SAFe-Agilist Questions and Answers

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

The foundation of SAFe is the Lean-Agile mindset, which is based on two primary knowledge areas:

The House of Lean (values of respect for people, flow, innovation, and relentless improvement)

Agile Manifesto values and principles

Together, these form Mindset, Values, and Principles, which underpin all other aspects of SAFe.

(Source: Scaled Agile Framework – Lean-Agile Mindset)

Forming a strategic vision is one key to leading a successful change. A strategic vision is a clear and compelling statement that describes what the organization wants to achieve in the future. A strategic vision helps leaders communicate the purpose, direction, and benefits of the change to all stakeholders, inspire them to embrace the change, align their actions with the desired outcomes, and measure their progress and success. References: Lead by Example, Lead the Change, SAFe Implementation Roadmap

Decisions that deliver large and broad economic benefits are the type of decisions that should remain centralized even in a decentralized decision-making environment. Decentralized decision-making is a principle and practice that empowers individuals and teams to make decisions about their work without excessive interference or control from others. Decentralized decision-making fosters autonomy, agility, innovation, and ownership among knowledge workers. However, some decisions are better made centrally by those who have more authority, information, or expertise. These include decisions that affect the whole enterprise or portfolio, such as strategy, vision, budgeting, governance, compliance, etc. References: SAFe Lean-Agile Principles, SAFe Principle #9

The reason why business owners assign business value to team PI objectives is to empower teams to make decisions around work. Business value is a relative measure of the importance of a work item or an outcome to the business. Team PI objectives are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals that reflect the value that each team intends to deliver in a PI. Business owners assign business value points to each team PI objective based on their alignment with the program vision and objectives. This helps teams prioritize their work, balance their capacity, negotiate dependencies, and make trade-offs based on value delivery. References: PI Planning, Business Owners

Deploy, verify, monitor, and respond are all activities of Continuous Deployment. Continuous Deployment is one of the elements of the Continuous Delivery Pipeline, which is a key enabler of Agile Product Delivery. Continuous Deployment means automatically releasing every update to a production environment or a staging environment that is identical to production. Continuous Deployment involves four activities: deploy (releasing the solution to the target environment); verify (ensuring that the solution meets the quality standards and acceptance criteria); monitor (collecting feedback and data on the solution performance and usage); and respond (taking actions to improve or fix the solution based on the feedback and data). References: Agile Product Delivery, Continuous Delivery Pipeline, Continuous Deployment

The workbook explains that ROAM stands for:

“Resolved – Addressed; no longer a concern

Owned – Someone has taken responsibility

Accepted – Nothing more can be done and if risk occurs, release may be compromised

Mitigated – Team has plan to adjust as necessary.”

Source: Workbook, Page 4-60

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

In SAFe 6.0, the Business Agility Value Stream (BAVS) describes the steps that enterprises take to rapidly respond to new opportunities and deliver value. The steps are:

Sense Opportunity

Fund MVP

Organize Around Value

Connect to Customer

Deliver MVP

Pivot or Persevere

Deliver Value Continuously

(Source: Scaled Agile Framework – Business Agility Value Stream)

The SAFe Lean-Agile Principle that includes the critical part of “delaying decisions to the last responsible moment” is “Assume variability; preserve options”. This principle is based on the concept of set-based design, which is a way of managing uncertainty and complexity in product development. Set-based design means exploring multiple possible solutions in parallel, eliminating inferior options over time, and converging on the best solution as more information becomes available. Delaying decisions to the last responsible moment means keeping multiple options open until enough data and feedback are gathered to make an informed decision, which reduces risk and waste. References: SAFe Lean-Agile Principles, SAFe Principle #4

The SAFe House of Lean is based on:

“Goal: Value in the shortest sustainable lead time, with the best quality and people morale.”

This guides decisions and continuous improvement.

Under the “Team and Technical Agility” competency, the workbook details:

“Built-in Quality ensures that every element and increment of the solution reflects quality standards throughout development.”

This competency supports Agile practices such as pairing, automation, and Definition of Done to embed quality at every level.

Source: 01 Workbook SA (6.0).pdf, Pages 3-13 to 3-15

ROAM is an acronym for Resolved, Owned, Accepted, Mitigated. ROAM is a technique for categorizing and managing PI risks during the final plan review in the PI planning event. PI risks are potential events or conditions that may have a negative impact on the PI objectives or outcomes. ROAM helps teams address their PI risks by assigning them to one of four states: Resolved (the risk has been eliminated or is no longer relevant); Owned (the risk has been assigned to a person or a team who is responsible for managing it); Accepted (the risk has been acknowledged and its impact has been factored into the plan); Mitigated (the risk has been reduced or its likelihood has been lowered). References: PI Planning, Final Plan Review

Autonomy is one of the requirements besides purpose and minimum possible constraints for unlocking the intrinsic motivation of knowledge workers. Autonomy is the ability of individuals and teams to self-organize, self-manage, and make decisions about their work without excessive interference or control from others. Autonomy fosters creativity, innovation, ownership, and engagement among knowledge workers. Autonomy is one of the aspects of the Lean-Agile mindset and one of the SAFe core values. References: Lean-Agile Mindset, SAFe Core Values, SAFe Principle #8

SAFe follows Kotter's 8-step change model. The workbook notes:

"Culture change comes last, not first. It is the outcome, not the precondition, of a successful transformation. Culture changes only after you have successfully demonstrated that the new way is superior to the old."

