SAFe, or Scaled Agile Framework, is a set of principles and practices for Lean-Agile development and software engineering. It provides a framework for coordinating and aligning the efforts of multiple Agile teams, and helps organizations to scale Agile development to meet the needs of large, complex software development projects.

SAFe is designed to help organizations to balance the need for speed, quality, and predictability, and provides a flexible, at the same time it is structured and scalable approach to Agile development. It’s used by organizations of all sizes, across a variety of industries, to help them develop high-quality software products more quickly and efficiently.

• Onboarding the various stakeholders with case studies, deeper analysis and quick wins on low-hanging problems
• Partnering with internal teams to drive changes and creating center of excellence or cohorts (like LACE) to enable them to drive forward
• Outside-in perspectives to think and act differently
• Expertise to maneuver based on right-fit
• Credibility and authenticity
• Independent and unbiased views
• Assess and facilitate in identifying and resolving the critical paths
• Training and mentoring internal competencies

As SAFe recognises itself as a framework, it is important for all of us to understand that it shouldn’t be treated as a prescription approach to bring agility. We need to model it according to our needs and constraints. Like, there are many organizations who initially do not feel comfortable to get themselves certified, and expect consultants to show the results first by launching the first few ARTs successfully. Likewise, there are certain other metrics which are important for organization which may not be mentioned or recommended by SAFe. Hence, we need to be mindful of ‘why’ we started with the transformation so that we do not get carried away and use it for achieving our goals.

Benzne has worked with various industries as their trusted partners to achieve their business goals by driving turnkey transformation. From typical IT Services companies to segments like Banking, Financial, Insurance, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Electronics, Consulting firms, Proptech, Oil & Natural Gas, Cryptocurrency to name a few.

Along with a dedicated team of SAFe Agile consultants and practitioners, Benzne also has a network of 100+ agile consultants who provide on-demand support and are trusted by us to deliver excellence to customers.

The results are often based on the level of complexities that we have in the system. It may surely take a couple of years to reap the actual benefit while the mechanics of the SAFe at the level of an ART could take 3-4 PIs to settle within the ART members. 

SAFe stands for scaled agile framework and is primarily suitable for organizations that are bigger in size. Although, SAFe provides 4 configurations where the basic one is called Essential SAFe, which is suitable for an environment where the agility could be pursued by bringing harmony at the level of program ie. ART of a couple of teams (50-125 people). If the organization is smaller in size then it is assumed that it can be benefited by approaches like Scrum, Kanban or others. SAFe is meant to address the situations where the complexity could arise due to bigger structure.

Implementing SAFe includes onboarding, training, establishing ART, launching other ARTs and then further rolling up to Solution SAFe & also to Portfolio SAFe. Assuming all this is achieved and there is a well-established LACE/VMO then we could still provide basic advisory support and at times could conduct agility health assessments and facilitations of critical events which involve specialist practitioner knowledge by seasoned consultants.

SAFe implementation brings new ways of thinking. If the existing processes and systems are not hindrance in the path of goal fulfilment then they will surely be complementing with SAFe. In case, they act as a blocker and for better of the system they require to be upgraded, decommissioned or revised then whatever is right, we need to do that.

Cost structure of SAFe consulting services will depend on the nature, scope and breadth of the requirement. We will do a thorough due-diagnostics and share a detailed SAFe transformation roadmap with associated effort, number of consultants and price structure upfront with you before starting the implementation. We are a small company in a niche space and it is important for us to deliver maximum value at the best possible price relentlessly.

Software development is not an industry but it is a necessary activity that is required to digitalise the business. In today’s world, almost all industries are revolutionised by digitalisation henceforth the applicability of SAFe could be an essential part in any of the organization. For example, for a business to run, there is a demand which gets fulfilled by a sequence of activities (called value stream). These sequences of activities can be time-consuming if done manually, hence there are systems in place which help in faster hand-over of value to customers. These systems could be either managed by dozens of people or might by hundreds and thousands. The overall pursuit of SAFe is to bring business agility and that is agnostic of any industry, in our view. 

