SAFe-Agilist Questions and Answers

Empathy maps are a tool associated with design thinking that help to understand the user’s needs, goals, pain points, and emotions. Empathy maps are visual representations of what the user thinks, feels, sees, hears, says, and does in relation to a problem or a solution. Empathy maps help to create a shared understanding of the user among the team and stakeholders, and to generate insights for designing user-centric solutions. Empathy maps can be created based on user research, interviews, observations, or personas123.

 1: Design Thinking - Scaled Agile Framework 2: TEN TOOLS FOR DESIGN THINKING - culturepartnership.eu 3: The Most Complete Design Thinking Tools & Resource Collections - Mockplus

Product Owner sync (PO sync) is a key event within the Agile Release Train (ART) that aligns Product Owners and other stakeholders to ensure they are working towards a common vision and goals.

It facilitates collaboration, knowledge sharing, and decision-making, ultimately leading to better outcomes for the ART.

From the Workbook’s Portfolio Kanban section:

“Once an Epic is approved with a Lean business case, it moves to the ‘Ready’ state in the Portfolio Kanban system, provided it receives a 'go' decision from Lean Portfolio Management (LPM).”

This marks the transition from analysis to readiness for implementation.

Source:01 Workbook SA (6.0).pdf, Page 5-32

Transparency is one of the SAFe core values. SAFe core values are the fundamental beliefs that guide the behaviors and actions of SAFe enterprises. Transparency means that all the relevant information about the strategy, plans, progress, risks, and issues are openly shared and visible to everyone who needs it. Transparency helps build trust, alignment, collaboration, and learning among all the stakeholders in a SAFe enterprise. References: SAFe Core Values, Transparency

Restoring the speed and innovation of the entrepreneurial network while leveraging the stability of the hierarchical system is a benefit of adopting a dual operating system. A dual operating system is a way of organizing an enterprise that combines two complementary structures: a traditional hierarchy that provides stability, alignment, and efficiency; and a network of empowered teams that provides speed, agility, and creativity. A dual operating system helps enterprises achieve organizational agility, which is one of the core competencies of business agility in SAFe. References: Organizational Agility, Dual Operating System

SAFe emphasizes that effective DevOps implementation is key to enabling continuous value delivery. The workbook highlights that:

“DevOps helps ensure a constant flow of value by automating the Continuous Delivery Pipeline and enabling continuous integration and deployment… A Value Stream with DevOps capabilities implements automation and integration for consistent quality and faster delivery.”

This makes automation a cornerstone in enabling flow within a Value Stream.

A SAFe portfolio is a collection of development value streams. A development value stream is a long-lived series of steps that an enterprise uses to continuously deliver value to a customer or stakeholder. A development value stream typically consists of one or more ARTs and Solution Trains that build and deliver solutions. A SAFe portfolio aligns and governs one or more development value streams that share a common business mission, vision, strategy, and funding. A SAFe portfolio helps enterprises achieve Lean Portfolio Management, which is one of the core competencies of business agility in SAFe. References: SAFe Portfolio, Development Value Streams

This is one way to describe a cross-functional Agile team. A cross-functional Agile team is a group of 5-11 individuals who have the skills and authority to define, build, test, and deploy some element of solution value—all within a short iteration timebox. A cross-functional Agile team is optimized for communication and delivery of value by having clear roles and responsibilities, shared goals and commitments, frequent feedback and collaboration, high trust and accountability, and continuous improvement. References: Cross-functional Agile Teams

During the PI Planning simulation, the workbook details that:

“In the second team breakout, Business Owners circulate and assign business value to PI Objectives from low (1) to high (10)... This reflects the importance of the objectives and helps prioritize based on business impact.”

The purpose is toguide teamsin understanding what matters most to the business.

