A Guide to Business Agility in SAFe
We live in an age of continuous innovation where the market direction can change at any time. In such a dynamic age, nothing is more important than quickly adapting to changes and offering the relevant solutions right when they are needed. Unfortunately, traditional and large companies usually have a problem doing this compared to smaller startups. But these organizations can solve this challenge by implementing Scaled Agile Framework to improve their Business Agility. This article explains Business Agility and how businesses can function better by implementing SAFe.
What is Business Agility
This is the ability of an organization to respond to emerging opportunities and market changes through innovative solutions. Business Agility allows businesses to remain competitive by requiring everyone responsible for delivering solutions to adopt certain principles and practices. These enable the organization to provide high-quality solution-driven products and services faster than competitors.
The concept of Agility was originally used by software teams who applied methodologies such as Scrum, Lean, Feature Driven Development, etc., to create valuable solutions at a swift pace. But the digital nature of today's world means every team within an organization needs to work at an equally fast pace to deliver the right solution, hence the development of a Scaled Agile Framework.
What is Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)
SAFe is an Agile framework for teams with large or medium scale organizations to innovate and deliver valuable products and services at enough speed to meet market changes. It is based on four pillars: Agile Teams, Large Solutions, Portfolio, and Program. Proper implementation of SAFe will help every business organization establish a seamless process for executing any project or idea. Every team involved in product or service development works hand in hand to implement the company's core goal. Today, several companies all over the world implement SAFe practices.
Improving Business Agility with SAFe:
The goal of the SAFe is to improve the Business Agility of business organizations, and it does this by focusing on seven key areas. These seven core competencies are how SAFe improves the operations and output of any organization. They are:
1. Lean-Agile Leadership
The management team of an organization is very important in Scaled Agile Framework. The team needs to learn the principles of SAFe and apply them in the performance of their duties. For SAFe to be implemented successfully in any organization, the executives have to lead by example, and they can only do this when they understand the principles. Adopting the SAFe themselves encourages others to do the same and provides the resources necessary for the implementation. The leaders shape the mindset and culture of the organization, and if there is to be a Lean-Agile mindset, they'll have to take the first step.
2. Teams and Technical Agility
This is important if an organization is to achieve Business Agility. The teams are the organs of any business as they create and provide the solutions that the customers need. Only when the teams are in sync, and each performs its duties optimally will the organization deliver on its mandate to the customers. The teams must be Agile at all levels to improve overall Business Agility. This can involve implementing systems that adapt strategy to the current situation, quicker feedback response, reduced lead time, etc.
This competency has three dimensions which are:
Agile Teams: At the core of the competency are the teams applying Agile principles and practices.
Team of Agile teams: These teams operate based on a process regarded as SAFe Agile Release Train, where every Agile team have a shared vision and direction
Built-in quality: Each Agile team also works based on defined principles and practices to create high-quality and valuable solutions for present and future needs.
3. Agile Product Delivery
It is one thing for the teams to be Agile; it's another for them to integrate Agility into their product delivery. An organization can only adopt a customer-centric approach to product and service development. Whether it is a new or existing product and service, it is important to prioritize the customers' experience and respond quickly. Agile support is also a core part of product delivery even after the product is already in support.
Agile Product Delivery has three dimensions which are:
Design Thinking and Customer Centricity: This ensures that every product or service ticks the feasibility, desirability, sustainability, and viability boxes while also prioritizing customers' interests and tastes for every decision.
Develop on Cadence: Release on Demand having a scheduled process for product development ensures that the product development sequence is always controlled no matter the market uncertainty. You can release products as the need for them arises.
DevOps and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) pipeline: The goal is to establish a foundation that makes it possible for your company to deliver solutions at any point in the product development process. The continuous delivery pipeline is the spine of modern DevOps and describes the automation of key steps in the software delivery process.
4. Enterprise Solution Delivery
This competency describes the process employed by large organizations to develop, deploy, operate, and improve enterprise-level software. It is tri-dimensional with nine aspects. These three dimensions are important for any large organization to implement Agile practices within existing sophisticated systems successfully. The dimensions are:
Lean Systems and Solution Engineering: It is the use of Lean-Agile practices for coordinating and aligning all the activities vital to design, test, execute, deploy, and decommission systems.
Coordination of Trains and Suppliers: It focuses on aligning and coordinating several value streams to fit into the business mission.
Continuous Evolution of live systems: The goal here is to ensure that the systems and development pipeline remains operational at all times and capable of delivering solutions and value during and aftermarket releases.
5. Lean Portfolio Management
Management of the portfolio is a key aspect of SAFe. SAFe modifies the traditional portfolio management practices into a Lean-Agile model. This portfolio management approach makes it possible to have a full overview of products and services and provide the necessary funding for business goals. In addition, it allows the decentralized strategy and execution processes, making it possible for Agile Release Trains to provide solutions on time. It also incorporates Lean Governance, which ensures the involvement of every team so that they all can manage their relevant portfolio while everyone has an overview of the whole situation.
The Lean portfolio management works based on three key processes, which are:
Strategy and Investment Funding: It ensures the alignment and funding of the whole portfolio such that the organization can come up with sustainable solutions necessary to meet the business targets.
Agile Portfolio Operations: Support and coordination that enables the decentralization of program implementation and operational excellence
Lean Governance: This enables the governance or oversight team to function more effectively by removing barriers that could prevent them from doing what’s best for the organization or customers.
6. Organizational Agility
A core part of any Business Agility is acting on feedback. Feedback can be external or internal. It's internal when it's from the external and internal from customers. The organization needs to act on feedback as quickly as possible and adapt to the market conditions. This is necessary for the survival of any business in this digital age. Gone are the days when businesses survived based on the stability of their products and the rigidity of their processes. Today, a rigid structure is dangerous for any organization. The organization itself needs to be Agile, which is achievable when individual teams are also Agile.
The three dimensions of organizational ability are:
Agile Teams and Lean Thinking people: This occurs when every member of the organization has knowledge of Lean-Agile methods and embodies the values and principles.
Lean Business operations: Each team within the organization applies lean principles to the operations that form part of the processes necessary for delivering services and products by the business.
Strategy Agility: This is evident when the organization shows its ability and adaptability to gauge market trends.
7. Continuous Learning Culture
For a company to improve Business Agility, there is a need for a continuous learning culture. Everybody in the organization must remain open to new ideas, information, processes, technology, etc. Being open to SAFe is a good starting point, but it doesn't end there. In fact, SAFe has continued to evolve into new versions every time because Agile teams in various industries find ways to adapt the Scale Agile Framework into their operations, thereby ensuring there is always something new to implement.
When organizations adopt SAFe, there is the understanding that the organization is willing to develop new processes and find better solutions to problems. Creating a culture of continuous learning will be easy for the company to innovate and constantly improve, thereby increasing Business Agility. The three dimensions are:
Innovation Culture: The organization encourages employees' out-of-the-box thinking and creativity, enabling solution-driven products and services.
Learning Organization: Everyone in the organization is constantly improving through continuous learning, ensuring that the organization can evolve and adapt.
Relentless Improvement: All teams in the organization focus on constant improvements of their products, solutions, and process.
Conclusion
Business Agility is at the core of any successful company, and for an organization to improve its Business Agility, they first need to master the seven core competencies of SAFe. This can only happen through continuous learning for every individual, team, and the whole organization itself.
References
- https://blog.seibert-media.com/2021/03/09/business-Agility-with-safe/
- https://www.scaledAgileframework.com/business-Agility-value-stream/
- https://www.scaledAgileframework.com/business-Agility/
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