Please enable JavaScript.

Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.

Scaled Agile Framework SAFe (https://www.scaledagile.com/resources/safe…

- - - - starting fall 2014 and stretches throughout 2015;
      - What did
        
        Train everybody within R&D in Leading SAFe – Lean thinking, production flow principles & agile leadership, concurrent program/team planning & evaluations, economical prioritization on feature program backlogs.
        
        Set up and customize Jira & Jira Agile to accommodate, traceability, tracking and reporting between Portfolio, Program & Team Levels for full enterprise transparency.
        
        Guide & implement the usage of the Scaled Agile Framework model in 7 major products (Value Streams) throughout 2014-2015.
        
        Act as Release Train Engineers for 4 of the products while implementing the Scaled Agile Framework Model concurrently.
      - To our knowledge, this is the first instance of a full scale adoption of the Scaled Agile Framework model in these countries.
    - - Totemic Technology Ltd, part of the Totemic Group, have been established over 20 years
      - employ over 850 people in the UK and 220 people across the rest of the world.
      - McKenna Consultants have worked closely with Totemic since autumn 2015 delivering scaled agile training and coaching to their development teams, leading to a successful Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) implementation and a SAFe Agile Release Train Launch.
      - Challenges
        
        Challenge 1: Growth – Totemic Technologies is a growing business. The development teams have experienced rapid growth in the past 6 months.
        
        Challenge 2: Distributed Teams – The majority of the software development is undertaken in Grantham, but there are teams in Bristol and Lisbon, Portugal.
        
        Challenge 3: Financial Conduct Authority Regulation – Totemic work in a regulatory environment.
        
        Challenge 4: SAFe itself – SAFe is new to Totemic Technologies meaning that there was the need for some organisational learning and development.
        
        Challenge 5: Complex Products – Totemic work on an array of complex product for multiple clients
      - McKenna Consultants provided 2 Scaled Agile Framework Program Consultants (SPCs) to supply Totemic Technologies with the following services to support their ART Launch:
        
        Initial SAFe Implementation Consultancy
        
        Leading SAFe Training Courses
        
        Portfolio and Program Consultancy
        
        Release Train Engineer (RTE) Coaching
        
        Program Increment Planning Facilitation
        
        General SAFe Consultancy and Guidance
    - - This approach is based on the success story of one of the enterprise teams in McAfee which adopted
        Scrum successfully
        
        Train
        
        Concepts
        
        To begin with, the Scrum Team should be formed before the team attends the training. The Product
        Owner, Scrum Master and Proxy roles should already be identified. T
        
        Team must at least know the theoretical concepts of scrum before plunging into it
        
        basic scrum
        principles
        
        scrum ceremonies
        
        scrum artifacts
        
        the members of scrum team
        
        the advantages of scrum
        and the disadvantages as well
        
        Our experience
        
        Firstday - concepts:: What is Scrum; The approach; Roles and Responsibilities; Scrum Ceremonies;
        What is Epic, Story, Task
        
        Second day - practical simulation: Breaking down an Epic into Stories,Story into Tasks, a 30-minute Release Planning; a 30-min Sprint planning
        
        the art of estimating using Story points was introduced. This was followed by a game of Planning Poker
        
        Comment
        
        It was a great fun-filled experience for the team. However, there was quite a bit of confusion in their minds. It was a totally new process and it required a totally different mindset
        
        Gel (most important phase)
        
        Concepts
        
        co-locate the team
        
        Encourage informal discussions and help build strong
        relationship between the team members
        
        Our experience
        
        Development on one floor and QA on the other. Bringing the entire team to a common location was tough considering space constraints. But the management put in a lot of effort to seat us all together
        
        The other thing that helped was team activities. In the past, the teams went separately for team outings. Now, they were made to go out together, be it a team outing or some team celebration or lunch
        
        Comment
        
        Positives: Lots of time is saved. Now we don’t have to send out mails and wait for responses, we can just walk down to scrum team member’s desk and get doubts cleared. Standups are consuming lesser time as we can gather quickly
        
        Negatives: Sometimes we (both Dev and QA) end up consuming each other’s time when it is really not required
        
        Coach
        
        Concepts
        
        The Agile Coach should be actively involved with the team, at
        least in these initial few sprints
        
        The coach can observe the
        way the team is adopting the methodology and give early and effective feedback
        
        At times, this could de-motivate the team. In this aspect, the Scrum Master can lend a hand by helping the coach communicate effectively to the team and also work as a proxy-coach and help the team start following the processes.
        
