SAFe is a well-documented and tried-and-true framework. Its clear structure of roles and events, and a people-centric focus, make it a popular choice for organizations looking to scale agile. At the team level, SAFe involves Product Owners, Scrum Masters, and Agile Teams who collaborate on two-week iterations or Sprints. RTEs orchestrate PI planning events and help resolve cross-team dependencies.
What is SAFe?
The software development world is fast-paced and results-driven. Productivity and collaboration are key, but it can be challenging to manage multiple teams and projects in alignment, especially as the organization grows. SAFe provides a framework to help managers organize their teams and projects and deliver high-quality products on time and within budget.
SAFe teaches organizations to build project solutions incrementally using fast, iterative learning cycles and to develop milestones based on evaluating the working system. It also focuses on creating structures for teams to work together to eliminate bottlenecks and improve the flow of work to ensure that everyone is always working on the highest priority items.
Its scalable and configurable approach allows it to be used by organizations of all sizes, industries, and complexity. More than 20,000 enterprises use SAFe and have seen the business benefits it delivers. In fact, more than a million professionals have been trained in the SAFe methodology. It is a proven model that is helping businesses survive and thrive in the digital age. It is the way forward for business agility.
Core Principles of SAFe
SAFe’s core principles include Alignment, Transparency, Respect for People, and Relentless Improvement. These values create a positive work environment, improve decision-making, and help teams achieve business agility.
- Alignment ensures that multiple teams are on the same page. This is important because the goal of Agile is to deliver value within a sustainable lead time, and if teams are not in sync, they may experience significant delays and quality concerns. Alignment is achieved by creating cross-functional teams called Agile Release Trains that align around common goals and objectives.
- Transparency promotes transparency across teams by fostering open communication and facilitating collaboration. This helps teams identify and solve problems quickly and effectively. It also encourages lean-agile leadership behaviors such as planning in smaller batches, providing real-time visibility into backlog progress, and regular Inspect and Adapt rituals.
- Relentless Improvement leverages Walter A Shewhart’s plan-do-check-adjust cycle and aims to increase the speed at which a team learns from its mistakes. This enables them to reduce the amount of time it takes for a product or service to reach the market and allows teams to build a better solution with each increment.
Benefits of Implementing SAFe
SAFe helps teams achieve a more productive workflow and increases the speed of value delivery. The framework applies Lean-Agile principles to support team collaboration and communication, leading to higher productivity. It also provides structure and processes that help development teams coordinate their work, improve project planning, and ensure consistency across the organization.
The framework promotes transparency by ensuring that development teams have full visibility into their backlogs and goals. This allows them to quickly identify and respond to obstacles in the flow of their work. It also emphasizes that quality should not be sacrificed for speed, so it requires teams to incorporate quality development practices into their working agreements.
SAFe supports continuous learning through the use of a set-based design approach that allows teams to maintain multiple requirements and design options for an extended period of time. This allows teams to make informed strategic bets, and empirical data can then be used to narrow down choices until a solution is chosen. This approach also allows teams to eliminate wasteful activities that slow the system.
SAFe Roles and Responsibilities
To effectively implement SAFe, teams must have a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities. They must be able to coordinate and collaborate across the organization, while still remaining self-organized within their Agile Release Train (ART). This requires a high degree of alignment between leadership and the teams. In addition, teams must be able to deliver increments of value at an increasing pace as the project progresses.
To achieve this, the framework recommends a number of techniques. These include a synchronized cadence of work, such as PI Planning events, which help teams to visualize and limit their WIP. It also encourages the use of quality development practices, such as inspect and adapt rituals, limiting backlog items, and incorporating feedback loops into the process.
SAFe also emphasizes intrinsic motivation for knowledge workers, recognizing that motivated employees are more productive and creative. The framework supports decentralized decision-making by empowering the individuals and teams closest to the work to make decisions. It also promotes continuous learning and integrating lessons learned into the implementation. It also promotes a Lean mindset and provides guidance on how to leverage the Plan-Do-Check-Adjust cycle developed by Walter Shewhart.
How to Get SAFe Certified
A SAFe certification is the best way to gain a competitive edge in the job market. It proves your skills and knowledge in the agile framework, which helps you deliver faster and improve quality. This is especially useful in today’s fast-paced world where time-to-market is crucial.
The SAFe framework offers several benefits, including improved collaboration and communication between development teams and stakeholders. This leads to better product quality and increased productivity. Moreover, SAFe promotes Lean values such as built-in quality, transparency, and program execution.
In addition, SAFe helps large organizations achieve business agility. It enables businesses to accelerate time-to-market by allowing teams to work as a single unit and focus on delivering the highest-value features first. To do this, the framework organizes people into cross-functional Agile Release Trains (ARTs) that develop one or more solutions. It also encourages teams to use design thinking and Lean startup practices to continuously improve their products and processes. Lastly, SAFe uses a time-boxed planning event called Program Increment (PI) Planning to coordinate the efforts of multiple teams and ensure alignment with organizational goals.
Additionally, obtaining a Leading SAFe certification can significantly enhance your understanding of the framework and make you a key player in your organization’s agile transformation.
