Implementing SAFe Flashcards
Who facilitates team-level events?
A. The Scrum Master
B. The Release Train Engineer (RTE)
C. The Product Owner
D. The Agile Team
A. The Scrum Master
What are two benefits of ‘big room training’?
A. Easier to plan
B. Accelerated learning
C. Alignment to business objectives
D. Overall cost efficiency
E. Quicker to schedule
B + D
B. Accelerated learning
D. Overall cost efficiency
In some rollouts, training is performed team-by-team over time. That can sometimes be effective. However, a more accelerated approach is strongly recommended, which includes training all the team members at the same time. Big Room Training delivers the following benefits:
Accelerated learning – This training happens in two days, rather than over a period of months. That speeds up the timing and assimilation by all the members of the train, which accelerates the launch.
A common scaled Agile paradigm – All team members receive the same training, at the same time, from the same instructor. This eliminates the variability of different training sessions over time, by different instructors, using different courseware.
Cost-efficiency – One of the challenges with Agile implementation at scale has been the availability and expense of training. Talented, proven instructors are hard to find and not consistently available, and their value and cost are commensurately high. The Big Room approach is typically three to five times more cost-effective than individual team training.
Collective learning – There is no substitute for the learning experience of big room training. Face-to-face interaction is one of the critical ingredients of Agile at scale. Training everyone together starts building the social network that the ART relies upon and creates a far better experience than what can be accomplished when working separately from each other. There can be a transformative aspect to it, something you have to experience to believe.
When is the right time to create the role of the Solution Train Engineer (STE)?
A. When problems coordinating Agile Release Trains (ARTs) are identified in the Inspect and Adapt (I&A) event
B. When the second Value Stream is launched in a portfolio
C. When the first Agile Release Train (ART) is launched in a large Value Stream
D. When a large Value Stream has enough Agile Release Trains (ARTs) to launch a Solution Train
D. When a large Value Stream has enough Agile Release Trains (ARTs) to launch a Solution Train
Solution Trains allow businesses to build large and complex solutions, including cyber-physical systems (e.g., embedded systems) in a Lean-Agile manner. By aligning Agile Release Trains to a shared mission and coordinating the efforts of ARTs and Suppliers, the Solution Train helps manage the inherent risk and variability of large-scale solution development and requires the support of additional SAFe roles, artifacts, and events.
The benefit hypothesis justifies the Feature implementation cost, and what else?
A. It provides acceptance criteria
B. It provides architectural guidance
C. It provides a high-level estimate of complexity
D. It provides business perspective when making scope decisions
D. It provides business perspective when making scope decisions
During Program Increment (PI) Planning, what is the primary objective of the draft plan review?
A. To highlight challenges that management must address in the management review and problem solving meeting
B. To support a common mission set forth by Solution Management
C. To gain commitment for each team to incrementally deliver value
D. To align the Business Owners’ objectives to the release planning for the next PI
A. To highlight challenges that management must address in the management review and problem solving meeting
A new Agile Release Train (ART) is formed and Lee is the new coach. All members of the train are new to Agile. After 3 iterations Lee is hearing that many of the teams are having problems running their team events. What can she do to assist the teams?
A. Attend the Iteration Retrospectives as this will give her the most opportunity to help the teams
B. Immediately run another SAFe for Teams training to realign the teams around the SAFe events
C. Attend as many events as possible in the next Program Increment (PI) and attend more in the following PIs
D. Participate in the release management meeting to understand possible problems
A. Attend the Iteration Retrospectives as this will give her the most opportunity to help the teams
When calculating and assessing team Program Increment (PI) performance for the PI predictability measure, which statement is true about the actual total?
A. It includes miscellaneous work
B. It does not include uncommitted objectives
C. It does not include miscellaneous work
D. It includes uncommitted objectives
D. It includes uncommitted objectives
What are 3 parts to the Inspect and Adapt (I&A) event?
A. Questions and answers session
B. Problem-solving workshop
C. Review of the Agile transformation
D. Responsibilities and risks assessment
E. Quantitative measurement
F. Program Increment (PI) System Demo
B + E + F
B. Problem-solving workshop
E. Quantitative measurement
F. Program Increment (PI) System Demo
How can Essential SAFe be used to evaluate a Full SAFe implementation?
