Proven Experience
With certified Agile expertise and deep experience in scaling delivery, we transformed how a global organization approached innovation. The mission was bold: deliver omnichannel capabilities across 32 markets while improving speed, adaptability, and collaboration between IT and business. Before adopting SAFE, delivery rates were just 35%, and innovation was slow and siloed.
Why Scaled Agile?
What is SAFE?
Scaled Agile Framework (SAFE) is a proven methodology designed to help large enterprises adopt agile practices at scale. It provides a structured approach for aligning strategy with execution, enabling organizations to deliver value faster and more predictably. SAFE combines principles from Lean, Agile, and DevOps to create a framework that works across multiple teams, programs, and portfolios.
Why is SAFE Important for Any Organization?
In today’s fast-changing business environment, speed and adaptability are critical. Traditional delivery models often fail when complexity grows—especially across multiple markets or business units. SAFE is important because it:
Aligns business and technology: Ensures IT and business teams share the same priorities and language.
Improves predictability and delivery: Moves organizations from fragmented execution to synchronized delivery.
Enables scalability: Works for organizations with hundreds or thousands of team members across geographies.
Leveraging Priorities with Constraints
One of SAFE’s strengths is its ability to help organizations prioritize effectively under constraints such as limited resources, time, and budgets. This is achieved through:
Weighted Shortest Job First (WSJF): A scoring model that ranks initiatives based on business value, time criticality, risk reduction, and effort.
Portfolio alignment: Ensures that every team’s work ties back to strategic objectives.
Transparent decision-making: Everyone understands why certain features or capabilities are prioritized.
Scoring and Alignment Across Teams
SAFE introduces Program Increment (PI) Planning, where teams come together to:
- Score and rank features using WSJF.
- Align on shared objectives and dependencies.
- Create a roadmap that reflects both business priorities and technical realities.
This alignment is critical for large-scale initiatives like omnichannel capability development, where multiple teams must deliver shared components.
Change Management at Scale
Implementing SAFE is not just a process change—it’s a cultural transformation. It requires:
- Breaking silos between IT and business.
- Training and coaching teams on agile principles.
- Building trust and transparency across the organization.
While challenging, the results speak for themselves. In our case, delivery rates jumped from 35% to 85%, proving that change management at scale can be highly successful when supported by the right framework.
Change Management In Action
Challenge
Operating across multiple markets introduced complexity, fragmented processes, and competing priorities. Traditional delivery models lacked agility and transparency, making it difficult to innovate quickly. Teams were hesitant to experiment because failure meant costly delays. The organization needed a way to prioritize under constraints, align teams, and create an environment where innovation could thrive.
Opportunities in Action
We implemented the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFE) to enable agility and innovation at enterprise scale. SAFE provided:
- 12-week sprint cycles that allowed teams to focus on what mattered most while iterating quickly.
- Fail-fast culture: Teams could test new approaches, learn from outcomes, and pivot without waiting for lengthy approval cycles.
- WSJF scoring to prioritize initiatives based on business value, time criticality, and effort.
- Program Increment (PI) Planning for alignment across teams and portfolios.
- A shared roadmap where IT and business worked in lockstep, breaking silos and fostering transparency.
This was not just a process change—it was change management at scale, requiring cultural transformation, training, and trust-building across the organization. SAFE became the foundation for benchmarking innovation, enabling us to measure progress and continuously improve.
Results
The impact was transformative:
- Delivery rate improved from 35% to 85% post-SAFE implementation.
- Omnichannel capabilities were deployed across all 32 markets, creating consistent customer experiences.
- Innovation accelerated: teams could experiment, fail fast, and move quickly, reducing time-to-market for new ideas.
- IT and business alignment fostered faster decision-making and adaptability.
- A scalable model for innovation was established, setting a benchmark for future initiatives.
