Large and small businesses of all sizes have used the Scaled Agile Framework® (SAFe®) to plan and streamline their journeys as they expand their Agile practices throughout their organizations since the year 2011. As markets evolve and best practices are refined by practitioners around the world, Scaled Agile Inc. has periodically upgraded the framework in true Agile form.
The most recent version of the framework, SAFe 6.0, was released by Scaled Agile Framework® (SAFe®), and it includes several interesting enhancements and improvements that will enable both present and future users to get the most from the framework.
Data seems to indicate that SAFe is growing and will probably keep playing a big role in the scaling framework industry. The obvious decision is to proceed and research the leading safe certification cost if you are trying to figure out whether to learn SAFe. This professional accreditation will boost your career, and employers are actively seeking SaFe Agilists. Even if you might not need this item immediately, you can still add it to your toolbox.
What Changes Has SAFe 6.0 Made?
Terminology and organizational changes that are both relatively minor and significant may impact how businesses use SAFe and how SAFe partners, trainers, and consultants—including a large team of SAFe experts—train and coach these businesses.
Building A Solid Base For Business Agility
Business Agility was made a central element of the SAFe 5.0 architecture, and these most recent updates have strengthened that base even further. To maintain a competitive edge in a highly dynamic market, businesses will be better able to respond swiftly to market changes and emerging possibilities with the support of a solid foundation for business agility. The following are a handful of the most significant updates:
- New duties for SPCs and upgrades to Business Agility Value Stream, the SAFe Foundation, and the SAFe Implementation Roadmap.
- The Agile Manifesto and the five principles of Agile lean thinking now symbolize the lean-agile mindset, and the House of Lean has been retired.
- The SAFe Principles align with the eight common characteristics of a flow-based system, the five Lean Thinking principles, and accelerators for removing flow barriers.
- LPM training should start sooner in the transformation process, according to Scaled Agile Inc. (SAI).
- A greater emphasis is being placed on creating a culture of continuous learning, which emphasizes constant improvement and supports an environment of innovation.
- SaFe Practitioners are urged to act as change agents by offering coaching for procedures and important steps in the Implementation Roadmap.
Strengthening Teams And Outlining Roles
Many Agile practitioners have built successful careers around developing knowledge in the roles and responsibilities described in the SAFe framework since they are essential components of the overall structure. Many of these duties have been clarified with version 6.0, which should simplify and make their work more efficient. Even though almost all roles and concepts have been modified to fit the revised framework, the following modifications are thought to be the most significant:
The job of Scrum Masters has been broadened to improve flow, create high-performing teams, and promote organizational agility. “Team Coach” is now an accepted alternative title.
System architects, solution architects, product managers, and solution managers have updated roles to reflect crucial interactions necessary to support effective product development flow.
Speeding Up Value Flow
The framework now describes eight qualities of flow and eight associated accelerators to make value flow more quickly, expanding on the significance of the new SAFe Principle:
- The eight attributes of flow and the eight flow accelerators from Principle #6 are described in new section headers on The Big Picture: Team Flow, Solution Train Flow, ART Flow, and Portfolio Flow.
- How to use SAFe Team Kanban has been made clear, which will enable individual teams to improve the circulation of value via the ART.
- Value Stream Management was recently officially acknowledged as a crucial Portfolio-level duty.
- The Value Management Office (VMO), which once supported understanding, measuring, and optimizing the flow of value, has changed its name and focus.
Safe’s Business-Wide Improvement Of Business Agility
Workflows should be governed by the agility framework and principles throughout the enterprise, not just IT. There is a much more extensive knowledge base about how to do that in the SAFe 6.0 enablement content. For instance,
Five patterns—business-enabled ARTs, business trains, Agile executive teams, implementing SAFe to other company processes, and combining operational and development value streams throughout the same portfolio—are highlighted in a recent “Business and Technology” article as supporting full-scale business agility.
A new “SAFe Beyond IT” home page compiles articles authored by experts who have used SAFe outside IT successfully.
SAFe has a lot of success stories compared to other frameworks and is expanding its reach internationally, which is perhaps why it is still the industry leader in this area.
A SaFe Agilist has the opportunity to change their profession, and a company that employs SaFe Framework and Principles practitioners will grow and expand its IT and business operations as a whole.
