Core Competencies of Business Agility

First, let’s accept that every business is a software business – even BMW no longer regards itself as a car manufacturer but rather software on wheels. In a premium car, there are now over 100 million lines of code; in an autonomous car, over 1 billion lines of code.

So achieving a state of Business Agility requires the entire organization and everyone involved in delivering business solutions to use Lean and Agile practices.

Historically, Lean and Agile have just been applied to IT teams, and while Business Agility requires Technical Agility, it also needs a business-level commitment to product and Value Stream thinking.

There is no point in having super-efficient IT teams if it takes the team four months to procure a new piece of kit that is required for their product. There is no point in having super-efficient IT teams if it takes the team six months to replace a team member that has left and is part of their agreed headcount.

Business Agility requires not just development and operations but also Finance, People, Sales and Marketing, and Legal to all come together to use Lean and Agile practices. To achieve Business Agility, the organization requires a significant degree of expertise across seven Core Competencies. While each competency can deliver value independently, they are also interdependent in that true Business Agility can be present only when the enterprise achieves a meaningful state of mastery of all competencies.

The seven Core Competencies are as follows (see Figure 1.3):

• Team and Technical Agility (TTA)
• Agile Product Delivery (APD)
• Enterprise Solution Delivery (ESD)
• Lean-Portfolio Management (LPM)
• Organizational Agility (OA)
• Continuous Learning Culture (CLC)
• Lean-Agile Leadership (LAL)

Figure 1.3 – SAFe® Core Competencies (© Scaled Agile Inc.)

Each core competency has three dimensions. We will briefly describe each Core Competency and its associated three dimensions:

Team and Technical Agility (TTA)

Team and Technical Agility focuses on the technical aspects of the solution within the context of a high-performing Agile Team. It emphasizes the need for the teams to have a strong technical foundation and the ability to deliver high-quality, reliable solutions for their customers:

• Agile Teams: An Agile Team is the collective capabilities, skills, and behaviors of the cross-functional teams that are responsible for executing the work and delivering value within an Agile organization. Agile Teams are at the heart of SAFe® and play a crucial role in driving the success of Agile implementations.
• Team of Agile Teams: Agile Teams operate in the context of a SAFe® Agile Release Train (ART). It is a long-lived, self-organizing team of Agile Teams that work together to define, build, and deliver value in the form of solutions. The ART aligns the efforts of multiple Agile Teams towards a common mission and is the primary value delivery mechanism in SAFe®.
• Built-in Quality: All Agile Teams have the necessary technical practices in place to produce solutions that are reliable, maintainable, and scalable.

Agile Product Delivery (APD)

Agile Product Delivery focuses on the practices and techniques needed to continuously deliver valuable, high-quality solutions. APD ensures that teams can quickly and reliably release products and services in increments to customers and gather feedback for iterative improvement:

• Customer Centricity and Design Thinking: Emphasizes the importance of understanding customer needs, delivering value, and leveraging design thinking principles to create customer-centric solutions.
• Develop on Cadence, Release on Demand: Focuses on achieving a balance between predictable, timeboxed development cycles (cadence) and the flexibility to release software solutions when needed (on-demand). This competency helps organizations establish a rhythm for development while enabling frequent and timely delivery of value to customers.
• DevOps and the Continuous Delivery Pipeline: Emphasizes the integration of development (Dev) and Operations (Ops) practices to enable faster and more frequent releases. It includes continuous exploration, continuous integration, and continuous delivery. DevOps and Continuous Delivery Pipeline allow the deployment of solutions into production quickly and reliably, reducing time-to-market and improving feedback loops.

Enterprise Solution Delivery (ESD)

Enterprise Solution Delivery focuses on the ability to deliver large and complex solutions in a coordinated and efficient manner. This competency enables organizations to align their efforts, teams, and resources to deliver value at the enterprise level:

• Lean Systems Engineering: Focuses on applying Lean principles to system engineering activities to optimize the development process and deliver high-quality systems.
• Coordinating Trains and Suppliers: Focuses on establishing effective collaboration and coordination between ARTs and external suppliers or vendors. This competency helps organizations optimize the flow of value across the Value Stream by integrating and aligning the activities of multiple ARTs, including those from external suppliers.
• Continually Evolve Live Systems: Emphasizes the importance of ongoing improvement and adaptation of live systems to meet evolving customer needs and business objectives. This competency focuses on the continuous delivery of value by continuously enhancing and supporting systems throughout their life cycle.

