SAFe 5.1 Core Values COPY Flashcards
What are the 4 bodies of Knowledge that SAFe is based on?
1) Agile Development
2) Lean Product Development
3) Systems Thinking
4) DevOps
What are the 4 bodies of Knowledge that SAFe is based on?
1) Agile Development
2) Lean Product Development
3) Systems Thinking
4) DevOps
What are the SAFe Core Values
Alignment
Built in Quality
Transperency
Program Execution
Exemplifying SAFe core value of Alignment
► Communicate the mission, vision, and strategy
► Provide briefings and participate in PI Planning
► Participate in backlog review and preparation
► Organize around Value Streams
► Constantly check for understanding
Exemplifying SAFe core value of Built in Quality
► Refuse to accept low-quality work
► Support investments in technical debt reduction
► Ensure UX, architecture, operations, security,
compliance, and others are part of the flow
of work
Exemplifying SAFe core value of Transparency
► Visualize all relevant work
► Take ownership and responsibility for errors
► Admit your own mistakes
► Support others who acknowledge and learn from
their mistakes—never punish the messenger
Exemplifying SAFe core value of Program Execution
► Participate as an active Business Owner
► Celebrate high quality and predictably
delivered PIs
► Aggressively remove impediments
and demotivators
What is Lean Thinking
✓ Precisely specify value
by product
✓ Identify the Value
Stream for each product
✓ Make value flow without
interruptions
✓ Let the Customer pull
value from the producer
✓ Pursue perfection
House of Lean’s roof
Value
House of Leans’s foundation
Leadership
House of Lean’s Four Pillars
Respect Individuals and culture
Flow
Innovation
Relentless Improvement
What does Value mean in the HoL
Achieve the shortest sustainable lead
time with:
► The best quality and value to
people and society
► High morale, safety, and Customer
delight
What does Respect for people and culture mean in the HoL
► Generative culture
► People do all the work
► Your Customer is whoever
consumes your work
► Build long-term partnerships based
on trust
► To change the culture, you have to
change the organization
What does Flow mean in the HoL
► Optimize sustainable value
delivery
► Build in quality
► Understand, exploit, and manage
variability
► Move from projects to products
What does Innovation mean in the HoL
► Innovative people
► Provide time and space for
innovation
► Go see
► Experimentation and feedback
► Innovation riptides
► Pivot without mercy or guilt
What does Relentless Improvement mean in the HoL
► A constant sense of danger
► Optimize the whole
► Problem-solving culture
► Base improvements on facts
► Reflect at key Milestones
What does Leadership mean in the HoL
► Lead by example
► Adopt a growth mindset
► Exemplify the values and
principles of Lean-Agile and SAFe
► Develop people
► Lead the change
► Foster psychological safety
Agile Manifesto
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
10 SAFe Lean Agile Principles
1 Take an economic view
#2 Apply systems thinking
#3 Assume variability; preserve options
#4 Build incrementally with fast, integrated learning cycles
#5 Base milestones on objective evaluation of working systems
#6 Visualize and limit WIP, reduce batch sizes, and manage queue lengths
#7Apply cadence, synchronize with cross-domain planning
#8 Unlock the intrinsic motivation of knowledge workers
#9 Decentralize decision-making
#10 Organize around value
Agile economics
Deliver early and often
Deliver value incrementally
Early delivery has higher value
Attributes of Systems Thinking
The Solution and the Enterprise are both
affected by the following:
► Optimizing a component does not optimize
the system
► For the system to behave well as a system,
a higher-level understanding of behavior
and architecture is required
► The value of a system passes through its
interconnections
► A system can evolve no faster than its
slowest integration point
How to calculate Flow Efficiency %
of hours of Value/# of days to deliver
Preservation of options improves
economic results
Set Based Approach vs Single Point Approach
Let’s you analyze multiple Design Options
The shorter the cycles
the faster the learning
Why does a building incrementally provide value
Fast feedback accelerates knowledge.
► Improves learning efficiency by
decreasing the time between action
and effect
► Reduces the cost of risk-taking by
truncating unsuccessful paths quickly
► Is facilitated by small batch sizes
► Requires increased investment in
development environment
What are integration points and why control development
►Integration points accelerate
learning
► Development can proceed no
faster than the slowest learning
loop
► Improvement comes through
synchronization of design loops
and faster learning cycles
What is the problem with phased gate milestones
Phase gates fix requirements and designs too early, making adjustments too late
and costly as new facts emerge.
