The 4 levels of the Scaled Agile Framework® explained
The four levels of the Scaled Agile Framework® (SAFe®) are an attractive proposition for organisations looking to adopt lean-agile practices according to their requirements, with each configuration accommodating a different level of scale. Find out what to expect at each level and how to choose the right one for your needs, in this detailed explainer from Quinn Dodsworth, PM-Partners Agile Learning Consultant and Facilitator and Certified SAFe® 6.0 Practice Consultant (SPC).
Understanding Scaled Agile
Scaled Agile is a term that encompasses the implementation of lean-agile thinking and patterns of improved flow at an enterprise level to deliver value to customers at scale. Of the various agile methodologies available, the Scaled Agile Framework® (SAFe®) is one of the most popular for implementing business agility and was designed to better meet customers’ (and developers’) changing needs.
Created in 2011, SAFe was the first formal framework for scaling lean-agile thinking, accounting for different parts of an organisation and the interdependencies within, enabling the benefits of agile development to adapt to larger organisations and teams. It integrates the extensive bodies of knowledge from various lean-agile practices, as well as the experiences and lessons learnt from practitioners, into a comprehensive framework that allows enterprises to introduce agile not just across software development but organisation-wide.
In recent years, the uptake of agile in organisations has risen in correspondence with wider awareness of its benefits thanks to its core values of alignment, transparency, respect for people, and relentless improvement. At the micro level, this includes better collaboration and faster decision-making; at the macro level, many organisations experience a faster time to market, quality improvements, an increase in productivity and more engaged employees. This means agile is no longer a practice reserved for the team and project level – it has much wider applications throughout the organisation.
What are the four levels of SAFe®?
SAFe attracts organisations because it gives an integrated approach to the implementation of lean-agile ways, including a comprehensive roadmap to embed agile at an enterprise level. The four configurations of SAFe are specifically designed to accommodate different levels of agile development, acknowledging that organisations differ in complexity with regard to the solutions they are looking to deliver. These levels are:
- Essential SAFe: The most practical starting point for implementation, this level offers the foundational elements for all SAFe configurations. It ensures the fundamental competencies of Lean-Agile Leadership, Team and Technical Agility, and Agile Product Delivery have been well established, and introduces the agile team and agile release train (ART) constructs and how these deliver a continuous flow of value to the customer.
- Large Solution SAFe: This configuration introduces the Enterprise Solution Delivery competency to help organisations building large and complex solutions that require multiple ARTs and suppliers, but which stop short of portfolio responsibilities.
- Portfolio SAFe: For many organisations with a PMO or Value Management Office (VMO), this level provides two important, additional competencies. The Lean Portfolio Management competency aligns portfolio execution to enterprise strategy and organises development around the flow of value through one or more value streams. Meanwhile, the Organisational Agility competency extends lean thinking and practice throughout the enterprise and enables strategy agility.
- Full SAFe: This configuration includes all seven core competencies for business agility. It is the most comprehensive version of the framework and is typically used by the world’s largest enterprises to build and maintain portfolios of large and complex solutions.
An organisation can adopt each of these levels in turn, according to their context and needs (and in some cases, multiple instances of various SAFe configurations may be required). Let’s look at each level in greater depth.
Scaled Agile Framework® level 1: Essential SAFe®
To understand Essential SAFe, you first need to familiarise yourself with the core elements and practices of SAFe, starting with the creation of an agile release train (ART).
Agile release train (ART): An ART is a long-lived, cross-functional team of agile teams and other stakeholders within the organisation aligned to the business mission and centred on value creation through iterative agile delivery. Each team acts like an independent virtual organisation to develop, deliver and contribute to one or more solutions, and an ART ensures this forms a continuous value stream for the benefit of the customer through timeboxed planning intervals (PI).
PI planning (PI): this is a crucial cadence-based event and a required practice of SAFe; it connects strategy to execution by aligning ART teams and stakeholders to the overall mission. A PI planning event should result in committed PI objectives with assigned business values and an ART planning board that covers the team dependencies, new features, delivery dates and relevant milestones.
Team flow: At the team level, teams of agile teams are organised for flow to support and deliver value directly to the customer in a simplified organisational design. Alignment of a vision and objectives, a lean-agile mindset, the embedding of customer centricity, and a combination of agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban, and XP), help to iteratively deliver value flow in a continuous delivery pipeline.
ART flow: The Essential SAFe configuration ensures the organisation has the foundational building blocks to create an effective agile release train to deliver solutions in a continual flow of value. A functional ART indicates an organisation is being successful in 4 core competencies:
- Lean-Agile Leadership
- Team and Technical Agility
- Agile Product Delivery
- Continuous Learning Culture.
Scaled Agile Framework® level 2: Large Solution SAFe®
As the name implies, Large Solution SAFe is for larger, more complex solution development, although it stops short of portfolio concerns. Such solution development is typical for aerospace and defence, automotive, and government industries, where the large solution – not portfolio governance – is the primary concern. It builds on Essential SAFe by using lean systems engineering practices and engaging multiple ARTs as it continues to evolve the live system. The key difference between Essential SAFe and Large Solution SAFe is the solution train flow.
Solution train: A solution train is a system of systems – it aggregates multiple ARTs from across the enterprise into larger configured systems to create unique value or capabilities for the purpose of addressing greater requirements and delivering more complex solutions. To do this effectively, the solution train requires additional roles, events, and artifacts to enable the systems within it to work interdependently. Its role is to align the people and coordinate the solutions, so they share a solution vision, intent, and backlog while adhering to the overarching business mission. Solution train flow describes the steps required for solution trains to deliver a continuous flow of value to the customer.
