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Using Rally Software to Implement
the Scaled Agile FrameworkTM
A Comprehensive Solution for Portfolio, Program,
and Team Levels of Adoption



In 2012, Dean Leffingwell released the Scaled Agile Framework
(SAFe), “a proven, publicly available framework for applying
Lean|Agile practices at enterprise scale.”1 While Agile software
development is well understood at the team level, this framework
codifies how to take Agile principles above the Team level and into
the Program and Portfolio levels. This Agile Portfolio Management
framework comes at a time when more and more organizations
adopting Agile at scale struggle to keep up with the fast pace of
Agile teams’ software delivery.

This paper describes how Rally Software provides a comprehensive
solution for implementing SAFe in your organization. While you will
find many vendors providing Agile support for the Team level, Rally
provides support at each and every one of the three SAFe levels.
This stems from Rally’s close cooperation with Leffingwell during
the development of Rally Portfolio Manager and the influence of
Leffingwell’s Agile Software Requirements2 book, from which the
Scaled Agile Framework was created.

The paper is organized by the SAFe levels - Portfolio, Program and
Team - so you may skip to the section most pertinent to your role in
the organization.

                            Portfolio Managers, Product Strategists, CIOs,
    Portfolio Section
                            PMOs

                            Product Managers, Program Managers, VP of
    Program Section
                            Products, VP of Development, PMOs

                            Product Owners, ScrumMasters, Developers,
    Team Section
                            and Testers

NOTE: This paper assumes you are familiar with SAFe. To learn about SAFe, visit
www.scaledagileframework.com.

1
 http://scaledagileframework.com/
2
 Leffingwell, Dean (2011). Agile Software Requirements: Lean Requirements Practices
for Teams, Programs, and the Enterprise. Boston: Pearson Education.

www.rallydev.com ©2012 Rally Software Development                                     1
Using Rally Software to Implement the Scaled Agile FrameworkTM




Portfolio Level
This level translates the organization’s strategy into a set of
investment themes, business, and architectural epics. Investment
themes track budget allocations and help monitor and respect those
allocations as people plan. Business and architectural epics are large-
scale development initiatives that realize the value of investment
themes. Kanban systems provide a quantitative, transparent basis for
economic decision-making.

In Rally, portfolio items represent artifacts for the Portfolio and
Program levels of SAFe. By default, SAFe includes Business Epics,
Architectural Epics and Features at those levels, but “there is no
perfect hierarchy” so you may create any number of additional levels,
for instance, to track sub-epics.


www.rallydev.com ©2012 Rally Software Development                         2
Using Rally Software to Implement the Scaled Agile FrameworkTM


Rally Portfolio Manager provides the Portfolio Management Team
visibility at the Epic level.

                  Rally Support for the Portfolio Level
           SAFe Concepts                      Rally SAFe Support
                                      Unlimited number of portfolio item
 Customizable artifact hierarchy
                                      with customizable names

 Portfolio backlog                    Portfolio item grid

                                      Portfolio item Investment Category
 Investment theme
                                      field

    % budget allocation                  Portfolio alignment report

 Epics (business and architectural)   “Epic” portfolio item Type field
                                         Portfolio item formatted Descrip-
   Epic lightweight business case
                                         tion field
                                         Portfolio item Preliminary Estimate
   Epic business value
                                         field
                                         Portfolio item Preliminary Estimate
   Epic size
                                         field
                                         Portfolio item Planned Start Date
   Epic estimated development            field
   timeline (start/completion date)      Portfolio item Planned End Date
                                         field
   Epic rank                           Portfolio Item Rank field

 Kanban Systems                       Portfolio Kanban Board

 Metrics

   Epic success criteria              Portfolio Kanban exit policies




www.rallydev.com ©2012 Rally Software Development                              3
Using Rally Software to Implement the Scaled Agile FrameworkTM




                            Portfolio Level view in Rally



Program Level
The Program level is the level where we see most customers struggle
and where SAFe provides some of its highest value by clearly
describing how to address typical challenges. This level focuses on
planning and tracking the business value that Agile teams deliver.
The key challenge is in channeling Agile teams’ execution power to
drive desired business outcomes. After all, Agile is just a means to
an end: to deliver more valuable software faster. Because Agile has
historically started at the Team level, we see many organizations get
lost in “a ocean of user stories” managed by Agile teams, with no
visibility into actual business outcome delivered.