This confirms that culture change follows behavioral change.

Source: SAFe Workbook, Section on Leading Change

“Precisely specify value by product” is central to Lean thinking. Lean thinking is a philosophy and a set of principles and practices that aim to eliminate waste and optimize value delivery. Value is defined as anything that a customer is willing to pay for or that meets their needs or desires. Value is specified by product, which means that each product or service should have a clear and explicit definition of what value it provides to the customer and how it differs from other products or services. Specifying value by product helps avoid ambiguity, confusion, and inefficiency in the value delivery process. References: Thriving in the Digital Age, SAFe Principle #1

From the “Leading by Example” section:

“Leaders model desired professional and ethical behaviors… They live SAFe’s Lean-Agile Mindset, values, principles, and practices.”

Attributes include insatiable learning, courage, and emotional competence.

According to the SAFe Workbook:

“The Continuous Delivery Pipeline represents the workflows, activities, and automation needed to deliver new functionality more frequently… It enables continuous exploration, integration, deployment, and release on demand—fostering ongoing learning.”

Source: 01 Workbook SA (6.0).pdf, Pages 4-81 to 4-84

According to the SAFe Agilist 6.0 domain of Apply SAFe Principles, when basing decisions on economics, lead time, product cost, value, and development expense are used to:

Evaluate the economic impact of different design alternatives

Optimize the flow of value delivery by minimizing delays and waste

Maximize the return on investment by delivering the most valuable features first

Balance the tradeoffs between speed, quality, and cost

https://scaledagileframework.com/take-an-economic-view/

Reducing delays is the focus of Lean thinking. Lean thinking is a philosophy and a set of principles and practices that aim to eliminate waste and optimize value delivery. Waste is anything that does not directly contribute to customer value or that causes delays in delivering value. Delays are the primary cause of waste, as they increase inventory, risk, variability, overhead, and dissatisfaction. Reducing delays means minimizing the time between customer need and value delivery, which improves quality, efficiency, and customer satisfaction. References: Thriving in the Digital Age, SAFe Principle #2

One way Lean-Agile leaders lead by example is by modeling SAFe’s Lean-Agile Mindset, values, principles, and practices. A Lean-Agile Mindset is a way of thinking that embraces the values and principles of Lean thinking and Agile development. A Lean-Agile leader is someone who exhibits this mindset and applies it to lead others in achieving business agility. A Lean-Agile leader models SAFe’s four core values: Alignment, Built-in Quality, Transparency, and Program Execution; as well as its ten principles: Take an economic view; Apply systems thinking; Assume variability; preserve options; Build incrementally with fast integrated learning cycles; Base milestones on objective evaluation of working systems; Visualize and limit WIP; reduce batch sizes; manage queue lengths; Apply cadence; synchronize with cross-domain planning; Unlock the intrinsic motivation of knowledge workers; Decentralize decision-making; Organize around value; and Adopt a customer-centric mindset. References: Lean-Agile Mindset, SAFe Core Values, SAFe Lean-Agile Principles, Lead by Example

The SAFe Workbook emphasizes that:

“Large batch sizes increase variability… Small batches go through the system faster with lower variability.”

The workbook includes exercises demonstrating that smaller batch sizes reduce cycle time and increase predictability, while large batches slow flow and introduce delays.

Source: 01 Workbook SA (6.0).pdf, Pages 2-54 to 2-56

According to the SAFe Agilist 6.0 domain of Built-in Quality, this practice reduces bottlenecks and ensures consistency by:

Encouraging teams to share responsibility for the quality of their work products

Establishing common standards and guidelines for coding, testing, documentation, etc.

Enabling teams to collaborate and coordinate across domains and dependencies

Promoting a culture of continuous improvement and learning

https://scaledagileframework.com/built-In-quality/

User business value and time criticality are components of cost of delay. Cost of delay is a way of quantifying the economic impact of delaying the delivery of a product or feature. Cost of delay consists of four factors: user or customer value, time criticality, risk reduction or opportunity enablement value, and job size or duration. Cost of delay is used to prioritize features using Weighted Shortest Job First (WSJF), which is a method that maximizes the economic value delivered by a product development flow. References: ART Backlog and WSJF, SAFe Principle #1

In the Design Thinking section, the workbook specifies:

“Use empathy maps to identify with Customers… This helps teams develop deep shared understanding and empathy for the Customer.”

This tool is essential in capturing user perspectives, making it a key Design Thinking practice.

Source: 01 Workbook SA (6.0).pdf, Pages 4-7 to 4-9

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

In SAFe’s Continuous Delivery Pipeline, the practice of separating deployment from release allows organizations to:

Deploy code to production-like environments frequently

Test features safely in production without exposing them to end users

Use techniques like feature toggles, dark launches, canary releases

Release to customers when business conditions are right

This means the main benefit is that it enables testing in a production environment, even before the actual release.

(Source: Scaled Agile Framework – Release on Demand)