The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe): An Overview

Agile project management based on Scrum has already become the standard in many organizations when it comes to reaching goals quickly in small, autonomous teams. However, this approach hits its limits when multiple teams must collaborate on very large projects. And when you want a portfolio-level superstructure for prioritizing multiple projects, selecting initiatives, and managing dependencies, Scrum simply does not provide the necessary guidelines. In these cases, classic project management methods still dominate due to a lack of alternatives. But the Scaled Agile Framework — SAFe for short — closes this gap and provides a framework for scaling Scrum. This enables large organizations to achieve greater efficiency and a shorter time to market.

Nine Key Principles for Success

SAFe is based on proven agile and lean management methods. Nine key principles define the guiding guidelines:

Principle No. 1

To achieve an optimal lead time, teams take an economic perspective. The focus is on the highest quality and the greatest value creation.

Principle No. 2

All facets of software development are considered when implementing systems.

Principle No. 3

Innovative ideas are encouraged and flexible options are preserved.

Principle No. 4

Development happens incrementally, based on rapid, integrated learning cycles. This reduces risks and allows customer feedback to be incorporated quickly.

Principle No. 5

Milestones and evaluated, working systems ensure an economic advantage.

Principle No. 6

Work in progress and batch sizes are reduced as much as possible. Active queue management guarantees a continuous workflow.

Principle No. 7

Cross-functional synchronization takes place in order to identify new business opportunities and implement any necessary corrections.

Principle No. 8

To unlock the full potential of knowledge workers, they are equipped with intrinsic motivation.

Principle No. 9

To achieve greater effectiveness and agility, the Scaled Agile Framework relies on decentralized decision-making.

Becoming More Agile with Five Core Competencies

According to the framework, SAFe is designed to help organizations “successfully navigate digital disruption and have an effective response ready for volatile market conditions, changing customer needs, and emerging technologies.” To achieve this, the method focuses on five core competencies:

1st Core Competency — Lean Agile Leadership

Lean Agile Leadership relies on the leadership level supporting and driving change within the organization as well as effective overall operations. This is especially important because in practice only leaders have the authority needed to positively influence individuals and teams so that they reach their full potential.

2nd Core Competency — Technical Agility

To generate good solutions quickly, a team must apply certain lean and agile methods and possess some essential skills. Since the team is producing a product for a customer, technical agility within the team must be ensured in particular.

3rd Core Competency — DevOps

A consistent, continuous pipeline for products and services is crucial for sustainably meeting customer needs.

4th Core Competency — Lean Systems Engineering

An organization’s capacity for innovation grows with a focus on agile methods, particularly for promoting blueprints, development, and deployment.

5th Core Competency — Lean Portfolio Management

The fundamental prerequisite for the successful use of SAFe is an adequate corporate strategy that meaningfully aligns the areas of finance, portfolio management, and compliance.

What Distinguishes SAFe from Scrum?

While Scrum is ideal for small to medium-sized projects within a single team, the Scaled Agile Framework scales the agile way of working by implementing an additional cycle at a higher level of abstraction — the so-called Program Increment. This meta-cycle lasts approximately two to three months and deals with larger requirements — also called features. With this level, SAFe addresses the complexity of large programs. In addition, at the team level within the Product Increment, smaller requirements — called stories — are handled, taking roughly one to four weeks per cycle.

The Program Increment meta-cycle concretely consists of five iterations of several weeks each, where the last iteration (IP = Innovation and Planning) differs significantly from the other four. In the first four iterations, the teams develop a solution, which they then examine carefully in the fifth iteration and evaluate for possible optimization potential. This approach is often difficult to justify to management, because relatively little visible work is produced during the IP phase compared to the other four. Nevertheless, this fifth iteration is extremely important, because it creates time for bug fixes and architectural optimizations. In this way, the method prevents legacy issues from programming that naturally arise over time. Cleaning up and fixing errors after the fact would be considerably more expensive and time-consuming than directly “tidying up” in the fifth iteration of the Program Increment.

In all five iterations, all developers — from product owners to all Scrum Masters and every other team member working on the project — come together for a meeting that typically lasts two days. Based on a carefully planned agenda, all important topics related to the project are discussed together before moving on to the next phase.

In addition, the Program Increment meta-cycle includes a Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle at the feature level:

Plan — PI Planning:

PI Planning is a Sprint Planning at the feature level within the Program Increment meta-cycle.

Do — Program Backlog Refinements:

During the Program Increment, the team maintains a shared Program Backlog that contains features.

