Separate progress is not the same as integrated progress. Release decisions depend on the second one. “The performance of a system doesn’t depend on how the parts perform taken separately, it depends on how they perform together, how they interact.” Russell L. Ackoff “A bad system will beat a good person every time.” W. Edwards Deming In the last post, I argued that Release on Demand depends on several conditions being true inside the delivery system, and you can find that po

Adopting the phrase is easy. Building a trustworthy system is where the work begins “If you only quantify one thing, quantify the Cost of Delay.” Don Reinertsen “The performance of a system doesn’t depend on how the parts perform taken separately, it depends on how they perform together, how they interact.” Russell L. Ackoff Release on Demand is easy to describe and much harder to make real. Most organizations are not struggling because they disagree with the idea. They would

“Constantly” is a frequency. Release on Demand is control “If you only quantify one thing, quantify the Cost of Delay.” Don Reinertsen "The performance of a system doesn’t depend on how the parts perform taken separately, it depends on how they perform together, how they interact.” Russell L. Ackoff I’ve noticed a predictable pattern when organizations start talking about SAFe. Someone hears “Release on Demand” and translates it into: “We release constantly now.” That inte

Just because you can  release anytime doesn't mean you should! “Speed without control is chaos.” Taiichi Ohno “What we call management consists largely of making it difficult for people to get their work done.”Peter Drucker One of the recurring misunderstandings in discussions about SAFe appears when the phrase Release on Demand  enters the conversation. The wording sounds straightforward, and it is often interpreted to mean that organizations should release continuously. Th

You have to change in a fast moving environment! “A system must be managed. It will not manage itself.” W. Edwards Deming “The performance of a system depends more on how its parts interact than on how they perform taken separately.” Russell Ackoff When Agile first began to gain traction, it felt different. Project managers and CTOs could see the value quickly. Short feedback cycles produced usable results sooner. Teams that were trusted to make local decisions moved faster a

SAFe makes risk visible! “When responsibility is unclear, authority does not disappear. It becomes invisible.” Russell L. Ackoff “A system must be managed. It will not manage itself.” W. Edwards Deming Many experienced Agile professionals do not feel undervalued because they lack skill. They feel that way because the systems they work within often fail to make their impact visible. In many Agile environments, practitioners are responsible for moving work forward, resolving

When enthusiasm outruns systems thinking. “A system must be managed. It will not manage itself.”  W. Edwards Deming “Optimization of parts does not optimize the whole.”  Russell Ackoff In an earlier post, I argued that iterative and incremental  are not project life cycles. They are execution patterns. I covered that distinction in detail there, so I will focus here on why it matters once organizations try to scale. If you are interested in that article, it is here:...

If you’ve seen this moment, you already know why Agile stalls. “The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it. ”Theodore Roosevelt “You cannot manage knowledge workers the way you managed factory workers. ”Peter Drucker I’ve seen it over and over again. Managers cannot let Scrum be Scrum. They have to meddle. They impose reporting where none is needed.

“It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do.” Steve Jobs “Most organizations do not have a technology problem. They have a coordination problem.” Gene Kim I did not begin my career thinking about Agile or SAFe. My early work was focused on large, high-pressure IT projects delivered through waterfall. And if you have lived in that world, you know exactly how the requirements looked. Thousands of “the system shall…” statements created through hundr

“The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence; it is to act with yesterday’s logic.”  Peter Drucker “Nothing fails like success when you rely on the formula that worked yesterday.”  Tom Peters I’ve delivered software at scale, led Agile Release Trains, and worked with teams that understood their roles and delivery cycles. I thought I had a solid grasp of SAFe. Then I earned my SAFe® Practice Consultant (SPC) certification. That’s when I began to see how mu

I was always curious about the difference between SAFe® and the Disciplined Agile Framework®. I currently have the PMI Agile Certified...