Adrienne Wilson, COO and Em Campbell-Pretty, CEO & Managing DirectorThis approach proved vital during Em’s stint with Telstra, where she led Australia’s first Scaled Agile Framework implementation at a time when SAFe® wasn’t officially called SAFe®. Having read Dean Leffingwell’s books, Scaling Software Agility and Agile Software Requirements, Em was inspired to experiment with Dean’s approach to scaling agile in the enterprise. Consequently, Em went on to introduce Australia’s first Agile ReleaseTrain in 2012. And the result was transformative to both the predictability of delivery and the organisation’s culture. Energised by this early success, Em founded Pretty Agile in 2014. “I really wanted to rinse and repeat that experience, using the Scaled Agile Framework as the vehicle to create better workplaces,” explains Em.
Ever since Em and her team have been working tirelessly to deliver exceptional support to clients in Australia and the rest of the world as a Scaled Agile Gold SPCT Transformation Partner. Pretty Agile not only extends support for the whole ‘SAFe®’ gamut but is also the only partner in APAC enabled to deliver the new executive training offering from Scaled Agile, Inc., known as Leading by Example.
Over the years, Em has authored best-selling books such as Tribal Unity and co-authored The Art of Avoiding a Train Wreck with her business partner Adrienne Wilson, which makes her and Pretty Agile rightly positioned to help businesses embrace agility.
Helping Businesses Implement Company-Wide Cultural Changes
SAFe® has been a go-to solution for businesses to implement agile across their organisations in the past few years. But they often need external, expert support to kickstart their journey. Pretty Agile partners with such businesses helping them implement SAFe® so that they get a great result.
“Pretty Agile was founded on the premise that we are SAFe® practitioners.
"Learning is a huge part of our belief system and our internal culture at Pretty Agile.”
We are SAFe® people, and we don’t do anything else other than that,” says Em. This is precisely what places Pretty Agile ahead of others in the industry, as only a few organisations could claim that they focus only on SAFe® all day, every day. Another crucial factor that places Pretty Agile ahead of others is that it focuses on the mechanics of scaling agility and cultural transformation.
The company partners with organisations ranging from SMEs to large corporations and even governments to help them implement the Scaled Agile Framework. Pretty Agile’s expertise proves significant for clients that have previously struggled to obtain results. They extend the right kind of support to help their clients make the hard calls needed to change their working methods dramatically. “We have them use the “quick-start” method to launch their Agile Release Trains to create step change. We follow the SAFe® implementation roadmap coupled with our culture-first playbook - a proven reliable, predictable approach. We work responsibly with our clients to obtain the desired outcomes of ScaledAgile such as increased employee engagement and reduced defects among others,” elaborates Adrienne Wilson, Chief Operating Officer at Pretty Agile.
While helping organisations implement SAFe®, Pretty Agile’s consultants assist with everything from identifying how value flows through the client organisations to help them organisein to Agile Release Trains and coach them to accelerate and sustain those trains. As soon as the company onboards a client, the team endeavors to identify their pain points and co-creates a plan to get them up and running with their first Agile ReleaseTrain within three months before helping them extend into lean portfolio management.
Training is delivered by experienced practitioners is another a critical factor that makes Pretty Agile stand out in the ‘SAFe®’ space. The company offers an extensive catalogue of role-based training courses designed to upskill individuals to apply the values, practices, and principles of lean and agile to their day-to-day work. The deep SAFe® expertise ofthe team at Pretty Agile enables them to conduct engaging and interactive learning sessions that ensure practical takeaways for the attendees. To ensure this, the trainers employ active learning techniques that help enhance the effectiveness and impact of the sessions. As businesses across industries have been compelled to move online over the past18-months, Pretty Agile’s SAFe® training offering have all been refactored for live online delivery. Much to Em’s delight client feedback about Pretty Agile’s online has been glowing. The online learning environment is providing Pretty Agile students arichlearning experience, which has proved to be surprisingly superior to in person classroom training. The company has been able to expand its reach out to a broader customer base through its online SAFe® training courses.While Pretty Agile is based in Melbourne, Australia, people from all over the world are choosing to get up early or stay up half the night to experience Pretty Agile’s online SAFe® training. In the past year alone, in addition to the many participants from all over Australia,
classes have been attended by students from the USA, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, Germany, the UK, India, and the list goes on.
"Learning is a huge part of our belief system and our internal culture at Pretty Agile.”
We are SAFe® people, and we don’t do anything else other than that,” says Em. This is precisely what places Pretty Agile ahead of others in the industry, as only a few organisations could claim that they focus only on SAFe® all day, every day. Another crucial factor that places Pretty Agile ahead of others is that it focuses on the mechanics of scaling agility and cultural transformation.
