SAFe 6.0

Apr
08
2023
By Clarence Galapon
Accelerate Flow — Work In Small Batches

Accelerate Flow — Work In Small Batches

Announcement, SAFe 6.0, SAFe Is Like…
Did you know that the smallest batch in an Industrial Factory is one? One order. I remember back when Dell Computers first came out. They manufactured one order at a time. They do not have to maintain a large inventory of computers and associated parts and materials. They know that over-production is the number one source of waste. The same is true with McDonalds... one order at a time... one order of a Big Mac, for example. Both scenarios go through a similar flow: an order is pushed; the order is pulled to completion then released to the customer. These…
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Apr
06
2023
By Clarence Galapon
Accelerate Flow — Remediate Old And Flow-Decelerating Policies and Practices

Accelerate Flow — Remediate Old And Flow-Decelerating Policies and Practices

Announcement, SAFe 6.0
My family and I travelled internationally, on Christmas, 2022. On our entry back to the USA, the immigration line (US Citizens and Permanent Residents line) was long … as long as a busy Disneyland line… multi-s shaped line… eight S-line deep full of weary and tired travelers like us. Whilst waiting in line, I noticed a few people zipping through another separate line where they just stop by a kiosk, do something quickly, and off they go past the immigration — bypassing our line! ‘What is going on? What do they have that my family and I do not?’ I…
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Apr
05
2023
By Clarence Galapon
Accelerate Flow — Minimize, Manage, Eliminate Dependencies

Accelerate Flow — Minimize, Manage, Eliminate Dependencies

Announcement, SAFe 6.0
In my previous post, we saw Tarzan swinging alone from one vine to another... and he was amazingly fast! We also saw Michael Phelps... swimming alone, and he was amazingly fast as well. Two great analogies for Agile Teams that can deliver things of Value by themselves. The Agile Team is self-contained, cross-trained (members are T-shaped skill), self-organizing, self-managing, and they have everything they need to deliver Value. Same analogy is true for an ART -- it has cross-functional members... and, just like the Agile Teams, this team of Agile Teams is also self-organizing and self-managing and has everyone and…
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Apr
04
2023
By Clarence Galapon
Accelerate Flow — With Fast Feedback

Accelerate Flow — With Fast Feedback

Announcement, SAFe 6.0
Sometimes, a Product Owner is the source of waste. How so? Suppose, the Agile team is waiting for a feedback from a Product Owner vis-a-vis a story that the Agile Team has demonstrated two days ago. It is now a week passed since the demo. A week and two days later, the Product Owner provides the awaited feedback...and it was not good... there were things that must be remediated for that story before it can be accepted  (the next step in the flow) by the Product Owner. The Agile Team waited for 1 week and 2 days! Suppose, instead, the…
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Apr
03
2023
By Clarence Galapon
Accelerate Flow–Reduce Handoff

Accelerate Flow–Reduce Handoff

Announcement, SAFe 6.0, Uncategorized
Tarzan swings alone from one vine to another. He is fast going from point a to point b. Michael Phelps swims alone...he is also fast! He is fast going from point a to point b. What if there were a relay race? Suppose, Tarzan will hand off the baton to a less experienced person... collectively, Tarzan and the other person in relay (baton passing), going from point a to point b ... this will take longer...compared to Tarzan doing this alone (individual race). Likewise for Michael Phelps if he were in a relay race. Likewise for 'The Factory'... the fewer…
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Apr
03
2023
By Clarence Galapon
SAFe Is Like… A Broadway Show

SAFe Is Like… A Broadway Show

Announcement, SAFe 6.0, SAFe Is Like…
Yesterday, my wife and I watched ‘Beetlejuice, the Musical’… a Broadway Show. The cast and crew’s performance was impressive. One can tell immediately that the cast and crew had prepared and rehearsed long enough… for this spectacular and impressive performance. No one was winging it… no one was flying by the seat of their pants. We, the audience, were clapping with gusto when the cast bowed out. It was a really well-delivered performance! I keep saying to people I train, teach and coach, this: ‘SAFe is like a Broadway Show’. I even wrote a book with that quote in it.…
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Apr
02
2023
By Clarence Galapon
Flow Thinking

