Mar 25
Tim, Jane and Mark love SAFe
and they don’t give a f$$k that you don’t like it
SAFe is probably the most widely criticized agile framework. I have often seen some very passionate arguments around why SAFe is terrible and beware of it, or how it kills innovation.
Ken Schwaber, co-developer of Scrum, expressed serious concerns about SAFe way back in 2013. Nicolas M. Chaillan, U.S. Air Force Chief Software Officer, as part of the event: DoD Enterprise DevSecOps Initiative Ask Me Anything heavily criticized SAFe in his now-famous memo
Yet SAFe continues to ride the wave — raking in millions and creating an entire industry of consultants that thrive around it. While some folks (agile purists !!) may weep tears of blood and feel “unsafe” the moment they hear the word “SAFe”, the stakeholders who make those decisions of implementation love SAFe. Let us look at why — through the eyes of Tim, Jane and Mark. What motivates them, what drives them and what they dread.
Let’s start with Tim. Tim is part of the executive leadership; he has heard about “this thing called Agile” and wants to ensure “we have it right away.”
Jane is a delivery leader who has just added “Agile Transformation” to her portfolio. Tim is her boss, and her next promotion depends on the agile transformation. The faster it can be declared successful, the stronger the business case for her promotion.
Mark is an independent Agile Consultant that Jane has hired. He is an accomplished delivery manager and recently switched to being an independent agile trainer and consultant.
Let’s look at why these people are all bonkers with SAFe. I am not here to be a critic or a fan of SAFe. What I have tried to do is look at the world from the perspectives of Tim, Jane and Mark. Those are the people on the ground in those complex organizations.
Program Increments and Predictable releases
One of the critical challenges for Jane is the unsynchronized release schedules between different modules and products. It is a nightmare. She hopes that the SAFe PI-based approach will ensure that they create some synchronized plan around the various releases. More importantly, something meaningful will be released every three months, which is not often the case today.
The Program Increment (PI) planning also appeals to her very much. While bringing everyone for two days seems a lot, she goes along with what Mark suggests. As an executive, she has learned that putting people in the same room to solve problems is always good. She also sees it as an excellent opportunity to build a better rapport across the disparate stakeholders.
SAFe is a dual operating model.
Tim especially loves this part. He has been a believer in the dual operating model for years. “Haven’t we always been SAFe then?” Tim had joked to Jane once, saying that the organization always used a matrix structure — which means your people hierarchy was different, and the programs’ team members came from several functions. SAFe is proposing the same. “This is not new to us, Tim”, Jane concurred as Mark went on to the next slide in the SAFe for Executives workshop.
The program — portfolio hierarchy
SAFe’s program — portfolio hierarchy aligns with the organization's current setup with minimal changes. This model makes things very easy for Jane, who does not want to shake the can too much — at least not to begin with. She has several running programs and prefers a seamless non-disruptive transition to agile. Mark has been telling her that there is more to an ART and things are not going to be as non disruptive as she thinks. Some details need to be worked out, but broadly, the ART = Program analogy fits her head and the scheme of things perfectly.
SAFe’s Epic Lean Business Case and Approval
Tim was worried about financial governance to ensure only the right projects are approved and funded. He did not want to lose that control and wanted to be personally involved in each project approval like he is currently. Jane and Mark reassured him that SAFe provides similar controls as their current system. Epics will undergo the same rigors for approval as projects did. Tim will be part of the LPM (Lean Portfolio Management), and will continue to be one of the critical stakeholders approving the Epic Business Case. Tim was a bit perplexed and confused if epics are the new projects. Mark tried to explain they are not, but eventually, they decided to let it be sorted between Jane and Mark offline.
Methodology, Toolkits, Templates and Tooling
Jane loves the documentation that’s already available on the SAFe website. She has been working with the process team to update their methodology guidance to reflect SAFe direction as much as possible. All exceptions have to be approved by Jane. The process team also promised her that they are comparing the variations between v5.0 and v5.1. Jane loves the control and clarity SAFe brings.
Mark also highlighted to both Tim and Jane that SAFe provided a complete toolkit of reusable assets and templates that can accelerate the adoption. Tim was incredibly delighted as he is a sucker for reusable assets.
Additionally, the company’s life cycle management tool already provides a plugin to “upgrade” to implement SAFe. So the tool transition is also going to be seamless. That’s another relief for Jane, who is always worried about teams moving between tools and platforms.
Roles and positions
Jane was pleased that she has been able to find a role for everyone in her team on the SAFe ART. That was such a relief. Her team count in the organization has grown since Tim decided that the new roles — Scrum Masters and Release Train Engineers should staff under Jane. Many of those SMs/RTEs were not new hires anyways. They moved to Jane’s hierarchy from the different functions they previously belonged. Mark ensured that they all were appropriately trained and is coaching them in their new roles. Jane was so happy — more people in her hierarchy built a stronger case for her promotion. She was glad that Tim picked her up for this transformation assignment.
Training
Mark has loved SAFe from the beginning for the training support. He is in awe about the course material that SAFe offers and makes life easier for all trainers. All SPCs have to do is watch some videos, give a test, and you are all set. You become qualified to conduct that specific course. He especially was super impressed when one of his partners fell sick over the weekend, which forced him to take the Lean Portfolio Management course next week. Mark could complete the enablement on a Sunday, and it was super quick.
The support SAFe provided with remote training options when the pandemic hit, and the remote training material was commendable. The SAFe collaborate platform has made remote training easier, seamless and effective.
Selling the transformation
Mark hesitated to become an independent consultant for several years because getting transformation and agile coaching assignments was not easy. He knew from some of his friends that before SAFe arrived on the scene, agile coaches had difficulty convincing customers of the need to be agile. SAFe has a significant contribution in bringing agile to the boardroom. Whether you should do agile or not is no longer the question. Mark gets invites from several executives to advise, coach and consult, and it has revolutionized the market. That’s a good thing — for him.
These are just some of the features contributing to SAFe’s extensive popularity amongst enterprises, as is evident from the 15th Annual State of Agile survey:
While a wide range of scaling frameworks are in use, the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe®) continues to be the most popular with 37% of respondents identifying it as the framework they most closely follow. SAFe® significantly outdistances the next nearest scaling method, Scrum@ Scale/Scrum of Scrums (9%).
The Wrap
While critics and agile purists may have their reservations, and some of them might have merit too, The Tims and Janes of the world are happy to have adopted SAFe. They are not even reading those beautiful and insightful blogs criticizing SAFe that about the internet.
What matters to them is that SAFe does bring some sense and value to their inherently complex world. They are intelligent and can see through the marketing blitzkrieg of SAFe. Nothing wrong about it. Everyone is here to make money. They do see SAFe is not perfect, but they also know it will move them a bit forward from where they are now. They are the ones who matter and the ones who pay. Rest are inconsequential if they love SAFe or loathe it.
The Marks’ are happy to promote SAFe and sell it to the Tims and Janes — completing the ecosystem loop — a positive spiral that continues to fuel SAFe’s meteoric growth !!
P.S: I am a practicing SAFe program consultant. I neither love SAFe nor hate it. I see it as a tool and use it or parts of it when and where it makes sense. You can use a pen to scribble, craft a poem or write a novel. The pen doesn’t matter; what you write with the pen does.
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