What is SAFe?
Agile is well known in the industry as a methodology designed to improve your efficiency and streamline everyday processes. The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) further improves on this methodology by allowing enterprises to accomplish their organisational goals and helping them scale their processes up.
All of this is done while keeping in line with Scrum values. It is interesting to note that SAFe is a holistic approach combining iterative methods and flexible software to cater to dynamic environments.
Who Should Move towards SAFe?
SAFe is best suited to large organisations, where there is already a set of defined processes in place but there remains room for improvement so they can retain their competitive edge.
Also, companies that are growing at an unprecedented rate and lack awareness on how to properly tackle global markets; as well as those companies who lack direction when it comes to complex marketing and management should think about adopting SAFe.
SAFe’s Core Values:
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Alignment
With SAFe, alignment begins from the grassroots level. Here, it is included from strategic themes moving down to Vision. It can also help for making Roadmaps of Program Backlogs and moving on to Team Backlogs.
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Built-in Quality
SAFe ensures that Quality check ups occur continually, and are not just an afterthought once the product is complete. This is done by regular Quality Assurance check-ups throughout the making of any deliverable.
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Transparency
Transparency is the cornerstone of building trust amongst consumers and producers. SAFe emphasises the need for transparency at all levels, be it executives or other stakeholders. Teams and programs have visibility in the business process and everyone has access to portfolio and program backlogs.
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Program Execution
A lot of focus should be placed on the working systems and resulting business outcomes. It is also important to note that SAFe retains its usefulness only if a team continuously delivers value.
Benefits of SAFe:
If employed successfully, SAFe can lead you to whole host of rewards. These have been proven to include:
- A 20-50% increase in productivity
- A 25-75% improvement in quality
- A 30-75% quicker time to market
- A 10-50% increase in employee engagement and job satisfaction
To know more about SAFe and Agile, read a more in-depth article here.