SAFe Principle 7: Apply cadence, synchronize with cross domain planning.
The 7th SAFe principle is about cadence, synchronization of efforts, and cross-domain planning.
Cadence
Cadence is about the product development rhythm. That beat of the creative drum that allows us to focus on solving the most valuable problems, or creating the most valuable product, within a short, sharp burst.
The timebox forces us to aim for specific goals and objectives and holds us accountable to that.
The shorter timeboxes tend to be better for the organization because they empower us to learn faster, and they facilitate rapid feedback loops from customers and product stakeholders to ensure that we are always focused on doing the most valuable work at the most valuable time.
- We aimed for X, but did we achieve those outcomes?
- What prevented us from achieving our goals and objectives?
- What did we learn through the process?
- What did go well and how can we embed that in our process and systems?
- How can we improve, based on what we have learned and experienced?
In SAFe, we have two cadences or beats.
We have the iterations, which tend to be about 2-4 weeks, and we have the innovation and planning increments which tend too be about 8-12 weeks.
Synchronization
If you have a single agile team working on a product or solving a problem, synchronization doesn’t matter. They can simply get on with it and work through each iteration and the events that accompany them.
If you have multiple agile teams, what we refer to as an Agile Release Train in SAFe, then we need to ensure that each team is synchronized with one another.
We want to make sure that each team deliver a working product or solution, at the end of each iteration, and sometimes those are integrated features or solutions that require teams to have worked together and aligned their efforts to produce that valuable product increment.
If we run different agile teams on a different cadence, we won’t have an integrated solution or working product increment at the end of each cycle because of dependencies, hand-offs, and other delays associated with misaligned teams.
So, making sure there is a synchronised effort that incorporates all the agile teams who are dedicated to a specific customer purpose and value stream is critical.
Cross-domain planning
A well designed and organized agile team environment consists of cross-functional skills, meaning that each team has the necessary skills to deliver a working product or feature at the end of each iteration, and cross-domain planning requires alignment of multiple agile teams across multiple functions and departments.
Of course, each team will have the necessary skills to deliver in alignment with their capabilities, but we need to ensure that the cross-functional agile release train has all the necessary skills and capabilities to deliver a working product or feature at the end of its chosen cadence.
A great example of this would be an autonomous car manufacturer.
There are hardware teams, software teams, and firmware teams that need to coordinate their work, synchronise their delivery, and make sure that an integrated solution is delivered at the end of their iteration.
That requires different skills in each function or department, but cross-domain skillsets in the Agile Release Train that ensure we can deliver a working, integrated solution to a customer.
We need to plan for this, and it is a continuous process of skills acquisition and development, to ensure that are always capable of delivering a valuable product or feature to the customer.
So, that’s why SAFe Principle 7 is so important in the SAFe framework.
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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