By William Toth, PhD, Senior Advisor at Acato Information Management
I know “drinking from a fire hose” is cliche, but attending the SAFe Summit as a neophyte felt that way. I perceived the barrier to entry as high because of the vast number of tools, practices, roles, and responsibilities that SAFe presents. Despite this, I was excited to experience the SAFe community in the cavernous Gaylord Conference venue on the Washington DC waterfront, near Washington Reagan Airport, October 14-17, 2024. I survived; I didn’t drown!
The SAFe Ecosystem and the Community Experience
The conference provided valuable exposure to SAFe’s comprehensive ecosystem. The marketplace, centrally located and where we shared meals and intensive community conversations, showcased an impressive array of SAFe partners and vendors, demonstrating the framework’s mature support network and integration capabilities. We met individuals from central government agencies and commercial enterprises and understood their unique applications and challenges. The SAFe community demonstrated remarkable enthusiasm and dedication to the framework. This passion creates opportunities for deep learning and knowledge sharing, though newcomers should prepare for an intensive learning journey.
Learning Opportunities
Throughout the sessions, I observed a strong emphasis on SAFe roles and their definitions. This focus highlighted the framework’s thorough approach to organizational structure. The roles—such as Scrum Master, Product Owner, System Architect, RTE, Program Manager, etc.—offer flexible options for implementing agile at scale.
Implementation Insights
The conference revealed important considerations for role implementation:
- Organizations benefit from viewing SAFe roles as a customizable toolkit
- Successful implementations often involve careful alignment with existing organizational structures and demand good communication so that all in the organization adopt the methodology
- Frequent, cross-functional coordination enhances role effectiveness
Key Takeaways
Understanding SAFe requires appreciating its place in the broader evolution of quality and organizational improvement methodologies. This framework builds upon centuries of progress:
- From the efficiency principles of the Industrial Revolution and Frederick Taylor’s scientific management
- Through the human-centered insights of the Hawthorne studies and Tavistock Institute
- Via the transformative quality philosophies of Deming, Juran, and Crosby
- Into modern approaches like Total Quality Management, Six Sigma, and Lean
- Finally, emerging in today’s Agile and SAFe practices
This historical perspective reveals SAFe as the latest iteration in our continuous quest for organizational excellence. For organizations exploring SAFe adoption:
- Recognize its rich heritage in quality management
- View it as part of an evolving quality journey
- Leverage its comprehensive toolkit while understanding its foundations
- Embrace the learning curve as part of a broader quality renaissance
As we at Acato continue to explore frameworks that benefit our clients, we remain committed to promoting this quality renaissance, understanding that SAFe represents a community of practitioners essential to engage with on this ongoing journey.