{"id":11141,"date":"2019-10-11T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-11T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.planview.com\/?p=11141"},"modified":"2019-10-11T09:10:52","modified_gmt":"2019-10-11T14:10:52","slug":"shift-happens-5-key-takeaways-from-the-2019-global-safe-summit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.planview.com\/shift-happens-5-key-takeaways-from-the-2019-global-safe-summit\/","title":{"rendered":"Shift Happens \u2013 5 Key Takeaways from the 2019 Global SAFe\u00ae Summit"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Last week, I attended the 2019 Global SAFe\u00ae Summit with my Planview family. We (Planview) got to reveal our new brand identity<\/a> one day into the event, an unveiling that was met with an overwhelmingly positive reaction.<\/p>\n

Going into the conference with this excitement, I also carried the perspective and outlook of both a Value Stream owner supporting an Agile transformation in a business function (marketing) and an employee of a vendor helping companies transform strategy to delivery in the changing world of work. For this reason, I furiously took notes during the reveal of SAFe 5.0\u2014notes that I would like to share with you.<\/p>\n

5 Key Takeaways from the 2019 Global SAFe Summit<\/strong><\/h2>\n

To begin, I\u2019d like to mention that, over the last several years, I\u2019ve been a part of several Agile transformations, specifically within marketing and sales. I experienced the difficulty in trying to implement SAFe with its historical and heavy focus on software development and IT\u2014roles, responsibilities, lingo, etc. However, SAFe 5.0<\/a> starts to remedy this issue.<\/p>\n

1. SAFe 5.0 better supports Lean and Agile practices. <\/strong><\/h3>\n

Characterized as the \u201coperating system for business agility,\u201d SAFe 5.0 carries enhancements that support Lean and Agile practices to continually and proactively deliver innovative business solutions faster than the competition. Agile team members are no longer just labeled as Product Owners, Scrum Masters, or Developers<\/em>. Now, Agile Teams (of all types) hold just two specialty roles\u2014Product Owners and Scrum Masters. The rest of the team can be comprised of people from Business, Dev, Ops, or Support functions. While subtle, this distinction in labels within Agile Teams will help eliminate some of the adoption barriers I\u2019ve seen exist outside of Dev\u2026because not every Agile team has \u201cDevelopers\u201d.<\/p>\n

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2. There is an increased emphasis on Lean-Agile leadership\u2014embrace it.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

SAFe 5.0 creates two new competencies of Business Agility\u2014Organization Agility and Continuous Learning Culture. The increased emphasis on Lean-Agile Leadership\u2014leading by example, modeling behavior, aligning mindset, words and actions to Lean-Agile values, and actively leading the change while guiding others to the new ways of working\u2014is so critical and often under-appreciated by executives wanting to \u2018do Agile\u2019 vs truly \u2018being Agile\u2019.<\/p>\n

In my experience, leaders often don\u2019t build the case for \u201cwhy<\/em> change,\u201d nor do they invest appropriate efforts into their own change. There are changes required for leaders to inspire and lead a truly successful transformation. If you\u2019re a leader\u2014I cannot stress this enough\u2014educate yourself and embrace these qualities.<\/p>\n

3. Develop a shared definition of \u2018done\u2019 and \u2018quality.\u2019<\/strong><\/h3>\n

This one may require some explanation. The SAFe Summit offered many dedicated sessions around business functions (i.e. Marketing) using Lean-Agile approaches to improve business impact. In one particular session, delivered by a marketing leader, it was advised to develop a shared definition of \u2018done\u2019 and \u2018quality.\u2019 Why? This prevents a \u2018reviewer bottleneck\u2019 by leaders\/CMOs, which can happen even in an Agile model. This shared definition, or checklist, balances the need for Minimal Viable Product (MVP) delivery and iteration, with a need for a basic quality check and experience.<\/p>\n

4. It\u2019s all about Kanban or Scrumban, not Scrum.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

As Business Agility gains attention, so too does the use of Kanban<\/a> or Scrumban (over Scrum) as the preferred Agile \u201csub-discipline\u201d for business teams. In breakouts and discussions around Agile in business functions, there\u2019s an increased acceptance that these are the preferred approaches, as they are more reflective of the nature of work and deliverables in non-development organizations. From my personal Agile Transformation experiences, I wholeheartedly agree.<\/p>\n

5. Last, but certainly not least, shift is still happening.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

This last point is still clear\u2014shift is still happening. Sound familiar? I also covered this following the Agile 2019 conference (also noting the popularity of a good \u201cshift happens\u201d t-shirt). However, in this instance, making the shift from Projects to Products was emphasized in Dean Leffingwell\u2019s opening keynote then further reinforced in the closing keynote by Dr. Mik Kersten from Tasktop.<\/p>\n

From Dr. Kersten\u2019s keynote, I\u2019d like to share some of his assertions:<\/p>\n