Implementing SAFe in Lean Enterprises: Maximizing Agility and Efficiency

In our digital age, every simple and difficult problem has a solution. If your business struggles to manage complex and large-scale projects, applying the SAFe for lean enterprises will overcome and improve agility and efficiency. 

SAFe (Scale-Agile Framework) offers a structure that ensures alignment between strategy implementation and execution. In addition, it provides continuous improvement collaboration and delivers customer satisfaction. It does so by adopting lean Agile principles and values to optimise workflow and adapt to changes required per market needs, leading to increased productivity.

The SAFe for lean enterprises offers a robust framework that supports numerous development environments, including both small- and large-complex projects, for rapid delivery and high-quality work.

The scope of SAFe is endless. I will help you understand numerous aspects of the Lean and SAFe framework in detail here. In addition, you’ll learn how to implement it effectively and what benefit it caters to upon implementation. So, let’s begin by understanding what SAFe is for lean enterprises and then step up toward implementation to maximise agility and efficiency.

Introduction To Lean & SAFe For Lean Enterprises

Before we go into the SAFe framework, let's define lean and how it applies to SAFe. Understanding the fundamentals and being acquainted with the SAFe architecture eventually leads to ease of use.

1. Lean - In A Nutshell

Lean is a powerful technique or structure that improves efficiency by reducing unnecessary operations, such as waste. This system originated with the Toyota manufacturing method, and the world has witnessed the transformation it brought to the company. It tries to provide the highest level of customer satisfaction with little resources.

Lean principles, such as value, mapping, flow, adaptability, and continuous improvement, are derived from Lean Six Sigma and Lean Manufacturing and are widely applicable. They can be applied to marketing, manufacturing, healthcare, software development, etc. All these to increase productivity and enhance the quality of the product.

2. Lean - Agile Practices - Transform Into Agility & Effectiveness

Implementing lean-agile practices, which include the principles of the lean approach and agile methodology, becomes crucial to enhancing efficiency, adaptability, and customer value. This innovative and transformative method aims to deliver continuous improvement with iterative development and reduce the waste process.

To achieve greater agility and effectiveness, lean-agile practices work independently to complement each other. Lean maximises value by minimising unimportant processes, while Agile targets flexibility and responsiveness.

In addition, Agile fosters its derived 12 guiding principles and 4 core values, whereas Lean facilitates a six-sigma approach to promote collaboration, empower cross-functional team networks, and adaptability.

3. Lean - Agile Challenges & Limitations

Lean agile practices can bring numerous benefits to organisations, but certain limitations and challenges prohibit them from being used for more extensive and complicated projects. The most common challenges they pose are the team's need for more experience, inadequate training, scaling issues, and the inability to balance flexibility and structure.

Enroll for the SAFe Agilist Certification Training in Bangalore to master essential skills like PI planning, portfolio management, and continuous delivery. 

SAFe Overview

To overcome lean-agile limitations and challenges, you need a robust method and framework. Such a framework is a scale-agile framework (SAFe). The SAFe is a set of institutional frameworks that offers a strategic approach that includes comprehensive training, leadership support, and constant improvement efforts by implementing Agile enterprises at an enterprise level.

SAFe for lean enterprises framework includes implementation of Agile, DevOps, and Lean principles to produce quality and iterative works with the aim to deliver customer satisfaction, successive development, and foster collaboration.

Also Read: Which SAFe Certification is Best? 

SAFe Background in Brief

Scaled Agile Framework is an idea that addresses the challenge of scaling agile practices that arises in numerous large enterprises. It was developed in 2011 by Dean Leffingwell that integrated the Agile, Lean, and DevOps guiding principles and values to create a robust framework to enhance agility and effectiveness.

Over the years, it has evolved and adopted the changes required to become one of the widely adopted methods for enterprises seeking to enhance their agility and efficiencies. Since its inception in 2011, the different versions of SAFe have incorporated numerous feedback and added ideas to simplify big, complicated problems with ease and deliver high-quality products or services by applying its fundamental principles and values.

Master SAFe Agile Framework with our SAFe Training

Download Brochure

 

Core Principles and Values Of SAFe

Since SAFe is a mixed framework that derives its principles and values from Agile, Lean, and DevOps, it creates its own 10 guiding principles and 4 core values that simplify any complicated situation to create an unreal experience with effectiveness and efficiency.

Let’s have a quick overview of its 10 principles and 4 values that can be applied in large industries.

1. SAFe Core Values - Of SAFe

SAFe for lean enterprises offers 4 different core values: 

1. Alignment

2. Transparency

3. Program execution

4. Built-in quality

With alignment value, it ensures the organisation is on the right path to achieve common goals. Kaizen, or continuous improvement, seeks the achievement of exceptional results in various ways.

In addition, transparency promotes openness to build trust among team members and, hence improvement in decision-making. Therefore, it builds an environment where team members respect each other to foster a culture of collaboration.

