SAFe Lean-Agile Leaders drive organizational change by internalizing ten immutable principles that define the Lean-Agile mindset and enable Business Agility.
1. **Take an economic view:** Decisions reflect the trade-offs between risk, Cost of Delay, and operational costs.
2. **Apply Systems Thinki…SAFe Lean-Agile Leaders drive organizational change by internalizing ten immutable principles that define the Lean-Agile mindset and enable Business Agility.
1. **Take an economic view:** Decisions reflect the trade-offs between risk, Cost of Delay, and operational costs.
2. **Apply Systems Thinking:** Leaders optimize the entire system (organization and solution) rather than local silos.
3. **Assume variability; preserve options:** Maintain flexibility in design requirements to manage risk until the last responsible moment.
4. **Build incrementally with fast, integrated learning cycles:** Use short iterations to validate hypotheses via customer feedback.
5. **Base milestones on objective evaluation of working systems:** Progress is measured by working software/systems, not phase-gate documentation.
6. **Make value flow without interruptions:** Leaders visualize and limit Work in Process (WIP), reduce batch sizes, and manage queue lengths to accelerate delivery.
7. **Apply cadence, synchronize with cross-domain planning:** Regular rhythms (cadence) and alignment (synchronization) create predictability.
8. **Unlock the intrinsic motivation of knowledge workers:** Move beyond carrot-and-stick management to foster autonomy, mastery, and purpose.
9. **Decentralize decision-making:** empowering teams to make frequent, time-critical decisions prevents bottlenecks, while leaders retain strategic authority.
10. **Organize around value:** The enterprise structure must reflect value streams to deliver faster, rather than adhering to legacy functional hierarchies.
For SAFe Agilists, these principles provide the 'why' behind the practices, guiding decisions when specific rules do not apply.
Mastering SAFe Lean-Agile Principles for the SAFe Agilist Exam
What are SAFe Lean-Agile Principles? The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) is grounded in ten immutable, underlying Lean-Agile principles. These principles inspire and inform the roles and practices of SAFe. While practices may evolve or be contextual, these principles remain constant and provide the 'why' behind the framework. They are a synthesis of Agile development, Systems Thinking, Lean product development, and DevOps.
Why are they Important? In a large enterprise, following a checklist of rules is insufficient because the context is always changing. Lean-Agile Leaders typically lead the transformation, and to do so effectively, they must embrace a mindset that allows them to make decisions in the absence of specific detailed instructions. These principles explain the underlying intent of SAFe standards, allowing leaders to optimize the system as a whole rather than just their local silos.
The 10 SAFe Principles: How They Work To pass the exam, you must understand the essence of each principle: 1. Take an economic view: Decisions must be made within an economic context. This involves understanding trade-offs between risk, Cost of Delay (CoD), and operational costs. 2. Apply systems thinking: Optimizing a component does not optimize the system. You must visualize the entire value stream from concept to cash. 3. Assume variability; preserve options: Maintain multiple requirements and design options for a longer period in the development cycle (Set-Based Design) rather than picking a single option too early (Point-Based Design). 4. Build incrementally with fast, integrated learning cycles: Develop solutions in short iterations to allow for faster feedback and risk reduction. 5. Base milestones on objective evaluation of working systems: Progress is measured by the actual system demonstrating value, not by phase-gate document approvals. 6. Make value flow without interruptions: To increase throughput, you must visualize and limit Work in Process (WIP), reduce batch sizes, and manage queue lengths (applying Little's Law). 7. Apply cadence, synchronize with cross-domain planning: Cadence creates predictability; synchronization ensures multiple perspectives are integrated simultaneously (e.g., PI Planning). 8. Unlock the intrinsic motivation of knowledge workers: Autonomy, mastery, and purpose drive productivity better than individual financial compensation incentive systems. 9. Decentralize decision-making:Strategic, infrequent decisions should be centralized. Frequent, time-critical, and local decisions should be decentralized to prevent delays. 10. Organize around value: Business agility demands that the enterprise organizes around value streams to deliver faster, rather than adhering strictly to functional silos.
Exam Tips: Answering Questions on SAFe Lean-Agile Principles Questions in this domain often test your ability to apply a principle to a scenario, rather than just reciting the name.
1. Identify the 'Problem' in the Question: If a question describes a team suffering from long wait times or too much multitasking, the answer usually relates to Principle #6 (Make value flow/Limit WIP). If a question describes a team building the wrong thing because they only tested at the end, it relates to Principle #4 (Fast learning cycles).
2. The 'Set-Based Design' Keyword: If you see terms like 'multiple design options' or 'cone of uncertainty,' the answer is almost always Principle #3 (Assume variability; preserve options).
3. Centralized vs. Decentralized: A common exam question asks which decisions should be centralized. Remember: Centralize decisions that are long-lasting, economies of scale, and significantly risky. Decentralize everything else to avoid bottlenecks (Principle #9).
4. Focus on 'System' over 'Silo': If an answer option suggests optimizing a specific department or individual performance, it is likely incorrect as it violates Principle #2 (Systems thinking).
5. Little's Law: Remember the formula associated with Principle #6: Wait Time = Average Queue Length / Average Processing Rate. Reducing batch size and WIP are key ways to improve flow.