.
The final objective of the methodology (which in version 5.1 reaches its most ambitious peak) is to guarantee, despite the complexity, a fast and agile management of the entire organization. Indeed, speed and agility are key qualities for success in the digital age, especially for large organizations.
The mission now is to help companies be competitive and thrive in the digital age through business agility.
Seven Core Competencies of SAFe
Source: https://www.scaledagileframework.com
Lean-Agile Leadership: Ensures the achievement of maximum potential to the team and internal staff, thus realizing the business change.
Team and Technical Agility : Represents the skills and principles that agile teams employ to always create high quality solutions for the customer
Agile Product Delivery : It guarantees the construction of an agile teams organization that puts the customer at the center of its activities, thus creating a workflow of products and services of sure value for the end customer..
Enterprise Solution Delivery : Describes how to apply the principles and practices of agile methodology for the development of the largest integrated hardware / software solutions.
Lean Portfolio Management: Apply the lean / agile methodology to financing, investment, portfolio management strategies and their governance. To get started with Lean Portfolio Management in your organization, please see our blog Starting Lean Portfolio Management.
Organizational Agility : Describes how the application of lean / agile thinking in people is able to optimize business processes, implement a strategy with clear objectives and adapt the organization according to opportunities.
Continuous Learning Culture : It collects a set of values and principles that encourage the individual (and the company as a whole) to always increase his knowledge and skills in a process of continuous improvement.
The tools to measure the Agile transformation in the Company and the Business Agility
Of course, there are a number of tools that allow those who decide to undertake this revolution in the company to measure its progress. These tests allow you to evaluate the performance of the company with respect to each of the 7 skills listed above.
Based on the results obtained, it is also possible to understand how to model the business transformation path. In this case, more work will be done on the company areas that require more attention to get to adopt the principles of the SAFe methodology.
There are two main tools for measuring the implementation of the SAFe methodology.
SAFe Business Agility Assessment
It is a general test that summarizes how agile the company is with respect to 21 dimensions, representative of the 7 skills (each of the 7 skills is broken down in the assessment into 3 dimensions).
SAFe framework Core Competency Assessments
It is a test that evaluates more specifically the company efforts invested to implement the SAFe methodology. In its first part it is similar to business agility assessment, presenting the same organization in size. In its second part, however, it goes more in depth by providing an analysis also for the 3 dimensions that make up each of the skills, thus highlighting the areas for improvement.
The benefits of the Scaled Agile Framework for business
As reported on https://www.scaledagileframework.com numerous companies, large and small, have reaped great benefits from the application of SAFe.
· 50% increase in productivity
· 75% quality improvement
· 75% improvement in time to market
· 50% increase in people’s involvement and job satisfaction.
According to a May 2019 research by Gartner, the Scaled Agile Framework is the most accredited and adopted framework out there. The percentage of respondents who started adopting SAFe increased by 23% compared to 2018. In a 2019 KPMG survey, SAFe was the most used framework by companies involved in research, with 19%, beating “Scrum of Scrums” adopted by 17%.
Next Steps
Daily Agile, with over 25 years of experience in the sector, is SAFe Silver Partner, has a wide variety of courses that allow you to gain deep understanding of the SAFe methodology in all its aspects, and supports companies in the agile transition path by adopting SAFe.
Leading SAFe Training with SAFe Agilist Certification is a great place to start.
If you are already familiar with SAFe then one of the advanced trainings like SAFe Release Train Engineer or Lean Portfolio Management may be of interest to you.
If you are part of a government organization, then SAFe for Government may be of interest to you.
Visit our website (www.dailyagile.com) to find our upcoming SAFe certifications and start your development path to help make your business more agile with the Scaled Agile Framework. Let DailyAgile help you accelerate business agility.