“Never argue with a fool, onlookers may not be able to tell the difference” – Mark Twain
Back in the day as researchers we pushed Agilefant forward with a versatile-model-first approach. While it lacked bells and whistles such as attachments or detailed user access rights, it had the concepts needed to support large scale agile already in 2007.
Fast forward to today, its latest incarnation is known as Nektion (the proliferation of the A-word tends to repel executives whose organizations might need it the most), and its entire ontology can be configured to fit the convoluted structures of large complex organizations you might run across.
Despite that, or perhaps because of it, I nowadays find myself rather agnostic with respect to whether agile should be scaled using frameworks such as SAFe, LeSS or DAD – or if it should (or even could) be scaled at all. Anyway, the result is usually better – if only slightly – than the darkness which existed before trying “agile” out.
Still, many of the lean/agile thought leaders out there do have clear opinions on the matter. If you’re in the process of “scaling agile” or considering it, my advice is that you should explore these opinions, and consider how the views expressed may or may not apply to your context.
To help you get started, I put together a table of some of the writings around the topic from the better known writers of the field I’ve run into. They are ordered starting from the most recent.
Many of the posts I’ve raised are critical of frameworks for scaling agile. Some are even critical about the notion of scaling agile in the first place. I made this choice because the organizations and people who are in the business of providing frameworks, tools and consultancy for scaling agile already cover the upside quite well.
There are also other posts, but I’ve tried to condense this list to the most popular and/or such that they have some depth to them.
By exploring the material below, you’ll hopefully become aware of the tensions around the topic – and thus are better able to steer clear of the potential pitfalls in your own transformation efforts.
While some comments are nowadays outdated (for example the notion that “SAFe allows to release at the PI cadence”), all of the authors there are surely worth following, and to dig deeper, check out also the commentaries of the posts linked below. I’m updating (last updated 2022-09-15) the list as I find new noteworthy articles.
| Author | Post | Quote |
| Pawel Huryn (2022) | Watch out, waterfall ahead! The truth about SAFe | “It’s not a coincidence that SAFe was created by the same person who made the Rational Unified Process (RUP). In my opinion, no buzzword (Agile, Scrum, Lean, Enterprise, etc.) can cover its true nature.” |
| Jeff Gothelf (2020) | SAFe is not agile | Large organizations seeking agility […] cling to the faorganizations seeking agility […] cling to the familiarity of waterfall processes. SAFe gives the illusion of adopting agile while allowing familiar management processes to remain intact.” |
| Bob Galen (2019) |
SAFe no longer – my final farewell | “[…] I’ve struggled with it for a long time. […] Believe me, I’ve tried to understand, support, and apply it. […] But it’s too big, far from the principles of simplicity at the heart of agility [and] focused on pursuing revenue. […] Just because it’s popular, doesn’t make it right. Nor does it mean that I have to support it.” |
| Dan North (2018) @tastapod |
In praise of SWARMing | “Scaling methods are not unhelpful per se, rather that they are neither necessary nor sufficient for successful transformation.” |
| Duncan Nisbet (2018) @duncnisbet |
SAFe systems thinking? | “The cultural aspects […] are the overriding blocker to systems thinking. Merely talking about it briefly in a 2 day workshop is not going to overcome that challenge.” |
| Renee Throughton (2018) @agilerenee |
Why SAFe is not the scaled approach you need | “It encourages massive batching […], old world thinking on estimation […], doesn’t change leadership behaviours [ …], doesn’t force a change in organizational structure” |
| Marty Cagan (2018) @cagan |
Revenge of the PMO | “If you were an old-school PMO missing your classic portfolio, program and project management, you would probably love it.” |
| John Cutler (2017) |
Have you heard the one about SAFe? | “There are very few people voicing the perspective of non-consultant full-timers. The narrative is primarily driven by consultants and “thought leaders”… all with […] vested interest in guiding the perception of the market, closing deals, and getting their foot in the enterprise door. […] Thoughtful comparisons of approaches would benefit everyone.” |
| Steve Denning (2017) @stevedenning |
What is Agile? The four essential elements | “The emphasis […] is more on descaling big complex problems into small pieces than on scaling up the organization to match the complexity of the problems it is dealing with.” |
