Leveraging the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe®) in Federal Government

Agile Transformations

An exploration of the intended benefits of SAFe®, along with the anti-patterns and resulting challenges that degrade the expected benefits of

SAFe® adoption in the Federal business context

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Attribution

•This presentation includes some material that is the property of Scaled Agile, Inc. (SAI) and is protected by U.S. and International copyright laws.

• It is included solely to promote adoption and use of the Scaled Agile Framework® (SAFe®) for the benefit of the enterprises and individuals who apply it.

•AgileSavant LLC is a Scaled Agile, Inc. Silver Partner and is authorized to use certain SAI content in its presentation materials.

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Today’s Agenda

•About the Speaker and AgileSavant LLC

•What is SAFe®

•SAFe® in Eight Pictures

•The Intended / Potential Benefits of SAFe® Adoption

• Information Sources for this Presentation

•Anti-Patterns and Resulting Challenges to SAFe® adoption in the Federal Business Context

•How do we fix failed / stalling SAFe® implementations in Federal?

•Key Takeaways

•Q&A

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About the Speaker and AgileSavant

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About the Speaker

• Executive level experience managing very large Agile and Waterfall portfolios for

companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Oracle and Microsoft Corporation

• Former Chief Strategy Officer and Senior Vice President for one of the Top 2% of

all Microsoft Agile Application Development partners in the world

• President and COO of AgileSavant LLC - Agile Coach, Trainer and Scaled Agile

Transformation Consultant whose Lean-Agile certifications include:

- SAFe® Program Consultant 4 (SPC4)

- SAFe® Scrum Master (SSM) Instructor

- SAFe® Advanced Scrum Master (SASM) Instructor

- SAFe® Product Manager / Product Owner (PMPO) Instructor

- Certified Scrum Professional (CSP)

- Certified Scrum Master (CSM)

- Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO)

- Project Management Institute Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)

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Connect with me on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-tilghman-29821312/

About AgileSavant LLC

• AgileSavant is a Scaled Agile, Inc. Silver Level partner and our consultants are accredited to provide the following Scaled Agile Framework courses:- Leading SAFe 4.0 with SA certification- SAFe 4.0 for Teams with SP certification- SAFe 4.0 Product Manager / Product Owner with PMPO certification- SAFe 4.0 Scrum Master with SSM certification- SAFe 4.0 Advanced Scrum Master with SASM certification- SAFe Value Stream Workshop- SAFe 4.0 Program Portfolio Management (PPM) Workshop

• See our SAFe® Training Schedule at: http://www.scaledagile.com/event-list/?partner=AgileSavant,%20LLC

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What is SAFe®

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SAFe® Defined

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SAFe® Adoption

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SAFe® in Eight Pictures

A Brief Walkthrough of the Scaled Agile Framework®

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SAFe® is Proven

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The Levels

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The People

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The Backlogs

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The Cadence

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Quality

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Relentless Improvement

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Value Delivery

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Bringing it all together…

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The Intended Benefits of SAFe® to the Federal Government Business Context

A Focus on Agency Leadership Adoption of the Lean-Agile Mindset, Lean-Agile Practices (and their Implementation), and a Results Oriented Business Culture

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Management’s Challenge

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What it is that Federal Dept. / Agency Leadership must do…

•Embrace a Lean-Agile mindset

•Implement Lean-Agile practices

•Lead the implementation

•Get and focus on results (value delivery)

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Embrace a Lean-Agile Mindset

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Implement Lean-Agile Practices

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Implement Lean-Agile Practices (cont.)

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Lead the Implementation

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Lead the Implementation (cont.)

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Get Results

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Information Sources for Today’s Presentation

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SAFe® Adoption Across Federal

• Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)• US Customs and Border Protection

(CBP)•US Citizenship and Immigration

Services (USCIS)• Transportation Security

Administration (TSA)• Administrative Office of the US

Courts (AO) • Department of Justice (DOJ)• Veterans Affairs (VA)•National Geospatial Intelligence

Agency (NGA)

• Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)• Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)• Social Security Administration (SSA)•National Nuclear Security

Administration (NNSA)•US Patent and Trademark Office

(USPTO)• US Air Force (USAF)•US Postal Service (USPS)• And More!

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According to SAI, the Federal agencies KNOWN to be using SAFe are:

Information Sources for Today’s Presentation

• Since June 2016, AgileSavant has interviewed 118+ Agile Practitioners about the adoption of SAFe® in the US Federal Government who are working in Departments / Agencies such as:• Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)• Administrative Office of the US Courts (AO)• US Customs and Immigration Service (USCIS)• Transportation Security Administration (TSA)• Department of Justice (DOJ)• Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)• Social Security Administration (SSA)• US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)• US Postal Service (USPS)

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Information Sources for Today’s Presentation (cont.)

