Pass the Scaled Agile SA - SAFe Agilist SAFe-Agilist Questions and answers with CertsForce

This is one way to describe a cross-functional Agile team. A cross-functional Agile team is a group of 5-11 individuals who have the skills and authority to define, build, test, and deploy some element of solution value—all within a short iteration timebox. A cross-functional Agile team is optimized for communication and delivery of value by having clear roles and responsibilities, shared goals and commitments, frequent feedback and collaboration, high trust and accountability, and continuous improvement. References: Cross-functional Agile Teams

Design thinking is a method that provides a continuous understanding of the target market. Design thinking is a human-centered approach to problem-solving that involves empathy, ideation, experimentation, and implementation. Design thinking helps teams discover the real needs and desires of their customers, generate innovative solutions that address those needs, validate their assumptions through fast feedback loops, and deliver value that delights their customers. Design thinking helps teams achieve the core competency of Customer Centricity in SAFe. References: Customer Centricity, Design Thinking

In the workbook’s PI Planning agenda:

"After the draft plan review, the RTE facilitates amanagement review and problem-solving meetingwith Business Owners, Product Management, and other stakeholders. Here, capacity and load adjustments, scope changes, and planning adjustments are agreed upon."

Source:Workbook, PI Planning Module, Page 4-70

Trust is developed by:

“Delivering value consistently and predictably… Predictability builds confidence between teams and stakeholders.”

This is reinforced during PI Planning and Iteration Reviews.

SWOT and TOWS are used to brainstorm potential portfolio future states. SWOT is an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. SWOT analysis is a tool that helps identify the internal and external factors that affect the portfolio’s performance and position in the market. TOWS is an acronym for Threats, Opportunities, Weaknesses, and Strengths. TOWS analysis is a tool that helps generate strategic alternatives based on the SWOT factors. SWOT and TOWS help create a portfolio vision that reflects the desired future state of the portfolio. References: SAFe Portfolio, Portfolio Canvas

The workbook details that optimizing flow is heavily dependent on:

“Most problems with your process will surface as delays… Reducing delays is the fastest way to reduce time-to-market.”

Thus, identifying and eliminating delays is the critical activity when optimizing flow.

Source:Workbook, Page 2-11

SAFe emphasizes that effective DevOps implementation is key to enabling continuous value delivery. The workbook highlights that:

“DevOps helps ensure a constant flow of value by automating the Continuous Delivery Pipeline and enabling continuous integration and deployment… A Value Stream with DevOps capabilities implements automation and integration for consistent quality and faster delivery.”

This makes automation a cornerstone in enabling flow within a Value Stream.

In the SAFe Workbook under Principle #1 ("Take an economic view"), it states:

“Deliver early and often. Deliver value incrementally… Accelerates feedback and learning, allows early and continuous delivery.”

This principle is illustrated using the difference between waterfall and Agile delivery models.

Source:01 Workbook SA (6.0).pdf, Pages 2-26 to 2-28

The workbook details:

“At the end of PI Planning, teams vote on confidence using the Fist of Five method. A score of 3 or above signals commitment.”

According to the SAFe Agilist 6.0 domain of Lean Thinking, a value stream is triggered by a demand for some value, such as a new feature, a change request, or a defect fix1. A feature is a service that fulfills a stakeholder need2. Therefore, a feature request is a valid trigger for a value stream.

A spike request is a type of exploration enabler that addresses technical uncertainty or risk3. A user story request is a type of backlog item that represents an end user goal or function4. These are not triggers for a value stream, but rather work items that flow through a value stream.