SAFe Principles & Core Values Flashcards
What are the 4 SAFe Core Values? (ARTR)
Alignment
Respect
Transparency
Relentless Improvement
What are the 4 principles at the Essential level? (TALC)
- Team and Technical Agility
- Agile Product Delivery
- Lean-Agile Leadership
- Continuous Learning Culture
What are the 7 core competencies? (Hint: EATLOCL)
- Enterprise Solution Delivery
- Agile Product Delivery
- Team and Technical Agility
- Lean Portfolio Management
- Organizational Agility
- Continuous Learning Culture
- Lean-Agile Leadership
What principle guides us to deliver early and often and to apply an economic framework?
Take an economic view
What are three primary aspects of systems thinking?
1 - The solution itself is a system
2 - The enterprise building the system is a system
3 - Optimize the full value stream
What is set-based design?
Have multiple design options, learning points where you eliminate options
What principle says that development occurs in an uncertain world?
Assume variability, preserve options
What principle leads to delivering value early & continuously?
Build incrementally with fast, integrated learning cycles
What does PDCA stand for?
Plan → Do → Check → Adjust
What are two benefits of principle #5, “Base milestones on objective evaluation of working systems”?
Each milestone provides a full increment of value. Implementing milestones on a routine cadence builds discipline.
What is flow?
Flow occurs when there is a smooth, linear, and fast movement of work product from step to step in a relevant value stream.
What are the 8 flow accelerators that make up principle #6 “Make value flow without interruptions”?
Visualize and limit WIP
Address bottlenecks
Minimize handoffs and dependencies
Get faster feedback
Work in smaller batches
Reduce queue length
Optimize time ‘in the zone”
Remediate legacy practices and policies
What are some benefits of working in small batches?
Higher predictability, lower variability
What is Little’s Law?
Average wait time = average queue length divided by average processing wait ({\displaystyle L=\lambda W.}
What are some benefits of principle 7, “Apply cadence, synchronize with cross-domain planning”?
Converts unpredictable events into predictable ones
Controls injection of new work
Facilitates cross-functional tradeoffs
Provides multiple feedback perspectives
What principle do the values of autonomy, mastery, and purpose apply to?
Unlock the intrinsic motivation of knowledge workers
Principle 9 is “Decentralize decision-making”. What types of decisions should remain centralized?
Infrequent
Long-lasting
Significant
What types of decisions should be decentralized?
Frequent
Time-critical
Require local information
How does SAFe “Organize around value” (principle 10)?
Build technology portfolios of development value streams
Realize value streams with product-focused Agile Release Trains (ARTs)
Form Agile teams that can directly deliver value
What are the 3 dimensions of Team and Technical Agility?
Agile teams
Built-in quality
Team of Agile teams
What are the 3 dimensions of Agile Product Delivery?
Customer centricity & Design thinking
Develop on cadence, Release on demand
DevOps and the Continuous Delivery Pipeline
What are the 3 dimensions of Enterprise Solution Delivery?
Lean Systems Engineering
Coordinating Trains & Suppliers
Continually evolve live systems
What are the 3 dimensions of Lean Portfolio Management?
Strategy & investment funding
Agile portfolio operations
Lean governance
What are the 3 dimensions of Organizational Agility?
Lean-thinking people & Agile teams
Strategic agility
Lean business operations
What are the 3 dimensions of Continuous Learning Culture?
Learning Organization
Relentless improvement
Innovation culture
What are the 3 dimensions of Lean-Agile Leadership?
Mindset, values, and principles
Leading by example
Leading change
What are the configurations of SAFe?
Essential - the basic building block for all configurations
Portfolio - minimum set of competencies and practices that can fully enable business agility.
Full - most comprehensive, includes all 7 core competencies
What are the elements of the SAFe spanning palette?
Vision
OKRs
Roadmap
AI
Shared Services
Community of Practice (CoP)
System Team
Measure & Grow
What elements make up the foundation of SAFe?
Lean-Agile Mindset
Core Values
SAFe Principles
Implementation Roadmap
SPC (SAFe Practice Consultant)
What are the 5 elements of a Lean-Agile Mindset? (PIMLP)
Precisely specify value
Identify value stream
Make value flow
Let the customer pull value
Pursue perfection
