Hi Folks,

It is our pleasure to officially welcome Dr. Steve Mayner and Ian Spence to the SAFe Fellow program. Steve and Ian are joining a small but growing group of Fellows, increasing their number from nine to eleven.

Now in its third year, the SAFe Fellow program recognizes a select number of individuals with the depth and breadth of experience to work at the highest levels of complexity in enterprise strategy, and who have provided thought and industry leadership on Lean-Agile transformations using SAFe. These are the folks we turn to when we have a particularly challenging implementation or are making high-impact decisions about the evolution of the Framework. Learn more about the program here.

A bit about Steve and Ian:

—Dr. Steve Mayner, SPCT, Senior Consultant, Scaled Agile, Inc.

A 29-year veteran in information technology, Steve brings a passion for cultivating transformational leaders and high-performing teams. His research on the correlation between transformational leadership behaviors and the factors that contribute to successful organizational change was the first of its kind in the specific context of Agile and DevOps. As Product Owner of Scaled Agile’s new SAFe for Government Programs course—currently in development—Steve is driving Scaled Agile’s initiative to help government agencies achieve better business results by implementing Lean-Agile practices at scale. View Steve’s interview with SolutionsIQ’s Howard Johnson, “Agile Transformation in the Federal Government, Third Time’s the Charm,” and watch his presentation from the DevOps Enterprise Summit: Transformational Leadership – What every DevOps leader needs to know.
You can also follow Steve on Twitter at @SteveMayner.

—Ian Spence, SPCT, Chief Scientist, Ivar Jacobson International

Aka the “mad scientist,” Ian has led hundreds of organizations through Agile transformations and is known for his blog posts and contributed SAFe content such as the Feature Slicing poster and story splitting cheat sheet. He is coauthor of “Use Case Modeling” and “Managing Iterative Software Development Projects,” and is the team lead at SEMAT, an initiative to create a common ground of theory, principles, and practices for software engineering. He has helped large enterprises apply SAFe practices, including Schneider Electric, Nordea, Deutsche Bank, Sony Interactive Entertainment, and Ericsson Modems. Read Ian’s blog posts here.

Both Steve and Ian bring impressive backgrounds, experience, and energy to the pool of SAFe thought leadership and we are excited to see the continued impact they will have on SAFe and the community of practice.

Stay SAFe!
—Drew Jemilo, Program Director, SAFe Fellow Program