Importance Of Value Stream Coordination In SAFe®

Value Streams in SAFe® can be helpful when a company is looking for ways to increase the efficiency and quality of the product they are producing. In this article, we will see the coordinating value streams and their importance in SAFe®.

What Is Value Stream Coordination?

It helps to manage dependencies and opportunities that exist within and among value streams.

Importance Of Value Stream Coordination

1. Coordination Roles & Responsibilities

·       Solution Portfolio Management: Has complete responsibility for portfolio management as part of the integrated solution suite.

·       Enterprise Architect: Provides technical guidance on the long-term technologies and platforms evolution, and higher non-functional requirements (NFR) for the solution set of the portfolio (e.g., compliance, security, performance, etc.).

·       Agile Program Management Office (APMO): APMO, along with RTE (Release Train Engineer) and STE (Solution Train Engineer), is generally responsible for maintaining a decentralized but effective program execution.

2. Apply Cadence & Synchronization

Shared Cadence provides the ability and entitlement of a portfolio-level solution (via Epics) to operate in sync with defined planning & integration points. Each of them gives the opportunity to objectively evaluate the created solution and supports broad CI (Continuous Integration) with external and internal suppliers.

3. Introduce New Portfolio Level Work

The figure illustrates another key concept: the term portfolio cadence describes the speed and time at which new portfolio-level work can be added to the system.



Figure: Introduce New Portfolio Level Work

(Source: Scaled Agile Inc.)

During each PI (Program Increment), Solution Trains and ART (Agile Release Trains) meet the specific objectives of the PI. Each new job added to the system in the meantime causes major disruptions, realignment, job changes, and moving employees to new goals. The portfolio cadence provides a solid deadline for introducing a new portfolio position as teams are often unable to live up to previous commitments and confuse a lot of unscheduled work. This helps programs achieve the predictability that business depends on.

Using the Portfolio's Kanban system, the cadence also provides traditional mechanics to Epic Owners, Enterprise Architects, and other epic management. Any epic not ready for PI scheduling will have to wait for the next PI, even if the capacity may have been available. The cadence duration also reduces Work In Progress (WIP) for new and large tasks entered into the system.

4. Ensured Integration Points



Figure: Ensured Integration Points

(Source: Scaled Agile Inc.)

When integrating solutions with value flows, it may not be possible to fully integrate all value flows in each iteration (Figure). Therefore, partial integration is required over the entire PI if full integration is not possible. These cadence-based integration points are the only true measure of portfolio speed. The more we integrate, the faster we learn.

5. Portfolio Roadmap

A portfolio plan consists of and contributes to solution plans. This high-level view provides the opportunity to integrate the relevant aspects of solution plans and related guidelines into a more comprehensive picture, thus conveying an overall picture to business and portfolio stakeholders.

6. Deploying & Releasing New Work

Due to value flows & dependencies nature, delivering and sharing integrated value depends on efficient DevOps capabilities. In some cases, ART provides all the necessary DevOps capabilities. Others have additional comments (Figure). It may even require dedicated/shared service and system teams for each ART and different value streams to help integrate the solution with the version at the portfolio level.



Figure: Deploying & Releasing New Work

(Source: Scaled Agile Inc.)

 

To become more agile, you need to equip yourself with the right skills. Leading SAFe certification is the training program for learning the Lean-Agile, and SAFe practices. Instructor-led SAFe training is designed for professionals that are working or aspiring to work in an Agile environment.

 

 

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