SAFe Roadmap
Implementation

Reaching the Tipping Point

For organizations to reach the tipping point, they must embrace the need for a change instead of resisting it. For the process to begin, there also has to be a clear and compelling need for change supported by a vision for the future to ensure everyone is motivated and aligned towards a common purpose. The success of the transformation initiative greatly depends on communicating the benefits it would deliver, and on having the support of a senior leadership team that would serve as a guiding coalition.

Train Lean-Agile Change Agents

As we mentioned in the first step, the process of transformation can begin once a powerful SAFe coalition has been established. To effectively implement the change, the organization would have to train its change agents, executives, managers, and leaders as they would be the main group to drive the transformation activities and inspire the whole organization to move forwards. There are eight stages that organizations need to follow to ensure the success of the coalition:

Train Executives, Managers, and Leaders

All stakeholders would have to be trained to gain the needed knowledge to lead the implementation, to remove any impediments, and to provide sponsorship if needed. It would be crucial for them to adopt the Lean-Agile Mindset and to show through their actions the respect they have for people and culture, flow, innovation, and relentless improvement.

The successful integration of SAFe within the organization depends on ten principles that leaders must embrace and learn to apply.

Create a Lean-Agile Center of Excellence

The Lean-Agile Center of Excellence (LACE) represents the main team that is devoted to the implementation of the SAFe Lean-Agile way of working. The team is mostly responsible for supporting and driving the change within the organization by changing the culture and behavior of the enterprise towards a more Lean-Agile environment. 

Identify Value Streams & ARTs

In this step, it is of great importance for the organization to identify all operational value streams and the systems that support them as well as the people responsible for their development and maintenance. The people responsible for the delivery of the business solution within the development value streams also need to be recognized for the Agile-Release Trains (ART) to be formed. The latter serves as the basic organizational structure that would support the transformation by delivering incremental value to the end-user. 

Create the Implementation Plan

Once the idea of the change has been formed the organization is ready to start taking action towards its implementation. This is done by picking the first value stream and selecting the first ART. By acquiring new knowledge and experience, a broader implementation plan might start to emerge, and additional ARTs and value streams would form. 

Prepare for ART Launch

For the ART to be launched successfully, there is a need to set the launch date, prepare the program backlog, and train the employees who would be taking the main roles such as Product Managers, Product Owners, Scrum Masters, and System Architects. Moreover, individuals would have to be organized into Agile Teams, which would work on the value creation, and product development once a certain degree of readiness has been achieved for the launching to begin. 

Train Teams & Launch the ART

Next, Agile teams would have to be trained for the ART to be launched. There might be many ways for the latter to take place, however, the ART Quickstart approach has proven to be quite effective and successful. The timespan for this approach is one week in which the teams manage to finish their training as well as enter into their first PI Planning.

Coach ART Execution

Now that all employees have been trained and the organization has held its first PI Planning it is time for the Agile Team to receive further coaching from the Certified SAFe® Program Consultants (SPCs) on the rest of the events and rituals such as Iteration Planning and Reviews, backlog refinement, daily stand-ups, systems demos, and Scrum-of-Scrums to effectively deliver value to its customers in shorter periods. The ART goes through the same process of coaching by the SPCs but regarding events an rituals that are on the Agile-Release train level. Here it is essential for the ART leaders to shift their focus on the Continuous Delivery Pipeline and continuous improvements of the organization’s capabilities.

Launch More ARTs & Value Streams

By now, the organization should feel comfortable launching more ARTs to realize certain value streams. The teams on the new ARTs would have to repeat all the previous steps of training and preparation to ensure the success of the transformation. To better visualize its progress, the organization could use the SAFe Implementation Railway, which shows all the ARTs and their current stages. The organization should also address any impediments the second they arise to draw attention to the problem and to encourage the finding of an appropriate solution. 

Extend to the Portfolio

All the previous steps have led to the acceptance of the new agile way of working, but for the organization to fully embrace the Agile mindset, some of the traditional legacy approaches would have to be changed. Once again, the SPCs play an important role in providing the needed leadership to overcome any impediments and to successfully establish the Lean-Agile Principles throughout the organization. 

Accelerate

The last step is to ensure that the culture of the organization has completely transformed and that the leaders continue to maintain the same level of energy and enthusiasm. For this to happen, the SAFe framework offers a couple of key activities that could accelerate the shift towards business agility. The activities include setting KPIs to measure performance, anchoring the new way of working in the culture, encouraging continuous learning across the organization, maximizing the performance, and reinforcing the basics.