        Our experience
        
        Once our training was complete, a coach was appointed for our team. He was an external agile practitioner and had many years of experience in Scrum and coaching
        
        To begin with, he started attending the planning meetings and the daily scrum meetings. After those initial days, he started giving feedback to Product Owner Proxy and Scrum Master about what was not going well and how we could improve.
        
        Comment
        
        Follow
        
        Concepts
        
        The key in this phase is to follow the scrum ceremonies and scrum principles religiously: Relase Planning, Sprint Planning, Daily Standup, Backlog Grooming, Sprint review, Sprint Retrospective
        
        Our Experience
        
        The team had very interesting experiences during this phase.
        To begin with, there was a lot of confusion
        
        As sprints passed by, with constant guidance from the coach, the team started realizing the importance of the ceremonies.
        But now, there was another issue. The team was interested in the ceremonies but they did not know how to handle them in a smart way.
        
        Towards the end of the phase, the team learned the art of smart scrum ceremonies. The daily scrums were short and precise, grooming sessions were regular, sprint planning sessions reduced from a day to a couple of hours and the retrospectives were more open and constructive
        
        Comment
        
        We started good, but initially we were little lagging in planning, but slowly we picked up in that. Planning was one of the areas which we picked up slowly
        
        Own
        
        Concepts
        
        By this stage, the team would have sufficient knowledge about the entire process and would more or less operate without the assistance of the coach
        
        Another key aspect of this phase would be for the teams to continuously inspect and adapt
        
        Our Experience
        
        They voluntarily come up with ideas to improve processes. They think on their own and come up with process improvements when they encounter issues.
        
        The fear of failure has reduced to a great extent, if not eliminated
        
        Comment
        
        We as a team and as individuals were transformed to plan and execute and strategize better in the project and scrum activities.
      - Result
        
        At times, the team feels stressed. Immediately as a sprint comes to an end, the next sprint would be in the queue. This sometimes frustrates the team members. They get a feeling that they have no room for relaxation between sprints
        
        There are times when there are hard timelines. The product management once sensed some opportunities in the market to sell the product. There was a Partner launch program with which they wanted to launch the pilot version of the product. Hence, the team had to put in lot of extra effort to meet the timelines
      - Lession Learned
        
        Management commitment and support is required
        
        Training is a must.
        
        Scrum Master is key person. Choose the correct one.
        
        Coach would prove to be the guiding factor. Very essential in the transformation.
        
        Focus on the mindset of people as well. Team building is key to the success of any
        
        Scrum adoption.
        
        Some hand-holding is necessary in the initial stages.
        
        Follow the ceremonies. They will start adding value gradually.
        
        Reduce the intervention as the team matures.
        
        Allow the team to take calculated risks.
        
        Remove the fear of failure from the minds of team members.
        