When well-run, a solution train system should be able to assign parts of a solution to each ART according to features and then re-integrate the parts into a coherent solution for delivery and value realisation. Best-practice Large Solution SAFe requires agile teams to maintain a roadmap of desired capabilities for a few future planning intervals so that the timing of the solution train stays ahead of the ARTs; the solution level must dictate the activities of the ARTs.
Scaled Agile Framework® level 3: Portfolio Level SAFe®
Portfolio Level SAFe supplements the foundational competencies of Essential SAFe with Lean Portfolio Management and Organisational Agility. These two competencies allow organisations to incorporate additional value streams and ARTs. Further, Portfolio SAFe provides principles and practices for portfolio strategy and investment funding, agile portfolio operations, and lean governance for its value streams to enable greater strategic agility.
A well-managed portfolio should:
- Focus the value streams on developing the right products (fit for purpose)
- Evaluate and resource the product development process with the appropriate level of investment; and
- Ensure the solutions developed meet the portfolio’s strategic objectives.
A key distinction between Portfolio Level and Large Solution SAFe is the inclusion of agile development value streams.
Development value stream: a SAFe portfolio typically defines a collection of development value streams that build, support and maintain solutions that derive value for the customer. It leverages a PMO/VMO or even a Lean Agile Centre of Excellence (LACE) to ensure a shared governance model exists to support lean business processes, allowing organisations to maximise development value streams to align strategy to execution.
In Portfolio SAFe, the organisation connects development value streams related to the products or service opportunities needed within the organisation. The ARTs will be guided as per the strategy, mission and or vision, while a set of lean budget guardrails are set to appropriately fund the ARTs to iteratively deliver while providing true business agility.
Scaled Agile Framework® level 4: Full SAFe®?
The Full SAFe configuration indicates that scaled agile development within the business is comprehensive and all agile practices are mature. It represents full business agility and wholesale adoption of the SAFe framework, where ART flow, portfolio flow, and solution train flow all work to develop solutions and deliver value to the customer in accordance with the business mission and strategy.
Full SAFe identifies that the organisation not only delivers large complex solutions, but also has a portfolio of solutions with interdependencies where resource management is required. Full SAFe tends to be found in government and corporate bodies with many products and services that share systems and values.
Creating the agile enterprise
A truly agile enterprise is not just one that uses the agile methodology, but which has achieved business agility. Typically, this requires the organisation to successfully scale agile from individual and team practitioners to encompass the whole enterprise level. SAFe facilitates this transition by ensuring a solid foundation through Essential SAFe, enabling the organisation to integrate Large Solution SAFe and then expand into Portfolio SAFe and Full SAFe as required. Knowing the interplay of these configurations ensures that the organisation can align strategy with execution while continuing to deliver value, whether the solution is discrete or interdependent and part of a collective enterprise-level solution.
If your organisation is considering adopting SAFe, or just starting out with the framework, talk with a SAFe Practice Consultant (SPC) to understand what capability and skills are needed in the teams to create an agile release train that will help the enterprise coordinate better business agility. The more significant the complexity, the more large-scale training will help to ensure that the introduction and scaling of agile is consistent, comprehensive and well-supported. This will improve the likelihood of aligning goals, values and practices within the organisation.
If organisation-wide training is not possible, you can start with upskilling key people to help lead your agile transformation. Leading SAFe will help leaders drive the lean-agile transformation and provide tools to start building a culture that embraces change and focuses on customer value and working with agility at scale. SAFe for Teams, meanwhile, provides people who will join an ART with the tactical skills required to be a member of a high-performing team that can predictably deliver value to customers. This course also provides participants with a baseline understanding of what the ART is trying to achieve and is therefore a valuable opportunity for stakeholders to learn how best to engage with delivery.
As your organisation evolves in its SAFe journey, reconnect with your SAFe Practice Consultant to determine when you are ready for Large Solution and/or Portfolio SAFe configurations. Successful uptake of the Scaled Agile Framework has enabled enterprises to deliver complex solutions ranging from software development, telecommunications and advanced manufacturing to healthcare, financial services, and government services and there plenty of case studies available.
Hopefully this guide has helped you understand why SAFe is one of the most popular agile frameworks for enterprises, and how it offers a structured guide to implementing agile at scale. Using four configurations to differentiate the complexity of solutions required, SAFe can advance an organisation from baseline agile use to portfolio-level strategy and execution. Certification of agile practitioners throughout the organisation will ensure key personnel have the skills and knowledge to use agile to address challenges at the level they’re needed.
Start or advance your organisation’s agile practice with PM-Partners’ SAFe courses and/or SAFe consultation services. Contact us via our website or call 1300 70 13 14 to find out what level of SAFe is right for you.
This article is an updated version of a previous post: A guide to the 3 levels of the Scaled Agile Framework®
SAFe® and Scaled Agile Framework® are registered trademarks of Scaled Agile, Inc.
Quinn is a highly capable manager with a solid agile transformation background backed by a human resource learning and development education. His industry experience includes seven years with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and the Westpac Group specialising in change and productivity initiatives within various agile transformations that underpin business learning and market demand. Quinn’s focus is on driving new and innovative solutions to uplift business capability through the design and development of critical skills and knowledge across an organisation. These projects can range in size and complexity, with multiple internal and external stakeholders engaged to deliver a range of learning solutions to assist in agile transformation.
