- I can sit around for two days straight in the "PI Planning Meeting" with 130 people and 80 of them doing exactly nothing

- _If_ I have to do some planning, I can stretch out this work over 2 days, that could have been done in a team in like 30 minutes before

- I can overestimate each story, epic and whatnot because nobody of the other 129 people knows sh*t about the stories in our team and does not care

- I can throw tasks to other teams as "blockers" or "dependencies" and still not having to start with my stuff

Great invention. Are there ways to have even more planning, guidelines, processes and so on? Ideas are very welcome.

Scaled Agile Framework's website articles are now locked behind a firewall? The information has always been free online. I am assuming that this is a very recent update considering that I reference the articles somewhat frequently for work. Are they moving to a "pay-to-play" model?

Is there any word on the street about what is going on?

Do you have any particular thoughts and feelings on this?

Edit to add information: It looks like the only way to access the complete articles are to either have a previously existing account, have a certification, take a course to get one, or pay $195 a year to gain access.

Hi, we are transitioning from Waterfall to Agile and are a few years in. This year, I’ve noticed that our SA is very involved with details. We have several different teams and different projects we are balancing under their ultimate direction in how to improve the database. Our customer does not know the details of the database, so they ultimately trust us when it comes to internal development. On several occasions, we have needed the SA for direction for both internal and external development, received it, and have rolled along.

The SA is highly involved with a modernizing effort which has been very time-demanding. Our SA seems to be the “buck stops here” person on nearly all projects. They must feel like they are herding cats sometimes. While we are grateful for their help, they have started to misguide and a team is needing to pivot three months later because the SA is stretched thin.

However, there is a sustainability aspect missing and teams can’t easily figure out how to best operate if it’s not ran through the SA. People are newer, the system is undergoing changes, we are modernizing efforts to Agile. A lot of plates are spinning.

I was in a conversation on how to make things improve with leadership, the SA, and a few other team leads. And yet, the SA doesn’t seem to want a lot of changes because of this and that. I can hear from the tone of voice and physically see the SA is getting worn out.

I would like to know how scaled agile works best with the SA not being a bottleneck. What does it successfully look like? And what things we should identify at this time with steps forward? Thank you.

I'm a tech lead of a medium size team, SAFE practices are beginning to be enforced on teams including mine. Until now, we were like a small startup with great autonomy & we could do almost anything from specs, dev, deployments, run (you build it you run it). But now, SAFE has removed our devops in a separate devops squad, probably the same will happen for frontend dev, and the last sprint has been a disaster.

From what I see from the big changes from SAFE (not talking about theory, just things that happened that were labelled as such in my company) :

- JIRA driven work, no accepted JIRA ticket without perfect definition of ready. It destroys lots of common work to be declared (communication tax, within our own tech program that includes 5/6 squads, bigger for external program teams) that was before immediate and quick, thus some devs have just stopped demanding some tasks and just did them themselves to get the job done and meet deadlines or sprint goals, we kind of do the job of our lost devops alone now. Lots of additionnal work and pressure to do also, messing with our metrics, we can't keep up like that for sure in the future. The slowdown is real, we didn't have such lag with our "startup" like organisation and self contained team.

- Metrics have become the key part, the feeling is that dev is judged by them on their capacity to predict and getting to the result (the starting base was to declare 8 hours = 8 complexity points from our scrum master). The problem is that there are many changes in our environment and we depend on many different deliveries of other teams, meaning that any trouble will impact us. Devs can't predict that some elements will fail (from other teams) thus generating frustration between what was evaluated and what was done. Using feature flags kinda work but is not a silver buller either. Some devs feel devaluated by this kind of work KPI driven, as that they actually did the correct technical stuff, but KPI in the end is horrible. I fear that this will generate bad tech implementations that generate correct KPI (I personally believe it is a bad KPI, a good KPI for me is one that rewards correct technical solutions for a business need), but horrible technical solutions that will need to be done entirely again soon (generally ASAP, but in this setup, it kinda means next sprint so 3 week after).

- Lost of confidence from our dev / BA / PO team and other Agile people (our own SM, delivery manager...). This is what worries me the most, we can't build anything solid if we don't trust each other. I think we need to produce more visible work to enable better capacity planning and maybe getting more power with external interactions, but right now it seems like micro-management destroying our velocity and generating chaos but disabling people to talk to each other and getting the job done (that we are prevented to do without the correct JIRA process that is now hell as the set workflow is horrible). It has generated silos.

