What are the Benefits and Pitfalls of SAFe® Lean Portfolio Management?

In today’s competitive world, organizations have to deal with constant changes being made by competitors and the launch of new products and services for customers. In order to survive the dynamic and disruptive environment, there is a need for alignment across the portfolio, i.e., organizations need a Lean-Agile way of planning, funding, and executing. Implementing Lean Portfolio Management (LPM) is an effective way to achieve this.

LPM allows organizations to shift from annual planning and budgeting cycles having fixed expectations to a more Agile and continuous flow using the Kanban system.

Organizations can leverage continuous planning and iterative funding to maximize value from the portfolio down through the teams by taking efforts to implement Lean Portfolio Management at the enterprise level. Implementation of Lean Portfolio Management techniques opens the door for fresh perspectives and organizational changes, and they are made to provide the additional capacity and resources required to carry out extremely useful work.

Delivering maximum value

Creating more value forms the core of any Lean-Agile initiative. A SAFe^® Lean Portfolio Manager first starts by defining value (through the eyes of the customer), followed by aligning the team structure around the delivery of the defined value. Implementing Lean Portfolio Management helps organizations maximize value delivery by aligning work planning, funding, and execution.

Product fit

LPM is based on Minimum Viable Product (MVP) iterations. An MVP is a miniature version of the final product that allows teams to collect feedback from customers with minimal effort. Through an MVP, the teams can evaluate the outcomes and check whether they match the hypothesis. Based on this, it can be decided whether it is worth continuing with the project or whether it makes more sense to pivot or kill the project. A big advantage of implementing LPM in organizations is that products or services can be killed before they end up utilizing too many resources to deliver a final result that is obsolete.

Time to market (time to value)

Time to market (TTM) can be the difference between leading and being the second-best. With a faster time to market, an organization can be an innovator rather than a follower. A Lean Portfolio Manager who has completed the SAFe^® Lean Portfolio Management (LPM) Certification can help increase time to market by streamlining the delivery of what is most important. The faster an organization’s time to market across its client base, the quicker it can gather data about its offerings and incorporate it into creating more value. Different versions of a product can be tested and delivered earlier than using traditional methodologies.

Swift transition

The ability to rapidly pivot in view of changing conditions is an important business capability. However, the larger, and more complex the portfolio is, the transition becomes more difficult. Swift transition can be an illusion in organizations, in which business operations are domain specific and isolated from one another.

A SAFe^® Lean Portfolio Manager creates the conditions that make quick transitions possible. A Lean-Agile organization has the visibility and nimbleness to adjust to changing conditions by self-organizing cross-functional teams around primary value streams.

Challenges of Lean Portfolio Management

Here are some of the common challenges and pitfalls of implementing Lean Portfolio Management.

• It could be considered designed to be a one-size-fits-all approach.
• It is highly dependent on a consultant or someone with certification.
• It does not consider a customer’s voice if not implemented correctly.
• It is stressful for teams and stakeholders who figure out ways around when starting new.
• The business issues and problems are not well defined.
• The teams are not ready to work on the inherent business problem.
• The IT teams lack proper resources, skills, and capacity.
• There are no proper insights into execution.

Lean Portfolio Management is a key element of business agility. It is the responsibility of the SAFe^® Lean Portfolio Manager to guide the proper adoption of LPM in an organization. When implemented correctly, LPM increases the agility of an organization by allowing it to redesign planning and funding to align them with the desired business objectives and outcomes.

Are you looking at pursuing the role of a SAFe^® Lean Portfolio Manager?

You first need to get a SAFe^® Lean Portfolio Management (LPM) Certification UK. There are several institutes offering SAFe^® Lean Portfolio Management Certification courses. One such reliable and trusted institute is AgilityPAD, a SAFe^® Silver Partner. To know more about the upcoming SAFe^® Lean Portfolio Management training, get in touch with AgilityPAD.