Vision & Road-maps

”Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world.“ - Joel A. Barker

Every enterprise has a vision or if not they should have it to be successful in whatever they dream to achieve. Vision can described as a goal or a future state that an enterprise wish to achieve. Its not a simple take to create a compelling Vision.

To create a vision that is achievable and realistic are to do a SWOT analysis followed by TOWS. This will help you to find multiple possibilities for the future which is diversion and then you can converse to the one or more future states or Vision that you feel more aligned.

To start an organization needs to have a vision, and then they can create a road-map for the journey to achieve it, these are the basic steps of success. Similarly, we can say that in SAFe basics are started from the vision and then moves towards the road-map. To know how these two tools in SAFe help to achieve better results let's learn about their details first.

Vision

It describes the developing project's future, showing the needs of stakeholders and customers. It also reflects the capabilities and skills required to meet those needs. But the vision needs to be achievable and inspirational in a broader context. Vision applies to any SAFe configuration that’s why it is added in the spanning palette. There are three types of vision which are explained below:

1) Portfolio Vision- It is a long-term context-setting that enables short-term decision-making. By knowing the future outcomes of longer and shorter time both, it becomes easy to make decisions. For Portfolio Vision, portfolio canvas, following with envisioning future is the main input. It collects the present state of portfolios. The important point to remind is portfolio vision should be inspirational, practical, and motivational. Portfolio vision is also called ‘postcard from the future as it answers the future-related questions and derives results which are shown below figure.

C-level executives or business owners are in charge of PI planning of providing with this vision.

2) Solution Vision- It defines the direction and reason for choosing a particular solution. Solution and product management are the authority to transform portfolio vision into solution vision. The solution vision takes input from various areas as shown below figure.

It provides answers to questions like

• How new solution will be helpful?

• How it will do it?

• What benefit it will give and for whom?

• What requirements will it deliver?

3) Program Vision- Once a portfolio and solution visions occurred then the team moves towards the program vision. It creates a realistic program to achieve the vision based on the provided solution. For this roadmap and PI helps to obtain the results.

A roadmap is creating a realistic plan whereas PI is having immediate steps to avoid the teams’ confusion regarding execution issues. PI provides the top 10 features to the team. These features get updating as per the evolution of vision. PI is explained as per the below images;

Now moving towards the second tool of Spanning Palette that is:

Road-maps

Yes, the roadmap is a part of the vision. As explained before roadmap is a program of events and milestones which helps to execute the solution in a realistic. As they bring virtual solutions in realistic they provide the stakeholders with an idea of the present, short and long-time deliverables. Roadmaps are of three types, Portfolio, solution, and PI.

1. PI (Program Increment) Roadmap- This provides near-time commitments for ART (Agile Release Train) or solution train. It also provides a broad idea of milestones and deliverables for the upcoming two to three PI.

2. Solution Roadmap- It works for a longer time (generally for years) view of milestones and deliverables which require a solution.

3. Portfolio Roadmap- It also shows a longer time view for achieving a portfolio.

The factors contributing to defining roadmaps are market rhythm and market events.

As time defines the value of the product means market rhythm. For example, toy products have more value in the fourth quarter compared to the other three whereas, for social media, value is constant throughout the year.

Market events affecting the roadmap are events like technology change or competitors making a release etc. Thus, events surely impact the roadmap and so the roadmap needs to be scheduled accordingly.

In SAFe, there is a term used as planning onion or planning horizon which defines the planning ways for better results in the roadmap, it includes Daily planning, Iteration plan, current plan, PI roadmap, solution roadmap, portfolio roadmap, and amount of details from more to less respectively.

Once completed with vision and roadmaps consider that you won half battle as this plays the critical role of defining the footsteps and hence success path. In our next tool, we will be discussing how Milestone and shared services help in achieving the agile goal of the organization.

“All you need is the plan, the roadmap and the courage to press on to your destination.”

About Advance Agility

We, at Advance Agility, are the new-age Agile Coaching, Consulting and IT services company. We enable end-to-end Digital Transformation. Agile execution is integral to our being. We are doing SAFe implementation with small, medium and large organization across the globe. Our vision is to be the leading Agile execution player globally. To keep adding value at every process stage. We are on a mission to empower our clients, move from concept to cash in the shortest sustainable lead time by adopting human centric approach to business agility. Embracing the change is in our DNA. Things that keep us apart are Quicker and Seamless execution with End-to-end gamut of services. Our Global presence and Stellar Track Record give us an edge over our competitor.

Connect with us at advanceagility.com to learn about SAFe and SAFe Implementation. Write to us at contact@advanceagilty.com for any agile training or consulting needs. We are always looking for competent agile trainers as well. So if you are a good trainer or want to become one, do get in touch with us to that we can learn, grow and achieve together.