Scaled Resource Planning (SRP)

Agile transformation – SAFe, LeSS and SCRUM. Managing the melting pot

Scaling agile, scaled resource management

Whether you approach scaling agile using SAFe, LeSS, Spotify or a hybrid form, scaled resource planning (SRP) will always play a substantial role in encouraging agility at the enterprise level.

Even in a partially transformed organization, we still find cross-functional teams and shared services that have to be regrouped, coordinated and orchestrated according to teams and products.

The reality of project portfolios is hybrid

The most common form of scaling agile takes place in a hybrid project portfolio environment (agile, waterfall or a hybrid), as it is very rare that all company initiatives can be executed in an agile manner while fully dedicated teams remain fixed in place. This makes it all the more important to provide hybrid resource planning solutions that make all input and output measures comparable so that they can be uniformly utilized in a hybrid project environment (PT, hours, velocity, story points, etc.). At the same time they must allow flexibility to put together new teams ad hoc and solve bottlenecks.

Resource planning using the example of SAFe:

Lean Portfolio Management (LPM) and Release Train Engineers (ERTs) continuously coordinate Agile Release Train (ART) teams, shared services, projects, line activities, roles and employees across the organization. Advanced and automated scaled resource planning (SRP) will make bottlenecks easier to deal with or even prevent them from happening in the first place before the program increment (PI) is planned. In this way, we can help maximize the added value of the entire organization and at the same time minimize the risk of exceeding thresholds and guardrails.

The crucial element of SRP is the translation of effort, or the “velocity” of a given 6 to 12-week iteration Once we know how fast the development team works, we can predict exactly how many story points this team can work on during the next sprint. Thus, the quality of the velocity and the burndown chart is crucial for LPM and for ERTs to provide precise plans for the coming sprints on the one hand, and reliable forecasts for the next 4-12 months on the other.
Business agility and resource management
Business Agility = Enterprise Agility = Workforce Agility

Preview Blog: Business agility is more than agile execution

Valkeen Expertise | Scaled resource planning

We support you navigating your workforce purposefully and flexibly in heterogeneous project environments. This includes the “silent” homogenization of the various planning methods into a central data base. Silent, as users should not be disturbed by it. Technologies bring planning and capacity together so that you always have reliable data on availability to control your resource utilization. A common timeline and database for all entities of your project portfolio: Epics, sprints, projects, tasks, line activities, etc. homogenized with ART teams, employees, roles and skills – all connected via a unified resource management process.