Welcome to this special edition of the SAFe Business Agility podcast featuring in-person conversations captured at the 2022 SAFe Summit. In today’s episode, Josh Burdick, a Certified Agile Coach and Project Manager at Chevron, explains how a century-old company shifted its culture to embrace an Agile mindset, make faster decisions, and respond to new markets. Plus, Josh and our host, Tim Shisler, discuss the flexibility and adaptability of SAFe, and Josh shares his number-one tip for new trainer...
Nov 08, 2022•17 min•Ep 84•Transcript available on Metacast Who should introduce Agile engineering practices to Scrum and Kanban teams? Senior developers? Scrum Masters? Find out as Adam gives us the short and long(ish) answer to the question.
Nov 04, 2022•5 min•Transcript available on Metacast Change is hard no matter what, but it doesn't have to be painful. In this episode, Adam explains why the guidance in the Framework isn't rigid, and how you can incorporate that guidance as it applies to your context and environment.
Nov 01, 2022•4 min•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to this special edition of the SAFe Business Agility podcast featuring in-person conversations captured at the 2022 SAFe Summit. In today’s episode, find out how what started out as a personal mission turned into a business friendship and a hot topic. Listen as Dean Leffingwell, co-founder and chief methodologist at Scaled Agile, and Mik Kersten, CTO of Planview and author of Project to Product, take a deep-dive into Flow. We hope you enjoy the show!
Oct 25, 2022•23 min•Ep 80•Transcript available on Metacast “Many people in organizations think they are just too complex to have that business agility. However, as a company, AT&T proved that we could pivot and establish new ways of working to meet an urgent need.” What started with a small Agile group in 2012 has evolved into a growing effort to scale Agile across AT&T—a large enterprise with 200,000+ employees. In this episode, Mary Ellen Ferrara, who leads the AT&T Business Lean-Agile Center of Excellence, and Chandra Srivastava, an Agile coach in th...
Apr 12, 2022•18 min•Ep 79•Transcript available on Metacast The best way to improve your skills is through practice. But practicing the wrong way can lead to bad habits. In this episode of the SAFe Business Agility podcast, SPCT Dwayne Stroman discusses the concept of “practice makes permanent” and how it helps drive a successful SAFe implementation.
Mar 29, 2022•21 min•Ep 78•Transcript available on Metacast Technical expert, cat-herder, change leader, entrepreneur. Lots of terms have been used to describe an architect. But a marine pilot? In today’s episode of the SAFe Business Agility podcast, senior consultant at cPrime and SPCT candidate Steve Adolph joins us to talk about that metaphor, plus the importance of the architect role, and why it doesn’t get enough visibility.
Mar 15, 2022•14 min•Ep 77•Transcript available on Metacast In between running the Value Stream and ART Identification Workshop and actually launching an ART lies an informal process to determine what people should be involved where. And when that informal process is rushed, it can lead to less than optimal outcomes. At least that’s what SPCT Marshall Guillory experienced as he worked with organizations at that point in their SAFe journey. In today’s episode, Marshall joins us to discuss the importance of team formation and self-selection.
Feb 28, 2022•13 min•Ep 76•Transcript available on Metacast Sometimes an Agile transformation is a lot harder than it needs to be. It can happen when an organization is launching an ART, or it can happen during something as simple as helping an individual team improve its demos. So how do you spot that friction and remove it from your transformation? In this episode, Eric Willeke, SAFe Fellow and founder of Elevate, joins us to discuss how tactics and different investments make it easier to do the work of successful change
Feb 15, 2022•18 min•Ep 75•Transcript available on Metacast A continuous learning culture can positively impact an organization’s performance, innovation, competency, and competitive advantage. But what exactly is it and how do you create one in your organization? In this episode, Jeff Shupack, SAFe Fellow and SPCT at Product and Team, joins us to define continuous learning culture, explain why it’s important, and describe what it looks like in the real world.