Rally Portfolio Manager provides Product Management and Release
Management teams with visibility at the Feature level.

                  Rally support for the Program level
          SAFe Concepts                               Rally SAFe Support
                                            Portfolio Dashboard Grid showing
 Program Backlog
                                            Feature portfolio items

 Agile Release Train PSIs                   Portfolio item Planning Timebox field

 Program Roadmap                            Portfolio Dashboard Grid per PSI




www.rallydev.com ©2012 Rally Software Development                                   4
Using Rally Software to Implement the Scaled Agile FrameworkTM


             SAFe Concepts                          Rally SAFe Support
  Features                                 Portfolio item with ‘Feature’ Type

   Feature cost of delay                      Portfolio item Vale Score Field

 Metrics

   Feature burndown                           Portfolio item burnup
                                              Portfolio item %done fields with
   Feature completeness
                                              Red Green Yellow indicator
                                              Portfolio item grid showing
   Program performance report
                                              %done fields (by size or by count)
                                              Portfolio Dashboard grid with
   PSI progress report
                                              %done and filtered by PSI




                           Program level view in Rally



Team Level
Rally is a leader in Agile project management, so this paper won’t
attempt to fully cover Rally’s extensive support at the Team level.
Rather, this paper highlights Rally’s key Team level features in support
of SAFe. There are many vendors selling Agile development tools
for uncoordinated teams, (Atlassian Jira + GreenHopper, Collabnet
Scrumworks, Thoughtworks Mingle, and more) however, support for
coordinating teams is a tenet of SAFe.

Rally provides Agile Teams with unique rollup capabilities in support
of the SAFe synchronized team cadence. This synchronization is key
to ensuring that SAFe coordination is in place. That way, Program
and Portfolio levels don’t get lost in the ocean of user stories created


www.rallydev.com ©2012 Rally Software Development                                  5
Using Rally Software to Implement the Scaled Agile FrameworkTM


by uncoordinated teams that have adopted software solutions
independently from each other.


           SAFe Concepts                            Rally SAFe Support

 Team backlog                              Iteration backlog page

 Iteration tracking                        Iteration tracking board

 Common iteration schedule                 Matching iterations in all teams




                             Team Level view in Rally




Conclusion
We hope this paper helped describe how to implement SAFe
with Rally. If you need assistance with your SAFe implementation,
contact us. Rally’s certified SAFe instructors provide implementation
services, Rally Portfolio Manager implementation workshops, and a
host of other services to help you scale your Agile adoption. Contact
us at sales@rallydev.com for more details.




www.rallydev.com ©2012 Rally Software Development                             6

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Scaled Agile Framework Whitepaper

