I recently had a stakeholder ask me if I had any advice for those working through the first portion of the SAFe implementation Roadmap and how to determine if the initial steps are going well. This weekend, I thought about this a bit and have decided to share four elements that I recommend to be in place before finalizing your implementation plan.
Please note that this post is primarily for someone looking at using the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) as their primary vehicle to Business Agility. While I was thinking of the first steps in the SAFe Implementation Roadmap when I wrote it, these ideas can apply to those leveraging other scaling methods or frameworks.
As you wrap up your Value Stream and ART Identification Workshop and begin to create your implementation plan, I recommend that you have the following four elements in place:
- OKRs and Epics for the LACE/transformation
- Establish coaching outcomes
- The LACE working as an agile team
- A pilot ART identified and the launch date set
OKRs and Epics for the LACE/Transformation
One of the first steps I take when I engage a new customer is to understand their desired business outcomes. When leveraging SAFe, it is useful to consider creating a Strategic Theme surrounding the desire to shift to Business Agility and you can often get discussions going around the OKRs (Objectives and Key Results).
I encourage the customer to utilize the Epic Hypothesis Statement template to document one or more Epics as this allows me to introduce Leading Indicators early on. The template can be useful during the initial discussions with the customer or as part of the early work done with a LACE (Lean-Agile Center of Excellence). These discussions can ensure that the strategic investment in the transformation or implementation is tied to objectives with agreed-upon measures that the senior leaders and LACE have come up with together.
TIP: Use the Epic Hypothesis Statement template as a way to help stakeholders understand the LACE’s expected business outcomes and the measures that will serve as signposts along the way.
Establish Coaching Outcomes
It is easy to let the coach or consultant take the lead and “drive the transformation,” however, the ability of the customer to lead their own transformation is an early indicator of sustainable success. As a coach, I have found it beneficial to work with the customer to identify and agree upon the desired outcomes from their investment in coaching. This also provides an opportunity to suggest the customer identify one or more internal change agents to pair with and mentor, so the skills I bring to the table can be cultivated within the customer’s organization as soon as possible.
When I think about the last full-scale transformation engagement I coached, I can still recall the three agreed-upon outcomes. While the customer prioritized the work I did and it needed to shift throughout the contract as we gained insights, everything I did was focused on pulling one or more of the following outcomes forward:
- Accelerate the sustainable transformation to Lean-Agile at scale.
- Cultivate and enhance the capabilities of the internal coaches.
- Help the Agile Center of Excellence become a pull-based organization.
TIP: Facilitate a discussion with the customer regarding whether the coach or the customer “owns” the transformation and consider establishing an outcome that will allow the internal personnel to be able to sustain and improve the new way of working on their own.
The LACE Working as an Agile Team
During the LACE workshop, collaboratively creating the LACE canvas (or any canvas) is a fantastic way to foster engagement and ensure alignment through conversations. One of the commonly facilitated discussions is identifying the stakeholders, leaders, and others who will be available to work the LACE’s backlog of stories and experiments. If they do not take this step organically, I will urge the LACE to begin working as an agile team. The experience helps the individuals involved gain a deeper understanding of what it is to be agile while providing an excellent opportunity for Gemba for others wanting to learn about the transformation.
Depending on the composition and availability of the people who will serve on the LACE team, I will often facilitate a kick-off session to help them understand and identify a way of working and get them started with either Kanban or Scrum. I prefer to hold a story mapping workshop to encourage the creation of the features and stories that they believe will allow them to accomplish their mission, meet the agreed-upon success criteria, and create the initial communication strategy.
TIP: Help the LACE become an Agile team that can serve as an example for others.
A Pilot ART Identified and the Launch Date Set
When it comes to the initial Value Stream and ART Identification, I have had customers that want to map out their entire Fortune 10 corporation and identify every potential ART with the intention of launching dozens of ARTs at once. Personally, I have not seen that type of big upfront planning pay off.
In my experience, an incremental approach to implementing SAFe leads to deeper adoption of the values and principles that will allow for sustainable change. Often times, the leadership style, culture, and appetite for change can vary widely within the Operational or Development value streams and the differences in context, consistency, and continuity need to be considered. Additionally, launching a pilot ART creates opportunities for the customer to share their stories with others who are preparing to embark upon the same journey, creating an additional pull towards the new way of working.
Tip: Observe a PI Planning Event before you launch your first ART as a way to gain a better understanding of the feel and flow. The customer’s first ART can often provide a great opportunity for Gemba!
I suggest one of the outcomes of the workshop be to identify a potential ART (Agile Release Train) that can launch as soon as possible. There are insights that just can’t be gained without first attempting the new way of working, and launching the first ART allows these to be gained in a way that assumes variability while preserving options. Understanding key factors such as the amount of leadership support, whether there are already agile teams (ideally with experience and dedicated team members), a clear product, service or solution, and the ART’s ability to move the needle towards one of the desired business outcomes will allow you to determine where to start.
It is important to have an experienced coach available to join the customer as they prepare for and execute their first PI planning event and it is important that this coaching continues to be available to the ART during the first PI. Leaders themselves are often at different points on their Lean-Agile journey, and the meaning of “leadership support” can vary widely, as can the maturity of the agile teams. A coach can help the ART with the new way of working while ensuring that the implementation is grounded in values and principles as opposed to only focusing on the processes. If there are multiple ARTs launching at the same time, the continuity of the coaches’ attitude, approach, experience, and expertise may be difficult to maintain.
Tip: Make sure the SPC that is helping you launch the ART has done it before and that they possess coaching skills. While the SPC certification enables someone to have the ability to guide your implementation, it does not guarantee that they possess the ability to serve as an agile coach.
One thing I’ve heard from newer SPC’s is, “SAFe says we have to have the same cadence!!!” I agree that supporting this SAFe principle is critical; however, it is often accomplished more smoothly via staggered ART launches as that approach allows the customer to apply the learnings from each incrementally. Helping the customer increase their internal coaching competencies is often part of my engagement and it creates an opportunity for the internal change agents to see multiple ART launches and PI Planning events in a relatively short time. By adjusting the initial PI length by an iteration or possibly two, you can have the ARTs synchronized to a single PI cadence by PI3 or PI4.
In closing…
I encourage you to view the above thoughts as just one of many viable approaches to change and that you do not consider these items to be required as you follow SAFe’s implementation roadmap. Instead, I urge you to use this post as a way to foster discussions with your customer, and perhaps it will help you to gain alignment surrounding the role of the coach and that of the customer throughout the implementation.
If the external coach’s goal is to push SAFe to everyone, or use whatever playbook or process they bring to the table, the above advice may not be applicable. However, if the external coach is in place to help cultivate the customer’s ability to lead their own transformation, I think you will find value in creating Epics to capture their business outcome hypotheses, identifying coaching outcomes, establishing up the LACE as an Agile team and piloting a single ART to gain early insights.
