SAFe Best Practices for Businesses [2025]

The enterprises have many different frameworks and methodologies to choose from once they decide to adopt the ‘Agile’ approach for project/product development. Designed by the Scaled Agile Inc, the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe®) is an Agile software-development framework. Click here to learn about SAFe agile certification. Earlier, the Agile development methodologies were used on a trial basis for various projects at an enterprise level. The development team experimented with making an efficient Agile method suitable to work in their environment. This resulted in an evaluation of methods that worked and that didn’t, which ultimately led to the development of various frameworks and strategies for the adoption of the Scaled Agile Framework. Let us dive into more to learn about SAFe best practices to achieve agility in your businesses. 

Core Principles of SAFe

The Scaled Agile Framework is highly structured and is mainly used in larger enterprises, and is primarily used for agile development. It is an increasingly popular framework that has been successfully implemented in enterprises. The nine principles of SAFe® include as follows:

1. Taking an economic view

2. Applying systems thinking

3. Assuming variability by preserving options

4. Incremental built with fast and integrated learning cycles

5. Building the foundation of milestones on the objective evaluation of working systems

6. Visualising and limiting WIP, managing queue lengths and reducing batch sizes

7. Synchronising with cross-domain planning by applying cadence (timing)

8. Establishing deep-rooted motivation of knowledge workers

9. Decentralising the decision making

There are three levels in SAFe certification, and they’re as follows:

Team

All the SAFe® teams are the Agile teams consisting of 5–9 people working in 2-week scrums. They have skills to define, develop, test, and deliver value using XP (Extreme Programming) methods. Unlike the traditional development scrums, they work in collaboration.

Program

At Program level, 5–10 SAFe® teams consisting of 50–125 persons create an “Agile Train Release” comprising of stakeholders and development teams. They put in sync their iteration boundaries and facilitate delivery of integrated working systems every 2 weeks. The SAFe®defines the Agile Release Train (ART), which in every 10 weeks (5 iterations) delivers a Potentially Shippable Increment (PSI). The PSIs provides a steady cadence (timing) for the development cycle.

Portfolio

The lean–Agile budgeting mechanisms are budgeted by a portfolio, which is a collection of value streams. The portfolio management requires program management, investment funding, strategy, and governance. A portfolio is associated with the enterprise strategy in terms of strategic themes. Epics that define large-development initiatives are captured and analysed by a portfolio Kanban system. There are business epics that are customer facing, and then there are architectural epics that are technology solutions.

SAFe Best Practices for Achieving Agile Transforamtion 

Taking an Economic View

Utilizing the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) is one of the best ways to take an economic view and help strengthen any organization's success. SAFe focuses on successful value streams, synchronization of teams and programs, and a business-based approach that spans multiple levels of an organization. It helps develop an enterprise agility culture that makes it easier to maximize resources, minimize waste, and deliver customer values faster than ever before. With SAFe's use of agile principles, processes, practices, and tools, there can be immense improvements in cost reduction and productivity gains. 

Applying Systems Thinking

Systems thinking is essential when utilizing the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), as it helps application lifecycle teams identify negative patterns and work towards eliminating solutions that waste time and money. Systems thinking encourages and facilitates understanding the dynamics of the whole system rather than focusing on individual parts. It also allows for understanding how all cycle elements interconnect and create associated outcomes to drive product development decisions. The three core tenets of systems thinking are: 

• Leverage relationships between people, projects, and processes. 
• Amplify feedback loops. 
• Strengthen system resilience to better protect against uncertainties. 

By incorporating these best practices with SAFe, companies can improve operational efficiencies, reducing waste while increasing productivity and quality. 

Assuming Variability by Preserving Options

One important element of the Scaled Agile Framework is the concept of ‘Assuming Variability by Preserving Options’. This concept encourages managers and team members to avoid making decisive commitments or statements until they have enough information to make an informed decision, leaving room for flexibility as they move forward. This strategy allows them to respond quickly and sensibly to issues that may arise and helps them stay in control of the direction that a project is taking—while minimizing risks associated with commitment and overburdening themselves with tasks. Furthermore, by reserving judgment for when it is necessary, teams are more likely to succeed—no matter what challenges come their way. 

Incremental Built with Fast and Integrated Learning Cycles

Incremental development helps organizations quickly identify iterations of improvement and design solutions that continuously deliver customer value. Facilitating iterative development and integration test phases ensures the services being delivered address customer requirements. In addition, incorporating learning cycles into SAFe provides actionable information that allows teams to maximize the use of successful implementations--while quickly adapting to any changes in the environment that might require changes in the services being offered.  

Ultimately, adopting an incremental built with fast and integrated learning cycles setup brings many advantages like minimized risks and shorter production cycles which, in return, result in more efficient operations for organizations using SAFe. 

Building Foundation of Milestones on Objective Evaluation of Working Systems

Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) emphasizes an objective evaluation of working systems so that teams can make informed decisions about deadlines and milestones. To ensure that objectives are met, SAFe focuses on collaboration and cross-functional teams, as well as continuous communication between all stakeholders. Additionally, it encourages teams to use agile metrics such as iterative planning, feedback loops, and release cycles to measure progress and make the necessary adjustments to achieve desired outcomes. Ultimately, SAFe creates a collaborative foundation by teaching organizations the proper planning strategies they need to deliver successful projects while maintaining team autonomy efficiently. 

Visualizing and Limiting WIP, Managing Queue Lengths and Reducing Batch Sizes

One of the essential best practices of a Scaled Agile Framework is Visualizing and Limiting WIP (or Work-In-Progress). This involves using visual cues like a board or tools that make it easy to track the progress of each task, allowing teams to identify those bottlenecks that prevent progress. Managing Queue Lengths is another key component; streamlining the resources available at each stage reduces the time it takes them to move on to the next stage in their tasks.

