About the Scaled Agile Framework™ Contributors

Hello and Welcome

Over the last few years, I’ve collaborated extensively with a number of bright people during the implementation of a number of large software enterprise Lean|Agile transformations. This collaboration has resulted in many back and forth discussions revolving around implementation of the Scaled Agile Framework™, as elaborated primarily in my book Agile Software Requirements and blog.

Recently, we decided to formalize our collaboration with the intent of making the framework more readily available to a larger audience. We are also committed to developing certain extensions and enhancements to the framework that have presented themselves as the marketplace, agile enterprise maturity, and our thinking and experiences have evolved.

One result of this collaboration is this, a new public-facing website, which highlights the frameworks “Big Picture” and provides a navigable way to access content interactively.

Another result is a training and certification process run by my colleagues at Scaled Agile Academy, the goal of which is to develop qualified consultants and practitioners who can implement the framework in their enterprise or consulting environment.The framework is a work in process, and we expect that it will continue to evolve over the next few years, so you may want to subscribe to the blog feed, where we will be describing updates.

We hope the Scaled Agile Framework (pronounced “SAFe”) framework provides value to the industry, but only you, the practitioners, can tell us whether or not we have accomplished that. For more on this work, please visit my website, blog or better, attend Training and Certification.

In the sections below, we gratefully acknowledge the many sources of input to the framework, and we look forward to future contributions as well.

Regards,

–Dean

Dean Leffingwell, Creator and Chief Methodologist (bio)

Scaled Agile Framework™ Contributors

Alex Yakyma, Associate Methodologist

Associate Scaled Agile Framework methodologist Oleksandr (Alex) Yakyma of Kyiv, Ukraine, is an agile consultant, trainer and methodologist who has been applying and advancing agile practices for over a decade.

For the last six years, Alex has worked with Dean Leffingwell in developing and applying the framework for multinational clients in the US, Europe and Asia. Alex has extensive experience in distributed, outsourcing and offshoring development. Alex is fluent in Russian, Englsh, Ukrainian, Java, C++, TDD and ATDD.

Learn more at Yakyma.com

PRINCIPAL CONTRIBUTORS

Drew Jemilo

Drew Jemilo has over 20 years of experience using Agile, Lean, and traditional methodologies in companies ranging from lean startups to global $1 billion corporations. He has worked in the US and Europe applying technical and leadership experience in Agile program and portfolio management, change management, organizational design, coaching, and training.

Learn more at DrewJemilo.com/experience

Colin O’Neill

As an Annapolis graduate and U.S. Marine Corps officer, Colin gained significant experience leading empowered, cross-discipline teams. He leverages that expertise in the Agile world as a Certified ScrumMaster and Certified Scrum Professional to help organizations adopt Dean Leffingwell’s Scaled Agile Framework™. Colin has helped multiple Fortune 100 companies achieve enterprise agility and is a frequent speaker on the topic.

Learn more at ScaledAgile.com

Alan Shalloway

Alan Shalloway, founder and CEO of Net Objectives, is an industry thought leader in Lean, Kanban, product portfolio management, Scrum and agile design. Alan helps companies effectively adopt Lean and Agile methods enterprise-wide. He is the primary author of Design Patterns Explained; Lean-Agile Pocket Guide for Scrum, and Lean-Agile Software Development. He is also a co-founder and board member for the Lean Software and Systems Consortium.
Learn more at NetObjectives.com

ENTERPRISE ADOPTERS

The Scaled Agile Framework and been proven to deliver substantial business benefits in a number of enterprises. We admire these companies for the courage to innovate and we are indebted to them for the feedback they have provided. Specifically, we’d like to thank the following companies, each of whom has adopted the framework and provided specific input from which it evolved. These include:

BMC Software, Discount Tire Corporation, John Deere, TradeStation Technologies, Nokia Corporation, Nokia Navteq Division, Nokia Siemens Networks, Tendril, Inc.

In addition, SAfe is being applied and gaining the benefit of feedback from additional enterprises including:
Nordstrom, Tripwire, Mitchell International, SEI, F-Secure Corporation, Ping Identity, Val-Pak, Coupang and many, many others.

COMMUNITY

We are also indebeted to those SAFe Program Consultants (SPCs) who are doing the “heavy lifting” in applying the framework in various enterprises every day. Many have contributed indirectly in discussions, certifications workshop, LinkedIn forums, etc. More specifically, the following SPCs have directly provided content which is included in either the framework proper or the associated Guidance articles.

Steven Mather. Draft Glossary. http://blog.steven-mather.com	Ken France. Guidance article: Mixing Agile and Waterfall Development in the Scaled Agile Framework. http://www.bluemercuryconsulting.com/
Scott Prugh. Guidance article: Continuous Delivery. http://www.csgi.com/

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The framework has been in development for over six years and is currently best documented in my latest book, Agile Software Requirements: Lean Requirements for Teams, Programs and the Enterprise. Many, many people contributed to the development of the method and that work, so it’s appropriate to repeat and update the acknowledgements here.

“Don Reinertsen provided permission to use elements of his breakthrough text, Principles of Product Development Flow: Second Generation Lean Product Development. The principles from his book helped my truly understand things I thought I understood before. Thanks to Alistair Cockburn, who contributed to the use case chapter, and other agile thought leaders whose work I have hopefully acknowledged appropriately.

I am particularly appreciative of those individuals who contributed so directly to the intellectual content in the book. They – and their employers – allowed me to develop and publish what were, at that time, experiments-in-process. These include my Finnish collaborators. Juha-Markus Aalto of Nokia Corporation, who was instrumental in the development of the lean and scalable requirements model and who had the courage to put the agile release train to work at theretofore unprecedented scale. The agilists and architects at F-Secure Corporation – Santeri Kangas, Gabor Gunyho, Kuan Eeik Tan – contributed to the architecture chapters.

Don Widrig, coauthor of our earlier Managing Software Requirements texts, contributed heavily and drafted the requirements discovery and analysis chapters. Mauricio Zamora, was always ready to test an idea, read an early chapter, or “try this at work”. Pete Behrens helped me see user stories, stakeholders and personas more clearly and was instrumental in drafting those chapters. Jennifer Fawcett extended my understanding of the agile product owner and product manager roles, and contributed extensive case study examples from her work at Tendril, Inc. Stephen Baker and Joseph Thomas of DTE Energy provided the mental model for legacy mindsets of portfolio management. Israel Gat contributed to the portfolio chapters as well. Alexander Yakima reviewed various works in process, and translated pieces to his Russian and Ukrainian audience.

Even that list is not exhaustive. So many others–Mike Cottmeyer, Ryan Shriver, Drew Jemilo, Chad Holdorf, Maarit Laanti, Keith Black, John Bartholomew, Chris Chapman, Mike Cohn, Ryan Martens, Matthew Balchin, and Richard Lawrence – contributed words, thoughts or encouragement.

Thanks to my Addison-Wesley reviewers, Robert Bogetti, Sarah Edrie, Alexander Yakima, Brad Jackson and Gabor Gunyho. Gabor contributed directly to the intellectual content of the architecture chapters and also provided an incredibly thorough concept, text and methodology review.

If there is any quality to be found in this resulting product, much of the credit goes to these collaborators. “