There’s definitely a lot of buzz these days on the most popular types of Agile-At-Scale frameworks that would enable a company to scale for larger teams and varying company sizes. Everyone wants to go with the most popular one and assume that it’s the most effective one. We are providing an unbiased view of the pros and cons of Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe). Just note that a more popular framework doesn’t mean it’s better, or at least in the context of adoption and use, it might not be the best one for your particular company culture, size, situation, growth, budget, etc..
Is Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) the Best for Your Company?
Scaling for agile implies that Scaling = Increase, Expansion or Variation in Size. That being said, it needs to be considered, what will be the amount and speed of growth as well? Not to mention, the budget and time required to sustain the adoption of the particular framework of choice. Below we explain SAFe and how it may or may not be best for your organization. We also take into consideration what may be the reasons for it’s popularity and growth.
An Unbiased SAFe No-Nonsense Assessment
The Scaled Agile Framework has evolved by far as one of the more popular of the frameworks. Created by an Agile pioneer Dean Leffingwell, this framework requires your teams to get certification through mandatory courses from a Certified Trainer (SPC and/or SPCT depending on the certification). Add to that the small “e” at the end of SAFe seems like a desperate attempt at an acronym just for the sake of making it a buzzword in and of itself. Does it come from the “e” in Framework? In any case, without the “e”, SAF wouldn’t sound all that nice from a marketing perspective, so most of us have just gone along with it, no questions asked.
Nonetheless, SAFe provides a well outlined Roadmap with a large variety of courses to get a better understanding of the multiple levels of scale. The types of courses will depend on the size and maturity of your agile teams within the enterprise (Essential, Large Solution, Portfolio, and Full).
With the entire spectrum (or as much as it possibly could be covered) of a scaled framework in an agile context, it needs to be outlined that in addition to the cost of courses, they also require annual subscription renewal fees, and much like the structure of software updates, will have major (x.1, x.4, etc.) and minor updates (3.x, 5.x, etc.) that a certified associate would need to maintain. That is as much an advantage as it could be a disadvantage. We outline those below.
Advantages of SAFe
- Whomever is certified will need to make sure they have taken the latest exams and courses to be able to claim they have the latest knowledge on the framework. This also allows everyone to look forward to the latest and for those who have the time to update to take courses, read, and pass the exam, it is a great way to stay engaged. It is by far the most flexible and adaptable to an enterprise’s size and growth.
- They do provide as much support as possible to provide access for members to a dedicated community and forum as a source of resources and answers to general and specific questions. They also have an app that can be downloaded to your mobile phone, tablet, etc..
- This framework is here to stay, and would most likely be increasingly popular, adding to the fact that it has partnered (to some degree) with Atlassian through JIRA Align as a fully compatible tool. Those looking to use the JIRA Align tool, are in fact encouraged to become familiar with SAFe since it is almost entirely built on the same models and sub-framework models. This framework also supports in-person and/or remote agile teams when using tools like Atlassian’s Align, so this is further confirms that it’s definitely keeping up with the times.
- Number of certifications are diverse, they include over 10 Types of certifications ranging from the very basic “Scaled Agilist” (SA) to the highly trained and/or experienced “SAFe Program Consultant” (SPC). They also include the certifications for the many roles that are present within the framework so that could entice new members to specialize in their areas of expertise.
Disadvantages of SAFe
- If you haven’t learned about the latest version of SAFe, and/or haven’t passed the latest exams, you may have to deal with the fact that your knowledge can appear to be obsolete. As an example, you might have gotten the 4.0 level certification, but did not yet have the time to update to the latest 4.6. These updates also come within 2 years (or less) of each other, so this could present some indirect peer-pressure if your teammates have all updated on their end, as you will be the “4.0” in the room. Also, you have only a few chances to pass the exam, and if you do not, you will need to start paying for them. There also seems to be a missing component to the Agile Mindset per se.
- You will need to renew your certification fee annually, but that is common with most all other framework certifications. It should be considered however, that you will need to budget almost automatically on an annual basis, that everyone who will be maintaining their certifications, will be dipping into the company funds to keep it (i.e. # of certified employees x Annual Renewal Subscription).
- Given the structure of the training and maintenance of their certifications, you almost need to be an employee of a company implementing SAFe, either due to factoring the cost and or time to get training, or the minimum class size to make it worthwhile. However, this does make sense to some extent if you are about to embark on the SAFe journey. It would not be worthwhile doing this on your own with no company or team to implement it with.
Concluding Thoughts
Due to it’s vast coverage and all-round spectrum toward agility, it would certainly require more than a few Agile experts to implement this framework. It would also require all members to adopt it, let’s face it, there’s no “one foot in the door” approach, it’s all or nothing for this framework, as are most. But right out the door, you would need to expect at least the minimal budget for training for all members of the enterprise in order for a successful implementation, not to mention the cost of maintaining annual subscription fees.
The benefits certainly outweigh the costs of SAFe implementation, however, the costs should be considered ahead of time so that the benefits aren’t misunderstood for purely optimistic outcomes. You need to take the “good” with the “not so good” in these instances, and it needs to be determined as to what the immediate pitfalls are if the first attempts at gaining ROI or roll-out to full implementation are not as successful as expected.
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