Certified SAFe® Program

Original author: https://www.scaledagileframework.com/safe-program-consultant/
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Good day everyone!

We have not much time left before the launch of the new “Development Manager” stream , so there is another interesting material that is a little touched in conversations in our classes.

Go.

Certified SAFe consultants (Certified SAFe Program Consultants, SPC for short) are change agents who have technical knowledge of SAFe and are committed to improving software and systems development processes within the company. They play a critical role in the success of SAFe implementation. SPCs can be people of a wide variety of internal and external areas, including business and technology leaders, portfolio / program / project managers, process leads, architects, analysts, and consultants.



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Critical role for critical need

As stated in the Implementation Roadmap article : changing the practices and development methods within a corporation is a difficult task. According to the author John P. Kotter (John P. Kotter), to achieve meaningful and long-term changes, a “powerful governing alliance” among stakeholders is needed [1]. In such a union should be:

  • Leaders who set the general concept, show how to achieve the goal, eliminate obstacles.
  • Practitioners, managers, change agents who implement process changes.
  • Organizational credibility to be taken seriously.
  • Expertise to make quick, sensible decisions.

In organizations that are only familiar with SAFe, the SPC prepared for many points are responsible.

Responsibilities

As competent change agents, SPCs are involved in many processes that are part of the 12 critical steps described in the SAFe Roadmap. In particular, they help in the following processes:

  • Achieving a tipping point - explain business needs, urgency, and the concept of change.
  • Training managers, managers and leaders - explain new concepts, conduct introductory training. SPC teaches Leading SAFe leaders, managers and stakeholders.
  • Creating a Lean-Agile Center of Excellence ( LACE for short ) - SPC helps LACE assemble and start backing up changes.
  • Identification of Streams of Value (Streams) and Agile Release Trains (briefly - ART) - work with stakeholders to understand the process of moving values, identify among the streams of values ​​and ART the most appropriate to run.
  • Creating an Implementation Plan - SPCs are involved in creating a market entry plan, explaining future changes, and setting metrics.
  • ART launch preparation - SPC helps LACE create a plan and prepare for ART launch. They prepare leadership and participate in the creation of new Agile teams. They also train managers, leaders, development teams and individual specialists, for example, product owners ( Product Owner ), product managers ( Product Manager ), scrum masters ( Scrum Master ) and release train engineers ( Release Train Engineer , in short - RTE). They also evaluate and improve readiness for launch and backlog.
  • Teaching teams and launching ART - SPC often directly plan and implement quickstart and other exit strategies. They train teams and participate in meaningful initial events, for example, in Program Increment Planning (PI Planning) or Inspect and Adapt (I & A). SPC helps determine the ART launch date and plan out the ART calendar and teams.
  • Accompanying the execution of ART - SPC teach leaders and stakeholders to form and support the Concept , Roadmap and Backlog Programs . They train teams, product owners and managers, architects and RTE. They also participate in Scrum of Scrums and System Demo , conduct I & A and follow-up improvement actions. Finally, they help teams create DevOps culture and thinking , Continuous Delivery Pipeline software , infrastructure, and Agile related technical practices.
  • Launching new ART and value streams — SCPs work to enable new change agents to increase the organization’s ability to support new value streams, launch new ARTs, and increase LACE coverage. They talk about progress and celebrate achievements.
  • Expansion of the portfolio - as soon as Lean-Agile practices are gaining momentum, SPCs can extend these portfolio practices to other areas of the company, including Lean-budgeting , Lean-Portfolio Guide , more lean approaches to CapEx and OpEx, and Agile contracts . In addition, they talk about the value of Strategic Topics .
  • Strengthening and improvement - the organization can not be too Lean. In the long run, SPCs evaluate quality improvement, cultivate a Lean-Agile approach in HR , support skills improvement through continuous training, create Professional Communities ( Communities of Practice , briefly CoPs). They encourage self-assessment (see Metrics ) and help systematize the value stream.

How much SPC is required?

At first glance, the list may seem daunting. One SPC will not be enough to do all this work. In a broad sense, the knowledge and skills of SPC and can not be limited to a few select people. Instead, the leaders of the emerging Lean-Agile industry should learn new competencies. This means that in order to promote and support the implementation of most companies, many SPCs (approximately 3-5 per 100 developers) will be needed.

SPC training

SPCs should be trained in their new role, get the skills and tools they need to fulfill their responsibilities and train others to implement and support change. The best way to achieve this is to complete a certification course Implementing SAFe with SAFe Program Consultant (SPC). This 4-day course will prepare the SPC to become a change agent, guiding change. Participants will learn how to effectively apply SAFe principles and practices, and organize, train, and lead agile teams. They will also learn how to recognize value streams, identify and launch ART, and build and manage an Agile portfolio.
To spread Lean-Agile throughout the organization, you need to train people who do the work itself. To make it practical and cost effective, Scaled Agile, Inc. supports instructor training, SPC licensing for SAFe courses. It provides an accessible training strategy and instructors needed for the goal of corporate change.

I'm SPC, what's next?

After passing the exam, participants become SPC certified and gain access to a variety of useful SPC resources . They also receive a license to teach courses.

THE END

If you have a question and comments, you can leave them here or go to Stanislav on an open day and ask him directly.

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