{"id":20600,"date":"2021-09-23T10:00:57","date_gmt":"2021-09-23T15:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.planview.com\/3-reasons-your-safe-journey-has-lost-its-way\/"},"modified":"2021-09-23T10:00:57","modified_gmt":"2021-09-23T15:00:57","slug":"3-reasons-your-safe-journey-has-lost-its-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.planview.com\/3-reasons-your-safe-journey-has-lost-its-way\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Reasons Your SAFe\u00ae Journey Has Lost Its Way\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
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With the <\/span>2021 Global SAFe® Summit <\/span><\/a>only a week away (September 27 – October 1), the software delivery community will come together once again to tackle that ever-pressing question: just <\/span>how<\/span><\/i> do you marry technical agility with business agility to support customers more effectively? <\/span><\/p>\n

The <\/span>most popular framework for scaling software development<\/span><\/a>, SAFe continues to serve as a one-stop-shop for Lean-Agile practices. Yet despite <\/span>many success stories<\/span><\/a>, not everyone is realizing SAFe’s potential. More often than not, well-meaning but misguided SAFe efforts derail because organizations are implementing SAFe for SAFe’s sake. <\/span><\/p>\n

A glowing <\/span>Forbes <\/span><\/i>article. A jaw-dropping keynote. A competitor’s beaming blog on their scaling agile success; often a SAFe journey (or any investment in a methodology) starts with FOMO. With the best of intentions, leadership signs off on the investment with little to no context, hoping that business success will naturally follow.<\/span><\/p>\n

Typically this ends up with organizations adopting SAFe in name only — going through the training, certifications and ceremonies — without actually changing any of their practices. From the outset, there is a dangerous gulf in understanding in terms of what SAFe is and isn’t, and what it can and can’t do. Leadership typically understands the gist but not the deeper mechanics like their teams do, who have been through all the training and certification. <\/span><\/p>\n

This inevitability leads to leadership becoming restless and frustrated with ROI when business outcomes do not improve. Teams, meanwhile, can become demotivated, frustrated and fall out of love with their job. In our experience<\/span> working for Fortune 100 companies, governments and other large-scale organizations<\/span><\/a>, we’ve identified three common reasons that SAFe initiatives fall flat:<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

1. Applying old mindsets to new roles<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Organizations can get caught in the trap of using SAFe terminology without really changing the way that they work. Simply calling an existing team a “Scrum” team without reimagining how they are organized won’t improve outcomes. <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

2. Forgetting Agile principles<\/b><\/h3>\n

Another reason SAFe fails is when Agile principles are not internalized. They may form a great release train with five Scrum teams but they don’t limit work-in-progress (WIP); meaning everyone is overcapacity and you’re trying to cram way too much down the pipeline. So instead of going faster and meeting outcomes sooner, the opposite happens; you clog the system. Naturally, they will blame the framework for failure, but in reality, they didn’t implement the core principles that the framework is based on. <\/span><\/p>\n

3. Following the book<\/b><\/h3>\n

Organizations that try to adopt every part of SAFe at once will also struggle. The SAFe diagram is a simplified visual representation of a very complex system of systems – and even then it can still look overwhelming. Development teams comprising 150+ people will try and fit every role and do every practice. But it’s not meant to be followed word by word, it’s a framework that’s meant to kickstart a conversation. Allow time to figure out what parts work for a specific organization and their specific problem(s).<\/span><\/p>\n

Find the Compelling Reason to Change – and Measure Your Progress<\/b><\/h3>\n

So how do we move away from SAFe for SAFe’s sake? The key is to not lose faith; the problem won’t be the methodology, just the approach. As is often the case with most things, returning to basics and the problem you’re trying to solve is a powerful first step. <\/span><\/p>\n

Asking yourself<\/span>, “<\/span><\/i>Why are we doing this?<\/span>”<\/span><\/i> can lead you back into the light.<\/span> Whether it’s reducing time-to-market, improving quality or enhancing customer retention; a clear goal can provide the organization with purpose and get you back on track. It also begins the vital shift away from “the what” towards “the how” – everyone can begin looking into ways of reaching the goal sooner by reducing friction.<\/span><\/p>\n

The latest iteration of SAFe (5.1) helps teams find reduce friction with a <\/span>comprehensive, scalable yet simple measurement model<\/span><\/a> that focuses on three key measures:<\/span><\/p>\n