World is constantly evolving with the changing technologies and economic conditions. Enterprises must know how to embrace and adopt the change that’s happening with this shift towards digital age. It will not matter how successful enterprises are today, until they know how to keep up with the change and rapidly adapt to the changing technology.
Better software and systems make the world a better place.
SAFe is the abbreviation for the Scaled Agile Framework and it is for large-scale software development teams of 50-125 people who are on a program of multiple projects but want to still embrace the practice of agile, regardless of their team’s large size.
Scaled Agile framework guides enterprises to align their lean and agile software development to accomplish their set objectives, in line with transparency and trust among the managers and their teams on-board. Scaled Agile Framework provides enterprises with the freedom to scale accordingly with the business requirements, which results in creating quality products in very limited time.
Why Transform to Scaled Agile Framework?
Before you transform your enterprise to SAFe, you have to ask yourself this question: Why do you need to do this? Why changing all of a sudden?
Well, here’s why!
Typically enterprises who wants to align business and technical goals or wants to change the organizational culture to deal with the failure in a manageable way or looking for ways to grow or trying to expand their operations on global level and are unsure of the strategy about marketing and complex management.
Who should be responsible for the transformation process?
An enterprise must transform itself into Lean enterprise and for that a Lean-Agile leader has to take up the whole transformation process. An enterprise must have Lean-Agile Leaders and management that acknowledge and convey Lean and Agile methodologies.
Role of CIO
CIOs has a crucial role to play of a lean-agile leader in an enterprise scaled agile transformation process. A CIO needs to create and communicate business value through technology and strategic planning of business growth objectives. He has to ensure that the tech systems and procedures are aligned with the goals and objectives of the business.
Courtesy: SAFe Scaled Agile
A Lean agile leader is responsible to transform the processes into scaled agile framework, but as you go on with this transformational process, you have to eliminate waste, delays and keep encouraging your agile teams to create value, even those tools are not enough. For this part, leaders must apply the tools of organizational change management and change leadership in order to fully get hold of the situation. Kotler described eight steps in implementing successful change:
Benefits of Scaled Agile Framework
The philosophy of SAFe is plain and simple, it says: When systems are improved and software’s are efficient, it eventually increases the productivity of work. Incorporating Scaled Agile Framework helps enterprises in achieving their goals and objectives. Implementation of scaled Agile Framework is getting proven business benefits to enterprises, which is why the practice of SAFe is spreading rapidly around the world. Following are the benefits of incorporating Scaled Agile Framework to enterprises:
- 20 – 50% increase in productivity
- 50%+ increase in quality
- 30 – 75% faster time to market
- An increases in employee engagement and job satisfaction
Courtesy: SAFe Scaled Agile
With all the underpinning benefits of Scaled Agile Framework it is to conclude that strong leadership is necessary for achieving any kind of enterprise change. It’s not just any change: it is a shift to a persistent and relentlessly improving Lean enterprise, based on the fundamentals of Agile and Lean development. In order to do that, enterprises need leaders who have the expertise and they know what they are trying to do, and how they are going to go about it. In other words, we need CIO’s to play their roles as Lean-thinking leaders who understand how to lead and sustain the change.