A. Customize Essential SAFe with constructs out of the full spanning palette
B. Customize Essential SAFe with constructs out of the Large Solution SAFe configuration
C. Verify that the Full SAFe implementation performs the elements of the Essential SAFe correctly
D. Customize Essential SAFe with constructs out of Full SAFe
C. Verify that the Full SAFe implementation performs the elements of the Essential SAFe correctly
What are the elements of the Agile Release Train (ART) quickstart approach?
A. Scrum Masters and Release Train Engineer (RTE) facilitate the launch, the Product Owner creates the backlog, Agile Teams commit to the work
B. SAFe for Teams training, Program Increment (PI) Planning, workshops
C. Identify the Product Owner, identify the Scrum Master, create the Program Increment backlog
D. SAFe Product Owner/Product Manager training, SAFe Scrum Master training, SAFe for Teams training
B. SAFe for Teams training, Program Increment (PI) Planning, workshops
The design of an Agile Release Train (ART) should remove what?
A. Geographic boundaries
B. Any hesitation employees might have about a Lean-Agile Mindset
C. Silos that inhibit flow
D. Budgetary restrictions
C. Silos that inhibit flow
There are multiple Agile Release Trains (ART) identified from the Value Stream and ART Identification Workshop. The ideal ART to launch first is found at the intersection of which converging factors?
A. Leadership support, low-hanging fruit, unclear products, and high-quality deliverables
B. Cooperation with operations, trained individuals, strong leaders, and time criticality
C. Leadership support, collaborating teams, clear products or Solution, and significant program challenge or opportunity
D. Bright spots, low dependencies, high-performing teams, and trained individuals
C. Leadership support, collaborating teams, clear products or Solution, and significant program challenge or opportunity
In Program Increment (PI) Planning, the final plan review is done by who?
A. Teams and Business Owners
B. Teams and coaches
C. Teams only
D. Business Owners and Scrum Masters
A. Teams and Business Owners
An Innovation and Planning (IP) Iteration allows time for which two activities?
A. For fixing deferred defects
B. For creating Strategic Themes for the upcoming Program Increment (PI) event
C. For innovation
D. For continuing education
E. For Architectural Runway implementation
C + D
C. For innovation
D. For continuing education
What is the final activity on day one of Program Increment (PI) Planning?
A. Final plan review
B. Draft plan review
C. Management review and problem-solving
D. Final scrum of scrums facilitated by the Release Train Engineer (RTE)
C. Management review and problem-solving
What is the benefit of timeboxing the preparation for the first Program Increment (PI) Planning event?
A. To have a known schedule
B. To minimize the expansion of work during preparation
C. To maximize the quality of the preparation
D. To assure people that they will have sustainable pace of work
B. To minimize the expansion of work during preparation
What is an aspect of systems thinking?
A. Mastery drives intrinsic motivation
B. The length of the queue impacts the wait time
C. Cadence makes routine everything that can be routine
D. Optimizing a component does not optimize the system
D. Optimizing a component does not optimize the system
What is an example of applying cadence-based synchronization in SAFe?
A. Teams allow batch sizes across multiple intervals
B. Teams align their Iterations to the same schedule to support communication, coordination, and system integration
C. Teams meet twice every Program Increment (PI) to plan and schedule capacity
D. Teams decide their own Iteration length
B. Teams align their Iterations to the same schedule to support communication, coordination, and system integration
A problem-solving workshop focuses the Agile Release Train (ART) to take what action?
A. To build an Architectural Runway
B. To identify the root causes of the problems
C. To build the Continuous Delivery Pipeline
D. To deliver the Program Increment (PI) System Demo
B. To identify the root causes of the problems
Which 2 SAFe Program Consultant (SPC) resources are intended to aid in arriving at the SAFe tipping point?
A. The Introducing SAFe workshop
B. The Value Stream and ART Identification Workshop Toolkit
C. The Lean Agile Center of Excellence (LACE) toolkit
D. The SAFe Executive Workshop Toolkit
E. The SAFe Product Owner/Product Manager class
A + D
A. The Introducing SAFe workshop
D. The SAFe Executive Workshop Toolkit
Why might an organization choose to create a platform Agile Release Train (ART)?
