SAFe Archives - The Running Mann

10th March 202310th March 2023

My Big, Fat Beer Belly Helps Explain Quarterly Objectives

I can’t remember the last time that I had the occasion to wear my smart black suit pants but it was well before the start of Covid. However, International Breast Cancer Awareness Day provided the catalyst to examine a forgotten part of my closet and ‘dress smart’ for a change. The dress code was a simple “wear pink” so out came my suave pink dress shirt and matching tie that I bought in Rome* many years ago.

20th February 202320th February 2023

Using Load Shedding to explain Quarterly PI Objectives

Quick Explanation for Foreign Readers

For those on other parts of the planet, loadshedding is a shameful South African phenomenon that started in 2007 and has become progressively worse. The inability of the state-run electricity public utility monopoly to produce enough power for the country means that scheduled rolling blackouts are experienced for up to 12 hours per day. These rolling blackouts are euphemistically called ‘loadshedding’.

My wife and I are both firmly in the hybrid work model, spending roughly half of our salaried time working from home. Therefore, we urgently needed to implement some counter loadshedding measures.

3rd November 20228th November 2022

A weekend in New York explains PI Objectives

As a first-time visitor to New York, I was faced with limitless tourist opportunities but had a finite period of time – just 48 hours – in which to accomplish everything. With an infinite backlog of exciting experiences and countless possibilities, demand far exceeded supply. Sound familiar? This is a challenge faced by all agile teams.

I had just attended the Scaled Agile (SAFe) Summit in Denver and was making the most of my carbon footprint by facilitating some workshops with our New York team the following week. I decided to practice what I preach as an agile coach (and applied some of what I learned at the SAFe Summit) by setting myself some TI (Tourist Increment) objectives for my weekend in New York.

It’s a sad day when a bald eagle has more hair than you. I enjoyed the SAFe Summit and got to apply some of what I’d learned during my first weekend in New York.

Continue reading “A weekend in New York explains PI Objectives”

16th August 2022

A Behavioural Science Experiment to get Leaders to Complete an Agile Maturity Assessment

When it comes to behavioural science, I am an enthusiastic amateur. I guess the same could be said for my marathon running infatuation which, although prolific with over 250 completed, is still firmly footed in the ‘recreational amateur’ category. My payslip reads ‘Agile Coach’ so I’d like to think that I’ve managed to breach the amateur category in my chosen career (but you might need to check with my colleagues to confirm whether I do indeed qualify as a professional). It’s not often that running, behavioural science and agile coaching intersect but recently they did, so I decided to use the opportunity to run an experiment and this is what happened. Continue reading “A Behavioural Science Experiment to get Leaders to Complete an Agile Maturity Assessment”

5th July 2022

From Agile to Zombie Apocalypse: The Walking Dead explains Agile Teams & Release Trains

The final season of The Walking Dead is currently airing so I thought I’d use the show’s premise – surviving the zombie apocalypse – to explain how agile teams and agile release trains (ARTs) work, as well as the difference between the two.

The executive summary is that:

An agile team is like your family unit – your survival is integrally linked to how well you work together as a team and utilise your complementary skills to overcome your daily challenges.
An ART is like your village – a community of family units who, when working together effectively, can achieve much more (and survive much longer) than individual family units.
Moving from a family unit to a settlement requires giving up some autonomy but the benefits of being part of a team of teams in a settlement vastly outweighs the loss of absolute autonomy.

Continue reading “From Agile to Zombie Apocalypse: The Walking Dead explains Agile Teams & Release Trains”

1st December 202116th March 2023

Enhanced PI Planning Calculator

If you’re doing PI (or Big Room) Planning across multiple geographies, it can be a challenge to schedule the event around public holidays and other events. I’ve enhanced the standard “ART and Team Events Calendar” spreadsheet that Scaled Agile provides within their “PI Planning Toolkit” to allow for much better visibility and customisation of dates. Continue reading “Enhanced PI Planning Calculator”

25th August 2021

The Unexpected Joy of Getting Retrenched

July is my worst month of the year. It is cold and there are never any marathons to run. July 2021 promised to be even more dismal as we endured the bleakest winter in many years and there hadn’t been any marathons since March 2020. On top of this we were enduring hard lockdown restrictions as Gauteng rode the crest of COVID’s third wave. Continue reading “The Unexpected Joy of Getting Retrenched”

23rd October 201712th November 2017

How George Costanza, Frogger & a Craving For Sushi Help Explain Features & User Stories

In classes I teach, there is often confusion between what is a feature and what is a user story. This article is a simple analogy (a quest for sushi) that helps to explain:

The difference between a feature and user story.
How user stories can be broken into incremental chunks.
Why George Costanza is not agile.

Continue reading “How George Costanza, Frogger & a Craving For Sushi Help Explain Features & User Stories”

25th September 201726th May 2020

The Power of Feature Hypotheses

Background

One of the improvements SAFe version 4.5 introduced was incorporating practices from “The Lean Startup” into the framework – specifically the use of benefit hypothesis statements into features and epics. This is a story of how well this worked for us. Continue reading “The Power of Feature Hypotheses”