Step 1 is to contact us and let us know about your demand. Our SAFe Agile consultants willl soon arrange for a discussion to deeply understand your problem statement and come up with a high-impact lightweight proposal, since we believe in building relationships by delivering quicker value over creating complicated proposals which don’t show value even after the months of transformation kick-start. Once we come up to an agreement, we deploy our team who partners with the client and get started with implementation.

SAFe is a framework built on lean agile practices. It focuses on flow of incoming requirements and continuous delivery of value. The heart beat of SAFe is the planning interval. PI is a cadence where the entire ART comes to plan the increment for next 2-4 months, execute it with SAFe scrum / Kanban, and then inspect & adapt. This cycle is iterative and incremental and repeats in a loop. The entire metric system is around reducing waste around the process / flow, everyone collaborating together to plan and execute, and increasing efficiency. The flow of strategic themes at the business level, epics and enablers at portfolio level, features at a program level till the stories at a team level, emphasises on collaborating together to plan just enough, reducing the feedback loop, continuous value delivery and inspecting and adapting which all roll up the core Agile Principles.

Leadership Buy-In and vision plays a vital role in SAFe transformation. Transformations without Leadership buy-in become chaotic. Leadership should pave the way for the transformation by bringing in the awareness of why we need a transformation, setting up clear direction of which group to pilot with, what is the urgency, setting expectations with the teams on the need, removing resistance for the transformation, onboarding the consultants, having a milestone driven transformation to cross pollinate success stories. These are a few  ways in which leadership can play an important role in a SAFe transformation.

Agile Release Trains are a group of people structured to plan, develop and deliver product increments to a Development Value Streams or solutions. An Ideal ART consists of 50 to 125 people with all skill sets required to deliver product increment to meet the business objectives. It consists of business owners who prioritise the objectives for a PI, Product Managers and System Architects who decide the backlog items to meet the objectives, RTE to coach and manage Agility within the train and a set of Agile teams working on a shared goal. An ART caters to a single Development Value stream, or a single solution or even multiple solutions within Operational Value Stream. 

One of core competencies of SAFe is continuous learning culture where everyone is expected to continuously inspect and adapt and identify the opportunities to change as we evolve. The consultants are responsible to understand the organisation needs, challenges they are facing and curate the SAFe implementation accordingly. Cultural changes are an integral part of it and it needs onboarding stakeholders from all level, starting with leadership to the levels of the teams.

SAFe recommends 3 measurement domains – Outcomes, Flow & Competency. Follow are the areas to measure-

• Outcome – KPIs, OKRs, Employee engagement, Iteration goals, PI objectives
• Flow – Flow distribution, Flow velocity, Flow load, Flow time, Flow efficiency, Flow predictability
• Competency – Business agility assessment, Team & technical agility competency assessment, DevOps health radar, 

SAFe consulting services offer numerous benefits to organizations seeking to implement or improve their Agile practices. 

• ⁠Contextual coaching & measurable growth plan
• Improved alignment and collaboration across teams and departments
• ⁠Enhanced customer satisfaction and time-to-market
• Increased productivity and efficiency
• ⁠Better decision-making and prioritization
• ⁠Continuous improvement and innovation

Improve Project Delivery and Team Collaboration with SAFe Agile Consulting Services

• Better alignment across the organization ensuring that everyone is working towards common objectives 
• Efficient prioritization and resource allocation for more predictable and timely project delivery
• Regular synchronized planning sessions such as Program Increment (PI) Planning, where cross-functional teams collaborate to define objectives, identify dependencies and mitigate risks
• Frequent planning inculcates open communication, transparency and a shared understanding of goals which is crucial for effective collaboration
• Introduction of continuous integration and continuous delivery practices enables faster feedback loops and reducing time-to-market
• SAFe’s emphasis on iterative development and constant improvement helps teams adapt to changes swiftly, enhancing their responsiveness and flexibility
• Structured yet flexible approach to manage large-scale projects, which improves delivery timelines, creates a culture of collaboration and drives overall organizational agility

Business Agility Consulting Services and Their Role in Organizational Transformation

Business agility consulting services encompass a comprehensive approach to transforming an organization’s processes, culture and ways of working to be more adaptive, responsive and customer-focused. These services typically involve assessing the current state of the organization, identifying a desired to-be state and designing a tailored roadmap for implementing business agility across the organization touching every program, team and individual.

