Shifting Gears: Why I Ditched SAFe Training for Smaller, Quirkier Teams and a Slight Dent in My Wallet!

Some may have noticed that I’ve quietly dropped the SAFe  (Scaled Agile Framework) training courses from the website some time ago and earlier this year I declined a rather big SAFe gig! so why have I've made the conscious decision to step away from providing SAFe training and consultancy? It's a question that deserves a thoughtful response, as it represents a bit of a shift in both my approach to helping organisations embrace agility and..... a core revenue stream! 

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Christian Miles
Are Story Points useful?

I suspect story points are perhaps the most miss-understood, abused and perhaps argumentative subject I come across (barring SAFe). Long ‘arguments’ within teams over if something is a 3SP or 5SP, Pressure from project managers and stakeholders for smaller estimates (As if making a story 5SP rather than 8SP will mean it’s delivered quicker)

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Running a LEGO® Serious Play® Workshop

The next step is to introduce the concept of models as metaphors - To demonstrate I have a few bricks which I randomly assemble and explain how I could interpret my rather questionable model to perhaps be a lion to show courage, but equally it might represent a dog and shows loyalty - The point is that the models are not literal but can be interpreted by the builder.

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Christian Miles
Running a remote Design Sprint

I’ve been running design sprints for around 5 years but never a remote design sprint…. In fact I’ve always refused to even contemplate running them remote… If a company can’t or won’t go to the effort of getting everyone in a room together with a free calendar for 1 week… Then I generally decide that they're not serious about the process and say no!

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SAFe In A Nutshell

SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) is one of the most ‘in use’ frameworks for organisational agility, probably the most controversial and almost certainly the best marketed, with glossy posters, videos, case studies and a long list of training courses!! It has been unashamedly packaged in a way where it can be delivered with confidence to large enterprises and is reassuring detailed and complete unlike perhaps Scrum or LeSS

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Christian Miles
Why do we need to be Agile?

One of the questions I’m still asked is ‘Why do we need to be Agile?’ I sat in a meeting recently with the CIO who has asked the same question of his business, Why we are not capable of articulating what is it they wanted well enough upfront.

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Christian Miles
Is SAFe agile?

SAFe is probably not best suited to highly complex domains which require constant probing and exploration and where pivots are to be expected.

However for large organisations who are struggling to deliver products the use of SAFe would deliver considerable economic improvements from their current processes.

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Christian Miles
Agile Metrics

At the planning level metrics are invaluable - And allow you to plan with some confidence.... Although planning when you have actual metrics suddenly becomes a much more complex and tiring process than just guessing it!

But you have to them use metrics responsibly and remember Goodhart's law - "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure."

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