  • 1. Using Rally Software to Implement the Scaled Agile FrameworkTM A Comprehensive Solution for Portfolio, Program, and Team Levels of Adoption In 2012, Dean Leffingwell released the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), “a proven, publicly available framework for applying Lean|Agile practices at enterprise scale.”1 While Agile software development is well understood at the team level, this framework codifies how to take Agile principles above the Team level and into the Program and Portfolio levels. This Agile Portfolio Management framework comes at a time when more and more organizations adopting Agile at scale struggle to keep up with the fast pace of Agile teams’ software delivery. This paper describes how Rally Software provides a comprehensive solution for implementing SAFe in your organization. While you will find many vendors providing Agile support for the Team level, Rally provides support at each and every one of the three SAFe levels. This stems from Rally’s close cooperation with Leffingwell during the development of Rally Portfolio Manager and the influence of Leffingwell’s Agile Software Requirements2 book, from which the Scaled Agile Framework was created. The paper is organized by the SAFe levels - Portfolio, Program and Team - so you may skip to the section most pertinent to your role in the organization. Portfolio Managers, Product Strategists, CIOs, Portfolio Section PMOs Product Managers, Program Managers, VP of Program Section Products, VP of Development, PMOs Product Owners, ScrumMasters, Developers, Team Section and Testers NOTE: This paper assumes you are familiar with SAFe. To learn about SAFe, visit www.scaledagileframework.com. 1 http://scaledagileframework.com/ 2 Leffingwell, Dean (2011). Agile Software Requirements: Lean Requirements Practices for Teams, Programs, and the Enterprise. Boston: Pearson Education. www.rallydev.com ©2012 Rally Software Development 1
  • 2. Using Rally Software to Implement the Scaled Agile FrameworkTM Portfolio Level This level translates the organization’s strategy into a set of investment themes, business, and architectural epics. Investment themes track budget allocations and help monitor and respect those allocations as people plan. Business and architectural epics are large- scale development initiatives that realize the value of investment themes. Kanban systems provide a quantitative, transparent basis for economic decision-making. In Rally, portfolio items represent artifacts for the Portfolio and Program levels of SAFe. By default, SAFe includes Business Epics, Architectural Epics and Features at those levels, but “there is no perfect hierarchy” so you may create any number of additional levels, for instance, to track sub-epics. www.rallydev.com ©2012 Rally Software Development 2
  • 3. Using Rally Software to Implement the Scaled Agile FrameworkTM Rally Portfolio Manager provides the Portfolio Management Team visibility at the Epic level. Rally Support for the Portfolio Level SAFe Concepts Rally SAFe Support Unlimited number of portfolio item Customizable artifact hierarchy with customizable names Portfolio backlog Portfolio item grid Portfolio item Investment Category Investment theme field % budget allocation Portfolio alignment report Epics (business and architectural) “Epic” portfolio item Type field Portfolio item formatted Descrip- Epic lightweight business case tion field Portfolio item Preliminary Estimate Epic business value field Portfolio item Preliminary Estimate Epic size field Portfolio item Planned Start Date Epic estimated development field timeline (start/completion date) Portfolio item Planned End Date field Epic rank Portfolio Item Rank field Kanban Systems Portfolio Kanban Board Metrics Epic success criteria Portfolio Kanban exit policies www.rallydev.com ©2012 Rally Software Development 3
  • 4. Using Rally Software to Implement the Scaled Agile FrameworkTM Portfolio Level view in Rally Program Level The Program level is the level where we see most customers struggle and where SAFe provides some of its highest value by clearly describing how to address typical challenges. This level focuses on planning and tracking the business value that Agile teams deliver. The key challenge is in channeling Agile teams’ execution power to drive desired business outcomes. After all, Agile is just a means to an end: to deliver more valuable software faster. Because Agile has historically started at the Team level, we see many organizations get lost in “a ocean of user stories” managed by Agile teams, with no visibility into actual business outcome delivered. Rally Portfolio Manager provides Product Management and Release Management teams with visibility at the Feature level. Rally support for the Program level SAFe Concepts Rally SAFe Support Portfolio Dashboard Grid showing Program Backlog Feature portfolio items Agile Release Train PSIs Portfolio item Planning Timebox field Program Roadmap Portfolio Dashboard Grid per PSI www.rallydev.com ©2012 Rally Software Development 4
  • 5. Using Rally Software to Implement the Scaled Agile FrameworkTM SAFe Concepts Rally SAFe Support Features Portfolio item with ‘Feature’ Type Feature cost of delay Portfolio item Vale Score Field Metrics Feature burndown Portfolio item burnup Portfolio item %done fields with Feature completeness Red Green Yellow indicator Portfolio item grid showing Program performance report %done fields (by size or by count) Portfolio Dashboard grid with PSI progress report %done and filtered by PSI Program level view in Rally Team Level Rally is a leader in Agile project management, so this paper won’t attempt to fully cover Rally’s extensive support at the Team level. Rather, this paper highlights Rally’s key Team level features in support of SAFe. There are many vendors selling Agile development tools for uncoordinated teams, (Atlassian Jira + GreenHopper, Collabnet Scrumworks, Thoughtworks Mingle, and more) however, support for coordinating teams is a tenet of SAFe. Rally provides Agile Teams with unique rollup capabilities in support of the SAFe synchronized team cadence. This synchronization is key to ensuring that SAFe coordination is in place. That way, Program and Portfolio levels don’t get lost in the ocean of user stories created www.rallydev.com ©2012 Rally Software Development 5
  • 6. Using Rally Software to Implement the Scaled Agile FrameworkTM by uncoordinated teams that have adopted software solutions independently from each other. SAFe Concepts Rally SAFe Support Team backlog Iteration backlog page Iteration tracking Iteration tracking board Common iteration schedule Matching iterations in all teams Team Level view in Rally Conclusion We hope this paper helped describe how to implement SAFe with Rally. If you need assistance with your SAFe implementation, contact us. Rally’s certified SAFe instructors provide implementation services, Rally Portfolio Manager implementation workshops, and a host of other services to help you scale your Agile adoption. Contact us at sales@rallydev.com for more details. www.rallydev.com ©2012 Rally Software Development 6