Epic Top Up

Portfolio epics are typically cross-cutting, typically spanning multiple Value Streams and PIs. To accelerate learning and development and reduce risk, SAFe recommends applying the Lean Startup build-measure-learn cycle for these epics.

There are two types of epics, each of which may occur at different levels of the Framework. Business epics directly deliver business value, while enabler epics advance the Architectural Runway to support upcoming business or technical needs.

Epic Top Up

Download Zip 🔥 https://shurll.com/2y4PYL 🔥

SAFe discourages using the project funding model (refer to the Lean Portfolio Management article). Instead, the funding to implement epics is allocated directly to the value streams within a portfolio. Moreover, Agile Release Trains (ARTs) develop and deliver epics following the Lean Startup Cycle discussed later in this article (Figure 6).

Since epics are some of the most significant enterprise investments, stakeholders must agree on their intent and definition. Figure 2 provides an epic hypothesis statement template for capturing, organizing, and communicating critical information about an epic.

The LPM reviews the Lean business case to make a go/no-go decision for the epic. Once approved, portfolio epics move to the Ready state of the Portfolio Kanban. When capacity and budget become available from one or more ARTs, the Epic is pulled into implementation. The Epic Owner is responsible for working with Product and Solution Management and System Architects to split the epic into Features or Capabilities during backlog refinement. Epic Owners help prioritize these items in their respective backlogs and have ongoing responsibilities for their development and follow-up.

Analysis of an epic includes the definition of a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for the epic. In the context of SAFe, an MVP is an early and minimal version of a new product or business Solution used to prove or disprove the epic hypothesis. Unlike storyboards, prototypes, mockups, wireframes, and other exploratory techniques, the MVP is an actual product that real customers can use to generate validated learning.

As Epics progress through the Portfolio Kanban, the LPM team will eventually need to understand the potential investment required to realize the hypothesized value. This analysis requires a meaningful estimate of the cost of the MVP, and the forecasted cost of the full implementation should the epic hypothesis be proven true.

While it can be challenging to forecast the duration of an epic implemented by a mix of internal ARTs and external suppliers, an understanding of the forecasted duration of the epic is critical to the proper functioning of the portfolio.

After repeating these calculations for each ART, the Epic Owner can see that some ARTs will likely be ready to release on demand earlier than others. However, the forecasted duration to deliver the entire epic across all ARTs will likely be between six and eight PIs. If this forecast does not align with business needs, negotiations such as adjusting capacity allocations or increasing the budget for suppliers will ensue. The Epic Owner updates the forecasted completion once work begins on the epic.

The SAFe Lean startup strategy recommends a highly iterative build-measure-learn cycle for product innovation and strategic investments. This approach for implementing epics provides the economic and strategic advantages of a Lean startup by managing investment and risk incrementally while leveraging the flow and visibility benefits of SAFe (Figure 6).

Gathering the data necessary to prove or disprove the epic hypothesis is highly iterative. These iterations continue until a data-driven result is obtained or the teams consume the entirety of the MVP budget. In general, the result of a proven hypothesis is an MVP suitable for continued investment by the value streams. Otherwise, any further investment requires the creation of a new epic.

Epics may also originate from local ARTs or Solution Trains, often starting as initiatives that warrant LPM attention because of their significant business impact or initiatives that exceed the epic threshold. These epics deserve a Lean business case and review and approval through the Portfolio Kanban system. The ART and Solution Train Backlogs article describes methods for managing the flow of local epics which do not meet the criteria for portfolio attention.

An epic poem, or simply an epic, is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants.[1]

In ancient Greek, 'epic' could refer to all poetry in dactylic hexameter (epea), which included not only Homer but also the wisdom poetry of Hesiod, the utterances of the Delphic oracle, and the strange theological verses attributed to Orpheus. Later tradition, however, has restricted the term 'epic' to heroic epic, as described in this article.

Originating before the invention of writing, primary epics, such as those of Homer, were composed by bards who used complex rhetorical and metrical schemes by which they could memorize the epic as received in tradition and add to the epic in their performances. Later writers like Virgil, Apollonius of Rhodes, Dante, Cames, and Milton adopted and adapted Homer's style and subject matter, but used devices available only to those who write.