Program Increment (PI) System Demos are orchestrated to deliver
objective progress, product, and process Metrics.
Why are small batches important
► Large batch sizes increase variability
► High utilization increases variability
► Severe project slippage is the most likely
► Small batches go through the system faster with lower variability
which batch is the most important
The handoff batch
Total costs are
the sum of holding
costs and transaction costs
Higher transaction costs
make optimal batch size bigger
Higher holding costs
make optimal batch size smaller
Reducing transaction costs reduces
total costs and lowers optimal batch size.
What are some of the benefits reducing batch size:
– Increases predictability
– Accelerates feedback
– Reduces rework
– Lowers cost
Long queues create
Longer Lead times
Increased Risk
More Variability
Lower Quality
Less motivation
What is Little’s Law
Average wait time = average queue length
divided by average processing rate
- Faster processing time decreases wait
- Shorter queue lengths decrease wait
How can you control wait times:
by controlling queue lengths
- WIP limits, small batches, defer commitments
When do you CENTRALIZE decision making?
► Infrequent – Not made very often and usually not urgent (Example: Internationalization strategy)
► Long-lasting – Once made, highly unlikely to change (Example: Common technology platform)
► Significant economies of scale – Provide large and broad economic benefit (Example: Compensation strategy)
When do you DECENTRALIZE decision making?
► Infrequent – Not made very often and usually not urgent
(Example: Internationalization strategy)
► Long-lasting – Once made, highly unlikely to change
(Example: Common technology platform)
► Significant economies of scale – Provide large and broad economic benefit (Example: Compensation strategy)
Development Value Streams
From Feature request to New Increment of Value
Define
Build
Validate
Release
Agile Teams are cross-functional, self-organizing entities that can define, build, test, and where applicable, deploy increments of value.
True or False
True
What Specialty roles are in an Agile Team
Scrum Master
Product Owner
How often should they deliver value
Every two weeks
What is the right size for an Agile Team
5 to 11 team members
Match the role to Scrum Master or to Product Owner
- Acts as the Customer for team questions
- Coaches the Agile Team in selfmanagement
- Prioritizes the Team Backlog
- Helps the team focus on creating increments of value each Iteration
- Contributes to the Vision and Roadmap
- Facilitates the removal of impediments to the team’s progress
- Ensures that all team events take place, are productive and kept within the timebox
- Creates, clearly communicates and accepts Stories
Since Scrum is built on transparency, inspection, adaptation, and short learning cycles what are the work items associated with Scrum
Stories
Team Backlog
Iteration Planning
Iteration Review
Iteration Retrospective
Value
What is the workflow of a Kanban Board
Team Backlog
Analyze
Review
Build
Integrate and Test
Accepted
What is the Agile Team Maturity Model
Be Agile
Know your value streams
Specialize the principles and Practices
What are the Agile quality practices that apply to every team, whether business or technology:
– Establish flow
– Peer review and pairing
– Collective ownership and standards
– Automation
– Definition of done
Software quality practices can include;
Agile testing, behavior-driven development, test-driven Development, refactoring, code quality, and Agile architecture
Support hardware quality with
exploratory, early iterations, frequent system-level
integration, design verification, Model-Based Systems engineering (MBSE), and set-based design.
What should be the size of an Agile Release Trains (ARTs)
5 – 12 teams (50 – 125+ individuals)
A ART should be over an iteration
True or False
False. A ART should be over the entire Program Increment
An ART should be Aligned to a common mission via a how many program Backlogs
A single
How many types of Trains
4
What are the types of trains
1 - Stream-aligned team – organized around the flow of work and has the ability to deliver value directly to the Customer or end user.
2 - Complicated subsystem team – organized around specific
subsystems that require deep specialty skills and expertise.
3 - Platform team – organized around the development and support of platforms that provide services to other teams.
4 - Enabling team – organized to assist other teams with specialized capabilities and help them become proficient in new technologies.
Who should be on the Agile Release Train
Release Train Engineer
System Architect/Engineering
Business Owners
Product Management
The System Team
What does the Release Train Engineer do
acts as the Chief Scrum Master for the train.
What does the System Architect/Engineering do
provides architectural guidance and technical enablement to the teams on the train.
What does the Business Owner do
are key stakeholders on the Agile Release Train.
What does the Product Management do
owns, defines, and prioritizes the Program Backlog.
What does the System Team do
provides processes and tools to integrate and evaluate assets early and often.