Mindset and principles is one of the dimensions of Lean-Agile Leadership. Lean-Agile Leadership is one of the core competencies of business agility in SAFe. Lean-Agile Leadership means exhibiting the behaviors that enable an organization to achieve business agility. Lean-Agile Leadership has three dimensions: mindset and principles; leading change; and developing people. Mindset and principles means adopting the values and principles of Lean thinking and Agile development, and applying them to lead others in achieving business agility. References: Lean-Agile Leadership, Mindset and Principles

The SAFe workbook explicitly describes how ART events form a feedback-driven cycle:

“ART events, such as PI Planning, Iteration Planning, Reviews, and Retrospectives form a plan-do-check-adjust (PDCA) learning cycle.”

This continuous improvement cycle enables adaptation and learning throughout the ART’s execution.

The SAFe Workbook outlines Lean-Agile Leadership as having three core dimensions:

Mindset and principles

Leading by example

Leading the change

Each dimension is explained with specific behaviors and leadership strategies.

The SAFe Implementation Roadmap provides an ordered sequence of transformation activities. After training leaders, the next step is:

“Identify Value Streams and ARTs – this step is essential to organizing around value, ensuring future trains are aligned with value delivery.”

This is how SAFe recommends using a second operating system to deliver value. A second operating system is a way of organizing an enterprise that combines two complementary structures: a traditional hierarchy that provides stability, alignment, and efficiency; and a network of empowered teams that provides speed, agility, and creativity. A second operating system helps enterprises achieve organizational agility, which is one of the core competencies of business agility in SAFe. Organizing development around the flow of value means creating cross-functional Agile teams and ARTs that deliver value in a regular cadence. Maintaining the hierarchies means preserving the existing roles and functions that provide governance, compliance, and support. References: Organizational Agility, Dual Operating System

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—fosteringongoing learning.”

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

The next step for an epic with a completed Lean business case in the analyzing step of the Portfolio Kanban is to move it to the ready state if it receives a ‘go’ decision from Lean Portfolio Management. The analyzing step is where the epic hypothesis statement and the Lean business case are developed and validated. The Lean business case provides the economic justification, assumptions, risks, and potential benefits of the epic. The Lean Portfolio Management is the authority that reviews and approves the Lean business case and decides whether to fund and implement the epic or not. If the epic receives a ‘go’ decision, it moves to the ready state, where it waits for implementation capacity. If the epic receives a ‘no go’ decision, it is either deferred or cancelled. References: Portfolio Kanban, Lean Portfolio Management

The workbook lists multiple benefits of SAFe and Agile adoption including:

“Faster time-to-market” and “Ability to respond to changing priorities” are consistently shown as primary motivators in SAFe case studies and business agility metrics.

Launching more ARTs and Value Streams is the implementation step that follows Coach ART Execution on the SAFe Implementation Roadmap. The SAFe Implementation Roadmap is a guide that helps enterprises implement SAFe in a structured and reliable way. The roadmap consists of 12 critical moves that span from reaching the tipping point to extending to the portfolio and beyond. Coach ART Execution is the seventh move, where the first ART is launched and coached by a SAFe Program Consultant (SPC) or other expert. Launch more ARTs and Value Streams is the eighth move, where the enterprise expands the implementation of SAFe to other value streams and ARTs, based on the learnings and successes of the firstART. References: SAFe Implementation Roadmap, Coach ART Execution, Launch more ARTs and Value Streams

SAFe draws from Kotter’s model and describes the dual operating system:

“Organize the Enterprise around the flow of value while maintaining the hierarchies… This dual system leverages stability and speed.”

From the workbook's role definitions:

"Scrum Master/Team Coach Responsibilities: Supporting Iteration Execution, Improving ART Performance, Facilitating PI Planning, Building High-Performing Teams."

This makes "supporting iteration execution" a primary responsibility.

Source:Workbook, Lesson 3.1, Page 3-7

According to the SAFe Glossary and reiterated in the Workbook:

“The Release Train Engineer (RTE) is a servant leader and ART coach who facilitates ART events and processes and supports teams in delivering value.”

Source:SAFe Glossary & Workbook Page 3-19