        Trust the team.
- - - - how to lead a Lean-Agile transformation by leveraging the practices
      - principles of the Scaled Agile Framework® (SAFe®).
      - gain insights and practice how to coach programs
      - launch Agile Release Trains,
      - build a Continuous Delivery Pipeline with DevOps culture,
      - and empower a Lean Portfolio
  - - - How to lead a Lean-Agile enterprise by leveraging the Scaled Agile Framework® (SAFe®)
      - its underlying principles derived from Lean
      - systems thinking,
      - Agile development,
      - product development flow,
      - and DevOps
  - - - Build the skills needed to become a high-performing team member of an Agile Release Train (ART)
      - learn how to collaborate effectively with other teams—by becoming a SAFe® 4 Practitioner (SP).
      - attendees will gain an in-depth understanding of the ART, how it delivers value, and what they can do to effectively perform their role using Scrum, Kanban, and XP
      - learn how to write stories and break down features, plan and execute iterations, and plan Program Increments. Finally, they’ll learn about the continuous delivery pipeline and DevOps culture, how to effectively integrate with other teams in the program, and what it takes to continuously improve the train.
  - - - understanding of the role of a Scrum Master in a SAFe enterprise
      - explores the role of the Scrum Master in the context of the entire enterprise
      - prepares attendees to successfully plan and execute the Program Increment (PI), the primary enabler of alignment throughout all levels of a SAFe organization
      - how to build high performing Agile teams by becoming a servant leader and coach
      - how to coach those teams to deliver the maximum business value at scale
  - - - facilitation of cross-team interactions in support of program execution and relentless improvement
      - enhances the Scrum paradigm with an introduction to scalable engineering and DevOps practices
      - the application of Kanban to facilitate the flow of value
      - supporting interactions with architects, product management, and other critical stakeholders in the larger program and enterprise contexts
      - offers actionable tools for building high-performing teams and explores practical ways of addressing Agile and Scrum anti-patterns in the enterprise.
  - - - SAFe Release Train Engineer certificate
      - A SAFe 4 Release Train Engineer digital badge to promote your accomplishment online
      - A one-year certified membership as a SAFe Release Train Engineer, which includes access to the RTE Community of Practice
      - A SAFe Release Train Engineer certification usage guide with RTE certification marks
      - Access to a variety of learning resources to support certified professionals during their SAFe journey
      - SPCs who are certified RTEs can apply and qualify to teach the RTE class and certify RTEs
    - - Apply Lean-Agile knowledge and tools to execute and release value
      - Assist with program and large solution execution
      - Foster relentless improvement
      - Build a high-performing ART by becoming a servant leader and coach
      - Develop an action plan to continue the learning journey
    - - Certificates expire one year from the date the certification is earned.
      - Renewal fee is $295
      - Renewal fee for the RTE certification is included in SPC renewal (if your SPC certification is up-to-date)
    - - RTEs and Solution Train Engineers (STEs)
      - Program and project managers
      - Scrum Masters
      - Leaders and managers
      - Agile coaches
      - SAFe Program Consultants (SPCs)
    - - Hold at least one current SAFe certification
      - Have launched or participated in at least one ART and one PI
    - - 20 PDU to Project Management Institute (PMI) for PMP, PgMP, and PMI-ACP certifications.
      - apply for SEUs under category C, toward earning or renewing their CSP through Scrum Alliance.
    - - Exam duration: once the exam begins candidates have 120 minutes to complete the exam
      - Number of questions: 60 /Passing score: 40 out of 60 (67%)
      - first attempt is free within 30 days from course completion.Each retake attempt is $50
  - - - SAFe Product Owner/Product Manager certificate
      - A SAFe 4 Product Owner/Product Manager digital badge to promote your accomplishment online
      - A one-year certified membership as a SAFe Product Owner/Product Manager, which includes access to the POPM Community of Practice
      - A SAFe Product Owner/Product Manager certification usage guide with POPM certification marks
      - Access to a variety of learning resources to support certified professionals during their SAFe journey
    - - Certificates expire one year from the date the certification is earned.
      - Renewal fee is $100
    - - 15 PDUs to the Project Management Institute (PMI) for PMP, PgMP, and PMI-ACP certifications.
      - apply for SEUs under category C, toward earning or renewing their CSP through Scrum Alliance.
    - - Product Managers, Product Line Managers, Product Owners, Business Owners, and Business Analysts
      - Solution Managers, Portfolio Managers, Program Managers, PMO personnel, and Process Leads
      - Enterprise, Solution, and System Architects
    - - Apply SAFe in the Lean enterprise
      - Connect SAFe Lean-Agile principles and values to the PO/PM roles
      - Collaborate with Lean Portfolio Management
      - Explore continuous value with Program Increment Planning
      - Execute the Program Increment and deliver continuous value
      - Articulate the Product Owner and Product Manager roles
      - Create a role action plan
    - - :Exam duration: Once the exam begins, candidates have 90 minutes (1.5 hours) to complete the exam
      - Number of questions: 45/Passing score: 35 out of 45 (77% passing score)
      - Exam cost: First exam attempt is included as part of the course registration fee if the exam is taken within 30 days of course completion. Each retake attempt costs $50
  - - - Exam duration – Once the exam begins, candidates have 90 minutes (1.5 hours) to complete the exam.
      - Number of questions – 45/Passing score – 33 out of 45 (73%)
      - Exam cost – First exam attempt is included as part of the course registration fee if the exam is taken within 30 days of course completion. Each retake attempt costs $50.
    - - Understand the CALMR approach to DevOps, why it is so important, and be able to explain it to others
      - Understand the importance of continuous integration, continuous testing, and be ready to apply it
      - Apply the concepts of continuous security
      - Map their current delivery pipeline
      - Measure the flow of value through the delivery pipeline
      - Identify gaps and delays in flow
      - Improve the process of exploring customer needs
      - Improve the process of developing, building, and integrating continuously
      - Improve the process of continuously deploying to staging and production environments
      - Improve the release process
      - Execute an action plan for their DevOps transformation
    - - 15 PDUs to the Project Management Institute (PMI) for PMP, PgMP, and PMI-ACP certifications
      - apply for SEUs under Category C, toward earning or renewing their CSP through the Scrum Alliance
    - - All members of an Agile Release Train
      - Development Managers, Engineering Managers
      - Configuration Managers, Release Managers
      - Development Leads, Developers, UI/UX Developers
      - Infrastructure Architects, System Architects
      - Product Managers, Product Owners
      - System Administrators, DBAs, InfoSec
      - QA Managers, Testers
      - Release Train Engineers, Scrum Masters