A SAFe Summit Washington D.C. Preview: Reimagining SAFe Keynote

By Andrew Sales

In April this year, at the SAFe Summit Berlin, I used my keynote to reflect on an evolving set of requirements for those organizations looking to adopt SAFe as well as those looking to advance existing implementations. In addition to the comprehensive guidance that organizations greatly value about SAFe, an additional quality is becoming increasingly important: Simplification

To be clear, simplification does not mean sacrificing Lean and Agile’s effectiveness; rather, it’s about focusing on the core elements that drive results. By streamlining processes and empowering teams to make decisions, organizations can reduce friction and deliver value with greater speed and precision.

At the upcoming SAFe Summit Washington D.C. (October 14-17, 2024), I will continue to explore this theme as part of my Reimagining SAFe Keynote, with some exciting new announcements and reveals that you can get your hands on straight away.

As we know, any good solution starts with identifying the problem to solve, and I want to use this upcoming opportunity to share with you what I think are some of the most pressing challenges that we need to address today in the Lean-Agile space. Although some of these problems may look different from organization to organization, the good news, as W. Edwards Demming reminds us, is that the principles that underpin the solutions are universal. And I believe there is a small set of critical elements that, more than anything, are the key to fixing these problems and directly influence the work we are doing to Reimagine SAFe.

Although I can’t reveal all the details here, it should come as no surprise that the remediating steps are about helping organizations cut through complexity and focus on what matters, adapt practices to their context, and deliver value faster. With this as a backdrop, I will use the keynote to introduce some of the first steps on this journey, including approaches to simplify both the Framework and the accompanying IP, with the added excitement that you will have access to these important enhancements as soon as I have announced them on the day of the keynote!

But reimagining SAFe doesn’t only include simplification but also amplification. As part of the keynote, I will share my views on how I believe the conversation around Lean and Agile needs to change to satisfy the demands of organizations and business stakeholders. We need to move away from an overemphasis on process and practices to an equal or even greater focus on what truly matters: how organizations can drive greater product innovation and business results.

Finally, to the future. Although when I speak on the topics above, I hope it will help to address the challenges of today, and for some time to come, there is more we need to do to support organizations in navigating the ever-changing ways of working well into the future. And as we know, when uncertainty and risk increase, the right action is to amplify feedback. As such, I am excited that I will be able to announce on stage some steps we are taking to ensure all of you have a greater opportunity to contribute to the evolution of SAFe.

And although the future is uncertain I will conclude my keynote by sharing with you where I think this future might lie and what it means for us at SAI in terms of our responsibility for helping organizations maximize their business results through the application of Lean and Agile. I am very much looking forward to getting the opportunity to meet friends and colleagues, new and old, at the upcoming SAFe Summit in Washington, D.C., and am very grateful to have the opportunity to talk to you about Reimagining SAFe. I hope you can join us at the event and attend my keynote on the day.  

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—Andrew Sales, Chief Methodologist