Flow Thinking

Announcement, SAFe 6.0, Uncategorized
Flow Thinking is a mindset…just like Lean Thinking is a mindset. Flow is specially important to Business Agility. Therefore, always measure flow, otherwise it cannot be improved. Continuous improvement of flow is also a mindset. Business Agility is determined by three measures: flow, outcome and competency. Lackluster results on these three measures means that the organization’s Business Agility is lackluster. These three measures also apply to Teams, ARTs, Solution Trains. Example, for Team Agility: measure the team’s Flow, Team’s Outcome, Team’s ‘Team and Technical Agility’ competency.  There are four competencies that critical to establishing flow: Team and Technical Agility, for…
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Mar
31
2023
By Clarence Galapon
Visualize Flow To Help Analyze Bottleneck

Visualize Flow To Help Analyze Bottleneck

Announcement, SAFe 6.0
Where is the bottleneck? What’s causing it? What is the impact to its upstream and downstream processes? When did this happen? What’s the solution? We could use the ART problem-solving workshop for this. And… we need the big picture: the end-to-end flow — visualized — to help analyze and solve the bottleneck. Can you visualize the big picture and the bottleneck?
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Mar
30
2023
By Clarence Galapon
Bottleneck

Bottleneck

Announcement, SAFe 6.0
A bottleneck could easily interrupt flow. In the Lean Agile Software Factory — also known as ‘The Lean Factory’ or "The Factory"— some examples of this flow, smooth flow, interrupter are: Batched SIT testing — yup, a lot of companies do this ‘Batch and Queue’ thingy. Value is delivered in bursts (a bunch of things of value get queued up for batched SIT (System Integrated Testing) instead of a smooth continuous flow of delivery of value via continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) which is automated. The process itself. Believe it or not … SAFe is a big Batch and…
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Mar
29
2023
By Clarence Galapon
Team Coach

Team Coach

Announcement, SAFe 6.0
"Yes, Team Coach!" I exclaimed... after seeing SAFe 6.0's preview for Scaled Agile partners before its release on March 15th. I was looking at the Scrum Master/Team Coach (SM/TC) responsibility wheel. "About darn time!" I exclaimed again... with my eyes still glued at the "Team Coach" words. Also... at that moment... my mind went back to the book by Eli Goldratt. The book's title is "The Goal". It is an Industrial Setting -- a Factory... in trouble. The protagonist -- Alex Rogo -- got the factory out of trouble with the help of Jonah -- a guy who asked Alex…
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Mar
28
2023
By Clarence Galapon
Accelerate Flow — Manage Thy WIP and WIP Limit

Accelerate Flow — Manage Thy WIP and WIP Limit

Announcement, SAFe 6.0
Juggling too many "balls in the air" without dropping any is tough to most people -- the probability of 'a ball being dropped' is high. The "balls in the air" is analogous to our WIP -- our Work In Process. The "too many 'balls...'" is relative, of course, to the juggler's skills. Limiting WIP -- the number of "balls in the air" -- decreases the probability of "a ball being dropped". Still, the "too many balls in air" is relative to the juggler's skills. Since everything is relative, including WIP, then go ahead and experiment vis-a-vis the right level of…
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Mar
27
2023
By Clarence Galapon
Close The Lean Agile Software Factory?!

Close The Lean Agile Software Factory?!

Announcement, SAFe 6.0
Close the Factory?! Well… it is more like ‘Stop the production line!!! Problem has been encountered… let us fix this before it negatively affects the quality of our work down the line. This problem cannot persist.’ That is what we call in Lean, ‘Andon’. In SAFe, we have a similar time wherein we ‘Close the Lean Agile Software Factory’… to solve the topmost and significant problems that were encountered during the Planning Interval and ART Execution. The time is the last iteration of the Planning Interval: the IP Iteration… IP stands for Innovation and Planning. The ‘Factory’ is practically closed…
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Mar
26
2023
By Clarence Galapon
Flow Distribution and Flow Load — Manila Traffic

Flow Distribution and Flow Load — Manila Traffic

Announcement, SAFe 6.0
In this video, on the road, the Flow Distribution is a mix of bikes, cars, scooters (all small sizes, which is good) … but no busses (too large size, not good) … yet the traffic is heavy… lots of ‘stop and go’… could be the Flow Load … the capacity of this three-lane road cannot handle the demand of a typical Manila rush-hour. Take note, however, of the motorbikes and scooters… they kept moving whilst the cars remained stationary. Small things flow faster than larger things.
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Mar
25
2023
By Clarence Galapon
Make Value Flow Without Interruptions — and Balance The Types of Work for Both Current and Future Velocity

