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

Guiding investments by horizon is the Lean budget guardrail that helps ensure the appropriate allocation of budgets to balance near-term opportunities with long-term strategy and growth. A Lean budget guardrail is a policy or guideline that governs how the portfolio operates within the Lean budgeting system. Guiding investments by horizon means allocating budgets across three time horizons: Horizon 1 (current value streams), Horizon 2 (emerging opportunities), and Horizon 3 (exploration and innovation). This helps the portfolio balance the exploitation of existing markets with the exploration of new ones, and foster a culture of experimentation and learning. References: Lean Portfolio Management, Traditional and Lean Budgeting Approaches

Uncommitted objectives are counted when calculating load. Load is a measure of how much work a team can realistically accomplish in a PI. Load is calculated by adding up the story points of all the committed and uncommitted objectives of a team. Committed objectives are SMART goals that reflect the value that each team intends to deliver in a PI with high confidence. Uncommitted objectives are stretch goals that reflect additional value that each team may be able to deliver in a PI if they have extra capacity or time. Uncommitted objectives are not included in the commitment or the business value scoring, but they are included in theload to account for their potential impact on team capacity. References: PI Planning, Team PI Objectives

Lean thinking is the type of thinking that allows the customer to pull value from the producer. Lean thinking is a philosophy and a set of principles and practices that aim to eliminate waste and optimize value delivery. Pull is a concept that means that nothing is built or delivered until there is a demand for it from the customer or the next process. Pull helps reduce overproduction, inventory, and waiting, and ensures that only valuable work is done. References: Thriving in the Digital Age, SAFe Principle #1

This is how SAFe describes Customer Centricity. Customer Centricity is one of the core competencies of business agility in SAFe. Customer Centricity means putting the customer at the center of everything the enterprise does, and understanding their needs, desires, and problems deeply. Customer Centricity also means adopting a mindset that focuses on observing and learning from customer behaviors that produce the best innovations, rather than relying on assumptions or opinions. Customer Centricity helps enterprises deliver solutions that delight their customers and achieve market differentiation. References: Customer Centricity

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

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

Strategic themes are an example of differentiating business objectives. Strategic themes are specific, itemized business objectives that connect a portfolio to the enterprise strategy. Strategic themes provide guidance and direction for portfolio vision, budget allocation, value stream identification, epic prioritization, and metric definition. Strategic themes help differentiate a portfolio from its competitors and create a unique value proposition for its customers. References: SAFe Portfolio, Strategic Themes

This statement is true about batch size. Batch size is the amount of work that moves as a unit through a process or system. Large batch sizes increase variability by creating more uncertainty, complexity, dependencies, and unpredictability in the workflow. Large batch sizes also increase waste by causing delays, queues, handoffs, rework, overproduction, and inventory accumulation. Reducing batch size is one of the key ways to optimize value delivery and improve flow efficiency. References: SAFe Lean-Agile Principles, SAFe Principle #5

Conducting a PI planning event is an example of applying cadence and synchronization in SAFe. Cadence is a regular and predictable pattern of events that provides a rhythm for development. Synchronization is the alignment of multiple perspectives and activities within a cadence. PI planning is a two-day event that occurs at the beginning of every Program Increment (PI), which is typically an 8-12 week timebox. PI planning brings together all the teams in an ART to align on a common vision, identify dependencies, plan features, establish objectives, and commit to a plan for the next PI. References: Develop on Cadence; Release on Demand, PI Planning

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

This statement is one of the values from the Agile Manifesto. The Agile Manifesto is a declaration of four values and twelve principles that guide Agile software development. The four values are: individuals and interactions over processes and tools; working software over comprehensive documentation; customer collaboration over contract negotiation; and responding to change over following a plan. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation means that Agile teams value building strong relationships with their customers based on trust, feedback, and shared understanding, rather than relying on rigid contracts that limit flexibility and creativity. References: Thriving in the Digital Age, Agile Manifesto

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.

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

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.

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.”

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.

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

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 workbook details that optimizing flow is heavily dependent on:

“Most problems with your process will surface as delays… Reducing delays is the fastest way to reduce time-to-market.”

Thus, identifying and eliminating delays is the critical activity when optimizing flow.

Source:Workbook, Page 2-11

Features are found on an ART planning board. An ART planning board is a tool that helps teams visualize and manage the work items for an Agile Release Train (ART). An ART is a long-lived team of Agile teams that delivers value in a regular cadence. Features are high-level descriptions of system behaviors that provide business value to a stakeholder. Features are derived from epics and decomposed into user stories or enablers. Features are prioritized by business value using Weighted Shortest Job First (WSJF) and planned for Program Increments (PIs) by the ART teams. References: Organizing Around Value with ARTs, ART Planning Board

Design thinking is a method that provides a continuous understanding of the target market. Design thinking is a human-centered approach to problem-solving that involves empathy, ideation, experimentation, and implementation. Design thinking helps teams discover the real needs and desires of their customers, generate innovative solutions that address those needs, validate their assumptions through fast feedback loops, and deliver value that delights their customers. Design thinking helps teams achieve the core competency of Customer Centricity in SAFe. References: Customer Centricity, Design Thinking

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/