Scaling Agile Archives

Scaling Agile

Please don’t come to our Implementing SAFe SPC workshops

Seriously, please don’t come.

Don’t come if you’re looking at it as a formality since you already know everything about agile and just need the SPC (SAFe Program Consultant) Certificate.

Don’t come if you’re looking for the cheapest way to get your SPC so that you can add it to your resume.

Don’t come if you don’t know anything about agile and believe the SPC is your silver bullet to becoming an agile coach at the enterprise level.

Don’t come if you’re looking for the certificate rubber stamp.

Scaling Agile

Uncertainty & the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe™)

What is the connection between Uncertainty and the Scaled Agile Framework?

Uncertainty is one of the core reasons we need to be agile. Different modes of Business/Requirements/Technology uncertainties impact our economic costs in product development – especially the potential impact of risk. The first principle of SAFe™ is “Take an economic view”. I frequently use my “uncertainty filter glasses” to take an alternative economic view. I find it helps Scaled Agile/SAFe™ practitioners/leaders understand both the need for Agility as well as examine various work system design considerations. In this article, I introduce the Stacey Matrix which is one of my favorite models for understanding the uncertainty landscape as well as the implications of uncertainty on various specific SAFe™ design decisions.

Scaled Agile Framework

Improving SAFe thru Professional Scrum

SAFe includes Scrum – so how come many Scrum practitioners and thought leaders consider it unsafe?
The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe™) is one of the most popular approaches to applying agile at scale out there. SAFe’s perspective is that “Nothing beats an Agile Team” and it doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel or even innovate too much when it comes to the Team level. It takes advantage of established frameworks and techniques that work well – Scrum being the first and foremost of those.

Agile

The Product Manager / Product Owner AS A Scientist

We’ve all heard it before – “Talented technology team builds amazing product!” That… doesn’t create the impact that they wanted, not enough customers end up buying or the users aren’t happy with it or …

This is an especially common problem with companies that have a “brilliant” idea or technology that someone goes developing in their garage (if startup) / innovation product development group (if enterprise). This could be a new product or just a new feature of an existing product. Typically, the Product Owner or Product Manager in the organization specifies what to build. If they’re somewhat Agile, they even work closely with the organization to build it incrementally and hopefully deliver it continuously. But still, even then, too often the product or features don’t provide the expected impact/benefits. Overcoming this challenge is a common theme that is discussed by attendees at our SAFe POPM Course.

Scaling Agile

Building Great Release Train Engineers – a talk with Mattias & Yuval

In the scaled Agile framework, one key role is the Release Train Engineer (RTE). But who should I look for to fill this role? What are the first few process improvements experienced RTEs typically do? Yuval Yeret (AgileSparks) and Mattias Skarin (Crisp) took the time to discuss the traits of a good RTE.

What are the traits of a good RTE?

Yuval: The easy answer to this question is that you are looking for a Scrum master for a team of teams. Going beyond that, when it comes to specific traits, you are looking for someone who cares about process and improvements, someone who has the ability to orchestrate things. But at the same time, someone who also knows when to step back and let the teams organize themselves. A good RTE is a great communicator and can see and understand what is happening.

Agile

Which Public Agile Training Is Right For Me? (a.k.a Navigating The Agile Training Landscape)

Navigating the Agile Training Landscape

It’s become pretty confusing these days. If you’re interested in advancing your Agile knowledge there are so many options. I often field questions from people asking me for help choosing the right class for them. Here is my subjective take on things… with a focus on the US market – but probably applicable to many other markets.

Agile Marketing

SAFe for Agile Marketing Guidance Article

Scaling Agile Marketing With SAFe – Overview

More and more Marketing organizations are realizing today that they need to be faster, more flexible/responsive, and more collaborative, in order to have a real impact on the business they’re supporting. More and more CMOs are looking at Agile Marketing as the way to modernize their organization.

Inspired by Agile Development, Agile Marketing describes a mindset of continuous learning and validation, customer-focused collaboration across functional silos, adaptive and iterative campaigns, and more responsive/continuous planning. Similar to development organizations, Agile Marketing teams use techniques such as Scrum to work in an iterative cadence, and such as Kanban to visualize and improve the flow of work.

Scaled Agile Framework

Becoming a SAFe Program Consultant – Studying for the SPC Exam

TL;DR – Looking for SAFe exam questions? Sorry, move along, nothing for you here… If otoh you’re looking for some tips on how to properly study for the exam that seems to have worked for dozens of my students for the SPC exam and other SAFe exams, hang around….

I’ve recently been teaching quite a bit of Implementing SAFe classes. Students are always interested in some tips and tricks on how to prepare for the SPC certification exam, especially since it’s a non-trivial exam even if you attend a class with trainers that know what they’re doing and if you listen and participate throughout. The vast majority of my students pass the exam, but it doesn’t hurt to know how to study.

Agile Marketing

The Scaled Agile Marketing Series

Introduction to the Scaled Agile Marketing Series

More and more Marketing organizations realize they need to be faster, more flexible/responsive, and more collaborative to have a real impact on the business they’re supporting. More and more marketing leaders believe Agile Marketing is how to modernize their organization. Scaled Agile Marketing talks about applying Agile Marketing principles beyond one team and beyond the green fields of the unicorn internet company – in larger marketing organizations that face barriers like marketing to businesses rather than consumers and working not just in the online/digital realm but also the physical world.

Agile Marketing

Scaled Agile Marketing Flow with Kanban

In the previous article, I mapped out the essentials of applying SAFe™ (The Scaled Agile Framework) to a marketing context and ended with a cliffhanger. As you can guess from the title of this article, what I feel is missing from the list of essential SAFe elements is Flow and Kanban, which IS an important part of SAFe. In this article, I will focus on the key Flow/Kanban elements that are essential to succeeding with Agile Marketing at scale in my view. These elements don’t have to be implemented as part of SAFe by the way. Some organizations implement them on their own.

What do we mean when we say effective marketing flow

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