156. SAFe 2023 November Product Launch Recap

On 1st November, Scaled Agile Inc. has launched the new product of 2023, to continuously help organizations to plan, fund, empower, and accelerate your journey towards Business Agility. Here's a recap:

CHALLENGE 1: HOW TO DYNAMICALLY MANAGE AND ELIMINATE DEPENDENCY IN COMPLEX ENVIRONMENT?

Regardless how your product or services are decoupled, regardless if it is micro-services or big monolithic application, every agile team who worked from the trenches know it is a big challenge to manage cross-team or cross-ART dependencies, tooling can greatly simplify the process especially during and after PI Planning.

As Jira and confluence users, we know that those are tracking and sometimes documentations graveyard, where it is hard to find information, even we found them, either they are obsolete or it is hard to connect the dots because tickets are changing, or using visualization tools with hundreds of people at the same time.

1 Year ago at RTE Summit, during the conversation with VP of PIPlanning.io Silvio Wandfluh, I was looking for a solution level visualization, especially when it comes to multiple ARTs, now it is great to see that PIPlanning.io has published their new features incl. solution level visualization:

• Plan and execute your PI in single application
• Manage and track cross-ART dependencies with the unique and simplified Solution Board view
• Minimize distractions when presenting and discussing your objectives, risks, and capacity with the plan readout overview

Whether you work with features, epics, user stories, initiatives, enablers, etc., your scaled requirements model is visualized in a comprehensible way through different linking options on all relevant boards. The comprehensive bidirectional synchronization with ALM tools (e.g. Jira) enhances visual collaboration, no matter which board an event participant looks at, everyone has the same view, unlike a "Tetris" of information out of the PI Planning.

Not long ago SAFe has acquired PIPlanning.io, to further expand its product offering to support simpler planning and smooth execution at scale.

14 days Free Trial of PIPLANNING.io can be found here

CHALLENGE 2: HOW TO CONTINUOUSLY CONNECT STRATEGY WITH EXECUTION? HOW TO MOVE FROM PROJECT TO VALUE STREAM FUNDING?

There were exciting developments annouced and a new Participatory Budgeting application to help you fund a new way of working

• Formulate strategic themes with the updated Strategic Themes article
• Gain a new understanding of Enterprise portfolio management with the updated Enterprise article
• Understand key VMO people interactions and responsibilities in the new Value Management Office article
• Simplify participatory budgeting with SAFe CoFund, a powerful application that lets you inform value stream funding collaboratively

Strategic Theme (aka the O part of OKR) is a key element in Scaled Agile Framework, often organizations don't have them at all, or poorly formulated in the way that people understand and associate their work accordingly.

Enterprise Portfolio Management (EPM)

it ensures alignment between a related set of portfolios and the overall enterprise vision and strategy. An effective EPM team enables the highest priority work to have a clear path from strategy and investment planning to execution. This approach empowers individual portfolios to make localized decisions within their context whilst remaining connected to the enterprise strategy.

Value Management Office (VMO)

From PMO to VMO, requires management for Value Delivery. Agile methods are not just for IT, but entire product and service value streams. As legacy organizations transition to newer, end-to-end agile operating models, the Project Management Office (PMO) needs to redesign its mission and operation to be more in line with these modern ways of working. In SAFe, VMO clarifies the collaboration between the enterprise and the stakeholders in each portfolio.

SAFe? CoFund is Participatory Budgeting, simplified, that enables organizations inform value stream funding collaboratively, and evolve from project funding, by gaining confidence to facilitate participatory budgeting and prioritize portfolio investments as a team, to create "fun" into funding.

Can't wait to teach the new LPM course 6.0.2 including participatory budgeting.

CHALLENGE 3: HOW TO MOTIVATING YOUR PEOPLE? HOW TO TRANSFORM HR? HOW TO DECENTRALIZE DECISION MAKING?

To deliver continuous flow of value for customers and your organization requires people at everything you do, no agile transformation can ever be successful without putting people at heart. Many Agile organizations face stiff headwinds from legacy HR practices, instead, we need:

• A clear vision
• The right skills
• Intrinsic motivation

Lean-Agile Principles are the DNA and soul of SAFe, now the following principles are rewritten.

Principle #8 – Unlock the Intrinsic Motivation of Knowledge Workers

Principle #9 – Decentralize Decision-Making

The new training module of Agile HR Explorer offers new ways of upskilling HR professionals to get ready for true agile organization.

CHALLENGE 4: HOW TO DELIVER MEASURABLE BUSINESS RESULTS NOT JUST CHANGING WAYS OF WORKING?

Before end of the Event, new updated guidance are created to help you accelerate your business with the future of Agile

• Foster a deeper understanding of what you need to do to improve flow in your domain with the Coaching Flow article
• Learn the anatomy of a decision and the four options associated with it in the new Decentralize Decision-Making article
• Develop and apply the skills you need to be successful in your career as a SAFe? professional with micro-credentials for topics such as value stream workshop facilitation and coaching for flowFor more information pls. visit the November Product Launch video here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRxFJPb3lbU&t=3s