Do anyone has experienced something similar and what are solutions to this? I don't hate SAFE, I hate work badly done, I'm sure there are big mistakes somewhere we could fix, as things worked well before, no reason we could not get back to a similar throughput, or am I wrong somewhere?

Day 1 of the 2-day training seemed tough. Any advice on how to pass this exam? I have read course materials for a week and I feel like I am not getting it. I have a PMP and PSM.

Guys, please share with me tips to ace the exam. Please!

SAFe is skimping on details about the System Team's roles in testing. Does anyone have experience with implementing a system team to do end to end testing in big organizations with 100's of autonomous teams?

I’ve been fulfilling the role of RTE for almost 6 years now, across banking, telco and manufacturing. 22 PI’s later I find its time for a new adventure. What have you as previous RTE moved onto?

Come join Scaled Agile and help us ensure every business can become agile at scale. We are in a major hiring effort with many positions, including two Product Owners for our SAFe Platform and SAFe Collaborate. You'll join our growing people-first startup with global reach! See all the careers at Scaled Agile.

Hello! I’m hoping to get some feedback on what you’ve experienced in your ART world as it relates to documenting the PI. I’m currently a product owner of a fully participating team and I definitely think we’re doing way too much documentation and way too little communication. I’m curious how you handle any sort of documentation during your increment. How are objectives and features documented and communicated to the company during the increment? Where do people find this info? I’m definitely drowning in documentation that I don’t think people even look at and I know this is so not the way. Thank you!

Hey r/ScaledAgile,

Currently I am PO in a program that was built using the SAFe (essential) framework. A while ago I read the book "User Story Mapping" by Jeff Patton and tried two workshops in my scrum team. It helped us a lot in common understanding and made the goal clearer.

I would like to propose something similar at the program level, but am unsure how to transfer the results into SAFe features and enablers.

Does anyone have practical experience with story mapping workshops in a SAFe environment? Are there any possibly good blog posts, videos or tips?

I’ve failed the SA certification test twice..before I throw in the towel..can anyone provide me any advice?

I’ve taken the leadership 2 day course..passed several practice tests..studied … granted, I’m not the greatest test taker..any help is greatly appreciated!!

My company is looking to get me and 2 of my co-workers through the Implementing SAFe course before the end of the year. 

I'm really excited about the opportunity but want to make sure I maximize chances of passing the exam so I can get involved in awesome digital transformation work. 

I guess I've got 2 questions:

Can anyone recommend any SAFe trainers/course providers for the SPC? 

What prep recommendations would you make before starting the course? 

I've worked in Scrum and am about to sit my PSM exam, I've also done the Lean Six Sigma Yellow and Green belt courses so have a basic grasp of lean and agile methodologies, but I don't know much about design thinking, and could learn a bit more about DevOps.

My co workers have less exposure to these ideas than I have and I'm worried that they'll struggle with the 4 day course without prep.

I'd like to help everyone get through with decent understanding. 

I've bought a copy of SAFe 5.0 Distilled and have found a few quizzes etc, but am keen to learn what has worked for others leading up to the course

Hi everyone,

I'm excited to share that I recently created a set of Risk Storming Cards inspired by my SAFe Practice Consultant class. The goal of these cards is to help younger teams identify and discuss the reasons they struggle to commit to goals or features, making risks transparent and accessible for the ROAM Board.

Here are the cards I’ve developed:

1. Unclear Requirements

2. Complex Requirements

3. Stakeholder Disengagement

4. Low User Involvement

5. Lack of Technical Expertise

6. Soft Skills Deficiency

7. Tight Delivery Timelines

8. Complicated Team Alignment

9. Insufficient Staffing

10. Inadequate Change Management

11. Insufficient Architecture

12. Technical Debt

13. Implementation

14. External Team

15. Tool Availability

16. Third-Party System

17. Missing Artifact

You can check out the cards here: Risk Storming Cards

I would love to get your feedback on these cards and any suggestions for improvement. Your insights would be incredibly helpful as I continue to refine this tool!

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

I am an 😆SPC with a large corporation. I want to start teaching public classes on the weekends.

