Challenges of Adopting SAFe in the Banking Industry – A Study Two Years After Its Introduction

Abstract

The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) is a framework for scaling agile methods in large organizations. We have found several experience reports and white papers describing SAFe adoptions in different banks, which indicates that SAFe is being used in the banking industry. However, there is a lack of academic publications on the topic, the banking industry is missing in the scientific reports analyzing SAFe transformations. To fill this gap, we present a study on the main challenges with a SAFe transformation at a large full-service bank. We identify the challenges in the bank under study and compare the findings with experience reports from other banks, as well as with research on SAFe transformations in other domains. Many of the challenges reported in this paper overlap with the generic SAFe challenges, including management and organization, education and training, culture and mindset, requirements engineering, quality assurance, and systems architecture. However, we also report some novel challenges specific to the banking domain, e.g., the risk of jeopardizing customer relations, stability, and trust of external stakeholders. This study validates several SAFe-related challenges reported in previous work in the banking context. It also brings up some novel challenges specific to the banking industry. Therefore, we believe our results are particularly useful to practitioners responsible for SAFe transformations at other banks.

Scaled agile framework. Dealing with software process‐related challenges of a financial group with the action research approach

“…Our guideline addresses one of the greatest challenges to scaling Agile, which is resistance to change. 1,7,8,16,20,37,60,61 We derived this guideline directly from organizational change theories. Effective organizational change is recognized in theory as the sum of three concepts: (1) the need for change being understood by employees; (2) the employees' acceptance for the proposed solution; and (3) the employees' participation within the change process.…”

“…Many of the reported challenges overlap with the generic SAFe challenges, but two of them are specific to this highly regulated domain, that is, the risk of jeopardizing the trust of external stakeholders and unpredictable changes in external rules and regulations. 7 Given all the aforementioned challenges and barriers, different research teams came up with strategic recommendations. Large enterprises are encouraged to consider implementing coaching packages and centralized agile governance while transitioning in order to overpower understanding-related barriers, manage agile-related knowledge effectively, and ensure alignment with the state-of-the-art.…”

“…Finally, Nilsson Tengstrand et al identified some challenges that accompany a SAFe transformation in the banking industry. Many of the reported challenges overlap with the generic SAFe challenges, but two of them are specific to this highly regulated domain, that is, the risk of jeopardizing the trust of external stakeholders and unpredictable changes in external rules and regulations 7 …”

“…Ever since the release of the Agile Manifesto in 2001, agile development methods have proven to be beneficial with regards to enhancing ability to handle changing requirements, delivering software more quickly, increasing team productivity, and improving customer satisfaction. [1][2][3][4][5][6] Although they were originally designed for small, single-team projects, success stories have inspired companies to apply them to large-scale endeavors that span over a long period [7][8][9][10][11] and within different contexts. 12 Nevertheless, the original agile methods such as Scrum, XP, or Kanban do not provide guidance on dealing with scaling issues.…”

“…On top of that, the bulk of reported experiences on SAFe comes from gray literature; most of the latter is published on the SAFe official website, which may lead to biased information. 8 One of the industry sectors that is almost missing in the scientific mainstream analyzing SAFe transformations is the banking industry 7 -even though SAFe has been adopted by numerous banks (e.g., Nordea, Capital One, Standard Bank, ING Benelux, Westpac, BNP Paribas, and Deutsche Bank). We subscribe to the opinion that the scarcity of empirical studies regarding large-scale agile transformations within the banking industry is due to the fact that researchers rarely have operational access to such organizations for a longer term transformation purpose.…”