Wie funktioniert Lean Portfolio Management nun wirklich in der Praxis?
Unsere Ellie Agile erklärt den Weg von der Vision hin zum priorisierten Epic Backlog.
Scaled Agility
Team-oriented agile methods are no longer sufficient in large organizations with hundreds or thousands of employees. Scaling frameworks play an essential role here. Nexus®, LeSS®, Spotify® are well-known examples of such frameworks. From early on, KEGON focused its consulting efforts on the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe®), which now dominates the market. In contrast to the other frameworks, SAFe® not only describes procedures, roles and practices for a team of agile teams, i.e. a few hundred employees, but also for very large organizations (Large Solutions).
Which phase of transformation are you in?
KEGON has been supporting organisations in the various transformation phases for decades. Some companies are still at the very beginning of their transformation, others are in the middle of it and need support when things falter somewhere. Others have successfully transformed parts of the organisation and realise that the entire organisation should now become agile in order to optimise processes in a smooth and sustainable way.
We have included our experience in this film and welcome your feedback. If you would like to share your transformation experience with us, please contact us.
Method-Tool-Assessment Scaling Agile
Agility thrives on people, mindsets and methods - in a scaled environment, suitable frameworks and tools are needed to create transparency between the players and optimize the flow of value.
Together with our partner Seibert Group GmbH, we can align agile and lean methods and tools for you to accelerate and sustainably anchor your transformation.
More about your individual method-tool assessment.
Agile Organization
Agile ways of working have been common for years, particularly in the area of software development. This has been proven to improve quality, efficiency and employee satisfaction. Scrum and Kanban have the modern norm for teamwork, and the resulting agile roles and practices have become an indispensable part of modern process organizations. In the meantime, however, development organizations in particular are going one step further and are also aligning their organizational structures with the agile principles. The agile teams form the basis of the organizational structure and the Scrum roles are introduced as leadership roles, while traditional leadership roles such as team leaders and department heads are becoming less important.
Of course, such a drastic change requires strong support. After all, it's not just a matter of mastering the agile methods, but also of having extensive experience with restructuring organizations. This includes coaching the people involved and developing the new role concepts, as well as structuring and supporting the organizational change from job descriptions and tenders, through to working with employee representatives and (re)defining salary and career models.
Agility@Hardware
However, the size of large solutions is not only defined in terms of the number of employees, but also by the complexity of the product being developed. Based on the Scaled Agile Framework, we have gained a lot of experience, not only with the transformation of large software development organizations. We support almost all the key players in the German automotive industry, along with their suppliers, in their development of complex hardware products, embedded hardware/software systems and, therefore, help them on their agile journey towards the digital future. It goes without saying that we ensure that all process standards’ compliance requirements are adhered throughout the agile transformation.
Lean Agile Portfolio Management
The lean-agile portfolio process is a unique selling point of the Scaled Agile Framework; which is increasingly important in organizational agile transformations. With our further development of the SAFe® portfolio process model (agile strategic planning and strategic operationalization), we’ve created the methodological tools to manage a modern agile organization. Agile portfolio management is a fundamental aspect, however, prior to the latest SAFe® 6.0 version, Scaled Agile had not yet focused on this. Part of this further development is a governance structure, which includes the necessary committee structure and its related reports and metrics. As a result of this work, a significant amount of the necessary management tools are already at our disposal.
Agile Leadership
Now the question remains - alongside the methodical aspects, how should the cultural aspects of the agile transformation be achieved? How can managers be supported and coached when it comes to setting aside old roles and patterns and both accepting and mastering new tasks and job profiles? This is where our many years of coaching experience comes in - we know the challenges and obstacles of both worlds, the non-agile as well as the agile organization.
Business Agility
Up until now, agile frameworks have primarily addressed product development organizations. However, more and more service organizations, which differ significantly from product development organizations in their structure and working methods, want to start using agile working methods. Examples included sales departments of banks and insurance companies, public administrations or IT service departments. For these organizational needs, we've adapted key elements of the Scaled Agile Framework and developed an agile framework for service organizations, which is based on hierarchical Kanban systems. Therefore, they are now able to implement Business Agility methodically in all its aspects.
More about Business Agility Flow.
Please contact us if you have questions or would like additional information.
Irina Heck
Tel +49 611 20 50 80
irina.heck(at)kegon.de