Check — System Demo:

During the System Demo, the team reviews the jointly created product. This check takes place in every sprint and also at the end of a Program Increment.

Act — Inspect & Adapt Workshop:

In the Inspect & Adapt Workshop, all teams collectively recap the work from the last Program Increment and try to learn from challenges and adopt optimizations for the future.

The Right Offering for Every Need

Depending on the goals and the levels of the organization to be involved, SAFe offers different tiers:

Essential:

Essential covers the team and program level and is particularly well-suited for organizations that want to get started quickly.

Portfolio:

The Portfolio tier incorporates not only the team and program level but also the portfolio level. Organizations that want to align their programs with their corporate strategy are ideally served by this tier.

Large Solution:

Starting from the Large Solution tier, a Large Solution level is added to the team, program, and portfolio levels — important for organizations with large-scale needs.

Full:

Global players with significant scaling requirements for projects and employees rely on the Full tier of SAFe, which covers all levels and thus offers the complete package.

Step by Step to the Scaled Agile Framework

Once an organization has decided to work with SAFe, the first project is implementing the new structures and processes. This is best achieved step by step:

Triggering Change and Introducing Change Agents:

The initial impetus for implementing SAFe can have various reasons — whether it’s about optimizing how complex projects are currently handled, increasing productivity, or tackling large-scale projects for the first time. Regardless of the starting point, management must first be convinced by leadership of the need for implementation. The more strongly all project stakeholders are convinced of the value of this change, the better the chances for a successful transformation. To keep acceptance high from the start, the leadership level can identify and engage so-called Change Agents. These can act as Program Consultants to guide stakeholders and executives on the Scaled Agile Framework and be available as points of contact for questions and uncertainties.

C-Level Engagement and the Lean Agile Center of Excellence

Leaders in most organizations serve as role models in ways that should not be underestimated. Accordingly, they can model agile methods for their employees and should receive the first SAFe training as early as possible. In addition, implementing a “Center of Excellence” is advisable in order to establish agile and lean methods throughout the entire organization and to optimize overall performance in this area.

Agile Release Trains (ARTs)

Agile teams that develop value-generating solutions are called Agile Release Trains in the SAFe context. The people developing the systems within the team are especially critical to their success. It is correspondingly important that every individual team member knows their role, fulfills it, and brings the skills needed for success. ARTs can be executed successfully when the individual SAFe roles are optimally filled.

Prioritization, Roadmap, and Parameters

With the definition of corporate goals, a roadmap can be created that provides structured guidance for the SAFe implementation. This also includes a clear definition of ARTs, deadlines, teams, training, and a readiness assessment. In addition, the shared backlog program is also prepared at this stage.

From Portfolio to Enterprise-Wide Success

Once all preparatory measures have been taken, they are transferred to the portfolio level. This enables the consolidation of corporate culture, improved performance, and the best possible achievement of goals. When new business opportunities are identified and implemented in time, business processes have a lasting effect. On this foundation, an organization’s leadership builds a shared lean and agile mindset.

The Advantages of SAFe at a Glance

SAFe makes agile projects practically achievable for large organizations with complex initiatives. Large mid-sized companies and corporations become correspondingly more flexible and effective, with the opportunity to shorten their time to market and respond agilely to market conditions. Transparent processes and self-directed work also lead to more satisfied, more engaged employees, higher productivity, and an improved corporate culture. This benefits not only the existing teams but also helps attract important specialists and experts as new employees.

The well-thought-out and documented Scaled Agile Framework provides organizations with fundamental confidence when executing their first large-scale agile projects. All techniques, meetings, roles, and other aspects are clearly documented and comprehensibly recorded, so that those responsible can easily transfer the model to their own organization.

SAFe’s focus lies on streamlining, teamwork, and delivery across a large number of distributed agile teams. In addition, there are other interesting frameworks that may also be relevant depending on organizational goals. Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD), for example, concentrates on the end-to-end lifecycle of products with seven fundamental principles. Large-Scale Scrum (LeSS), on the other hand, builds on the idea that all teams involved in a project focus not only on their own area but keep the final product in view. Which model fits which organization is an individual assessment that depends on numerous factors. In any case, a project management software should be used that optimally supports the chosen model to avoid generating additional overhead. An overview can be found in agile project management software and project management tools.

If you are interested in Kanban boards, we recommend this article. Further reading: agile principles, agile values, agile practices, Scrum artifacts, Scrum roles, and Agile vs. Waterfall.