Appropriate Agile: Integrating SAFe^® WoW with Regulatory-Compliant Engineering

Striking the right balance between regulatory-compliant engineering and Agile ways-of-working (WoW) can be challenging. The Scaled Agile Framework® (SAFe^®) supports well the organizational scaling factors^[1] such as team size, skills, geographical and organizational distribution. The regulatory-compliant engineering must support the solution scaling factors such as compliance, solution and domain complexity. The integrated process must support both the organizational and solution scaling factors.

Our team has extended the Automotive Process Framework (AFP) to support Essential SAFe^®, allowing individual projects to decide whether they want to use conventional iterative and incremental Project Management or Essential SAFe^® Agile WoW.

In this session, we will briefly outline some of the principles underpinning our approach to supporting and integrating Essential SAFe^® with the APF and illustrate them with a few specific examples. We will also discuss how Agile ways-of-working can support non-engineering teams providing services and support, illustrated with a customer’s examples.

Remember, agile must always be applied appropriately. Trying to be more agile than your scaling-factors allow will usually end in failure!

[1] Scott W Ambler, ‘Scaling Factors’, Disciplined Agile, Project Management Institute, https://www.pmi.org/disciplined-agile/agility-at-scale/tactical-agility-at-scale/scaling-factors

Rune Kølle Christensen

Rune Christensen is a SAFe^® Practice Consultant Trainer (SPCT), the highest level of certification provided by Scaled Agile Inc., the company behind SAFe^®. He has been working as a Strategic Advisor for Scaled Agile since January 2020, supporting enterprises in the EMEA region adopting Lean-Agile principles and practices across their organization and achieving greater business outcomes.

With over 20 years of experience in software and cyber-physical solutions across various industries and domains, he is passionate about delivering value to customers and enabling continuous improvement and innovation.

Steven Beard

Steven leads engineering-centric process improvement initiatives for UL Solutions strategic customers worldwide in the Automotive, and Aerospace and Defense sectors.

He is the Solution Owner of the Automotive Process Framework compliant with the project scope of Automotive SPICE^® 3.1, ISO/SAE 21434:2022 Cybersecurity engineering, ISO 26262:2018 Functional safety, Hardware SPICE^® 2.0 and Mechanical SPICE^® 1.8, and now supports Essential SAFe^®.