Feb 01, 2022•17 min•Ep 74•Transcript available on Metacast Lean-Agile practices thrive in a trust-based environment. And leaders play a huge role in creating that environment for everyone in the organization. But leadership skills and behaviors aren’t necessarily intuitive for all leaders. And leaders often don’t get the help they need to learn how to evolve and grow in their role. In this episode, Dr. Steve Mayner, SAFe Fellow and principal consultant at Scaled Agile shares insights he’s observed about leaders (and himself) while developing his Leading...
Jan 18, 2022•20 min•Ep 73•Transcript available on Metacast Learning doesn’t just start in the classroom. It continues as learners take the knowledge they’ve gained and apply it to their role. So, how can instructors and trainers create a more powerful learning experience and give learners the support they need to grow? In this episode, we turn to our Scaled Agile colleagues, Tamara Nation, director of product management, and Bill Sizemore, SAFe content advisor for advice, tips, and stories from the field about how to become a great SAFe instructor....
Dec 21, 2021•24 min•Ep 72•Transcript available on Metacast When people think of intelligence, most associate it with IQ. But emotional intelligence is actually a better indication of how a person will succeed in their career. In this episode, Jennifer Fawcett, SAFe Fellow and semi-retired Agile coach, consultant, and speaker, joins us to discuss emotional intelligence, how it can help individuals and organizations succeed, and the role it plays in SAFe.
Dec 06, 2021•21 min•Ep 71•Transcript available on Metacast Defining and effectively managing value streams can translate to satisfied customers and competitive advantage. But what is value stream management and how does it relate to SAFe? In this episode, Richard Knaster, SAFe Fellow and vice president and chief scientist at Digital AI, and Marc Rix continue their conversation about why value stream management is important, and how it can help organizations succeed in the digital age.
Nov 23, 2021•11 min•Ep 70•Transcript available on Metacast Defining and effectively managing value streams can translate to satisfied customers and competitive advantage. But what is value stream management and how does it relate to SAFe? In this episode, Richard Knaster, SAFe Fellow and vice president and chief scientist at Digital AI, and Marc Rix, SAFe Fellow and principal consultant at Scaled Agile explain what value stream management is, why it’s important, and how it can help organizations succeed in the digital age.
Nov 09, 2021•16 min•Ep 69•Transcript available on Metacast Objectives and key results (OKRs) are essential in guiding an organization in its Lean-Agile transformation. But what exactly are OKRs and how and why should leaders use them? In this episode, Vikas Kapila, SPCT at Enterprise Agility Consulting, shares three business agility transformation OKRs that leaders can use to accelerate adoption and outcomes.
Oct 26, 2021•22 min•Ep 68•Transcript available on Metacast Three technology trends—artificial intelligence (AI), big data, and cloud—are converging to provide new ways of understanding, managing, and transforming products and services. What does that mean for enterprises now and in the future? In this episode, Dean Leffingwell, Scaled Agile co-founder and SAFe chief methodologist shares highlights from his 2021 Global SAFe Summit talk. He discusses the concept of the business agility value stream in applying SAFe to accelerate time-to-market and effecti...
Oct 12, 2021•16 min•Ep 67•Transcript available on Metacast Implementing Lean Portfolio Management (LPM) is a complex journey—one that an organization might not get a second chance to roll out. In this episode, Phil Gardiner, SAFe practice leader, executive consultant, and SPCT with Applied Frameworks, joins us to discuss how organizations can successfully launch and evolve their LPM implementation.
Sep 28, 2021•15 min•Ep 66•Transcript available on Metacast Organizational politics. Skeptical leaders. Differing perspectives and assumptions on how the organization actually delivers value. There are lots of potential hurdles to clear when an organization embarks on a Lean-Agile journey. In this episode, Adam Mattis, SPCT at Scaled Agile, joins us to discuss how business architecture affects value stream mapping.
