Danger of spreading hatred towards a Framework
I am dismayed. I never thought I would ever have to write an article of this nature. I had thought that the agile community's purpose is to help organisations: become more agile and to move from their current state to a better state of agility - in the best possible way. However, over the past few weeks, I have seen lots of hatred towards SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) on LinkedIn and Twitter.
This hatred is unprofessional, ugly and childish. It's like school children fighting over whether Marvel comic books are better than DC comic books (DC is obviously better! And, yes, I know they are known as graphic novels these days).
Just saying SAFe is not agile in itself is not a discussion point. I want to see healthy and respectful disagreements where people can learn from each other.
I worked in a SAFe environment for a year, and I experienced its benefits. I can clearly see SAFe's place in our industry, having been involved in a successful implementation of SAFe. The organisation I was at had huge challenges and SAFe helped to resolve them (this will be covered in a future blog post).
I am agnostic when it comes to agility. I am neither a huge fan of SAFe nor am I vehemently against it. I will say the same about other Agile frameworks and methods - including the most popular one.
Sadly, it is now fashionable to bash SAFe. In doing so, SAFe is becoming even more popular. Yes, SAFe is officially the number one agile scaling framework for large enterprises, see the 11th Version One State of Agile Survey.
What concerns me most of all is the people who are spreading hate, they are:
- People who have never used SAFe
- People who have not read or watched any SAFe materials
- People who do not know anything about it and like to comment on the topic
- People who have a vested interest in promoting another scaling framework that most companies do not use
- Click bait folks who need more social media followers to sell their training courses
Still spreading hatred? Try doing something useful for the agile community instead, have a healthy discussion on why you believe SAFe is not Agile.
Thank you for your time, similar posts from me that you might enjoy:
Agile Coach
7 年As with all of these so called frameworks - they are just tools in a toolbelt. You are meant to be able to select the right tool for the job at hand. I agree with David. This thread has been around more than once i.e. before SAFe the target was PMI or PRINCE or SDLC or Crystal or [placeholder] any other of the variant alternatives. Sigh..
Data Analytics I Agile Product and Program Management I Digital Transformation
7 年SAFe or not, no framework is a perfect recipe for success. It is for organizations to decide which framework is a better option in their conditions. Lamenting out against different frameworks has become fashionable.
Senior Learning Specialst and Devops Ambassador, DevOps, Agile, Project, Programme and IT Service Management at QA Ltd
7 年In some respects this has always been there, agile itself was a reaction to monolithic 'Big Design up front' methods such as SSADM and the software developer's treatment at the hands of 'command and control' EVM driven PMP types. When you start as a protest movement and you become mainstream where does your righteous anger go? Inward of course! What was once a strength (diversity) becomes a weakness (faction building). The Lord of the Flies is a great book. I applaud you Ali but I fear you are like the Kindergarten teacher appealing to the children to 'play nice', when the kiddies do not yet possess the maturity to understand themselves, much less understand the diverse needs of others. At the other end of the scale, shouting 'grow up!' to truculent teenagers doesn't work either. Before any one ooints out that these people are adults, well they sure aren't acting like it.
Thought Provoker / Founder @VXS
7 年There is another category: 6. People who have a blatantly obvious interest in promoting their OWN pyramid marketing scheme, who do not want people to stop paying for their services. Point in case: A ScrumAlliance CST encouraging his audience to actively sabotage the introduction of SAFe: https://www.dasscrumteam.com/blog/?mode=showNewsItem&id=187
CIO | Group IT Director | Top 100 CIO | Board Advisor | Digital Transformation | CISO | CDO | Non Executive Director
7 年Its always in the execution, and seldom in a framework - especially one born of deep experience by practitioners. The opinion of academics, the outside uninformed and those pursuing an agenda regardless of its outcome are always a very poor second to solid execution against a robust body ok knowledge.