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Did you know that SAFe is developed with SAFe?

Published in Agile

Written by

Maarit Laanti
SAFe Fellow

Maarit Laanti, a SAFe Fellow, is one of the contributors to SAFe methodology and is the first certified SAFe program consultant trainer in Finland. Maarit has done her dissertation on large-scale agile transformation.

Article

July 31, 2020 · 2 min read time

SAFe 5.1 is released on February 10th. Have you ever wondered these smaller and bigger updates in Scaled Agile Framework? These continuous releases are results of relentless improvement – that Scaled Agile Inc is applying SAFe Framework and its principles of Scaled Agile in their own work.

Change from classroom to online learning has been a huge transformation also to Scaled Agile Inc. In order to support SAI partners around the world during these difficult times, SAI made a decision that only partners are allowed to train public online classes. Nitor has been a partner since 2013.

SAI plans the future releases in 3-month increments using 2-day PI planning. Former onsite meetings have been now changed to virtual planning. 

Being agile and having a mission on changing the world into a better place by better software has created a very unique culture too. I recently had a chance to interview Richard Knaster, SAFe Fellow and Mike Clarkin, Chief Marketing Officer on the culture at Scaled Agile Inc.

“We recognize each other on accomplishments, which makes a huge difference”, Richard told me. “As everyone wants to contribute, things can sometimes get a bit competitive, but giving peer recognition is an antidote for that. We have a very welcoming, innovative, open for change and helping each other culture.

“Our mission really shapes the culture”, adds Mike, “It gets me up in the morning - I love to help our customers to succeed”.

SAI’s “all team” culture is very much oriented towards action, says Mike.

“When we have meetings, they are very action-oriented. We have lots of passionate, hard-working, very smart people here. It is really amazing how much we get done with such a small amount of people over here”

“We tend to say that we punch over our weight class. That means, we are a heavyweight company in a lightweight body, a very lean one. Our principles and values guide us. We are using SAFe to run the entire company, and we test ourselves on the proper application of it with the results we achieve.  And we evolve SAFe as we learn more about it, by using it in our “whole business” environment”.

Written by

Maarit Laanti
SAFe Fellow

Maarit Laanti, a SAFe Fellow, is one of the contributors to SAFe methodology and is the first certified SAFe program consultant trainer in Finland. Maarit has done her dissertation on large-scale agile transformation.