How the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) truly supports business

Technology leaders are expected to do a lot. Their business partners talk about evolution, agility, and the ability to change direction overnight in response to new and emerging threats and opportunities — with no loss of productivity.

Keeping up with the pace of change while delivering on all the work that maintains the integrity and security of the business can be a daunting challenge. The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) delivery model can help IT leaders manage the transition from a stability-focused infrastructure to a continuously evolving infrastructure.

Scaling Agile across the enterprise

SAFe has been around for a few years, but it’s been gaining traction recently. Today, it’s being used to scale the principles of project- and product-level Agile methodology across all of IT while helping to support alignment with business priorities.

The framework takes the Agile principles IT leaders are familiar with and applies them to more strategic, planning-focused layers of the organization. By better coordinating strategy and delivery, SAFe helps ensure work is being done effectively and efficiently — and that the right work is being done by the right people at the right time.

In addition, SAFe helps IT leaders work closer to the strategic business priorities of the organization, benefiting everyone.

Aligning IT and business

IT remains accountable for ensuring today’s organization is safe, secure, stable, and operational. IT is also responsible for supporting the evolution of the business in order to continuously optimize performance in an ever-evolving world.

Balancing those two priorities requires:

• A full and accurate understanding of business needs

• The ability to adjust technology services to meet those needs

Consistently prioritizing and delivering on work that optimizes value is critical. SAFe has several tools and techniques to help maintain alignment between the business and technology while improving teamwork, collaboration, efficiency, and effectiveness within the various IT functions.

Think of SAFe as technology-relevant, optimized business practices — a way for all IT staff, not just leaders, to achieve the most for their time and effort.

Find out how SAFe can help you drive global digital marketing in our webinar. And listen to our podcast for more information about SAFe. 

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