Log in or create a free Rosenverse account to watch this video.
Log in Create free account100s of community videos are available to free members. Conference talks are generally available to Gold members.
Summary
In his article for Forbes titled Understanding Fake Agile, Steve Denning refers to SAFe as “codified bureaucracy”. Jared Spool says it’s a “fast path to mediocrity”. But the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) is currently in use by many enterprise organizations like NASA, Capital One, FedEx, and the Department of Defense. With so many companies attempting to become as agile as Silicon Valley startups, SAFe is being adopted as a way to scale up Agile software development processes, and many UX teams are having to support it, whether they like it or not.
Key Insights
-
•
SAFe uses the Agile Release Train metaphor to synchronize multiple agile teams on a fixed schedule for incremental delivery.
-
•
SAFe initially excluded UX/design but now incorporates Lean UX as a bolted-on practice, often via a lean UX Center of Excellence.
-
•
There are typically not enough UX experts to embed one per agile team in large enterprises, necessitating a hybrid advisory model.
-
•
Discovery work within SAFe is often under-supported compared to delivery, causing challenges in shaping what to build.
-
•
UX work benefits from operating one or more iterations ahead of development, but this creates coordination and backlog challenges.
-
•
Embedding UX Architects at the program level alongside engineering architects improves early hypothesis validation and research.
-
•
There is confusion and overlap among roles like Product Owner, Product Manager, Business Analyst, and Requirements Analyst within SAFe.
-
•
Story pointing and capacity planning should include UX efforts, not just development, to improve realistic planning and resource allocation.
-
•
SAFe’s Dev-centric nature can marginalize UX work unless explicit efforts are made to integrate design activities visibly and measurably.
-
•
Visualizing and managing dependencies at scale through SAFe’s PI planning is valuable, but the framework can risk bureaucratic rigidity and loss of customer focus.
Notable Quotes
"SAFe’s Agile Release Train is a long-lived team of agile teams that incrementally deliver solutions in sync like a train leaving the station."
"While there aren’t enough lean UX experts for each team, having a lean UX Center of Excellence for each value stream helps embed UX advisory properly."
"The discovery aspect within SAFe’s portfolio is the hardest part to get right; many product owners lack the skills to determine what to build."
"We embed UX selectively in a few value streams and try to train others to balance research and design activities on their own."
"Working one to three sprints ahead for UX research helps validate hypotheses early but can create mini-waterfalls and handoff issues."
"In some organizations, UX Architects at the program level work with product managers to validate hypotheses and set design direction before PI planning."
"There’s often a disconnect because the people doing the research and conceptualization aren’t the same as those doing the development work."
"In SAFe, Product Owner and Product Manager roles can be confusing and inverted compared to other models, adding to role ambiguity."
"Story points should apply to UX work as well as development, helping make UX time and effort visible and planned for."
"SAFe risks becoming codified bureaucracy that sidelines the customer, but it holds potential if adapted to foster real business agility."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"If designers spend more time talking about titles than their work, we’re just gazing into our navels."
Adam Cutler Karen Pascoe Ian Swinson Susan WorthmanDiscussion
June 8, 2016
"Sometimes the director is the most senior design person in the org and ends up playing the executive role without the title or support."
Peter MerholzThe Trials and Tribulations of Directors of UX (Videoconference)
July 13, 2023
"Digital is a system, not a project. It’s there all the time and you have to keep iterating on it."
Lisa WelchmanCleaning Up Our Mess: Digital Governance for Designers
June 14, 2018
"Green spaces in cities can greatly enhance our quality of life and resilience."
Vincent BrathwaiteOpener: Past, Present, and Future—Closing the Racial Divide in Design Teams
October 22, 2020
"Psychological safety was far and away the key ingredient for teams being effective."
Brenna FallonLearning Over Outcomes
October 24, 2019
"Most organizations are still asking design questions at a global level; we need to be hyper-local now."
Tricia WangSpatial Collapse: Designing for Emergent Culture
January 8, 2024
"We aimed for research that is actionable, not just insightful or pretty to look at."
Edgar Anzaldua MorenoUsing Research to Determine Unique Value Proposition
March 11, 2021
"Context-related data gathered through qualitative research is the first to reach our decision-making centers in the brain."
Designing Systems at Scale
November 7, 2018
"Most product teams work linearly, but systems thinking captures the real-world complexity of moving forward and sometimes stepping back."
Erin WeigelGet Your Whole Team Testing to Design for Impact
July 24, 2024