For example, having more developers on hand to react more quickly should issues arise in development. The final practice is Reducing Batch Sizes - splitting large pieces of work into smaller increments makes projects more agile, thus encouraging teams to focus on one piece at a time rather than getting bogged down with complex tasks. Implementing these three best practices enables teams to deliver results faster and scale successfully. 

Synchronizing with Cross-domain Planning by Applying Cadence

One of the best practices of SAFe is synchronizing plans across domains by employing cadence. Cadence involves setting regular meetings or sprints in which various teams track their progress, adjust upcoming project activities and planning efforts, and report on the software changes from their previous sprint.

For example, product planning cadences can be established for all related domains—across product development, product management, architecture, marketing, operations, and more—so that stakeholders are aware of events emanating from each domain at different points during development. This helps ensure safe-guided incremental delivery that results in higher quality products and better customer user experience. Additionally, it helps to level out any unexpected work coming up halfway into the development cycle, so there are minimal surprises for all involved. 

Establishing Deep-rooted Motivation of Knowledge Workers

Applying best practices of the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) is crucial in establishing deep-rooted motivation among knowledge workers. By researching, analyzing, and diagnosing the conditions of teams and creating a program-level view of customer needs and acceptance criteria, SAFe ensures organizations can innovate in an agile environment while addressing customer needs that might otherwise go undiscovered. Taking on this approach offers teams the ability to individually adjust their practices when necessary and find solutions to any points that have been plotted out ahead of time through clear communication with team members.  

Additionally, SAFe encourages collaboration amongst teams and partners outside the company while instilling trust by allowing employees greater decision-making power. Finally, following such practices empowers knowledge workers giving them accountability, respect, and autonomy- all key factors in boosting employee engagement and resulting in the desired output. 

Decentralizing Decision-making

Decentralizing the decision-making process is an important practice for anyone utilizing the Scaled Agile Framework. Decentralized decision-making allows team members to work independently without constantly consulting higher-level positions on every change. This autonomy helps to boost morale and collaboration within the team, resulting in a faster development cycle. Teams should be given enough flexibility to make decisions with relative independence and a low risk of failure.  

At the same time, relying on other parts of the organization if needed--ensuring decisions are aligned with upper management objectives. Decentralizing also eliminates any potential bottlenecking where too few people can stop improvements from being implemented. Organizations can optimize their workflows and maximize productivity by implementing this best practice. 

How Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) Benefits the Organization?

SAFe® is considered a framework based on Agile Development, Lean, and Systems Thinking, which has gained worldwide recognition throughout large corporations and enterprises. The following are the benefits of adopting the Scaled Agile Framework for your organization:

1. SAFe® allows the implementation of large team programs and portfolios

Initially, organizations adopt the Agile approach and experiment it through its implementation with small teams. After gaining moderate success with small teams, often the organizations would try to increase the size by aligning various teams, programs, and various departments in an organization to promote collaboration and efficiency in the development and shipment of the product. By identifying the key Agile functionalities, Lean and Systems Thinking that scale well, SAFe® addresses all these issues.

2. SAFe® outlines a consistent approach for planning, execution, and delivery of value

It becomes difficult for large organisations when numerous Agile teams are involved, because the teams might operate on different cadences (timing), or might use various Agile frameworks, or might rely on varying tools for managing the Agile lifecycle, or the teams might have adopted different technique practices. SAFe® makes use of ART (Agile Release Train), which collaborates various Agile teams on a consistent cadence for every 8–10 weeks. It is known as a Program Increment (PI). This enables the teams of the organisations get together and uncover, plan, and address dependencies of the teams and the risks that might arise. All the teams of ART make use of best practices such as the Scrum-of-Scrums during each PI. At the end of every Project Increment, the ART does the analysis of what was done in the past 8–12 weeks.

3. SAFe® addresses roles and responsibilities across Team, Program, and Portfolio levels

Adopting and implementing Agile causes a drastic change across the organization, which can raise questions regarding the current and new functions. SAFe® addresses all these questions across the various levels.

4. SAFe® provides a framework to bring consistency in strategy and alignment to the program and team levels

In an organization, maintaining an overall alignment with the vision and strategy is often a challenge faced by enterprise-scale software development. It becomes difficult to arrange various business departments with similar strategies, and if that is achieved, the problem still persists in communicating that strategy at the team level. SAFe® provides an architecture to implement Agile, Lean, and Systems Thinking consistently to various levels in an organization.

5. SAFe® improves product development lead times

SAFe® is a well-documented approach that applies its principles, benefits, and values to the wider enterprise. More and more large corporations have understood how to scale Agile to lessen the time required for product development and improve the release time of their product compared to their market competitors. SAFe® provides an extensive set of functionalities that can be applied in an enterprise to scale Agile successfully.

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Conclusion

The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) is a set of guidelines for implementing agile processes at scale. It breaks down work into manageable increments, or "sprints," and emphasizes close collaboration between all team members. SAFe helps organizations improve their agility, adaptability, and delivery timeframes. This encourages the seamless flow of information, improves communication, and enhances coordination among teams, leading to faster and more effective delivery of products and services. Implementing SAFe best practices is crucial for organizations striving to excel in agile transformations. By embracing these practices, businesses can enhance productivity, foster innovation, and achieve sustainable success in today's dynamic market. Go for KnowledgeHut SAFe Agilist certification and learn to scale agile across multiple teams.