In this talk we will share our insights from a year implementing Agile on a programme that already described itself as Agile.  Laugh as we recount our 23 team SAFe PI planning event, cry when you feel the pain of the over-worked build teams.  Puke when you learn of the atrocious Jira hygiene.

Bringing ‘genuine’ Agile to a large organisation is not easy.  There are many challenges to face, mindsets to change, battles to be fought and walls to be built.  However given time, it is often the small moments that generate the largest changes.  We hope to share those key moments with you.

We will cover insights from the Agile Coach, Release Train Engineer and a Domain Iteration Manager.  There will be a focus on Agile and Lean principles and how they were applied in key moments that changed the direction of the programme.  We hope these insights and experiences will help others who face similar challenges in bringing Agile to large traditional organisations.

A diverse set of luminaries to discuss how to enhance agility in the enterprise. Covering all the big scale challenges that large organisations face, such as multiple business lines, disparate technology stacks, geographically dispersed teams, 10s to 100s of products, etc.

An anti-pattern: “something that looks like a good idea, but which backfires badly when applied”.

My recent work implementing scaling frameworks showed me the inherent risk of using frameworks as an explicit means to affect change; any framework will always contain anti-pattern risks.

The infographics associated with frameworks (whether SAFe, LeSS or DaD, Nexus) are always drawn with the best of intent but how they are applied is where things can run contrary to agile principles.

Using real work examples and telling the story of a recent 18-month, 40-team experiment in scaling; Niall will highlight some of the "pot holes" to avoid when using frameworks.

Niall will also present his approach to using frameworks including when and how to "let go" of ceremonies/practices when they become redundant.

Lastly, a coaching approach will be presented to enable coaches to leverage the best of what frameworks offer without getting caught up in dogma.

NOTE: this is NOT a framework-bashing presentation but a hands-on report on the risks of mis-interpretation of any principles-based scaling framework.

Over the last 2 years Niall has coached teams of agile teams through the launch of two Agile Release Trains (SAFe). Niall helped leaders, managers and teams through the process of adopting SAFe.

Using his real experience as the basis for the presentation, Niall will make the case for moving past SAFe and going to the heart of scaled Agile using Large-Scale Scrum (LeSS).