What are those new shiny things in SAFe 6.0 that are meaningful — useful and interesting — to me?
Major meaningful changes are:
1) the ‘Program’ word is gone! Now we can truly focus on products… from Programs to Products
Examples:
PI (Program Increment) Planning Event … is now called Planning Interval Planning Event. The ‘PI’ acronym stays… which is cool!
Agile Program Management Office (APMO) is now called Value Management Office (VMO)
SAFe Program Consultant is now called SAFe Practice Consultant. The ‘SPC’ acronym stays… which is cool!
2) Four Flows. These four flows are now explicitly called out on the Framework’s Big Picture:
- Portfolio Flow
- Solution Train Flow
- ART Flow
- Team Flow
In my book, ‘SAFe Is Like…‘, these four flows are illustrated, shown in action, in the Special Section: “How a Big, Hairy, and Audacious Idea (BHAI) Flows in SAFe”
3) Lean takes center stage!
For so long, Lean has been on the sidelines. As a result, too many are focused on Agile… alone… creating an imbalance between being Efficient (Lean) and Effective (Agile). These two go together!
4) Kanban — the descendant of Lean — takes center stage as well!
Minor but meaningful changes — to me, of course — are:
1) updated Big Picture with
a) extended SAFe guidance… this is located below the Big Picture. Here you get to see, but not limited to, the following:
- Agile Contracts — it took me a while locating this especially important article that I have used extensively when teaching LPM (Lean Portfolio Management) course/class and SAFe for Government course/class.
- Applying Kanban in SAFe
- SAFe Requirements Model has new look! Better looking.
- Plus, a lot more!!!
2) Business Agility Value Stream (BAVS) takes center stage.
That is all for now… go explore it yourself… and attach your own meaning to what you focus on… and what to do with it within your own context.