2. SAFe Ushering Principles - Determined Path Leading Success With Agility

The 10 SAFe framework guiding principles include;

1. Economic Overview

2. System Thinking

3. Decentralised Decision-Making

4. Preserve options 

5. Integrated learning cycles

6. Evolution of working systems

7. Value flow without interruption 

8. Empowering Individuals

9. Synchronise With Teams

10. Organise around value

With these ushering principles, the way to maximize agility and efficiency is quite possible through better employee engagement, rapid delivery, improved team productivity, accomplishment of shared goals, and many others.

Also Read: SAFe implementation Roadmap

Why SAFe for Lean Enterprises?

With the application of SAFe values and principles, SAFe for lean enterprises is a framework that provides exceptional design for large and robust organisations. Achieving success by aiming at delivering high-quality, speed, and customer satisfaction with effectiveness and efficiency becomes possible for the following reasons:

• It emphasises delivering value with optimisation and elimination of waste in all forms.

• Promotes enterprise agility with faster decision-making and scalability for large and complex organisations.

• With program increment (PI), synchronise work flow and improve collaboration among cross-functional teams.

• Enhance quality and foster innovation and continuous improvement with the implementation of SAFe values and principles at different stages.

• SAFe encourages incremental delivery with smaller and more manageable breakdowns of work with lean-agile leadership for a structured yet flexible environment.

• Smooth transition from traditional to modern project management with SAFe for lean agile practices.

Leveraging Scaled Agile Framework Benefits!

SAFe for Lean Enterprises offers several organisational-level benefits, especially for large and complex institutions that need lean-agile practices across teams and departments. Some benefits that the SAFe framework offers compared to others are:

• Better alignment, facilitating shared goals and visions with crystal-clear communication.

• SAFe offers minimal time to market with synchronisation and incremental delivery.

• Increased quality with built-in quality practices.

• Enhanced collaboration with transparency and real-time feedback.

• Better risk management with early risk detection and validation.

• Enhanced adaptability and flexibility with quick response to changes and team autonomy.

• With decentralised decision-making, SAFe offers stronger governance for continuous delivery.

• It understands what the customer needs, such as value and service.

How To Implement SAFe For Lean Enterprises?

To leverage the benefits adhered to by SAFe for lean enterprises, you will have to implement the SAFe framework with the utmost care, plan, and vision to bring about organisational transformation. To implement the SAFe framework, you will have to follow the steps briefly mentioned to maximise agility and efficiency.

• Have a comprehensive understanding of the SAFe framework and lean principles.

• Conduct an organisational current status by identifying areas of improvement and defining an objective.

• Get commitment from the leadership through organisational buy-in or gain strong support from leadership.

• Create a lean-agile centre of excellence to guide, train, and support with dedicated SAFe program consultants and agile coaches.

• Provide training and certification for key roles within SAFe, like SAFe Agilist (SA), SAFe Practitioner (SP), and SAFe Program Consultant (SPC), with numerous workshops and learning resources.

• Prepare a SAFe implementation roadmap and start with small teams. Ensure SAFe principles and values adherence. Once ensured, roll out gradually and conduct PI sessions.

• Identify the sequence of activities and strategies to deliver value to customers, ensuring the organisation's strategic goals are aligned.

• Upon identification of value streams and strategies, create Agile Release Trains (ARTs) comprising 50-125 individuals for synchronised delivery using SAFe practices, such as Scrum, Kanban, and XP (Extreme Programming).

• Upon creation of ARTs, execute and iterate the program increments (PIs) by inspecting and adapting.

• Use SAFe practices, such as retrospectives, reviews, daily stand-ups, and others, for continuous improvement with lean thinking.

• Keep track of success with metrics to monitor and adjust based on feedback to maintain flexibility and adaptability.

Scope of SAFe - Leverage SAFe 6!

As the demand for SAFe practices is rising, the scope of the SAFe framework is also rising. Since SAFe introduction in 2011, it has been offering a comprehensive framework for scaling lean-agile practices across large organisations. SAFe has evolved over the years with an increase in features and enhanced accessibility.

Currently, SAFe 6.0 is the newest version and is built on the previous framework with newly added features and improved core principles and value utilisation to support lean-agile enterprises. Let’s explore an overview of the SAFe 6 scope.

• SAFe 6.0 promotes leadership at all levels for a lean-agile culture.

• Offers digital transformation support with customer-centric design for business agility and efficiency.

• Caters lean portfolio management (LPM) for strong integration of business and technology for active collaboration between diverse and cross-functional team members.

• Leverage automation tools for DevOps, and CI/CD with the heart of SAFe 6.0, ARTs.

• Support modern development practices with strong SAFe for lean enterprises' architecture and mindset shift.

Wrapping Up Maximize Benefits With Agility & Efficiency

The implementation of the SAFe for lean enterprises offers a roadmap to success with increased agility and improved efficiency. SAFe offers a flexible structure for scaling agile practices to meet customer demands effectively and with continuous efforts for rapid delivery.

To bring continuous improvements and delivery, the organisation may need certified SAFe teams and leaders with SAFe Agile Certification to adopt the SAFe framework gracefully. It brings sustainable change, making the institution more competitive. Thus, you must invest in the SAFe Certification to access maximum efficiency and agility at work. 

Feel free to ask your queries from certified trainers at StarAgile if you have planned to become a SAFe practitioner with globally recognised SAFe Agile Certification.