SAFe Agile Principles

 SAFe (Scaled agile framework) is based on ten immutable, underlying Lean-Agile principles. These tenets and economic concepts inspire and inform the roles and practices of SAFe.

1 – Take an economic view:

• Fundamental understanding of the economics of the building system
• Strategy for incremental value delivery
• Risk
• CoD (Cost of Delay)
• Costs (manufacturing, operational, and development costs)
• Operate within the context of an approved budget

2 – Apply systems thinking

• Understanding complex system
• Addressing the challenges in the workplace and the marketplace requirement
• Apply thinking on system under development and the organization that builds the system

3 – Assume variability; preserve options

• Single design-and-requirements option is wrong choice for the future
• Future adjustments take too long and can lead to lot of design change.
• In SAFe Agile, maintain multiple requirements and design options for a longer period in the development cycle

4 – Build incrementally with fast, integrated learning cycles

• Developing solutions incrementally in a series of short iterations allows for faster customer feedback and mitigates risk.
• Develop prototypes
• Develop MVPs (Minimum Viable Product)
• Based on early, fast feedback, take alternative course of action

5 – Base milestones on objective evaluation of working systems

• To deliver economic benefit Business owners, developers, and customers have a shared responsibility for the success of the system
• Integration points provide objective milestones at which to evaluate the solution throughout the development life cycle
• Regular evaluation of milestone will provide success, profit, on-time delivery of the system

6 – Visualize and limit WIP, reduce batch sizes, and manage queue lengths

• Overloading teams and programs with more work than they can accomplish is a common and harmful practice. 
• Limit the amount of work in process (WIP) to get timely delivery from the team
• To take up new functionality, reduce the batch sizes of the work

7 – Apply cadence, synchronize with cross-domain planning

• Cadence creates predictability and provides a rhythm for development.
• Applying development cadence and synchronization, coupled with periodic cross-domain planning.
• It provides the mechanisms needed to operate effectively in the presence of the inherent development uncertainty.

8 – Unlock the intrinsic motivation of knowledge workers

• Lean-Agile leaders understand that ideation, innovation, and employee engagement are not generally motivated by individual incentive compensation. 
• Such individual incentives can create internal competition and destroy the cooperation necessary to achieve the larger aim of the system.
• Providing autonomy and purpose, minimizing constraints, creating an environment of mutual influence, and better understanding the role of compensation are keys to higher levels of employee engagement. This approach yields better outcomes for individuals, customers, and the enterprise.

9 – Decentralize decision-making

• Decentralize decision-making.
• This reduces delays, improves product development flow, enables faster feedback.
• Take more innovative solutions designed by those closest to the local knowledge
• Some decisions are strategic, global, and have economies of scale that justify centralized decision-making
• Both decision-making helps creating a reliable decision-making.

10 – Organize around value

• Need to respond to the needs of its customers with new and innovative solutions.
• These solutions require cooperation amongst all the functional areas, with their incumbent dependencies, handoffs, waste and delays.
• Deliver value more quickly.
• When market and customer demands change, the enterprise must quickly and seamlessly reorganize around that new value flow.