SAFe 5.1

Release date 2020

Main features: A minor update to 5.0 that introduced improvements and clarifications based on user feedback. It reinforced the Business Agility practices and the 7 basic competencies or skills.

The SAFe 5.1 release placed particular emphasis on the concept of "Business Agility" and the seven core competencies needed to achieve this agility at the entreprise level. Here's an overview of what that entails:

Business Agility

Business Agility is an organization's ability to respond quickly to market changes and opportunities with innovative and efficient solutions. This includes the ability of all teams, from developments teams to strategic levels of business, to work in an Agile manner aligned with the organisation's goals.

The 7 basic skills of SAFe

1- Lean-Agile Leadership Description

Lean-Agile leaders lead and support organizational change by adopting and applying Lean-Agile values and principles. They foster a culture of continuous learning and improvement.

Example: An Agile leader promotes transparency, team autonomy, and actively supports agile transformations at all levels of the organization.

2-Team and Technical Agility Description

This competency encompasses Lean-Agile skills and principles applied at the team level, as well as technical excellence to ensure rapid and reliable delivery of high-quality solutions.

Example: Scrum or Kanban teams are autonomous and use technical practices such as continuous integration and automated testing to ensure high product quality.

3-Agile Product Delivery Description

Agile Product Delivery focuses on the continuous delivery of high-value solutions, involving a deep understanding of customer needs and an ability to respond quickly to changes.

Example: Using rapid feedback cycles with customers to adapt features and prioritize backlogs based on added value.

4- Enterprise Solution Delivery Description

This skill concerns the delivery of large-scale integrated solutions, involving multiple teams and complex technologies. It includes coordinating efforts to provide coherent and integrated solutions.

Example: Coordination of Agile Release Trains (ARTs) to synchronize the development and delivery of complex solutions involving multiple teams.

5-Lean Portfolio Management Description

Lean Portfolio Management (LPM) aligns strategy and execution by applying Lean-Agile principles to portfolio management, governance and financing. Example: Using lean financing processes and portfolio management approaches to align investments with strategic objectives and maximize value.

6-Organizational Agility Description

This competency involves the organization's ability to quickly identify and respond to market changes, continually improve operational processes, and adapt organizational structure to support agility.

Example: Implementing frequent feedback cycles to quickly adjust priorities based on market conditions and opportunities.

7-Continuous Learning Culture Description

A culture of continuous learning supports innovation and continuous improvement through shared learning practices, promoting experimentation, and valuing failures as learning opportunities.

Example: Regular training programs, knowledge sharing workshops and encouragement of innovation and experimentation within teams.

These skills are designed to work together, enabling organizations to become more agile, responsive and able to deliver continuous value to their customers. They cover both the human, technical and strategic aspects of agility on a company scale.

Hajer Brahmi