Major Difference between SAFe® Agile and Agile
Traditionally, businesses only had a waterfall model to carry out software product development. It was an excellent model for predictive natured projects, but it failed disastrously in generating real value for all other types of projects such as adaptive. The introduction and rapid adoption of the Agile methodology have made things quite easier and better for product development and management. The Agile method also has different sub-models or categories, which gained a lot of popularity due to their benefits in the past decade. This has also increased the demand and worth of professional Agile certification earned from reputed Agile training institutes.
Agile and SAFe® Agile are two popular project management models used by project managers and software development companies. Many people don’t see much difference between these two, but there is a notable difference that you must know if you are willing to use or learn any of these models.
Agile vs. SAFe® Agile
Fundamental difference
Agile
- Agile is a popular project management discipline that is primarily used for building technology products that involve innovation and building never seen before concepts.
- Agile required rapid delivery of the product.
- It helps in gaining a competitive advantage with rapid development and delivery cycle.
- It endorses core values like self organization, client collaboration, and teamwork.
- The key stakeholders in Agile methodology are the product owner, team lead, and team members.
SAFe® Agile
- SAFe® stands for Scalable Agile Framework for Lean Enterprise, which is a project management discipline for enterprise-grade product development
- It uses the Lean-Agile model for product development that goes beyond one team
- This project management methodology can transform the slow development process into a better, more qualitative, efficient, and faster feedback development model.
- It endorses core values like team management, transparency, product quality, etc.
- The key stakeholders in SAFe® Agile methodology are business owners, solution architects, program managers, product Owners, Scrum Master, and release train engineers.
Planning and Principles
Agile
- It uses an iterative model to run an ongoing cycle of development and delivery to reduce time to market.
- It focuses more on hitting the market faster with a minimum viable product or keeps delivering a functional version to the customer at a regular interval.
SAFe® Agile
- It is used to build high quality, enterprise products by implementing best practices of Lean, System Thinking, DevOps, XP and Agile principles.
- It is one of the most popular Scaling Agile Frameworks. As per the 15th State of Agile Report, 37% of the respondents use SAFe®.
- It has three levels of Essential, Solution and Portfolio which can be based on the agile maturity of the company configured in 4 possible ways.
- SAFe® helps go beyond Team Agility and focuses on enhancing Business Agility by focusing on Value Stream Thinking and building products/Services for Customers. It still utilizes at Essential Level practices like Scrum, Kanban, DevOps and XP.
- It helps bring alignment and cadence across multiple teams working together for product development.
Team size
Agile
- This principle works really well with a small size team made of 10 or fewer members.
- The Agile model depends on a set of stories (sprints), specific product development roles, and cross-functional teams of developers, software engineers, a team lead, etc.
SAFe® Agile
- The Scaled Agile Framework® (SAFe®) is a framework for scaling agile across teams of teams, business units, and even entire organizations.
- The basic Essential Configuration operates with a single Agile Release Train (ART) that typically 50 – 125 people. Large Solution Configuration caters to enterprises that build large-scale solutions that are beyond the scope of a single ART to develop.
- It also includes guidance for the Lean Portfolio Management via the Portfolio Level where it aligns strategy with execution and organizes products around the flow of value.
Utilization benefits
Agile
- It focuses more on particular requirements of a project or a client
- It reduces resource wastage by minimizing the team size
- It reduces wait time with rapid delivery
- It streamlines development and software testing processes
- It enhances the process with shorter development and feedback collection cycle
- It leverages Agile Principles and Manifesto along with team agility tools like Scrum, Kanban and XP.
SAFe® Agile
- It builds on Agile Foundation and scales it at an enterprise level for business agility.
- It focuses on faster comprehensive product development to reduce time to market by up to 50%
- It skips process development training to speed up development
- It speeds up Agile best practice codification
- It helps in enhancing the quality of software by up to 50%
- It boosts team productivity from 35% to 55%
Roles
Agile
If Scrum is used to implement team agility then roles are:
- Agile Team
- Product Owner
- Scrum Master
SAFe® Agile
Based on the levels there are different roles in the Framework
Essential Level
- SAFe® Product Owner
- SAFe® Scrum Master
- SAFe® Product Manager
- Release Train Engineer
- System Architect
Solution Level
- Solution Train Engineer
- Solution Management
- Solution Architect
- SAFe® Product Owner
Portfolio Layer
Package and perks for professionals
Agile
Agile professional salary in the USA per annum is around 55,000 USD to 124,000 USD
SAFe® Agile
SAFe® Agilist salary varies from 80,000 USD to 135,000 USD per annum in the USA.
Conclusion
Both Agile and SAFe® Agile principles are best depending on multiple factors. The SAFe® Agile methodology has a better scope as it works on bigger projects for enterprises and scales it beyond Team Agility. Leaning both or at least SAFe® Agile and becoming a certified SAFe® Agile professional can help you skyrocket your career.
AgilityPAD has competitive courses to become successful SAFe® Agile and Agile professionals. Contact us for a free consultation to choose the right course that can upgrade your skills and career.
