Many organizations start small in their SAFe adoption by applying the Essential SAFe configuration to form and launch an Agile Release Train (ART). This approach can generate quick wins and facilitate rapid learning while demonstrating incremental benefits. Based on these successes, the enterprise often launches more ARTs, and the cycle of adaptation and improvement continues.
These initial ART launches frequently begin within IT and Product-led software development environments. But, as Dean Leffingwell, the creator of SAFe, points out, “Achieving a state of Business Agility means that the entire organization—not just development—is engaged in continually and proactively delivering innovative business solutions faster than the competition.” This means that development-only teams and trains are not enough. Organizations must leverage other competencies to achieve true Business Agility. Value definition and delivery do not start and end within software development.
Typically, an organization seeking to get started with organizing around value performs a Value Stream and ART Identification Workshop (VSAIW) within a specific part of the organization (bottom-up) or as a way to understand the complete set of Value Streams across an enterprise (top-down) and then uses this information to identify a starting point for their journey toward Business Agility. The workshop provides a great starting point, and organizations are encouraged to revisit their value streams regularly to analyze whether current structures are still fit for purpose.
The workshop includes the following steps:
Ultimately, this process derives the Development Value Streams (DVS) and resulting ARTs that deliver the value to the OVSs.
Note: This process should not be confused with Value Stream Mapping, a lower-level activity meant to measure and optimize a specific DVS.
Initial ART designs typically include product and engineering roles, as other parts of the organization, such as marketing, finance, or legal, may not be ready to adopt Agile fully. Rather than being members of the teams on the ART, these different areas of the organization are often positioned as a shared service or external dependency as an interim measure. However, to achieve true Business Agility, they must be brought into the fold, especially when those functions are identified as key constraints for value delivery by residing outside the ART. There are also benefits that the function can achieve through leveraging Lean-Agile ways of working to aid in their business operations.
This article describes a thinking tool that is useful when organizing around value. This tool has been used successfully in the past for the following two purposes:
Both of these are further discussed below.
This article concludes by showing how to expand this technique so the organization can better visualize the interconnectedness of value delivery across the entire enterprise. Looking at the structures this way can provide data to take a more holistic approach to organizing around value and improving flow instead of organizing around hierarchical structures.
CITSO [1] is a visualization tool that provides a technique for better understanding value streams and their interconnectedness. It identifies Customers, Inputs, Teams/People, Systems/Solutions, and Outputs to help understand the flow of value, from customer request to value delivered (see Figure 1).
The tool has the following elements:
CITSO helps expose the overall flow of value and shows that the outputs of one team may become the inputs of another team. It reveals how to enable flow across the people, systems, and so on required to deliver a solution for a customer. Sometimes, the initial diagram is simple. Other times, it may be relatively complex and warrant deeper analysis to identify choices in team designs that optimize flow. Figure 2 shows an example of a simple vs complex CITSO. A complex CITSO often requires further decomposition by decomposing inputs, teams, and solutions. Look at the sub-areas within the various teams in the original diagram and run separate CITSO activities for each. Decomposing complex diagrams also allows more insight into dependencies and makes the current state more understandable.
Ultimately, what matters most are the collective conversations and understanding generated by the CITSO activity and visual outcomes. Understanding the customers, inputs, teams/people, systems/solutions, and outputs reveals commonalities and patterns. This will lead to a better value stream and team design when conducted the first time or when revisiting the organizational structure.
CITSO also visualizes dependencies on multiple levels: architecture, team structure, and skills and competencies. This information is essential to understanding who should be on the same train. The preferable way to set the ARTs is to have most of the dependencies within ART, minimize the external dependencies when possible, and eliminate some dependencies over time.
Describing the relationships and dependencies between these elements helps everyone understand the flow of value and commit to improving it. The following few sections describe some practical applications of CITSO.
CITSO can also help understand the interconnectedness with the rest of the enterprise at a macro level as this technique is applied across the organization over time. Figure 6 shows an application of CITSO expanded to the wider enterprise.
The steps taken in this approach are:
Business agility requires breaking down silos and working together to achieve flow. CITSO is a field-tested technique that helps realize many SAFe Principles: Apply systems thinking, Make value flow without interruptions, and Organize around value. First, get started with lean-thinking people and Agile teams – have the organization understand the Lean-Agile Mindset from the outset. Then, leverage CITSO and value stream conversations to identify potential ART and team designs that ensure better flow. Business agility will become a reality after more functions are engaged and are needed for end-to-end value.
This field-tested tool has real-world applicability to assist organizations with enhancing transparency of their functions’ value, the customers they serve, and the interconnectedness within and outside their functional organization. The resulting data generates information that aids in reshaping team structures so that they better enable flow within the function and across the wider enterprise as it continuously seeks to improve value stream and ART designs across functional organizations.
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