How does SAFe handle changing priorities?
Change is a fact of life, especially in a complex environment.
SAFe or Scaled Agile Framework is built upon the agile values and principles, as defined in the agile manifesto, and so we welcome change, even late in development, because it helps ensure that we are always focused on delivering the most valuable product or feature to the customer.
It also ensures that our Agile Release Train (ART) are focused on capturing and creating as much value for the organization, in alignment with customer needs, as possible.
Managing flow of value.
If we are working on a set of work items for our Program Increment (PI) and a set of changes come through, marked as urgent and critical, we won’t put it on the back burner and simply progress with our original plan.
That is traditional project management, that isn’t agile.
As a team, or team of agile teams, we recognize that the new work is more valuable than the work we had planned, and we agree as an Agile Release Train to pivot to the more valuable, more important work.
This doesn’t mean that chaos thrives in the environment. Quite the opposite.
We are not talking about people being able to walk in and change the focus of the Agile Release Train on a whim, or in pursuit of a power trip, we are talking about important, valuable work that needs to be done, which is in alignment with our customer and organizational objectives.
We identify the switching costs, make those switching costs visible and transparent, and we make the decision – as a team – to pivot to the new priorities and execute against those requirements and needs.
Simple. Effective. Agile.
Criteria for a pivot.
As stated earlier, we don’t pivot on a whim.
The goal of agile, in the words of Craig Larman, is ‘to be able to turn on a dime, for a dime’ and so we identify the switching costs, make those switching costs visible and transparent, and gain buy in from the relevant customer and stakeholders that this is a valuable pivot.
We recognize the work is urgent, but we also identify whether it is valuable.
- How does this new item contribute value when compared to the original work item?
- What is the cost of delay?
- What are the opportunities available to the customer if we pivot to the new work item?
And so forth.
So, identifying value, and being clear on how the change will contribute value to the customer or product stakeholder is an important part of the assessment criteria when pivoting to new work.
Trends versus Anomalies.
Ideally, we don’t have disruption during the Program Increment (PI) sprint because we aren’t working in long production cycles at all. Technically, there shouldn’t be any changes at all, but we do welcome important and valuable changes from time to time.
So, an anomaly is fine.
If we start to notice that this is becoming a trend in each sprint, we need to identify the cause of this trend and figure out the source of this consistent disruption to product development.
If we are noticing this happening several times a week or sprint, it is problematic and indicative of a larger problem within the value stream that needs to be addressed.
You often see this in project management.
This week, item A is priority 1 but the following week, item B becomes priority 1. Rinse and repeat over a period of months and years, and you can see why so many projects overrun their deadline or budget.
We don’t want to see this in agile, or SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) for that matter.
- What is the underlying cause of these competing priorities?
- What is driving the requirement for frequent change?
Often, in SAFe, we design a great delivery pipeline and get it optimized fairly quickly, which means we are continuously delivering value to customers and stakeholders.
But, if we aren’t continuously scanning and sensing the market requirements and customer needs, we fall behind the value curve, and problems begin to arise. Sometimes, the Agile Release Train gets fed work to ensure that they are BUSY rather than being fed prioritised items that are valuable.
A focus on productivity and efficiency rather than a solid focus on effectiveness.
So, if that is the reason for the problem of frequent change, we need to stop and correct that before it becomes an even greater problem down the line. We need to realign around value creation for the customer and the achievement of specific, organizational goals and objectives.
We need to focus on value.
We need to prioritize what is most valuable and execute against that effectively. We need to identify problem areas in the value stream and make the necessary changes as quickly as possible to ensure the Agile Release Train is continuously delivering value to customers.
These are the elements that are important when identifying how SAFe can effectively manage change in the product development environment.
About Value Glide
Value Glide are a SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) consultancy, coaching practice, and training specialist who work with organizations to align business objectives with customer needs and wants.
As deeply experienced agile coaches and practitioners, our team are invested in continuous learning through each client engagement and use the data and evidence we gather from each implementation to inform our training, coaching, and consulting services.
In a nutshell, empirical process control or empiricism.
If you are thinking of adopting agile within your organization and have identified SAFe as a great agile framework to adopt, implement and improve your business agility, visit our SAFe Quickstart ART Launch program page or view our SAFe Consulting Services page.
If you have identified a need for an agile coach and SAFe coach to help your organization adopt and implement SAFe, visit our SAFe Coaching Services page.
If you want to know more about SAFe and how to lead SAFe, visit our SAFE Training page for a host of options, from Leading SAFe to a SAFe Release Train Engineer course.
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