| Mike Cottmyer (2015) @mcottmyer |
Let’s acknowledge SAFe for what it is…and move on | “You either create the conditions to do Agile well—Agile as it was defined 14 years ago—or you do something else. That something else is called SAFe.” |
| Jacob Creech (2015) @JacobCreech | SAFe: How I learned to stop worrying and try the Scaled Agile Framework | “Suffice to say, I have a reasonable perspective on SAFe in real life, which I prefer to the typical theological debates that arise when SAFe is discussed.” |
| Ari Tikka & Ran Nyman (2015) @aritikka, @ran_nyman | Scaling Agility or Bureaucracy | “Good consultation often helps to get results, also with SAFe. However, there is the risk that the systemic conditions are not changing, and the change remains superficial.” |
| Kristian Haugaard (2015) @haugaards | Interview with Dean Leffingwell about SAFe | “Many of [reviews of SAFe] have been written by authors who never spoke with anybody who had been involved in a SAFe implementation…” |
| Ari Tikka & Ran Nyman (2015) @aritikka, @ran_nyman | LeSS-SAFe comparison | “[Both LESS and SAFe use Nokia as a reference, but] LeSS was and is mostly used at Nokia Networks […] while SAFe was mostly used at Nokia Mobile Phones” |
| Jeff Sutherland (2015) @jeffsutherland | Q&A with Jeff Sutherland on Agile Leadership | “scaling frameworks are often used to provide scaffolding for the legacy organization until they can evolve” |
| Ron Jeffries (2015) @ronjeffries | Dependencies, Scrum of Scrums, and SAFe | “[…] a huge fraction of the dependencies between teams are artificial. They are due to poor allocation of work from above, and to the existence of unnecessary silos of responsibility.” |
| Mike Cohn (2015) @mikewcohn | You Don’t Need a Complicated Story Hierarchy | “When teams are forced to use complicated taxonomies for their stories, they spend time worrying about whether a particular story is an epic, a saga or merely a headline.” |
| Sami Lilja (2014) @samililja | The case against scaling | “The problem is NOT that we lack ways to scale agile. The problem is NOT that we fail with agile in large organizations. The problem is that we are large. […] The frameworks take “large scale” as given, and do very little to reduce that.” |
| Lyssa Adkins (2014) @lyssaadkins |
The Agile Coaches’ Coach Shares Her View on SAFe | “Rumi urges us not to become too attached to one “grain”; one teacher or one way, or, in our world, one agile framework or one perspective. I urge the same. Rather, let us look out wider and farther.” |
| Mike Cohn (2014) @mikewcohn | Introducing the LAFABLE Process for Scaling Agile | “some of [scaling approaches have been] even tested on real teams before the marketing machinery spun up to promote them” |
| Ron Jeffries (2014) @ronjeffries | SAFe – Good But Not Good Enough | “SAFe is good. It’s just not good enough. It provides some benefit, but endangers an organization’s progress toward really high functioning” |
| Ron Jeffries (2014) @ronjeffries | Issues with SAFe | “Release Train is an example of a remedial practice presented as an ultimate solution. […] SAFe does not push hard to eliminate the problem: it just gives a way to accommodate it.” |
| Peter Saddington (2014) @agilescout | The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) – A Review | “thoughtful and well-intentioned [but] takes it a bit too far and defines […] almost too much” |
| Charles Bradley (2014) @ScrumCrazy | Is SAFe(tm) Bad? Is it unsafe? Is it Agile? Are there alternatives? | “To date, no Agile Manifesto author has endorsed it. That should tell you something right there.” |
| David J. Anderson (2013) @f4p_dja | Kanban – the anti-SAFe for almost a decade already | “in 2003 I decided to focus on […] reducing or eliminating resistance to change. A process-centric focus wasn’t working without a lot of money, positional power and fear to motivate individuals to fall into line.” |
| Amr Elssamadisy (2013) @samadisy | Is it safe? | “The question is not whether SAFe should be used as the strategic basis for large Agile adoptions. The question is this: What will make those adoptions most successful?” |
| Ken Schwaber (2013) @kschwaber | unSAFe at any speed | “The boys from RUP are back, […] partnering with tool vendors. […] Consultants are available to customize [SAFe] for you, just like RUP” |
| Neil Killick (2012) @neil_killick | The Horror Of The Scaled Agile Framework | …” a horrible, money-making bastardisation […] of Scrum, Agile and Waterfall…” |
P.S. Curiously enough, I was not able to find posts of sufficient depth, quality or otherwise of interest (subjectively, of course) from 2016. But surely there are some lying around! Can you point me to any?
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