SAFe Team in Insurance

Background

A major Swedish insurance and banking company (6,500+ employees) needed to launch a new team in their SAFe framework. The team was a mix of insurance-heavy Business Analysts and technically skilled developers working in Lumera (SaaS), with Azure DevOps as the Kanban tool. None had prior Agile or SAFe experience.

The Challenge

• Brand-new team members, new to the company and to Agile/SAFe.

• Deep specialist silos made knowledge transfer difficult.

• Traditional habits (long analysis cycles) clashed with Agile practices.

Our Approach

• Kept it simple: We cut ceremonies and work items to match the team’s reality, focusing only on what added value.

• Empowered ownership: Decision-making authority was documented so the team could move without waiting for approvals.

• Opened feedback loops: Key knowledge leaders were onboarded into Azure DevOps, giving faster answers and clearer documentation.

• Built a learning culture: Retrospectives with “Micro-Macro missions” encouraged sharing, experimenting, and cross-learning.

The Result

• Delivered on time: The team hit commitments despite no prior Agile experience.

• Tools as enablers: Azure DevOps became a real support system, not just a reporting tool.

• Stronger ownership: The team built direct feedback loops with business experts and reduced external blockers.

What We Learned

• Protect from dogma: Rigid “Agile law” from outside slowed them down — shielding worked.

• Less is more: Only track what is buildable, testable, and iterative.

• Adapt to reality: Success came from tailoring Agile, not following it by the book.