SAFe-Agilist SAFe Agilist - Leading SAFe (SA)(5.1.1) Question and Answers

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

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

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

The business owner is the person who decides the team PI objective business value scoring after negotiation. The business owner is a key stakeholder who has the primary business and technical responsibility for governance, compliance, and return on investment (ROI) for a specific value stream. The business owner participates in the PI planning event and assigns business value points to each team PI objective based on their alignment with the program vision and objectives. The business owner also reviews and approves the final plan and value scores after the team and program risks are resolved. References: PI Planning, Business Owners

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/

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

Lean Portfolio Management is responsible for managing the Portfolio Kanban. The Portfolio Kanban is a method for visualizing and managing the flow of portfolio epics from ideation to implementation and completion. The Portfolio Kanban helps align strategy with execution, prioritize demand with capacity, reduce cycle time and variability, and foster collaboration and feedback. Lean Portfolio Management is one of the core competencies of business agility in SAFe. Lean Portfolio Management aligns strategy and execution by applying Lean and systems thinking approaches to strategy and investment funding, Agile portfolio operations, and governance. References: Lean Portfolio Management, Portfolio Kanban

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

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 Continuous Delivery Pipeline represents the workflow, activities, and automation needed to deliver new functionality more frequently. The Continuous Delivery Pipeline is a key enabler of Agile Product Delivery, which is one of the core competencies of business agility in SAFe. The Continuous Delivery Pipeline consists of four elements: Continuous Exploration, Continuous Integration, Continuous Deployment, and Release on Demand. These elements help teams continuously explore customer needs, develop high-quality solutions, deploy them to various environments, and release them to customers when and where they want. References: Agile Product Delivery, Continuous Delivery Pipeline