A typical roadmap to drive organizational agility transformation is as below – 

1. Working on the mindset shift within the organization. This involves training and coaching leaders and teams to embrace agile principles such as continuous improvement, iterative development and customer-centricity.
2. Supporting in implementation of the scaling agile framework, tools, and practices that enhance collaboration, transparency, and efficiency
3. Inculcating cross-functional teamwork, breaking down silos, dependency management and frequent org wide planning events to launch sychronized iterations
4. Working with senior leadership, middle management and teams to build a culture of responding swiftly to market changes and customer demands
5. Sustaining a holistic transformation which leads to increased innovation, improved product and service delivery and enhanced competitive advantage
6. Slowly building internal competencies to drive sustainable growth and long-term success by embedding agility into the organization’s core operations and culture

Enhancing Operational Efficiency and Market Responsiveness through Enterprise Agility Consulting Services

Enterprise agility consulting services play a crucial role in enhancing an organization’s operational efficiency and market responsiveness by – 

• Implementing agile methodologies at scale to streamline processes, reduce waste and increase productivity across the orgnization leading to more efficient use of resources and faster delivery of products and services
• Encouraging and sustaining a culture of continuous improvement
• Deploying iterative development cycles to enable frequent feedback and adjustments to ensure that the organization can quickly respond to changes in market conditions and customer demands and thus maintain a competitive edge.
• Enabling cross-functional collaboration and communication by breaking down silos and encouraging teamwork to leverage diverse perspectives and expertise leading to more innovative solutions and faster problem-solving
• Coaching across levels to build a more responsive and efficient organization, which adapts better to market shifts and delivers high-quality products and services consistently

• Improved alignment across teams and business units ensuring everyone is working towards common objectives
• SAFe agile consulting also leads to increased productivity and efficiency. By implementing lean-agile principles and practices, organizations can streamline workflows, reduce waste, and enhance the speed of delivery. This means projects are completed faster and with higher quality, meeting customer demands more effectively
• Enhanced transparency and visibility. SAFe consulting introduces tools, metrics and dashboards that provide clear insights into project progress, potential bottlenecks and areas for improvement. This enables proactive problem-solving and better decision-making
• Creating a visible culture of continuous improvement. Teams are encouraged to regularly review and refine their processes, leading to sustained performance improvements and innovation
• Overall, organizations can expect better project outcomes, improved team collaboration, and a more adaptable and resilient approach to changing market conditions

By implementing the SAFe framework, our customer was able to significantly improve deployment frequency, leading to a substantial boost in productivity and efficiency. Prior to SAFe, deployments were infrequent and often fraught with errors, resulting in costly delays and downtime. However, after adopting SAFe’s streamlined processes and iterative approach, our customer was able to increase deployment frequency by 300%, reducing the time-to-market for new features and bug fixes. This, in turn, enabled their development teams to focus on higher-value tasks, resulting in a 25% increase in productivity and a 30% reduction in overall costs. With SAFe, our customer has achieved a remarkable improvement in efficiency, allowing them to respond quickly to changing market demands and stay ahead of the competition.

