SAFe® Methodology: All You Need to Know about the Scaled Agile Framework

The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe®), also known as SAFe® for Lean Enterprises is a knowledge base of proven, integrated principles, practices, and competencies to implement Lean, Agile, Systems Thinking and DevOps at scale. Just Agile product delivery isn’t enough. An organization needs business agility. To achieve Business Agility not just the technology teams but the entire organization including management, compliance, legal, finance, marketing, operations, sales, security, and support i.e.

Everyone involved in delivering business solutions uses Lean and Agile practices to continually and proactively delivery innovative business solutions faster than the competition. By having Business Agility in addition to technical agility, a company can take advantage of emerging opportunities by making quick decisions, allocating money, and aligning the right people to do the work. This requires business-level commitment to product and Value Stream thinking. The Scaled Agile Framework® (SAFe®) has the guidance to help any enterprise get there.

Benefits of implementing SAFe® Methodology

There are many reasons why organisations across the globe prefer to hire individuals who have completed a SAFe® Agile Training. This is because implementing the SAFe® Methodology has a lot of benefits for organisations.

Surveys of the companies that have implemented SAFe® Framework have experienced:

1. 50% Faster Time-to-Market
2. 35% Increase in Productivity
3. 50% Improvements in Quality
4. 30% Increased Employee Engagement

Additional Benefits include:

• Alignment of the entire cross functional teams towards a common goal.
• Seamless communication, collaboration, and coordination between various teams.
• Save valuable time with a shorter time-to-market.
• Greater visibility and transparency in an organisation.
• Improve productivity and efficiency.
• Unparalleled quality delivered in ever changing business environments.
• Improve the product development strategies of an organisation.
• Achieve uniformity across various departments.

10 Core Principles of the SAFe® Methodology

SAFe® is based on 10 immutable, underlying principles that guide and inform the roles and practices of SAFe®, influencing leadership behaviors and decision-making.

1. Take an economic view
2. Apply systems thinking
3. Assume variability; preserve options
4. Build incrementally with fast, integrated learning cycles
5. Base milestones on objective evaluation of working systems
6. Visualize and limit WIP, reduce batch sizes, and manage queue lengths
7. Apply cadence, synchronize with cross-domain planning
8. Unlock the intrinsic motivation of knowledge workers
9. Decentralize decision-making
10. Organize around value

If you are new to the SAFe® principles doing the Leading SAFe® training certification will give you a solid foundational understanding of the complete framework.

4 Core values of the Scaled Agile Framework

The SAFe® Framework is based on four core values. These include:

Alignment

Involves alignment of teams, and organisation across common mission, vision and strategy. It requires organization around Value Streams.

Built-in quality

Maintenance of high-quality standards in every stage of the product development process.

Transparency

Building Trust requires Transparency, which is the foundational piece of Lean Agile Organization. Complete transparency of work and visibility are a must across various teams in an organisation. Teams and individuals should feel confident to take accountability of their work and admit their mistakes.

Program execution

Leaders are required to actively participate and remove impediments so that teams can execute and delivery value continuously.

Different Configurations of the Scaled Agile Framework

The four configurable and scalable levels of the Scaled Agile Framework allow organisations to adopt the Framework to its own business needs. With four, out-the-box configurations, SAFe® supports the full spectrum of solutions, from those requiring a small number of teams to those complex systems that require hundreds—and even thousands—of people to build and deliver.

1. Essential SAFe® is the building block for all the other configurations and is the simplest starting point for implementation. Essential SAFe® delivers the core competencies of Lean- Agile Leadership, Team and Technical Agility, and Agile Product Delivery to the enterprise.
2. Large Solution SAFe® brings the Enterprise Solution Delivery competency to organizations building the largest and most complex solutions. This configuration offers increased focus on coordinating multiple Agile Release Trains and suppliers, and meeting compliance and regulatory standards.
3. Portfolio SAFe® incorporates the Lean Portfolio Management (LPM) competency to align portfolio execution to enterprise strategy. This configuration also organizes development around the flow of value through one or more value streams. Moreover, Portfolio SAFe® is the simplest configuration designed to help organizations achieve business agility.
4. Full SAFe® is the most comprehensive version, integrating all seven core competencies to support enterprises that build and maintain a portfolio of large, integrated solutions.

Seven Core Competencies of the SAFe® Framework

There are seven core competencies with three dimensions each that the SAFe® framework is built upon, which are required for achieving Business Agility.

1. Lean-Agile leadership
2. Agile product delivery
3. Lean portfolio management
4. Continuous learning culture
5. Team and technical agility
6. Enterprise Solution Delivery
7. Organizational Agility

By mastering SAFe®’s competencies, enterprises can achieve business agility to quickly respond to volatile market conditions, changing customer needs, and emerging technologies.

Agile certification courses and online SAFe® training

AgilityPAD is a one-stop destination for top SAFe® Courses Training. AgilityPAD offers various SAFe® Agile Trainings. By pursuing a SAFe® Agile certification Training from AgilityPAD, you can get in-depth knowledge about the principles and best practices of the SAFe® Methodology.

If you are looking to make significant progress in your career path as an Agile Coach or Agile Team Leader, an online SAFe® certification Training from AgilityPAD will be just perfect.

Here are the various online SAFe® Trainings offered by AgilityPAD.

• SAFe® Scrum Master (SSM) course
• SAFe® Product Owner/Product Manager (POPM) certification course
• Leading SAFe® (SA) course
• SAFe® Advanced Scrum Master (SASM) course
• SAFe® for Teams (SP) training
• SAFe® Lean Portfolio Management (LPM) course
• SAFe® Agile Product Management (APM) course

The demand for SAFe® and Agile certification is only going to increase in the future. If you are looking to establish your career and get a high income, Agile certification are a must to stand out from the competition.

For more details, get in touch with the experts of AgilityPAD. They will provide the recommendations to choose the best course that matches your education, skills, and passion.