SAFe Core Values

Question 1

What are the four Core Values of SAFe?

Answer 1

1) Alignment
2) Transparency
3) Respect for People
4) Relentless Improvement

Question 2

How do you create Alignment in SAFe?

Answer 2

1) Communicate the vision mission and strategy
2) Connect strategy to execution
3) Speak with a common language
4) Constantly check for understanding
5) Understand your customer

Question 3

How do you create Transparency in SAFe?

Answer 3

1) Create a trust-based environment.
2) Communicate directly, openly and honestly
3) Turn mistakes into learning moments
4) Visualize work
5) Provide ready access to needed information

Question 4

How do you create Respect for people?

Answer 4

1) Hold precious what it is to be human
2) Value diversity of people and opinions
3) Grow people through coaching and mentoring
4) Embrace “your customer is who ever consumes your work”
5) Build long-term partnerships based on mutual benefit

Question 5

How do you foster Relentless Improvement?

Answer 5

1) Create a constant sense of urgency
2) Build a problem-solving culture
3) Reflect and adapt frequently
4) Let facts guide improvements
5) Provide time and space for innovation

Question 6

What are the SAFe Lean-Agile principles?

Answer 6

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) Make value flow without interruptions
7) Apply cadence, synchronize with cross-domain planning
8) Unlock the intrinsic motivation of knowledge workers
9) Decentralize decision-making
10) Organize around value

Question 7

What are solution economic trade-offs?

Answer 7

1) Sequence jobs for maximum benefit
2) Do not consider money already spent
3) Make economic choices continuously
4) Empower local decision making
5) If you only quantify one thing, quantify the cost of delay

Question 8

What are the attributes of systems thinking?

Answer 8

1) Optimizing a component does not optimize the system
2) For the system to behave well as a system, a higher-level understanding of behavior and architecture is required
3)The value of a system passes through it’s interconnections
4) A system can evolve no faster than its slowest integration point

Question 9

What does it mean to “assume variability and preserve options?”

Answer 9

1) You cannot possibly know everything at the start
2) Requirements must be flexible to make economic design choices
3) Designs must be flexible to support changing requirements
4) Preservation of options improves economic results

Question 10

What is the iterative learning cycle?

Answer 10

PDCA: Plan, Do, Check, Act

Question 11

Fast feedback improves learning efficiency by…

Answer 11

…decreasing the time between action and effect.

Question 12

Fast feedback accelerates knowledge by…

Answer 12

…reducing the cost of risk-taking by truncating unsuccessful paths quickly.

Question 13

Fast feedback is facilitated by…

Answer 13

…short feedback cycles.

Question 14

Fast feedback requires…

Answer 14

…increased investment in development environment.

Question 15

Frequent integration…

Answer 15

accelerates learning and eliminates false positive feasibility.

Question 16

What is false positive feasibility?

Answer 16

The belief that the application is more viable than it is. Created by infrequent integration of code.

Question 17

What is the problem with phase-gate milestones?

Answer 17

1) They force design decisions too early encouraging false positive feasibility
2) They assume a single “point” solution exists and that it can be built correctly the first time
3) They create huge batches and long queues. And they centralize requirements and design in program management.

Question 18

Planning Intervals (PI) System Demos are orchestrated to…

Answer 18

…deliver objective progress, product, and process Metrics.

Question 19

What are the eight flow accelerators?

Answer 19

1) Visualize and limit WIP
2) Address bottlenecks
3) Minimize handoffs and dependencies
4) Get faster feedback
5) Work in smaller batches
6) Reduce queue length
7) Optimize time in the zone
8) Remediate legacy practices and policies

Question 20

Small batch sizes ….

Answer 20

…improve predictability and move through the system faster because it lowers variation between batches.

Question 21

High batch sizes…

Answer 21

…increase variablitity. Increase utilization risk of project slippages

Question 22

You need a card for the finding optimal batch size.

Question 23

Why are long queues bad?

Answer 23

1) Longer lead times
2) Increased risk
3) More variability
4) Lower quality
5) Less motivation

Question 24

What is Little’s Law?

Answer 24

A formula that calculates the average wait time of items in a queue based on how many items are in the queue and the processing time of each item in the queue.

Question 25

What is the difference between Cadence and Synchonization?

Answer 25

Cadence means taking unpredictable events into a predictable schedule of occurrences and puts them on a regular, predictable schedule. Synchronization causes multiple events to happen simultaneously.

Question 26

What are the benefits of a cadence?

Answer 26

1) A cadence makes waiting times for new work predictable
2) Controls injection of new work into the system
3) Limits batch size to a single interval
4) Controls injection of new work
5) Provides scheduled integration points

Question 27

How do you unlock intrinsic motivation in your teams?

Answer 27

Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose

Question 28

What does it make sense to centralize?

Answer 28

1) Infrequent: Decisions make infrequently that are not urgent
2) Long-lasting: Decisions that once made are highly unlikely to change
3) Significant Economies of Scale: Provide benefit broadly across the org

Question 29

What decisions should be decentralized?

Answer 29

1) Frequent: Routine everyday decisions
2) Time Critical: High cost of delay
3) Requires local information: Specific and local technology or customer context is required
4) Everything else

Question 30

Why do silos inhibit value delivery?

Answer 30

1) Handoffs and delays
2) Political boundaries will inhibit cooperation
3) Silos encourage geographic distribution of functions
4) Communication across silos is difficult

Question 31

What is a development value stream?

Answer 31

1) Includes activities from recognizing an opportunity through release and validation
2) Contains the steps, the flow of information and material, and the people who develop the Solution THAT WILL BE used by the Operational Value Streams.