Scaling Agile with SAFe: Lessons from the 7FRESH Supplier Direct‑to‑B Warehouse Project

The 7FRESH supplier‑direct‑to‑B warehouse project engaged six teams and almost 60 product, research, development, and testing staff, representing a large, cross‑departmental effort that ultimately succeeded in delivering high business value by reducing supplier delivery costs, improving store delivery efficiency, and lowering out‑of‑stock risk.

To achieve these results, the project adopted a scaled‑agile SAFe approach, beginning with a joint Program Increment (PI) planning session that brought all participants together to align on objectives, identify dependencies, and create a shared roadmap.

Key practices highlighted:

Planning meetings: Conducting a full‑team PI planning session to surface information gaps, synchronize dependencies, and produce a cohesive plan despite the large participant count.

System‑level considerations: Defining program‑level architecture and integration points to avoid siloed development and ensure a unified system view.

Team‑level execution: Each Scrum team planned its iteration goals, scope, priority, story breakdown, and effort estimates within the PI framework.

Dependency management: Teams reviewed each other's iteration plans during PI planning, identified cross‑team dependencies, and reprioritized work to maximize overall efficiency.

Product integration: Frequent system demos (System memos) and MVP validation with business stakeholders enabled rapid feedback and early issue detection.

Rhythm and synchronization: All teams operated on a two‑week sprint cadence, with a six‑week PI cadence at the program level, supported by daily stand‑ups, both within teams and at the program level, and both physical and electronic Kanban boards for transparent progress tracking.

Team retrospectives: Continuous reflection captured emotional dynamics and lessons learned, illustrated by an emotion‑curve chart showing the project's ups and downs.

Team members reported that the agile methodology provided concrete control over progress, fostered frequent communication, delivered incremental value, and allowed early business validation, ultimately turning a high‑risk, multi‑line project into an orderly, controllable, and successful delivery.

Quotes from participants underscore the impact:

“Agile gave us a tangible handle on overall schedule, enabling phased outputs and a sense of achievement while allowing leaders to see incremental progress and adjust quickly.” – R&D lead

“Breaking work into small user stories made the product understandable and allowed smooth, iterative evolution, while daily stand‑ups and synchronized boards kept cross‑team interaction high.” – Product owner