Practical Guide to Scaling Agile

by Mariya Breyter

hello! I am Mariya Breyter I am here because I do not want you

to repeat my mistakes 18+ years in software engineering

10+ years in Agile You can find me at @mbreyter

Maria_Breyter@yahoo.com Certified SAFe SPC

1.

What is Agile and why do we need to scale it?

Agile and Lean values in Project Delivery

What is a Portfolio? “A group of related projects managed in a coordinated way to obtain benefits and control not available from managing them individually” - PMI

“A virtual organization of 5-12 teams, centered around the value stream map, working together to deliver solutions” - SAFe

Waterfall, Agile, and Lean

Waterfall (1984) - Sequential method of delivery; - Originated in construction and manufacturing where changes are costly; - Change management is required; - Immediate impact on budget and resourcing; - Predictability is key; - Heaviweight method, long feedback loop.

Agile (2001) -  Iterative method of

delivery; -  Promoted adaptive

planning, evolutionary delivery;

-  Roles are cross-functional; -  Encourages fl`exible

response to change; -  Emphasis on adaptability

rather than control; -  Delivers results faster with

shorter feedback loop.

Lean (1988) -  Contonuous improvement; -  Elimination of waste; -  Even workloads; -  Eimination of bottlenecks; -  Value-driven (weighted

shortest job first); -  Just-in-time approach

(place right people in the right place at the right time);

-  Relentless measurement; -  Reduced cycle time.

“ Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way

Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

Delivery Challenges

✘ Software delivery at scale for interrelated projects ✘ Organizational-level Agile ✘ Dynamic environment – acquisitions, org changes ✘ “Agile did not work for us” ✘ Significant complexity ✘ Multiple outdated systems, lack of subject matter expertise ✘ Outdated architecture, manual testing, limited skillsets ✘ Low employee job satisfaction and high attrition ✘ Highly distributed teams ✘ Low level of trust and motivation: need a longer term view than just “the next sprint”

Which framework to implement?

✘ Scaled Agile Framework by Dean Leffingwell (SAFe) ✘ Disciplined Agile Delivery by Scott Ambler (DAD) ✘ Agile Scaling Model by Agile Alliance (ASM) ✘ Large Scale Scrum by Craig Larman (LeSS)

Advice: choose the one that resonates with you and stick to it by continuously improving and optimizing for your unique situations

2.

Scaled Agile Framework Combines the best from Agile, Lean and

Waterfall in ensuring productivity and predictability of software delivery

1.2.

SAFe Principles

Detailed review of these principles is available at www.scaledagileframework.com

#1-Take an economic view #2-Apply systems thinking #3-Assume variability; preserve options #4-Build incrementally with fast, integrated learning cycles #5-Base milestones on objective evaluation of working systems #6-Visualize and limit WIP, reduce batch sizes, and manage queue lengths #7-Apply cadence, synchronize with cross-domain planning #8-Unlock the intrinsic motivation of knowledge workers #9-Decentralize decision-making

Three Levels of System Thinking in SAFe

portfolio program team

Three System Levels Portfolio, Program, and Team

http://scaledagileframework.com/case-studies/

The Big Picture Introduced three levels of SAFe: ✘  Portfolio, ✘  Program, ✘  Team.

1. Portfolio

Lessons Learned ✘  Leverage portfolio swimlane of SAFe ✘  Create transparency ✘  Identify roles and build partnerships ✘  Prioritize themes, swarm on epics,; follow the Definition of Ready

Portfolio-Level Roadmap Planning

Lessons Learned ✘  Roadmap Planning between silos ✘  Business and IT stakeholder

involvement ✘  Management towards shared

objectives (starts with mission and vision)

✘  Significant pre-work

Image courtesy of http://slidehunter.com/powerpoint-templates/agile-roadmap-powerpoint-template/

2. Program

Lessons Learned ✘  Enforce cadence at program level ✘  Establish PI Planning principles and definition ✘  Involve the right roles at all levels ✘  Identify the system team and implement DevOps ✘  RTE as a Delivery Manager at Scale

System Demo

Lessons Learned ✘  Purpose: -  Test system integration; -  Receive feedback from multiple

stakeholders; ✘  Happens in the end of iteration when

integration is achieved (CI/CD model is highly preferable);

✘  Done by and for the stakeholders; ✘  System team and all teams in ART

are responsible.

Image courtesy of www.pixabay.com

3. Team

Lessons Learned ✘  Execution excellence at team level ✘  Technical practices including ATDD and emergent architecture ✘  Normalized estimation and synchronized planning ✘  Retrospectives and continuous improvement ✘  Teams honoring commitment

IP Sprint

Innovation and Planning Sprint ✘ Innovation: hackathons, fix-a-thons, open space, certification, continuing education ✘ Planning: Release Planning ✘ Collaboration ✘ Not a sprint to catch up on missed commitment ✘ Adjustment is needed for highly distributed teams

Relentless Measurement

Team A Team B Team C

Agile Practices

Build, Deploy and DevOps

Test and Verification

3.

Results Agile works at large scale!

Quality of Delivery Repeatable practices Consistency across teams Agile Tool to manage dependencies Center of Excellence established Attrition rate went down

Let’s review some concepts

Three System Levels ✘ Portfolio ✘ Program ✘ Team

Lean Principles ✘ Elimination of waste ✘ System thinking ✘ Maximizing value

Execution Excellence ✘  Cadence ✘  Normalization of planning ✘  Technical excellence

What other SAFe concepts resonated with you?

Which SAFe concepts did not resonate with you?

If you want to learn more…

✘ http://inrhythm.com/ ✘ mbreyter@inrhythm.com ✘ @mbreyter ✘ Blog: http://agilecoachingforteams.blogspot.com/

End-to-End Solution Delivery

Credits

Special thanks to all the people who made and released these awesome resources for free: ✘ Presentation template by SlidesCarnival ✘ Photographs by Unsplash ✘ Scaled Agile Academy and contributors

www.scaledagileframework.com