SAFe Principle 10: Organise around value.

SAFe Principle 10: Organise around value.

SAFe principle 10 is about organizing agile teams, product stakeholders, and all touchpoints in the value stream around value.

I would build on that and say that it is also about reorganizing around value, continuously, to ensure that you are always working on the most valuable product for both customers and the organization.

In a SAFe (scaled agile framework) environment, we are often aligning teams of agile teams, rather than a single agile team, and so organizing around customer and organizational value is critical.

Optimizing the value stream

Organizing around value means that we have minimal hand-offs, minimal delays, and have created systems and processes that allow the team to effectively solve problems or remove impediments without needing to obtain permission from a committee.

We won’t ever have a team becoming completely autonomous, because there are elements that are beyond the control and influence of the team, but we do need them to be as effective at problem-solving and decision-making as possible.

Continuous improvement

Organizing around value is not a one-time event.

We continuously align agile teams with customer and organizational objectives and ensure that each Agile Release Train is optimising with each iteration.

As we create the product or solve the problem, we learn through the process.

The data and evidence we gather, through that process of delivery, informs what we can improve and what we could attempt next to achieve better results and outcomes.

As we learn, we adapt, and the agile teams reorganize to capture maximum value.

How do we organize effectively?

There are two (2) effective ways of organizing the team around value.

• Value Stream Identification
• Value Stream Mapping

Value Stream Identification

This could be a formal Value Stream Identification workshop or simply an exercise that is run by the agile release trains dedicated to a customer value stream.

• What is the value stream?
• How are we serving the customer?
• What are the IT systems that deliver that?
• How do we organize ourselves to be effective and efficient in delivering value to customers?

Value Stream Mapping

This could be a formal Value Stream Mapping workshop or simply an exercise that is run by the agile release trains dedicated to creating, capturing, and delivering value to customers.

• Identify hand-offs in the value stream.
• Identify delays in the value stream.
• Identify how fit for purpose each item is as it is passes throughout the value stream.
• Identify acceptance and delivery criteria for each stage of the value stream.
• Identify how effective quality controls are throughout the value stream.
• Identify problem areas or potential bottlenecks in the value stream.
• Identify how best to organise agile teams to optimize value creation and delivery.

So, we are focused on organizing and adapting around customer value, in alignment with organizational objectives and strategies, to optimize value streams.

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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