Lean Portfolio Management (LPM)

Lean Portfolio Management focuses on aligning strategy, execution, and investment decisions to optimize the flow of value across the portfolio of initiatives and ensure Business Agility:

• Strategy and Investment Funding: Focuses on aligning strategic objectives with investment decisions to maximize value creation. This competency ensures that the organization’s investment decisions are driven by a clear understanding of business goals and objectives.
• Lean Governance: Focuses on establishing a lightweight and effective governance framework that enables agility and accountability while ensuring compliance and risk management. It emphasizes the need for governance practices that support the Lean-Agile principles and values.
• Agile Portfolio Operations: Focuses on optimizing the flow of value across the portfolio of initiatives and ensuring effective execution and delivery. It involves aligning and coordinating the activities of ARTs and providing operational support to drive Continuous Improvement.

Organizational Agility (OA)

Organizational Agility focuses on developing the capability to rapidly adapt, learn, and respond to changing market conditions, customer needs, and emerging opportunities. It encompasses the ability to embrace change, foster innovation, and continuously improve the organization’s practices and processes:

• Lean-Thinking People and Agile Teams: Focuses on developing individuals and teams with a Lean mindset and Agile capabilities. This competency aims to empower people to think Lean, embrace Agile values, and work collaboratively to deliver value effectively.
• Lean Business Operations: Emphasizes the application of Lean principles in various aspects of business operations to drive efficiency, quality, and value delivery to support the business’s products and services.
• Strategy Agility: Focuses on the organization’s ability to sense and respond to changing market conditions, customer needs, and emerging opportunities. It involves aligning strategy with execution, fostering innovation, and continuously adapting the strategic direction of the organization.

Continuous Learning Culture (CLC)

Continuous Learning Culture focuses on fostering a culture of learning, collaboration, and improvement at all levels of the organization. It recognizes that a learning organization is better equipped to adapt to change, innovate, and deliver value effectively:

• Learning Organization: Focuses on creating an environment where continuous learning, improvement, and innovation are valued and encouraged at all levels of the organization. It aims to foster a culture of learning and adaptability, enabling the organization to respond effectively to change and drive sustainable growth.
• Innovation Culture: Focuses on fostering an environment that encourages and supports innovation throughout the organization. It recognizes the importance of innovation in driving growth, competitive advantage, and the ability to respond to changing market dynamics.
• Relentless Improvement: Emphasizes the continuous pursuit of improvement in all aspects of the organization’s operations. It encourages a culture of ongoing reflection, learning, and enhancement to drive increased efficiency, quality, and value delivery.

Lean-Agile Leadership (LAL)

Lean-Agile Leadership focuses on developing Leaders who can effectively guide and support the organization’s Agile transformation. It involves adopting a leadership style that promotes the principles of Lean-Agile development and supports the success of Agile Teams and initiatives:

• Mindset and Principles: Focuses on adopting the Agile mindset and embracing the guiding principles that underpin the framework. This competency emphasizes the importance of mindset and values in driving successful Agile transformations and achieving Business Agility.
• Leading by Example: Focuses on the role of Leaders in modeling and embodying the desired behaviors, values, and practices of an Agile organization. It recognizes that leadership plays a critical role in shaping the culture, mindset, and behavior of teams and individuals.
• Leading Change: Focuses on equipping Leaders with the knowledge and skills to effectively lead and navigate organizational change during the Agile transformation. It recognizes that change is inherent in adopting new ways of working and that effective leadership is crucial for successful change management.

Pro tip

If you are teaching Leading SAFe®, only provide a brief overview of the seven Core Competencies because the competencies are covered in more detail in the various lessons that follow the opening lesson.

We will explore these competencies in more detail in the following chapters, in particular, Part 1, Team and Technical Agility, Part 2, Agile Product Delivery, Part 3, Lean Portfolio Management, and Chapter 16, Lean-Agile Leadership.

Caution

If you are teaching Leading SAFe®, only three of the seven Core Competencies are covered - Lean-Agile Leadership (LAL), Team and Technical Agility (TTA), and Agile Product Delivery (APD), plus part of Lean Portfolio Management (LPM). As a consequence, you need to remind your learners that they will only be examined on these competencies.

However, you should encourage your learners to explore the other competencies in the framework.