A. To align with existing organizational structures
B. To support architectural robustness
C. To accelerate value delivery
D. To reduce dependencies
B. To support architectural robustness
What are 3 things an Agile Release Train (ART) needs for its launch readiness?
A. All managers names and titles
B. Facilities
C. Supplies
D. A customer list
E. Program roster
F. The portfolio canvas
B + C + E
B. Facilities
C. Supplies
E. Program roster
When should a Lean Portfolio be established?
A. When there are a minimum of six Agile Release Trains (ARTs) that require coordination
B. When required by management because it is better to operate in a completely decentralized environment
C. When it is part of training the executives
D. When the lack of communication between strategy and execution is hurting value delivery
D. When the lack of communication between strategy and execution is hurting value delivery
Which statement is true about multiple Agile Release Train (ART) rollouts?
A. ART rollouts should be incremental; one ART should start when another reaches a ‘sustain and improve’ status
B. System Teams should be limited to one ART for a Value Stream
C. ART rollouts can be done sequentially or in parallel
D. Only one ART should be rolled out at a time to limit work in process (WIP)
C. ART rollouts can be done sequentially or in parallel
What is the primary goal of decentralized decision-making?
A. Reduce Cost of Delay
B. Resolve dependencies
C. Minimize Work-in-Progress
D. Increase employee satisfaction
C. Minimize Work-in-Progress
What does SAFe Principle #3, “Assume variability; preserve options,” enable?
A. Better economic results
B. Specification traceability
C. Up front designs of systems
D. Stronger Definition of Done
A. Better economic results
What is a result of shorter queue lengths?
A. Lower quality
B. Increased risk
C. Less variability
D. Longer cycle times
C. Less variability
Which statement is most accurate about the Program Vision?
A. It expresses the strategic intent of the Program
B. It drives the allocation of budget for the Agile Release Train
C. It summarizes the team PI Objectives for the current Program Increment
D. It provides an outline of the Feature for the next three Program Increments
A. It expresses the strategic intent of the Program
What is the primary purpose of Strategic Themes?
A. Determine the order in which Epics should be executed
B. Drive incremental implementation across the enterprise
C. Connect the portfolio to the enterprise business strategy
D. Define the sequence of steps used to deliver value to the customer
C. Connect the portfolio to the enterprise business strategy
An Epic spanning 2 PI’s was approved for implementation. What is the optimum implementation path from a Lean-Agile perspective?
A. Implement the Epic across the same number of PIs as it took to develop
B. Report percentage completed to the key stakeholders at every PI boundary
C. Demonstrate the progress to the key stakeholders after two PIs and have them accept the epic
D. Demonstrate the progress to key stakeholders after first PI and make a decision how to proceed with the Epic in the 2nd PI
D. Demonstrate the progress to key stakeholders after first PI and make a decision how to proceed with the Epic in the 2nd PI
What is one key reason for keeping the test data for automated tests under version control?
A. For reporting and auditing purposes
B. Version control is required for quality standards
C. All enterprise assets must be under version control
D. If test data gets out of sync, automated tests may not properly execute
D. If test data gets out of sync, automated tests may not properly execute
Which one of the following is the ‘Goal’ of Lean?
A. Respect for people and culture
B. Sustainable shortest lead time, best quality and value
C. Relentless Improvement
D. Lean-Agile Leadership?
B. Sustainable shortest lead time, best quality and value
A Lean enterprise delivers value in the sustainable shortest lead time, while simultaneously providing the “best quality and value for people and society”.
How decentralized decision making helps?
A. Getting better economic value
B. Limiting WIP
C. Reducing Defects
D. Reducing risks
C. Reducing Defects
What is “build incrementally with fast, integrated learning”?
A. Delivering incremental value
B. phase gate approach
C. baseline requirement with epics
B. phase gate approach
What is the connection between feedback and optimum batch size?
A. Lack of feedback contributes to higher holding cost
B. Feedback and batch size are generally connected
C. Small batch sizes enable faster feedback with lower transaction costs
D. Large batches reduce transaction cost and provide a higher return on investment
A. Lack of feedback contributes to higher holding cost
What is used to describe Solution behaviors?
A. Benefits
B. Features
C. Capabilities
D. User Stories
C. Capabilities