Most strategy dialogues end up with executives talking at cross-purposes because … nobody knows exactly what is meant by vision and strategy, and no two people ever quite agree on which topics belong where. That is why, when you ask members of an executive team to describe and explain the corporate strategy, you frequently get wildly different answers. We just don’t have a good business discipline for converging on issues this abstract.
—Geoffrey Moore, Escape Velocity [1]
As part of the work to reimagine SAFe and create a framework that is more adaptable to specific business problems and supports individuals and organizations to achieve mastery, we have evolved the way in which we think about competencies. We recommend navigating to the Lean Portfolio Management discipline article which contains the latest thinking on this critical topic alongside an expanded set of competencies.
Lean Portfolio Management
Definition: Lean Portfolio Management (LPM) aligns strategy and execution by applying Lean and systems thinking approaches to strategy and investment funding, Agile portfolio operations, and governance.
LPM provides an alignment and governance model for a specific portfolio, which contains a set of Development Value Streams (DVS) for a business domain in an Enterprise. Each DVS builds, supports, and maintains Solutions for Operational Value Streams (OVS). These solutions are delivered by the OVS to the enterprise’s external or internal Customers. Examples include developing an e-commerce website, medical device, or satellite and developing and deploying a software application within an enterprise for internal customers.
LPM is one of the seven core competencies essential to achieving Business Agility. Each core competency is supported by a self-assessment, enabling the enterprise to assess its proficiency. The Measure and Grow article provides a competency assessment and recommends improvement opportunities for implementing LPM.
Why Lean Portfolio Management?
Traditional approaches to portfolio management were not designed to compete in the ‘age of software and digital.’ Enterprises face a higher degree of uncertainty and must deliver innovative solutions faster. Many legacy portfolio practices remain despite massive market changes and how businesses operate in the digital era.
Modernizing portfolio management is critical to supporting the Lean-Agile way of working and competing in this new reality. Fortunately, many enterprises have already traveled this path, and the change patterns are shown in Figure 1.