What is the role of the Lean Portfolio Management team in SAFe?
LEAN Portfolio Management is a function with SAFe or Scaled Agile Framework.
In SAFe, we have strategic teams who are responsible for the deployment and execution of the organizational strategy in alignment with specific customer value streams and objectives.
So, this group of people are responsible for execution and delivery.
Epics
Epics are what they sound like, a big, bold story about what the customer wants to achieve.
- What are they aiming to achieve in the market?
- What is the customer experience they are trying to create?
- What is the customer journey, from concept to delivery?
- What are the components of that product, feature, or service?
A big, bold user story that communicates the customer intention in the market.
This epic has not been refined into smaller, bite-sized chunks of work as yet, but it already enables the LEAN Portfolio Management team to understand how this epic will integrate into the organizational Agile Release Train(s) and across multiple Program Increments (PI) – which are periods of production or solution development.
Value Streams
Think of a value stream as a customer journey, from the moment an idea is conceived through to its deployment in a customer environment and the subsequent journey it follows in that environment, and then think of the teams of agile teams (Agile Release Trains) that are dedicated to developing a solution and delivering continuous value to that specific value stream.
So, an alignment of organizational Agile Release Trains with a specific customer purpose.
LEAN Portfolio Management
The Lean Portfolio Management function manages the epics and their delivery through specific value streams via multiple Agile Release Trains.
A strategic function that includes organizational as well as customer strategies and objectives.
The team will focus on the strategic themes present, the epics that deliver those strategic themes to the Agile Release Train(s), and the value streams that deliver the solution.
- Does the organization need to create a new value stream?
- Does the value flow effectively and efficiently through the value streams present?
- Are the current value streams effective or do we need to pivot to new value streams?
And so forth.
Capacity Allocation
The Lean Portfolio Management team will also focus on high-level capacity allocation.
The organization have X amount of money dedicated to delivering solutions, and it must make strategic investments to ensure that the solution is delivered whilst maintaining competitive advantage and economic advantage for the organization.
So, the LEAN portfolio management team need to think about how the current solutions and initiatives are funded, and where new strategic investments are needed to fund new solution development programmes and initiatives.
- What funding is needed for current value streams?
- What funding is needed for new value streams?
- What funding is needed for execution?
- What funding is needed for innovation?
- What funding is needed to remove technical debt?
And so forth.
Metrics and Measures
The Lean Portfolio Management team will also design and measure the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) for each of the value streams.
It is their job to identify how the organization will measure the effectiveness of each initiative, value stream, and Agile Release Train contribution.
In essence, how do we know that the work we are doing is helping to achieve the organizational and customer objectives.
Value Stream Strategic Reviews
The Lean Portfolio Management team will also conduct a Value Stream Strategic Review to assess how effectively the value stream is serving customer and organizational objectives. It would also assess how efficiently the value stream is serving those objectives.
Innovation and execution performance assessment.
- Are the team delivering the solution effectively and efficiently?
- Are the team experiencing any difficulties that need to be addressed?
- Are there any changes that are required, present and future, for the team to thrive?
- Are we on track with solution development commitments via that specific value stream?
The LEAN Portfolio Management team may make decisions regarding the long-term strategic focus of the value stream, or they may make a short-term decision that pertains to the next PI (program increment).
So, it is a very strategic, hands-on role within the SAFe environment, and is critical to the success of the organization fulfilling its strategic commitments effectively.
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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