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

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:...

“Requirements are guesses. Designs are guesses. Estimates are guesses. What matters is how fast you can find out.”  Mary Poppendieck “The problem isn’t that we don’t know how to build software. The problem is that we don’t know how to build software together .”  Gene Kim Waterfall works very well when you know exactly what you are building. If you are constructing a house, pouring a foundation, or installing a system with fixed specifications, defining the work in detail up f

Issues can become risks! If you're a program manager! “There will always be external and internal factors that influence [your] plan....