Make Value Flow Without Interruptions — and Balance The Types of Work for Both Current and Future Velocity

Announcement, SAFe 6.0
Achieving balance in anything is not easy. For example, having a balanced diet to maintain a healthy body is not that easy... bad habits and/or bad environment could easily derail it. The same is true when we are developing Software solutions: there must be a heathy balance between the different types of work. Example, in the ART Backlog, a balanced Capacity Allocation must be achieved between Features and Enablers (i.e., Architectural work) and Technical Debt. Technical Debt is the difference between what was promised to be delivered and what was under-delivered... under-delivered for whatever reason (i.e., corners were cut to…
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Mar
24
2023
By Clarence Galapon
Make Value Flow Without Interruptions — Be Aware of Flow Velocity

Make Value Flow Without Interruptions — Be Aware of Flow Velocity

Announcement, SAFe 6.0
According to Scaled Agile Inc., "Flow Velocity is the number of completed work items (stories, features, capabilities, epics) over a period". Since value is realized at the completion, then the more number of completed work is better than less number of completed work over the same period. After all, Lean is all about the continuous delivery of value at the least sustainable lead time. So, be aware of your Flow Velocity by measuring it -- measure the completion / delivery throughput -- from the moment the work is initiated to the moment it is completed and delivered to the hands…
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Mar
23
2023
By Clarence Galapon
Make Value Flow Without Interruptions — And Predictable

Make Value Flow Without Interruptions — And Predictable

Announcement, SAFe 6.0
There are two key and critical things that are needed to measure our predictability in a probabilistic way -- the probability of us meeting our promises (i.e. not in a deterministic way). Our predictability is very important to our customers who are waiting for their “valuable things” to be delivered by us. These two key and critical things are: 1) the ratio of Actual versus Planned — which is also known as Achievement Ratio (AR). To be predictable, the AR must consistently be between 0.80 and 1.00 (in percentage, which is 80% and 100%).  Otherwise, your process or system is unpredictable. Formula: AR…
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Mar
22
2023
By Clarence Galapon
Make Value Flow Without Interruptions — Remove Non-Value-Add

Make Value Flow Without Interruptions — Remove Non-Value-Add

Announcement, SAFe 6.0
Do you have in your process a "Wait" state? Example of a "Wait" state is "Ready for Product Owner Acceptance". Another example is "Ready for Test". Think of something similar in your system or process... a state (or step)  that does nothing of value -- a non-value-add (NVA) step. If /when you find this step, find out how long, on average, this step is. For instance... take the earlier example, "Ready for Product Owner Acceptance"... find out how long on average this step is... this is an NVA... if it is a necessary step, then minimize it...if it is not…
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Mar
21
2023
By Clarence Galapon
Make Value Flow Without Interruptions

Make Value Flow Without Interruptions

Announcement, SAFe 6.0
Value is realized when delivered and on customer's hands. Therefore, start finishing and... most important: Make value flow without interruptions. Interruptions (i.e. non-value-added steps, delays, bottlenecks, etc.) slow down the flow...causing long lead time. Continuous delivery of value at the shortest sustainable lead time is ideal. Efficiency of flow is key. We use Flow Efficiency Ratio to measure this. Let us bring this to home. Observe this video: The daytime scene is me travelling from my home to uptown. It took me 45 minutes. Flow is with interruptions -- lots of stop and go situation... causing unnecessary delays. Without interruptions,…
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Mar
20
2023
By Clarence Galapon
Lean and Lean Thinking Take Center Stage With SAFe 6.0

Lean and Lean Thinking Take Center Stage With SAFe 6.0

Announcement, SAFe 6.0
One of the great things (and there are many great things) that SAFe 6.0 has is this: Lean and Lean Thinking take center stage! I am very ecstatic about Lean taking center stage with SAFe 6.0. I am a Lean aficionado since the 1980s... and an Agilist since the 1990s... and I have had appreciation of this "Lean and Agile" pair back then (and I still do). In this era of Software and Digital, we, the knowledge workers, produce value through our "Lean Agile Software Factory"... mimicking the Lean Factory of the Industrial Revolution era. It is about darn time…
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