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Agile Transformation

Scaled Agile Framework 5.1

The complexity of managing businesses is accelerating, as enterprise rapidly change and embrace fast-paced change. The shift to high-frequency work is challenging. As a result, organizations need a robust project methodology to support their needs.

Scaled Agile has announced an update to its SAFe 5 methodology. The company says the evolving Scaled Agile Framework expands upon the advances in strategy, execution, technical and leadership competencies. The key components needed by any organization to deliver innovative business solutions faster than the competition.

According to Dean Leffingwell, SAI co-founder and chief methodologist, “The digital world is changing at an ever-increasing pace. Scaled Agile is committed to the evolution of the framework to help organizations achieve business agility.”

“Relentless improvement is central to this mission. It helps us improve SAFe based on experiences from our customers and partners,” Leffingwell added.

Stakeholders engagement in business agility

Business agility requires all stakeholders involved in delivering solutions to use a common development methodology or process. The challenge is that often different internal departments, different partners often use multiple systems and processes to manage projects. In addition to competing internal cultures within many organizations.

Hence the ongoing evolution of agile methodologies such as SAFe particularly around strategy, execution, technical and leadership components. The core areas that could mean the success or failure of projects.

SAFe 5 provides extended guidance on how to extend the Lean-Agile mindset into those business areas. SAFe 5 also helps organizations master advancing DevSecOps practices which increase the frequency and quality of product releases.

Key Highlights of SAFe 5.1 update:

  • An enhanced Big Picture better emphasizes flow and continuous delivery.
  • Operational and development value stream patterns support organizing around value, the #1 request from our customers.
  • Applying SAFe to hardware development accelerates the delivery of cyber-physical systems.
  • New guidance around DevSecOps technical skills and tools better power the continuous delivery pipeline.
  • Broader guidance for applying Lean-Agile practices to business domains supports business agility.
  • Integrated participatory budgeting fosters a dynamic and collaborative process of allocating funding to value streams.
  • Patterns and behaviors for designing teams and ARTs simplify organizing around value.

Incremental updates to SAFe 5 will ensure it stays current with new and evolving business and technology trends. These updates will often include new articles as well as changes to existing articles, updates to courses, toolkits, and other community platform assets, and from time-to-time updates to the Big Picture.

Enterprise Times: What this means for business?

SAFe is in its fifth iteration and has been adopted by more than 20,000 enterprises across the globe. The key enhancement is the enhanced Big Picture which provides access to a comprehensive dashboard of key metrics. The concepts behind the Big Picture is drawn from the knowledge pools of Lean, Kanban, Scrum, and Extreme Programming (XP). It will be crucial for any organization developing projects in the 21st century. Managing major projects within an enterprise is no small task. Having to liaise with business and technology leaders, development, IT operations, legal, marketing, finance, support, compliance, security, is challenging.

Yet, today’s businesses often tackle that challenge without clear visibility into day-to-day operations. Frequently they use cobbled together internal processes, project, and resource management tools. What’s needed is access to the comprehensive datasets that support better business decision within organisation. Hence Scaled Agile’s recent update. It expands guidance for organizing around value, enhancing DevSecOps technical practices, and extending agility into the business.

Originally appeared on enterprisetimes.co.uk.