Background There is a lack of knowledge about how mature Swedish authorities are in their agile work. At one of the Swedish Transport Administration's ICT units, proposals have been submitted to implement the scalable agile framework SAFe. The unit has four development teams that have a regular collaboration with the business side, where users and business-related managers are located. Today, it varies between different development teams how agile you work and the business side generally does not work agile at all.
Aim The purpose of the study is to contribute with knowledge about how problems with working methods can be met by SAFe and provide an indication of the agile maturity of the relevant authority through the use of the Gartner model for agile maturity. The model has 6 levels on a scale of 0-5. The study also compiles challenges and recommendations for large-scale agile implementations and places them on a strategic, tactical and operational level.
Method Interviews were conducted with three people on ICT and one person on the busi-ness side. A survey was conducted in which 16 of the 27 people at the Unit responded. The literature review found 9 studies with a total of 68 challenges and 67 recommendations from previous large-scale agile implementations. Criteria from the Gartner model were identified at each level and the findings from the data collection were compared against all criteria.
Results At the ICT unit, the following areas were identified as challenges: training, auto-mation, collaboration with the business, commissioning, collaboration between teams, and workload. The literature study's findings of the most common challenges and recommendations at each level are:
Strategic level - Challenge: inappropriate agile implementation method. Recommendation: develop an integrated, agile concept;
Tactical level - Challenge: agile introduction from above creates resistance. Recommendation: ensure support from management;
Operational level - Challenge: general resistance to change and Lack of education. Recommendation: offer training in agile methods.
Conclusions SAFe could meet most of the unit's challenges, with the exception of "training" which is not met by any of SAFE's components. Based on the Gartner model foragile maturity, the unit was placed at level 2. In an agile introduction, the unit can take advantage of the literature study's challenges and recommendations. The result is interesting for organizations that are considering introducing a large-scale agile framework.
2022.