What this book covers

The book has been divided into three sections:

• Part 1 focuses on the Team level
• Part 2 focuses on coordination at the ART level
• Part 3 concentrates on the Portfolio level

Because it is structured in this way, it does mean that you don’t have to read the book in order. If you are a Scrum Master then maybe Part 1 is all you need to read, although it might be helpful to understand the coordination at the ART level. If you are an RTE, then you definitely need to read Part 2, but having insight at the team level will certainly be valuable. If you are a senior leader or a portfolio Manager, then it will come as no surprise that Part 3 is for you.

Here is a summary of the chapters:

Chapter 1, Thriving in the Digital Age, sets the foundation for why SAFe® and the value it brings to organizations.

Part 1, Agile Teams.

Chapter 2, Building the Team, delves into the structure and key roles of the Agile Teams.

Chapter 3, Agile Team Iteration and PI Execution, looks at the day-to-day operation of these teams.

Chapter 4, Team Backlog Management, looks at why backlogs are important for surfacing, prioritizing, and tracking the work of the team and how they should be managed to be most effective.

Chapter 5, Team Iteration Events, examines how the SAFe® events work best and what happens when we try to do them a different way, or even eliminate them altogether.

Part 2, Agile Release Trains

Chapter 6, Building the Agile Release Train, helps you understand some of the key considerations when you are launching your first ART, recovering an ART, or maturing an ART.

Chapter 7, Release Trains Day-to-Day, looks at making sure ARTs operate correctly so that they are successful.

Chapter 8, ART Backlog Management, looks at what the ART backlog is and how it differs from other backlogs. It also discusses how to create and manage the backlog and ensure it is the right size.

Chapter 9, Events for the Train, looks at the various activities and events that occur each iteration for an ART, including all the Syncs, the ART Board, and the Iteration System Demo.

Chapter 10, PI Events, looks at the several key events that happen as part of the PI boundaries and that only occur once in a PI.

Part 3, Portfolio

Chapter 11, Enterprise Strategy, considers what Enterprise Strategy is and how Enterprise Strategy for an organization needs to adapt in the same fashion that the teams do.

Chapter 12, Building Your Portfolio, looks at the various tools to help build out and define your portfolio and the critical task of Value Stream Identification.

Chapter 13, Establishing Lean Budgets, looks at how we move from traditional Project-Cost Accounting to Lean-Agile budgeting.

Chapter 14, Portfolio Backlog Management, in a similar fashion to the ART Backlog, explores how a Portfolio Backlog should be managed to be most effective.

Chapter 15, Measuring Progress, looks at the metrics that help determine whether the ARTs within your portfolio are performing well and also considers some additional Portfolio Measures as well.

Chapter 16, Leadership Alignment, looks at how to equip your leaders for this new environment.

This book covers some of the common pitfalls that people encounter when they adopt and customize SAFe® for their organization. Whether as development team members, Product Owners or Product Managers, Release Train Engineers, System Architects, DevOps practitioners, or other Stakeholders, this book will help you understand why SAFe® works, and how to customize it for your needs safely.

Remember this is a handbook, not a reference guide, so we only cover 80% of what you will encounter day-to-day. For example, we have specifically not included large solutions because the first rule of scaling is DON’T!

Darren taught Implementing SAFe® back in 2017 with one of the leading lights in SAFe®. At the time, that person had launched 50 ARTs and only 2 were large solutions; one was because it was a genuinely large solution, and in the other case, the organization insisted! We see too many examples of large solutions that are not warranted.

Remember Agile Principle number 10: “Simplicity—the art of maximizing the amount of work not done—is essential.”

Scaling brings a level of complication and coordination. If you don’t need to scale, then keep your implementation as simple as possible.

We have tried to cover the most common challenges that you will encounter with our collective experience with a number of pro tips, stories from the real world, and cautions. Our hope is that these will help with your implementations and also provide some great anecdotes if you decide to teach a class.