Famous examples of epic poetry include the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh, the ancient Indian Mahabharata and Rmyaa in Sanskrit and Silappatikaram and Manimekalai in Tamil, the Persian Shahnameh, the Ancient Greek Odyssey and Iliad, Virgil's Aeneid, the Old English Beowulf, Dante's Divine Comedy, the Finnish Kalevala, the German Nibelungenlied, the French Song of Roland, the Spanish Cantar de mio Cid, the Portuguese Os Lusadas, the Armenian Daredevils of Sassoun, John Milton's Paradise Lost, The Secret History of the Mongols, the Kyrgyz Manas, and the Malian Sundiata. Epic poems of the modern era include Derek Walcott's Omeros, Mircea Crtrescu's The Levant and Adam Mickiewicz's Pan Tadeusz. Paterson by William Carlos Williams, published in five volumes from 1946 to 1958, was inspired in part by another modern epic, The Cantos by Ezra Pound.[9]

The first epics were products of preliterate societies and oral history poetic traditions.[citation needed] Oral tradition was used alongside written scriptures to communicate and facilitate the spread of culture.[10]In these traditions, poetry is transmitted to the audience and from performer to performer by purely oral means. Early 20th-century study of living oral epic traditions in the Balkans by Milman Parry and Albert Lord demonstrated the paratactic model used for composing these poems. What they demonstrated was that oral epics tend to be constructed in short episodes, each of equal status, interest and importance. This facilitates memorization, as the poet is recalling each episode in turn and using the completed episodes to recreate the entire epic as he performs it. Parry and Lord also contend that the most likely source for written texts of the epics of Homer was dictation from an oral performance.

Milman Parry and Albert Lord have argued that the Homeric epics, the earliest works of Western literature, were fundamentally an oral poetic form. These works form the basis of the epic genre in Western literature. Nearly all of Western epic (including Virgil's Aeneid and Dante's Divine Comedy) self-consciously presents itself as a continuation of the tradition begun by these poems.

The hero generally participates in a cyclical journey or quest, faces adversaries that try to defeat them in their journey, and returns home significantly transformed by their journey. The epic hero illustrates traits, performs deeds, and exemplifies certain morals that are valued by the society the epic originates from. Many epic heroes are recurring characters in the legends of their native cultures.

Classical epic poetry recounts a journey, either physical (as typified by Odysseus in the Odyssey) or mental (as typified by Achilles in the Iliad) or both.[16] Epics also tend to highlight cultural norms and to define or call into question cultural values, particularly as they pertain to heroism.[16]

These conventions are largely restricted to European classical culture and its imitators. The Epic of Gilgamesh, for example, or the Bhagavata Purana do not contain such elements, nor do early medieval Western epics that are not strongly shaped by the classical traditions, such as the Chanson de Roland or the Poem of the Cid.

Epic catalogues and genealogies are given, called enumeratio. These long lists of objects, places, and people place the finite action of the epic within a broader, universal context, such as the catalog of ships. Often, the poet is also paying homage to the ancestors of audience members. Examples:

Ancient Sumerian epic poems did not use any kind of poetic meter and lines did not have consistent lengths;[22]instead, Sumerian poems derived their rhythm solely through constant repetition and parallelism, with subtle variations between lines.[22]Indo-European epic poetry, by contrast, usually places strong emphasis on the importance of line consistency and poetic meter.[22] Ancient Greek epics were composed in dactylic hexameter.[23]Very early Latin epicists, such Livius Andronicus and Gnaeus Naevius, used Saturnian meter. By the time of Ennius, however, Latin poets had adopted dactylic hexameter.

Balto-Finnic (e.g. Estonian, Finnish, Karelian) folk poetry uses a form of trochaic tetrameter that has been called the Kalevala meter. The Finnish and Estonian national epics, Kalevala and Kalevipoeg, are both written in this meter. The meter is thought to have originated during the Proto-Finnic period.[37] e24fc04721