Business agility consulting services are essential in aligning a company’s strategic goals with its innovation efforts. These services help organizations to – 

• Adopt agile ways of working at scale to enable business to respond swiftly to market changes and customer demands. 
• Build culture of continuous improvement and iterative development, business agility consultants ensure that strategic objectives are consistently reviewed and adapted based on real-time feedback and performance metrics
• Enhance cross-functional collaboration by promoting communication and cooperation across the organization and breaking down silos that hinder innovation. 
• Inculcate a collaborative environment which encourages the sharing of ideas and accelerates the development of innovative solutions that align with strategic goals
• implement lean practices that optimize resource utilization and minimize waste. Business Agility consulting services cuts wastages and ensures that more resources are available for innovative projects, driving forward the company’s strategic initiatives.
• Implement the tools, frameworks, metrics and cultural shifts needed to sustain long-term growth, adaptability, and a competitive edge in the marketplace

Enterprise agility consulting is distinct due to its all round approach to transforming organizations. The key components that differentiate it from other consulting services include:

1. Scaling Agility: Enterprise agility consulting involves implementing frameworks like SAFe, LeSS, or DA, which are tailored to scale agile across the entire organization. This unlocks the true benefits of agility at a scale which impacts the business objectives of the organization
2. Cultural Transformation: Scaling agile to organization level involves more than process changes withing specific teams, projects or programs, it focuses on shifting the organizational culture to embrace agility. This involves fostering a mindset of continuous improvement, collaboration and customer-centricity across the entire organization
3. Leadership Coaching: Enterprise agility consultants work closely with leadership to coach them on the expectations from them as an leader to enable the right cultural practices for scaling agile. This leadership coaching ensures that strategic to down decisions support agile principles and drive the transformation
4. Cross-Functional Integration: Enterprise Agility consulting emphasizes on breaking down silos and promoting collaboration across departments. This integration ensures that teams work cohesively towards common strategic goals
5. Customized Roadmaps: Consultants develop custom transformation roadmaps that align with the organization’s business use case, cultural context, specific needs and strategic objectives. This customization ensures relevant, impactful and faster outcomes
6. Metrics and KPIs: Establishing clear metrics, dashboards and KPIs to measure progress and success is crucial. These metrics help to continuously assess the impact of agile practices and make data-driven decision for fine tuning and further improvements

Benzne’s approach to SAFe agile consulting ensures successful implementation and adoption within teams through a structured and comprehensive methodology. 

• ⁠Experienced SAFe certified consultants
• ⁠Proven track record of successful SAFe implementations
• ⁠Customized approach tailored to your organization’s needs
• ⁠Ongoing support and coaching for sustained success
• ⁠Incremental approach of engagement over big-bang implementation
• ⁠Continuous stakeholder showcase & flexible to pivot based on business needs

Business agility consulting services play a crucial role in fostering a culture of continuous improvement and adaptability within organizations. Consultants focus on enhancing the organization’s ability to respond quickly to changing market conditions and customer needs by implementing agile principles and practices thereby creating a flexible and resilient work environment. They facilitate the adoption of iterative and incremental ways of working by  encouraging teams to continuously assess and refine their work. This promotes a mindset of ongoing learning and adaptation.

Consultants also coach teams on the importance of feedback loops, enabling teams to receive and act on feedback promptly. This ensures continuous improvement. Additionally, business agility consulting services train and coach to develop agile competencies across all levels of the organization. This promotes self organizing teams, increased ownership and accountability, data driven decisions, transparency and collaboration.

Ultimately, these services help create an organizational culture centered around continuous improvement and adaptability, driving long-term success and innovation.

Enterprise agility consulting services are instrumental in helping organizations scale agility across multiple teams and business units by designing and implementing tailored, contextual organizational agility strategies. These services begin by assessing the organization’s current As-Is state, identifying bottlenecks and to-be state which results in defining the goals for agile transformation. Consultants then develop cuntextual transformation roadmaps that align with the organization’s objectives and culture.

Enterprise Agile Consultants work closely with leadership to build consensus, alignment and commitment to agile principles throughout the organization. They facilitate the adoption of agility ensuring consistency and coherence across teams, projects and programs. This involves training and coaching sessions to build agile capabilities among teams and leaders, emphasizing collaboration, transparency and continuous improvement.

Moreover, enterprise agility consulting services promote the establishment of communities of practice and internal centers of excellence (COEs) to share best practices and lessons learned. They also implement metrics and KPIs to measure progress and identify areas for further improvement, ensuring that agile practices are effectively scaled and sustained across the organization’s diverse teams and departments.