SAFe, get real with Scrum or get out!
Agile marked the end of RUP somewhere around 2003. But they are back with a vengeance. It looks to me like they are supplanting Agile with a Trojan Horse called SAFe. In this article I will share why I believe this.
SAFe emerged by mining the best Agile and Lean practices and ‘frankensteining’ them.
I have a lot of respect for Scrum practitioners in SAFe. I don’t question the positive intentions driving SAFe consultants and coaches. I enjoy good professional relationships with some. I learned a lot from them and am thankful. I can only admire and credit their courage and resolve.
Agile Fatigue
The (certified) SAFe practitioners I talked to shared a common theme with me, something perhaps best described as ‘Agile fatigue’. They sensed a lack of true meaningfulness about the changes introduced through the Scaled Agile Transformation Program.
Particularly exhausting, they agreed, was the two-day PI planning. But it was not as harrowing as Iteration Reviews. I asked what about it was so harrowing, “It was like appearing before the tribunal every two weeks. Our heads were on the plate. Some didn’t make it.”