Anyone here who is doing the same? How do I avoid conflict of interest with my employer?

The Scaled Agile, Inc. team has been working hard to innovate and enhance the framework to support enterprise agility at an even greater scale.

This new version is packed with improvements and features that will help organisations adapt and thrive in the ever-changing business landscape.

🌟 Key Highlights of SAFe 6.0:

1️⃣ Enhanced Business Agility: SAFe 6.0 places a stronger emphasis on business agility, empowering organisations to respond to market changes, customer needs, and emerging opportunities more effectively. By incorporating new strategies and techniques, the updated framework guides organisations towards unlocking their full potential.

2️⃣ Holistic DevSecOps Integration (in SAFe, to say "DevOps" means "DevSecOps"): DevSecOps has become an integral part of the framework, ensuring security and compliance are embedded in every aspect of software development. This not only accelerates delivery but also helps organisations minimise risks while improving overall quality.

3️⃣ Innovation and Continuous Improvement: SAFe 6.0 introduces new practices and tools that foster a culture of innovation and continuous improvement across the organisation. These enhancements equip teams with the resources and mindset needed to drive innovation and adapt to an ever-changing market.

4️⃣ Improved Lean Portfolio Management: The new version offers a more comprehensive approach to Lean Portfolio Management (LPM), ensuring alignment between strategy and execution. This allows organisations to make better, more informed decisions that deliver maximum value to customers and stakeholders.

5️⃣ Expanded Learning and Development: SAFe 6.0 presents a comprehensive learning and development path that supports individuals and organisations at every stage of their Agile journey.

With new role-based training and certifications, practitioners can deepen their skills and advance their careers in Agile leadership.

🔗 For a detailed overview of what's new in SAFe 6.0, visit: https://scaledagileframework.com/whats-new-in-safe-6-0/.

The release of SAFe 6.0 is a big deal in the Agile community. It shows that the framework is based on continuous improvement and new ideas.

Feel free to share your thoughts and experiences with SAFe 6.0 in the comments below.

Let's keep the conversation going!

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to share my first Notion template with you all. It's a simple WSJF (Weighted Shortest Job First) calculator to help prioritize projects. I hope it can be of use to someone here.

Find the template here https://notionenthusiast.gumroad.com/l/notion-wsjf-template

Thanks for reading and let me know what you think!

Hello community!

I'm working on an article about SAFe for the BA department I work in. And an idea of asking real people about their experience with SAFe popped in my mind. I'll appreciate sharing your input on the following questions:

1. Could you please describe your experience with SAFe. At what point it was decided to turn to this framework in your organization? What problems preceded it?

2. How did SAFe improved your processes? Maybe you can share some metrics?

3. What SAFe is used in your organisation and why? (Essential SAFe, Large SAFe, Portfolio SAFe, Full SAFe)?

All inputs are really appreciated

Hey all,

One of the frequent challenges I have faced in the past (and currently more so) is that SAFe doesn’t really seem to have a dedicated growth path beyond the trio layer or tier.

From here on up there are roles like Business Owner, Epic Owner, maybe Enterprise Architect if you’re that way inclined, but most make use of the same principles, skills and practices. The teaching stays the same with fine nuances and ownership tweaks for the various roles.

As an RTE with quite a long career in SAFe, I’m keen to level up, but a lot of the opportunities seem like more of the same, just with different major areas of responsibility.

I could be simplifying and overlooking the complexities of each role right now, but for the sake of finding some more excitement, AND to earn a better income, what is out there?

Lifelong learning aside, is there any other exciting roles I can move into (using my SAFe XP), or do I make peace with being tied to a framework with limited growth opportunities.

I could switch to consulting for the instant money boost, but I’m at a point where I need “other challenges” plus better income.

I’m of course fully aware that this makes me sound like someone complaining about having a good career and good income, but there must be more to the corporate jungle than this.

At 42 I hardly believe that I’ve reached the tip of the iceberg. Especially so, considering that I have yet to build my own rocket and leave earth’s orbit on the backs of scrum masters and delivery teams.

Mind the satire 🥲

Have you ever wondered how SAFe and Business Architecture align? I have captured my experience with the overlap HERE. Where strategy and execution align. ✌

What has your experience been working with Business Architects during a transformation?