Agile enterprise development can be an unwieldy process. Teams can get disconnected from one another and end up working in silos with little understanding or appreciation for what other teams are working on. When we’re talking about things at the enterprise level, this kind of arrangement quickly leads to misalignment, confusion, delays, and inefficiency.
The Scaled Agile Framework was created to solve these issues and help organizations develop at scale. But it’s no secret that UX research and agile methods can have a tough time mixing.
So how can UX teams not only survive, but thrive within a Scaled Agile Framework?
Below we’ll cover how UX fits into the SAFe model and the best practices you can start implementing to perform UX research under this framework.
How UX fits within a Scaled Agile Framework
The Scaled Agile Framework, or SAFe, is a framework for implementing Lean-Agile development at scale. Think of it as more of a knowledge base of best practices and patterns than a prescriptive methodology. It’s designed to help organizations deliver value efficiently, continuously, and predictably.
SAFe helps enterprises align teams and their projects with broader organizational goals. It eliminates silos and empowers individuals and teams to collaborate and iterate concurrently.
So how does UX fit in?
SAFe is built on three pillars or levels:
SAFe doesn’t clearly define the UX role within this Lean-Agile framework so the practical UX process may not be immediately clear at first glance. But with careful discussion and planning, you can apply SAFe principles to UX and work effectively with cross-functional teams.
The basic UX structure within SAFe might include a UX architect on the Portfolio team, information architects on the Program team, and a UX designer on each feature development team.
The beauty of SAFe is that it distributes UX across multiple teams and stages. SAFe brings UX input into discussions earlier and keeps UX involved longer throughout the development stages. The result? A more transparent and collaborative approach between cross-functional teams that is strategically aligned with organizational objectives.
How to perform UX research in the SAFe framework
Performing UX within a Scaled Agile Framework will require some adapting, but it’s worth it. When done well, SAFe leads to greater alignment, transparency, and quality.
Give these best practices a try to perform UX research within the Scaled Agile Framework.
Align research with your business strategy
SAFe focuses on alignment at every level and throughout each stage of development. If your project doesn’t fit into the business’ strategy and user value, your final output will be less effective.
As you conduct UX research, make sure you’re identifying and connecting business value to your proposed projects.
Pro tip: Optimize the research process by creating an inventory of pain points and their connected business value. In other words, outline how the business benefits from addressing each issue (like cost savings or revenue growth).
Avoid team silos
One of the greatest strengths of SAFe is its emphasis on cross-functional teamwork and connecting silos.
UX should be on the ground collaborating at each stage of development. Assign at least one UX researcher to each product team. If you don’t have enough people, your researchers can float between teams.
Integrating with your product teams allows UX to develop greater product expertise and build rapport with developers. The more face time you have with the product and engineering teams, the more they will trust your recommendations and rely on your input.
Enhance PI planning
PI planning stands for program increment planning. PI planning sessions happen throughout the year and bring multiple teams together with the same Agile Release Train (ART) to align on a shared vision, discuss features, and identify cross-team dependencies. PI planning is fundamental to implementing a successful SAFe framework.
PI planning helps large-scale organizations break down development silos so that there is communication and alignment on shared goals. Without this alignment, teams are forced to compete for resources and budget and they might end up producing work that inadvertently impacts other teams’ projects.
Everyone meets during PI planning to get on the same page, including UX.
To optimize the PI planning session, work with product managers to understand their priorities. Compare the product and research roadmaps to uncover any gaps. This will help you develop relevant stories that align with product goals.
Pro tip: An online whiteboard like Lucidspark makes it easy for multiple distributed teams to collaborate in real time to brainstorm and plan the Agile release roadmap. A PI planning board helps you visualize features, dependencies, and milestones while tracking what work needs to be done and who is responsible for it.
