Building a Scaled Agile Framework for Dummies
Scaled Agile Frameworks like SAFe are all the rage these days. You can go out now and get training, certification and a shave from a bevy of consultants that for a mere two grand per head (not really sure about the shave part). That’s a perfectly legitimate approach. However here’s a dirty little secret: anyone can do it. Here’s an example of one that I made a few years ago.
I had taken a look at SAFe and there was a lot that I liked and there were some things that just didn’t seem to fit our context. With those qualifications in mind. I decided I could make my own version. I got out my notepad and my colored sharpies and I went to town. I knew that I liked the three layer model, but I found a lot of the SAFe Big Picture had too much complexity in it. So you can see that in the first level, I simplified things quite considerably. The second or program level was also quite simple. I mixed in some things like agile chartering which I felt would be beneficial and were not found in the SAFe diagram. What about the third (Portfolio) level? Well, at the time I really didn’t have a clear idea how that would look. It was at this level that I was looking to integrate the model with our existing PMO practices – which in hindsight was probably a mistake (hey, make your own model and you make your own mistakes). So then I started to iterate.
Now I was starting to think about how things related between the three layers. Those interactions between the team level, the program level, and the portfolio level seemed to be very important. I was also experimenting with different ways of visualizing the processes on each level (with what I must confess are varying degrees of success). My color repertoire had expanded too.
Finally I started to look at the processes as a series of prescriptive steps that I needed to be able to document and describe to people. You can see that I added numbers and then I took each of those interlocking blocks and documented them. I made poster sized copies and put them on the wall outside my office with a sharpie hanging next to them. The request was simple – please change it to fit your needs. After a few days, I had more feedback and iterated from there.
Building your own scaling model isn’t for everyone. However, it’s not rocket science either. If you have a modest understanding of your own business domain, AND you understand the basics of the agile frameworks, you have everything necessary to build your own scaling framework. I’m sure there will be folks who are appalled by the arrogance of doing something like this, but personally, I think we all should feel free to make our own Big Picture. When we can customize our processes in ways that work best for us, I think we win. We learn along the way and we don’t inherit a bunch of cruft from someone else’s framework.