How to Organize the ART to accelerate the Value
Introduction
To organize the ART around Value, and organizing multiple Agile Teams within a SAFe Agile Release Train (ART) is a complex yet rewarding endeavor. This approach enhances collaboration and efficiency, aligns with Conway’s Law, and leverages Team Topologies to ensure that the organization’s social structures mirror its architectural aspirations. By adopting a Lean Architecture and embracing the principles of loose coupling and high cohesion, organizations will foster high-performing teams with a clear purpose, thereby accelerating the flow of value through the system. This article goes into the ‘why,’ ‘what,’ and ‘how’ of organizing multiple Agile Teams in a SAFe ART, highlighting the role of Team Topologies and the significance of organizing around value to enhance the flow, with the understanding that “Flow is the new Agile.”
Organize Multiple Agile Teams in a SAFe ART
In software development and delivery, responding rapidly and efficiently to market changes is a competitive advantage. SAFe provides a framework for scaling Agile practices across the enterprise, enabling multiple teams to work harmoniously towards a shared vision. Organizing multiple Agile Teams within an ART is crucial for managing complexity, ensuring alignment, and optimizing the flow of value from a need to delivery of the value.
What is the Role of Team Topologies and Conway’s Law
Team Topologies, a concept introduced by Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais, offers a method for designing and implementing team structures that align with the organization’s software architecture. It advocates for four fundamental team types (stream-aligned, enabling, complicated-subsystem, and platform teams) and three interaction modes (collaboration, X-as-a-service, and facilitating), which guide how teams should interact to optimize flow and efficiency.
Conway’s Law suggests that organizations design systems that mirror their own communication structure. In the context of SAFe and Lean Architecture, aligning the organizational structure with the intended architecture minimizes friction and promotes a more efficient development process. By organizing teams according to the principles of Team Topologies and Conway’s Law, companies can ensure that their social structures facilitate rather than hinder their architectural goals.
Two Examples of approaches for loose coupling architecture and teams are
1. Microservices Architecture
Develop a solution as a suite of small, independently deployable services, each running in its own process. Each service is built around a specific business capability and can be developed, deployed, and scaled independently
2. Event-Driven Architecture (EDA)
In an event-driven architecture, components communicate with events. This allows services to react to changes without knowing the source of the event, enhancing system responsiveness and flexibility
How Does This Approach Support High-Performing Teams
Adopting a Lean Architecture with loosely coupled components and services allows teams to operate with a high degree of autonomy, reducing dependencies and enhancing agility. When teams are organized around a clear purpose and aligned with the architecture’s structure, they can focus on delivering value more efficiently. This alignment also facilitates a better understanding of their role in the broader ART context, boosting motivation and performance.
Loose coupling between teams mirrors the loose coupling in the architecture, enabling teams to work independently on different aspects of the system without waiting on or blocking each other. This setup not only accelerates development but also encourages innovation, as teams can explore and implement solutions within their domain without risking other parts of the solution.
Accelerating Flow with SAFe Flow Accelerators in the pipeline
SAFe emphasizes the importance of a continuous flow of value through the Continuous Delivery Pipeline. When organizing and leading the teams as described in this article, there is a very powerful structure in place for applying the Flow accelerators:
- Visualize and Limit WIP (Work in Progress):
- Address Bottlenecks
- Minimize Handoffs and Dependencies.
- Get Faster Feedback
- Work in Smaller Batches.
- Reduce Queue Length.
- Optimize Time ‘In the Zone’
- Remediate Legacy Policies and Practices
Overall, accelerating flow is crucial for Business agility as it enables organizations to respond quickly, deliver value efficiently, and stay competitive in a rapidly changing business landscape, adapting seamlessly to emerging trends and customer demands.
Summary
In conclusion, the organization of multiple Agile Teams within a SAFe ART, guided by the principles of Team Topologies and in alignment with Conway’s Law and Lean Architecture, is a strategic approach to scaling Agile practices and optimizing the flow of value. By embracing loose coupling in both architecture and team structure, organizations can create high-performing teams with clear purposes, reduce dependencies, and accelerate the delivery process. This method of organizing around value not only enhances efficiency and responsiveness but also drives continuous improvement and innovation, ultimately leading to greater competitiveness in the marketplace.
References
Team topologies, Skeleton and Pais(https://teamtopologies.com/)
Lean Architecture,
SAFe Framework (https://scaledagileframework.com)
Conways law( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_law)
About the content
The intention of the Articles published on this website is to provide exciting knowledge about organizational development in any business. BDD hopes this knowledge will help take your organization to the next level. The information is based on our experience supporting many transformations and cutting-edge sources published in books, articles, and frameworks.
