Recently, a colleague of mine complained, “SAFe is so waterfally”. I’ve really completed a couple of waterfall initiatives and the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) will not be comparable. And but, most waterfall initiatives I’ve labored on have been much less onerous than SAFe!
The principle typically understood good thing about SAFe is coordinating a probably vital variety of groups. Or is it? SAFe additionally gives a turnkey method of getting everybody up to the mark on roles and tasks, program administration, staff degree exercise, and far more.
Standing up a turnkey administration infrastructure could also be the actual cause SAFe has been so extensively adopted.
And but, this ‘characteristic’ is delivered by way of 13 totally different certifications. Simply the product proprietor cert has effectively over 150 slides of coaching materials. That ensures tons of additional fluff, a few of it dangerous; extra on that beneath. To some dev outlets, the price of all SAFe’s baggage will outweigh its profit.
There may be persistent criticism that SAFe isn’t agile. That’s effectively based given SAFe’s predilection for in depth wrapping round each final thing, but it surely’s at the least incremental. Incremental improvement consists of constructing in small chunks and studying alongside the best way.
Strip away lots of the trappings of Agile, and being incremental is a major a part of its profit.
The Agile camp wouldn’t have vilified SAFe if it have been as an alternative named the Scaled Incremental Framework, however that wouldn’t have been good advertising and marketing. Incremental however deliberate improvement is extraordinarily widespread and unquestioned: that’s why we’ve got roadmaps!
There may be an argument that SAFe allows extra agility at a systemic degree, thus bettering strategic execution. SAFe does deliver the next degree of agility to a store that hasn’t been agile earlier than. Nevertheless, I’ve a former skilled curiosity in software program processes and SAFe is by far…