• The context of the 118+ interviews varied widely during the past year and included interactions such as:• AgileSavant interviewing contractors for employment / subcontract work• Large System Integrators interviewing AgileSavant as a potential subcontractor• AgileSavant Federal client interviews conducted via our Agile Coaching Services• AgileSavant Federal contractor interviews conducted via our Agile Coaching Services• AgileSavant interviews with our Federal Contractor / Employees who attended one or

more of our following SAFe® certification course offerings:• SAFe® Scrum Master w/ SSM Certification• SAFe® Advanced Scrum Master w/ SASM Certification• SAFe® Product Manager / Product Owner w/ PMPO Certification

•And, yes, even conversations on the MARC train…

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Common Federal SAFe® Adoption Anti-Patterns and their Resulting Challenges

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Common Federal Anti-Patterns and Challenges

Anti-PatternsSAFe implemented at the wrong organizational level

Traditional procurement language, practices and vehicles are used to procure Lean-Agile services

Not taking the time, or making the investment, to align Lean-Agile practices and outcomes to existing Program Portfolio Management (PPM) policies and guidelines

Inappropriately trained resources routinely assigned to key SAFe roles (Examples: RTE, SM, PM & PO)

Lack of existence or exposure to SAFe role competencies within the organization (i.e, Enterprise Architecture / Engineering)

Resulting ChallengesInability to implement changes to the organization to better enable cadence, alignment and synchronization

Getting the cross-functional orgs on the Agile Release Train (ART)

Challenges committing contractors to produce Lean-Agile outcomes

Program Teams are challenged in aligning Lean-Agile practices and outcomes to existing PPM policies and guidelines

ROLE CONFUSION! Challenges appropriately aligning existing government and contractor resources to “The People” on the SAFe Big Picture

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Anti-Pattern: SAFe® Implemented at the Wrong Org Level• Implementing SAFe® at an inappropriately empowered / influential organizational level

leads to:• An inability to implement changes to the organization to better enable the cadence,

alignment and synchronization that are necessary for successful SAFe® adoption• An inability to get cross-functional orgs on the ART (emphasis on “Local Optimization”

instead of “Systems Thinking”• Value Stream Mapping is VERY difficult or impossible, so the ART cannot appropriately

service the organizational Value Streams nor identify and break constraints

• Senior Departmental / Agency Leadership is inadequately trained on the Lean-Agile Mindset, Lean-Agile Practices, and leading the SAFe® implementation

• The above inevitably leads to the organization suffering from all of the other Anti-Patterns and resulting challenges listed on the previous slide

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The Fix: Identify and Map the Value Stream(s)

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Source: http://www.scaledagileframework.com/value-streams/

Value Stream identification and mapping will assist in exposing where in the organization and who in the Enterprise should lead the SAFe® implementation

Anti-Pattern: “Traditional” Procurement Practices / Vehicles

• Implementing SAFe® through the use of traditional procurement practices / vehicles leads to:• Challenges committing contractors to produce expected Lean-Agile outcomes

• “The Contract does not require that we send our staff to SAFe® training”

• “The lack of government effort to align the organization to the SAFe® Framework makes it impossible for us to commit to producing the expected Lean-Agile outcomes.”

• Challenges maintaining “long-lived” ARTs, as SAFe® requires, due to funding of projects / task orders and not Value Steams as SAFe® recommends

• Dysfunctional cross-vendor relationships (i.e., competing vendors on a Multiple Award BPA)• “The task order states that we, Vendor A, are responsible for Work Process A; therefore, it is not our

obligation nor is it in our best interest to assist in the optimization of Work Process B, which is the contractual requirement of Vendor B.”

• In the end, the Customer and the American Tax Payer pays the price

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The Fix: Train Procurement Professionals in Agile Contracting

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Source: http://www.scaledagileframework.com/agile-contracts/

Anti-Pattern: Lack of APPM to PPM Alignment

• Implementing SAFe® without investing the time to align Agile Project Portfolio Management (APPM) practices and outcomes to the organizations PPM policies and guidelines leads to:• Program Teams are challenged in aligning Lean-Agile practices and outcomes to existing PPM

policies and guidelines

• APPM metrics (Velocity, Throughput, Lead Time, Cycle Time, Productive Time, Wait Time, % Complete / Accurate, etc.) are slow to be adopted, or not adopted at all, to organizational PPM metrics

• As a result of the above, many of these important metrics are NOT tracked– leading to a reduction in the benefits and quality outcomes expected via the adoption of Lean-Agile practices

• The organization questions the value of Lean-Agile practices, due to a lack of empirical data supporting improved outcomes

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The Fix: Start by Leveraging Existing Content and Guidance

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Anti-Pattern: Lack of Properly Trained SAFe® Resources

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The Fix: Train the Leadership and the Teams

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Anti-Pattern: Lack of Existence or Exposure to SAFe® Resources

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The Fix: Start with these Basic Steps

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1. Train the Leadership and Change Agents

2. Identify and Map Value Stream(s)

3. Work with SAFe® Partners (such as AgileSavant!) to identify gaps and develop short-term and long-term strategies to address gap areas

Key Takeaways

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The Takeaways

• Most Federal implementations of SAFe® face significant challenges due to the unique organizational, cultural and structural challenges inherent to the Federal Business Context

• Many Federal Departments and Agencies face very similar problems, anti-patterns and challenges when implementing SAFe®, so these organizations should share their experiences – similar to a Gov-Wide SAFe® Implementation Community of Practice (CoP)

• The Problems are systemic and complex, but NOT insurmountable

• The keys to success are proper leadership adoption of the Lean-Agile Mindset, Lean-Agile Practices, and an active role leading the SAFe® implementations

• Pull in outside experts, such as AgileSavant, to get your existing SAFe® implementation on track, OR to assist in getting your new SAFe® implementation off to a correct start

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If You Want to Learn More about SAFe®…

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Contact Information:David Tilghman SPC4, SSM, SASM, PMPO, CSP, CSM, CSPO, PMI-ACP, PMP, MBAAgile Coach, Trainer & Enterprise Transformation ConsultantPresident and COO of AgileSavant LLCCellular: 443-831-1804E-mail: david.tilghman@agileSavant.com

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Thank You!

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