Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)

Developed by Simon Widmer

The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) is a framework that helps corporations to adopt the principles of lean and agile project management into a comprehensive operating system allowing large-scale program management for corporations of any size. SAFe combines the power of four bodies of knowledge: Agile development, systems thinking, lean product development, and DevOps. This allows corporations to benefit from cutting down the delivery time of innovative, high-value products and services while increasing predictability and quality. Overall, the benefits of implementing SAFe can be quantified as:

• 20 – 50% increase in productivity
• 25 – 75% improvements in quality
• 30 – 75% faster time-to-market
• 10 – 50% increase in employee engagement and job satisfaction

SAFe follows a set of seven competencies for lean enterprise practices as well as 10 lean-agile principles. Further, the SAFe framework consists of four configurations and is scalable depending on a corporation’s needs, and promotes alignment, collaboration, and delivery across teams of any size working in an agile environment.

SAFe is freely available and developed by Scaled Agile, Inc. The framework was first released in 2011 and since then continuously developed. The current version 5.1 was released in February 2021. Although recognized as the most commonly implemented framework for scaled agile methods in corporations, the SAFe framework shows several limitations which are further outlined in section XX.

This topic has been touched by previous articles such as SAFe and (Re)Introducing Project Management in a SAFe world. This article offers a more generic overview of SAFe while emphasizing limitations faced by corporations working with the Scaled Agile Framework.

Core Competencies of SAFe

The latest Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe 5) consists of seven key competencies that are crucial in creating and maintaining a competitive advantage for any corporation:

1. Lean-Agile Leadership
2. Team and Technical Agility
3. Agile Product Delivery
4. Enterprise Solution Delivery
5. Lean Portfolio Management
6. Organizational Agility
7. Continuous Learning Culture

SAFe Lean-Agile Principles

Describe 10 SAFe principles

SAFe Configurations

Describe the 4 available SAFe configurations

Implementation Roadmap

Describe the 10 steps of the implementation roadmap

Limitations

Critically discuss 3-5 examples on limitations of SAFe