SAFe-SPC Questions and Answers

Record and communicate the necessary requirements and design decisions.

Create a comprehensive design document for approval before development begins.

Provide an up-front and static definition of the system's design.

Have them attend Leading SAFe training and Scrum Master orientation.

Have them attend Leading SAFe training.

Have them attend SAFe for Teams training with all other teams on the train.

Have them attend Implementing SAFe training with SPC certification.

Have them review the SAFe Foundations presentation and provide on-the-job training.

Spikes are strictly for internal learning of the team and do not need to be demoed.

Showing the functioning code in the production environment.

Showing the knowledge gained by the spike.

Showing a prototype produced for the spike.

Showing the quantitative data that will prove useful in developing future user stories.

Governance, strategy and investment funding, program management.

Program management, stakeholder management, PI Planning.

Lightweight business case, Epic specification workshop, Budget allocation.

Governance, investment funding, product strategy.

Iteration Planning is required in every Iteration to enable fast learning cycles.

Teams that have no dependencies may choose not to do Iteration Planning once they have planned the PI.

Component teams require Iteration Planning in every Iteration, while Feature teams may or may not, based on dependencies.

Iteration Planning is required for all Iterations except for the first one, since there's nothing to cause a change in the PI plan yet.

When the teams define acceptance criteria during PI Planning, Iteration Planning is not strictly required during the PI.

Reduce multiplexing

Decrease wait times

Expand context switching

Make it easier to visualize the important work

Increase throughput

True

False

User experience is indeed a different concept and the team should be exempt from working in Iterations.

Just like system architecture, the entire user experience should be fully designed before an implementation.

Since the team is working in timeboxes, this has been proven to be the most effective way to implement the user experience.

It's important to have an overall user experience vision before implementation, but the vision can be implemented iteratively for early feedback.

(User/Business Value + Time Criticality + Opportunity Enablement/Risk Reduction)/Job Size.

(Risk Reduction/Opportunity Enablement + Time Criticality + Size)/Business Value.

(User/Business Value + Size + Risk Reduction/Opportunity Enablement)/Job Size.

(User/Business Value + Size + Risk Reduction/Opportunity Enablement)/Time.

Move teams across Value Streams to respond to changing business demands.

Establish Enterprise architecture.

Empower the Value Stream Engineer to coordinate all teams in the Value Stream.

Apply cadence and synchronization.

Fund the Portfolio, not the Value Streams.

Create a Portfolio Vision and Roadmap.

To ensure that the analysis and discovery work needed for the items are not time bound.

To ensure that there is visibility and transparency.

To capture all ideas in the funnel.

To limit the number of initiatives under consideration.

To ensure that portfolio items are delivered to the Program or Solution Backlogs every 2 weeks.

Higher variability

Decreased motivation

Less cross-training

More multitasking

Slower delivery

Lower quality

Synchronize the technology stack and infrastructure across Value Streams.

Drive the strategy for maintaining the Enterprise's architecture.

Define the Solution design for Agile Release Trains.

Facilitate reuse of ideas and proven design patterns.

The number of members on a self-managing, self-organizing ART.

The maximum number of tasks in a Program Increment for optimal predictability.

The number of Stories created during PI Planning to enable commitment.

The percent utilization that enables a sustainable pace.

True

False

Number of lines of code produced.

Number of new test cases automated.

Number of test cases produced.

Percent of unit test coverage.

Percent of user stories accepted by the Product Owner.

Number of defects outstanding.

Once pulled into implementation, the Epic needs to be finished.

A budget reserve is established that can be used to fund Epics.

Agile Release Trains are empowered to decide whether or not they proceed with a Portfolio Epic.

Re-prioritization happens at every PI boundary, and the rest of the Epic can be postponed or canceled if there are more important new initiatives.

True

False

Queues are processed in the order in which items are entered.

Backlogs are continuously refined and can be re-prioritized.

Queues are continuously refined and cannot be re-prioritized.

Backlog items are estimated; queues are not.

Business value

CoD (Cost of Delay)

WSJF (Weighted Shortest Job First)

Capacity allocation according to budget

True

False

Hold people accountable.

Hold employee reviews to provide fast feedback.

Optimize the whole.

Apply Lean problem-solving tools and techniques.

Reflect at key Milestones.

Creating work breakdown structures.

Modeling

Adapting WIP limits

Building prototypes

In the Portfolio Kanban.

In the Value Stream planning board.

In the ART Kanban.

In the Value Stream Kanban.

PI Predictability Measure update.

Roadmap update

Team Iteration Demo

Biweekly System Demo

Iteration Metrics update

The Portfolio Kanban holds Capabilities that are ready for implementation.

Programs plan PIs so that they exhaust the Portfolio Backlog and only then work on their local priorities.

It provides a low-cost holding area for approved Business and Enabler Epics.

WSJF is used to prioritize Epics in the Portfolio Backlog.

Refining the Program Backlog.

Managing the ART sync.

Categorizing program risks during PI Planning.

Managing teams by the Release Train Engineer.

Empowerment, self-managing teams, decentralization of control, value.

Built-in Quality, cadence, synchronization, trust.

Built-in Quality, program execution, alignment, transparency.

Lean Leadership, Built-in Quality, Agile Architecture, product flow.

Defining Solution architecture.

Creating new automated test scenarios.

End-to-end system testing.

Building and maintaining a production-equivalent staging environment.

Deploying to staging.

Iteration Planning

Iteration Retrospective

System Demo

PI Planning