In 2019, Austrian Post - Group IT adopted SAFe as its scaling framework to bring alignment to its growing number of agile teams. For a large, traditional organization, SAFe provided a structured approach that made agile practices more accessible and helped us take our first steps into the scaled agile world by laying the groundwork for broader adoption. However, three years later, we found ourselves in a complex, process-heavy system where bureaucracy took center stage, meetings lacked clear purpose, roles overlapped, and release trains lost focus. Our implementation of SAFe, which was originally intended to enable agility, had instead become an obstacle to it.

Recognizing the need for change, we took a radical step: simplifying our approach by stripping away unnecessary processes, shifting focus back to teams, and developing a lightweight structure - internally referred to as PRIME - based on principles inspired by LeSS. A key realization was that teams grow when given more autonomy and self-responsibility. We focused on pushing as much decision-making as possible into the teams - allowing them to own their processes, make customer-centric decisions, and directly influence outcomes. Instead of large, centralized 2-day PI Planning events, we introduced rolling plan refinement opportunities, allowing teams to refine upcoming work either in much smaller shared PRIME meetings or within their own backlog refinement sessions - depending on what suited them best. We began moving toward domain-driven structures to promote ownership and sustainable development, enabling teams to deeply understand their products. As we moved away from rigid structures and towards greater team empowerment, we received mainly positive feedback from all sides - confirming that reducing complexity and increasing autonomy allowed teams to work more effectively.

This shift also benefited our newly formed AI Center Of Excellence team, operating in a fast-evolving domain where new technologies emerge almost overnight - requiring teams to adapt quickly. With PRIME in place, and by embracing LeSS-inspired principles such as simplification, decentralization, and pushing decision-making into the teams, they gained the flexibility to adapt rapidly to changing market dynamics.

Although parts of our setup still reflect SAFe, our shift toward LeSS is gaining traction and becoming more visible across the organization - and this session will share the key insights, challenges, and steps behind that transition, as well as the practical actions we took to foster a more effective agile environment. We will present real-world examples, visual artifacts, and concrete lessons learned - providing valuable takeaways for organizations navigating similar journeys.

Keywords: LeSS, Continuous Improvement, Agile Transformation, Team Autonomy, Customer-Centricity, Organizational Change, Descaling