Sep 14, 2021•18 min•Ep 65•Transcript available on Metacast In direct response to customer feedback, the Framework team recently released a significant update to its guidance on SAFe® Metrics. In this episode, Andrew Sales, member of the Framework team and SAFe Fellow, joins us to explain what’s changed, why these changes are important, and where enterprises can find key resources to help them apply the new guidance.
Aug 31, 2021•18 min•Ep 64•Transcript available on Metacast Lean Portfolio Management (LPM) is gaining momentum among enterprises seeking to connect strategy and execution with the teams that are doing the work. In this episode, SPCT Deema Dajani speaks with us about LPM and how to implement it.
Aug 17, 2021•15 min•Ep 63•Transcript available on Metacast “We reorganized our company from three distinct business units to a functionally aligned organization, where everyone is responsible for delivering value to the customer.” In this episode, we talk to Janice Murray and Adrienne Dieball at ACT.org about revisiting the organization’s value streams and Agile Release Trains (ARTs). Find out the aha moment that helped them move toward organizing around value, the benefits of integrating business teams onto ARTs, lessons learned, and next steps.
Aug 03, 2021•16 min•Ep 62•Transcript available on Metacast When enterprises extend SAFe into the business, complexities can arise as people within organizational value streams interact with those in development value streams. In this episode, members of our panel share their insights and stories from the field about the role of the operational and development value streams in an enterprise’s journey toward business agility.
Jul 20, 2021•30 min•Ep 61•Transcript available on Metacast Release Train Engineers (RTEs) play an important role in aligning the organization. In this episode, we talk to Kimberly Lejonö and Carl Starendal, both former RTEs and experienced Agile coaches, who share their tips for RTEs just getting started in their role. And we’ll dive into some questions we hear from RTEs in the field around inspiring change across teams and Agile Release Trains (ARTs), and managing the flow of value.
Jul 06, 2021•21 min•Ep 60•Transcript available on Metacast What happens when the strategy set by an organization’s leaders is disconnected from the work that’s actually happening on the Agile Release Train? In this episode, SAFe® Fellow and SPCT Eric Willeke joins us to discuss how to get leadership to focus on strategic direction, and how to make sure people on the trains know the why (not just the what) behind the work.
Jun 22, 2021•20 min•Ep 59•Transcript available on Metacast In part two of our scrum master tips and tricks series, Madi Fisher and Sam Ervin are back with even more advice. In this episode, we talk about managing timeboxes, why communication and trust within teams are so important, and how to be an awesome scrum master.
Jun 08, 2021•22 min•Ep 58•Transcript available on Metacast While lots of people are still working remotely, some are returning to company offices, creating hybrid team environments. What does this new normal mean for collaboration within Agile teams? We turned to two of our scrum masters, Madi Fisher and Sam Ervin, to find out.
May 25, 2021•15 min•Ep 57•Transcript available on Metacast Many organizations that develop and deliver software have been practicing Agile for a decade, if not longer. That hasn’t typically been the case for organizations developing hardware, until now. In this episode, Harry Koehnemann, Principal Contributor at Scaled Agile, joins us to discuss why organizations developing hardware are under pressure to deliver faster. And what guidance SAFe® 5 has to help them address these challenges.
May 11, 2021•17 min•Ep 56•Transcript available on Metacast It’s hard to practice SAFe effectively and achieve business agility if your key stakeholders aren’t fully engaged at the right levels. In this episode, Charlene Cuenca, principal consultant and SPCT at Icon Agility, joins us to discuss why business owners are critical to successfully connect strategy to execution—and deliver better business outcomes.
Apr 27, 2021•18 min•Ep 55•Transcript available on Metacast Organizations practicing SAFe create value streams to accelerate time to value. But what’s the difference between an operational and a development value stream? How do they coexist to optimize flow? And how are value streams critical to achieving business agility? In this episode, Ian Spence, SAFe Fellow and Chief Scientist at Ivar Jacobson International, answers these questions, and much more.
Apr 13, 2021•21 min•Ep 54•Transcript available on Metacast 
