We can help Coach your ART Execution
Once your ART has been launch the hard work doesn’t stop there.
- We can help coach the young ART to ensure that it speeds along with the necessary support to ensure that your features get delivered on time to support your Program PI objectives.
- Our Agile Coaches can keep the agile hygiene good and more importantly support the Scrum of Scrum and Po Sync meetings to minimise the impediments and keep the train on the tracks.
- We can extend the support to include training for DevOps and Agile software engineering as many of our SPCs and Agile Coach’s have experience in working with DevOps and using best engineering practices.
Team Coaching
While our SPCs often focus on enabling the program level roles and ceremonies, the foundation of Program Execution is built upon, is a competency in Team and Technical Agility. Our SPCs can also provide coaching to Agile Teams.
Initially, team coaching will likely focus on mastering the team level roles and ceremonies of SAFe, including:
- Iteration planning – refine and adjust initial iteration plans developed during PI Planning
- Backlog refinement – refine and adjust the scope and definition of user stories defined during PI Planning
- Daily stand-ups – to help the team stay aligned on progress toward iteration goals, raise impediments and get help
- Iteration Reviews and System demos – to get feedback from stakeholders and assess progress toward PI Objectives
- Iteration Retrospectives – to review team practices and identify ways to improve
- Scrum-of-Scrums, PO Sync and ART Sync – to maintain alignment and resolve issues with other teams on the ART
However, this is only the beginning. As teams gain confidence in their roles and ceremonies, and because of the transparency they create, technical proficiency and best practice will become the next opportunity for relentless improvement.
In order to establish a smooth and consistent flow of value, we recommend that Agile Teams working on software solutions must become proficient in modern software engineering techniques and disciplines such as Test Driven (TDD) and Behavior Driven Development (BDD), Continuous Integration/Deploy (CI/CD), Test Automation, and Pair Programming.
The heritage of these practices came from the Extreme Programming (XP) movement and remain the foundation for software craftsmanship due to the results many teams have achieved using them.
To learn more and get these benefits, we offer the Agile Software Engineering course. This can be used as a continuing education offering during the first Innovation & Planning iteration, or during a subsequent PI as need and opportunity dictates, to accelerate the development of these critical software engineering disciplines.
The discipline of software engineering has evolved over the past decade with
the introduction of Lean-Agile and DevOps principles and practices. New skills
and approaches to software engineering help organizations deliver software-
centric solutions faster, more predictably, and with higher quality. During this
three-day, workshop-oriented course, attendees will learn how Lean-Agile
principles are driving these changes.
They will connect these principles to modern developing practices including XP technical practices, Behavioral-Driven Development (BDD), Test-Driven
Development (TDD), and applying the Agile Testing Quadrant. Attendees will learn the best practices to model, design, implement, verify, validate, deploy, and release stories in a SAFe Continuous Delivery Pipeline.
ART Coaching
While Team and Technical Agility forms the foundation of Program Execution, it’s the Agile Product Delivery competency that enables the shortest sustainable lead-time to value. Without coaching from an SPCs to develop and grow this competency, there is a danger that SAFe essentially can become reduced to the coordination and orchestration of Agile teams – a pale shadow of its potential.
Therefore, SPCs engage with Scrum Masters across the ART to help accelerate adoption and mastery of this competency.
As with Agile Teams, coaching the ART typically starts with the essential roles and ceremonies of SAFe, including:
- PI Planning – create alignment and shared commitment to a common set of objectives
- System Demos – close the rapid feedback loop through integration and validation of working systems
- Inspect & Adapt Workshops – enable relentless improvement and systems thinking
- Scrum-of-Scrums, PO Sync, and ART Sync – maintain alignment, resolve issues, and enable attainment of PI Objectives
But this is just scratch the surface of the ART’s purpose and potential. To help ARTs optimize the flow of value, our SPCs can coach ART leaders to look beyond the current PI and current capabilities. As roles and ceremonies are mastered, the focus must shift to the Continuous Delivery Pipeline and the enterprise competency of Agile Product Delivery. This involves both managing and continuously improving the speed and quality of the ART’s capability to:
- Continuously Explore: Sense and respond to market/business needs to build and maintain the program Vision, Roadmap, Backlog and Architectural Runway.
- Continuously Integrate: Build, validate and learn from working system increments
- Continuously Deploy: Deliver validated features into production, where they are ready for releas
This is where our Agile Product Management course can help with defining a vision, strategy, and roadmap to tap into new markets. Get fast feedback and deliver exceptional products and solutions that delight while aligning with your organization’s strategy, portfolio, evolving architecture, and solution intent.
The Agile Product Management course harnesses the power of Design Thinking
to develop innovative solutions with proven SAFe capabilities to execute on
those visions. Learn the right mindset, skills, and tools to create successful
products—from inception to retirement—using Agile techniques.
Recognize how Continuous Exploration fuels innovation and helps you define a vision, strategy, and roadmap to tap into new markets. Find out how to
accelerate the product life cycle to get fast feedback and quickly deliver
exceptional products and solutions that delight customers—all while aligning with your organization’s strategy, portfolio, evolving architecture, and solution intent.
To support Agile product delivery, we recommend that you setup a Program Kanban. The Program Kanban is the primary tool for visualizing and managing the continuous delivery pipeline, while DevOps, Value Stream Mapping, and the Problem Solving Workshop are the coach’s primary tools for enhancing these capabilities. We run regular courses on SAFe DevOps for those looking to optimise and ehance their pipeline for maximum flow and creating the shortest lead time.
The SAFe DevOps course can be used as a foundation for these practices during the 1st Innovation & Planning iteration, or for continuing education during subsequent PIs as the need and opportunity dictates, to accelerate development of this competency.
This two-day course provides a comprehensive overview for understanding the DevOps competencies needed to accelerate time-to-market by improving the
flow of value through the Continuous Delivery Pipeline. Attendees will map
the current value stream through their delivery pipeline from idea to cash
and identify practices that will eliminate bottlenecks to flow.
The course will build an understanding of the complete flow of value from
Continuous Exploration to Continuous Integration, Continuous Deployment,
and Release on Demand. Attendees will leave with the tools they need to
execute an implementation plan for improving their delivery pipeline, and
the knowledge they need to support the plan. The course also prepares
students for the optional SAFe® 4 DevOps Practitioner (SDP) certification
exam.
We can even break open the DevOps health radar and get working on optimising the continuous delivery pipeline to help you better understand your continous deliver pipeline and any delays that might be holding back the smooth flow of new features.
Inspect and Adapt
We believe there is no coaching opportunity more critical than the first Inspect and Adapt workshop. That is where everyone will learn how the PI went, how the teams have performed against their PI objectives. Our SPCs can provide consulting on how well the organization is adopting SAFe using our SAFe accelrate toolkits. We can also provide feedback on how the solution they developed really worked at that point in time. In addition, our SPCs and Agile coaches can lead the first real corrective action and problem-solving workshop.
To know more contact us to discuss your needs either by email: info@allysky.com or by phone 020 7043 2268
ALLYSKY - Official Gold Partner to help you deliver your agile transformation using the SAFe implementation Roadmap
12 Steps Guide to your SAFe Agile transformation for 2020
