On October 15th, I delivered my keynote at the SAFe Summit in Washington, D.C. This keynote is available for you to watch at the link below:
Reimagining SAFe Keynote: SAFe Summit Washington D.C.
In addition to reflecting on some truly remarkable global successes with SAFe, I recognized that in this tough economic climate some organizations were questioning or reducing their investment in Lean and Agile ways of working, with some moving away from these methods entirely.
In many ways, these behaviors were at odds with the fact that Lean and Agile, with a focus on removing waste and accelerating value delivery, are the processes best suited to helping organizations in times such as these. This leads naturally to the most important question of all: Why have Lean and Agile not delivered the expected benefits for some organizations?
One significant root cause is the gap that can form between the organization’s context-specific needs and the application of Lean-Agile practices, which are often unaware of these needs. I propose that the solution focus on three things: purpose, mental models, and context.
These three considerations also inform the work we are doing to Reimagine SAFe and I used the remainder of my keynote to unveil the first steps on the journey toward a simpler and leaner Framework. One that brings the focus to what matters most and is optimized for understanding, context-specific application. The keynote walks through some important announcements around a New Big Picture, Enhanced Framework Articles and the State of SAFe Survey.
Following my Summit Keynote, I also had the opportunity to spend some time with Adam Mattis, SAFe Fellow and the host of the successful Business Agility Now Podcast. You can listen to my discussion with Adam below:
Business Agility Now Podcast: Reimagining SAFe
In this episode, I continue to discuss the work to Reimagine SAFe, but also delve further into our ambition of making SAFe more adaptable. Rather than making this something that needs to be figured out by organizations as they implement SAFe, it should be built into the very fabric of the framework.
I hope you find both the Keynote and the Podcast insightful in explaining the purpose and the work planned to Reimagine SAFe.
Stay SAFe
— Andrew Sales, Chief Methodologist