When looking at scaling frameworks, 37% uses SAFe. Followed by Scrum of Scrums\/Scrum@Scale with 9%. That is a difference of 28 percent points between the number 1 and number 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Around me I hear some companies switching from Scrum to SAFe. And not every company needs to be scaling. Remember the 1st<\/sup> rule of scaling: \u201cDon\u2019t scale!\u201d. It\u2019s often better not to scale up your teams, but to scale down the dependencies between teams. The second rule of scaling: \u201cDon\u2019t scale it till you made it.\u201d Don\u2019t scale if your teams haven\u2019t mastered Agile working on a team level yet. You\u2019ll only add complexity and making the chance of success even smaller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Taking a look at Scrum, Scrum doesn\u2019t describe beyond the team level. The Scrum Guide states that one of the responsibilities of the Scrum Master is to serve the organization in leading, training and coaching in its Scrum adaptation and planning and advising Scrum implementations within the organization<\/em>. How that\u2019s done and what the role is going to be of people and how the organization is going to look like isn\u2019t shown. And that\u2019s ok, because the goal of the Scrum Guide is not to be prescriptive. Aligning business and development can be hard for some organizations. Also, some layers of management have a hard time with Scrum. Scrum advocates putting the responsibility as low as possible in the organization. When possible, in the Scrum Teams: \u201dThe Scrum Team is responsible for all product-related activities from stakeholder collaboration, verification, maintenance, operation, experimentation, research and development, and anything else that might be required. <\/em>They [the Scrum teams] are structured and empowered by the organization to manage their own work.<\/em>\u201d (Scrum Guide 2020). If you read the Scrum Guide, without knowing the soul of Scrum, one could read \u201cJust let the Scrum Teams do their thing and everything will be ok. We don\u2019t need people like managers anymore.\u201d<\/em> So what place does management have in this? In a LinkedIn post I saw 2 questions I\u2019ve heard managers ask before:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat will people think of me if I’m not constantly visible?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWill my employer see my value if I’m not managing people?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Also I\u2019ve heard remarks like:\u201d I\u2019m loosing the connection with the teams. How do I keep connected with them?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Looking at SAFe, even \u201cEssential SAFe\u201d offers an organizational view beyond the Scrum Teams. This makes the position for \u201cLean-Agile Leadership\u201d more clear than within Scrum. Yes, there are paths where the role of Agile Leadership is made clear, Think about the Professional Agile Leadership path, but just looking at the Scrum Framework, as described in the Scrum Guide, it doesn\u2019t explicit cover leadership (besides the leader who serves in the role of a Scrum Master). Finding your place in the organization and how to grow as an Agile Leader is up to you to find knowledge about from other sources. Think about books like \u201cExtreme Ownership\u201d by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin and \u201cThe Serving Leader\u201d by Ken Jennings and John Stahl-Wert or the book \u201cCreativity, inc.\u201d by Ed Catmull. Those are not books about how to be a leader in an organization where Scrum is used, but they help you create a mindset about leaders who serve. What do the teams need to grow and how can you, as a leader, help them in their journey. And let a Scrum Master help you develop as an Agile Leader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SAFe covers the essence of what the creators think is needed from Lean-Agile Leadership in their framework. It covers the dimensions \u201cMindset & Principles\u201d, \u201cLeading by Example\u201d and \u201cLeading Change\u201d. It gives a more clear view on what is expected from leadership in the organization. That clear view is what people often helps with embracing a framework. When an organization changes, giving some clarity about your place in the new organization helps take away uncertainty. If you look at the organizational structure, Scrum looks different to an organization. The traditional \u201cTaylor\u201d like, hierarchical, organization is often shown as less suitable and there is more preference for a more organic, network structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/scrum-agile.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/scrumorg.jpg\")
(source: https:\/\/www.scrum.org\/resources\/blog\/business-agility<\/a>)
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