The company partners with organisations ranging from SMEs to large corporations and even governments to help them implement the Scaled Agile Framework. Pretty Agile’s expertise proves significant for clients that have previously struggled to obtain results. They extend the right kind of support to help their clients make the hard calls needed to change their working methods dramatically. “We have them use the “quick-start” method to launch their Agile Release Trains to create step change. We follow the SAFe® implementation roadmap coupled with our culture-first playbook - a proven reliable, predictable approach. We work responsibly with our clients to obtain the desired outcomes of ScaledAgile such as increased employee engagement and reduced defects among others,” elaborates Adrienne Wilson, Chief Operating Officer at Pretty Agile.
While helping organisations implement SAFe®, Pretty Agile’s consultants assist with everything from identifying how value flows through the client organisations to help them organisein to Agile Release Trains and coach them to accelerate and sustain those trains. As soon as the company onboards a client, the team endeavors to identify their pain points and co-creates a plan to get them up and running with their first Agile ReleaseTrain within three months before helping them extend into lean portfolio management.
Training is delivered by experienced practitioners is another a critical factor that makes Pretty Agile stand out in the ‘SAFe®’ space. The company offers an extensive catalogue of role-based training courses designed to upskill individuals to apply the values, practices, and principles of lean and agile to their day-to-day work. The deep SAFe® expertise ofthe team at Pretty Agile enables them to conduct engaging and interactive learning sessions that ensure practical takeaways for the attendees. To ensure this, the trainers employ active learning techniques that help enhance the effectiveness and impact of the sessions. As businesses across industries have been compelled to move online over the past18-months, Pretty Agile’s SAFe® training offering have all been refactored for live online delivery. Much to Em’s delight client feedback about Pretty Agile’s online has been glowing. The online learning environment is providing Pretty Agile students arichlearning experience, which has proved to be surprisingly superior to in person classroom training. The company has been able to expand its reach out to a broader customer base through its online SAFe® training courses.While Pretty Agile is based in Melbourne, Australia, people from all over the world are choosing to get up early or stay up half the night to experience Pretty Agile’s online SAFe® training. In the past year alone, in addition to the many participants from all over Australia,
classes have been attended by students from the USA, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, Germany, the UK, India, and the list goes on.
We are SAFe® specialists. This is our core business. It is who we are and what we do.
When Em envisioned launching Agile Release Trains for clients across the globe, she aspired to go beyond ensuring successful business outcomes to create happy, satisfied, and motivated people and teams. And in the past seven years, the Pretty Agile team has been doing that efficiently and effectively. Consequently, the company has established an excellent reputation and a vast clientele just by word of mouth.
Out of the various associations that Pretty Agile has had with businesses across the globe, one early standout engagement was with a big four Australian Bank that chose to partner with Pretty Agile to transition to Scaled Agile after six years of waterfall delivery. As the Pretty Agile team onboarded the client, it became clear that their first task would be to introduce the program manager at the client organisation to agile. Luckily, education lies at the foundation of Pretty Agile’s approach to SAFe®, and they were able to deliver certified SAFe® training to the program manager and his entire delivery team, product management, and his business sponsors. Within several weeks, the bank’s first Agile Release Train was up and running. The client later shared with Em that they delivered more in the first two sprints using SAFe® than they had in the last two years of using waterfall! The client organisation launched multiple Agile Release Trains with Pretty Agile before becoming self-sufficient and continuing the journey under their own steam. Today, after six years, that first Agile Release Train is still operating.
This vignette is representative of Pretty Agile’s approach to implementing SAFe®. “We pride ourselves on enabling organisations not only to get started with SAFe®, but also to self-sustain and accelerate their SAFe® implementations once the engagement with Pretty Agile is complete,” says Em.
Pretty Agile has also been supporting small businesses that have struggled with getting successes from implementing agile. The company’s specialized approach to training the clients’ staff and launching Agile Release Trains has made a massive difference for such clients over the years.
Stepping into the Future with Scaled Agile
As an early adopter, Pretty Agile has always been one of the top Scaled Agile Gold SPCT Transformation Partners, and it aims to retain that spot. “We will continue to leverage the Scaled Agile Framework and be a world leader in this space,” says Adrienne. Additionally, the team at Pretty Agile continues to explore ways to create environments that foster learning and innovation. “Learning is a huge part of our belief system and our internal culture at Pretty Agile. We are very learning-centric and even refer to ourselves as a bunch of SAFe® geeks,” adds Em.
As thought contributors and knowledge leaders, Em and her team bring the right kind of knowledge and support to the table for their clients, and they have no plans to slow down. Even in the future, the team will continue to be active thought contributors in this space. “There are still a lot of organisations out there that need help in being able to deliver great results and solving some of the world’s biggest challenges. And it’s fulfilling for us to help them with that,” concludes Adrienne.
