In continuation of the series on “The Many Benefits of SAFe,” we will be building on micro-post number 5; Apply Systems Thinking. Apply Systems Thinking is SAFe’s Principle #2.
Caveat: the article is different this time; I had severe time constraints this week but because I have a commitment to posting every week until I have gone through my 10 micro-posts, I lifted the article from the Scaled Agile Inc.’s website, it has not been written in my own words.
Apply Systems Thinking
The four foundational bodies of knowledge that inform SAFe are Systems Thinking, Agile Development, Lean Product Development, and DevOps. Systems Thinking takes a holistic approach to solution development, incorporating all aspects of a system and its environment into the system’s design, development, deployment, and maintenance.
Some fundamental understanding we must have to effectively practice Systems Thinking are:
- The solution itself is a system
- The enterprise building the system, is a system too
- Optimize the full Value Stream
Understanding these concepts helps leaders and teams navigate the complexity of solution development, the organization, and the larger picture of total time-to-market. Each is described in the following sections.
The Solution Is a System
SAFe guides the development and deployment of complex technology-based solutions. Solutions are represented by the SAFe Solution object, the tangible object that delivers the end user value and is the subject of each Development Value Stream—the application, satellite, medical device, or website. When it comes to such tangible systems, Deming’s comment that ‘a system must be managed’ leads to some critical insights: Team members must clearly understand the system boundaries and how it interacts with the environment and the systems around it. Optimizing a component of the system does not optimize the whole system. Components can become selfish and hog the resources—computing power, memory, electrical power, whatever—that other elements need. For the system to behave well, teams must understand the intended behavior and architecture (how the components work together to accomplish the system’s aim). Intentional design is fundamental to Systems Thinking. The value of a system passes through its interconnections. Those interfaces—and the dependencies they create—are critical to providing ultimate value. Continuous attention to those interfaces and interactions is vital. A system can evolve no faster than its slowest integration point. The faster the full system can be integrated and evaluated, the quicker the system knowledge grows.
The Enterprise Building the System Is a System, Too
There’s a second aspect to Systems Thinking: the people, management, and processes of the organization that builds the system are also a system. The understanding that “systems must be managed” applies here as well. Otherwise, the components of the organization building the system will optimize locally and become selfish, limiting the speed and quality of value delivery. This leads to another set of Systems Thinking insights about the enterprise: Building complex systems is a social endeavor. Therefore, leaders must cultivate an environment where people collaborate on the best way to build better systems. Suppliers and customers are integral to the Development Value Stream. Both must be treated as partners based on a long-term foundation of trust. Optimizing a component does not optimize the system in this case, either. Therefore optimizing local teams or functional departments does not enhance the flow of value through the enterprise. And as with physical systems, the value of the system passes through its interfaces here too. Accelerating flow requires eliminating functional silos and creating cross-functional organizations, such as Agile Teams, Agile Release Trains (ARTs), and Solution Trains.
Understand and Optimize the Full Development Value Stream
Development Value Streams are fundamental to SAFe. A SAFe portfolio is a collection of Development Value Streams, each delivering one or more solutions to the market. As illustrated in Figure 2, each Development Value Stream consists of the steps necessary to integrate and deploy a new concept through a new or existing system.
Understanding and optimizing the entire Development Value Stream—the third aspect of Systems Thinking—is the only way to reduce the total time it takes to go from concept to cash. Systems Thinking mandates that leaders and practitioners grasp and continuously optimize the entire Development Value Stream, especially as it crosses technical and organizational boundaries. One essential process is Value Stream Mapping, a systematic way to view all the steps required to produce value. Value Stream Mapping helps leaders quickly recognize that the actual value-added steps—creating code and components, deployment, validation, etc.—consume only a small portion of the total time-to-market. This recognition drives these leaders to constantly focus on the delays between steps.
By applying Systems Thinking as recommended by SAFe, organizations can better navigate the complexities of large-scale development efforts, enhance collaboration, and improve overall efficiency in delivering value to customers.
Questions and comments are welcome.