Top Benefits of Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) Certification

In the past ten years that I have spent as an agile coach, I have observed very many different organizations trying to solve a specific problem: how to scale agile practices beyond individual teams for the delivery of complex solutions, which is where The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) comes into play, bringing a balance between flexibility and structure towards agility at the enterprise level.

I recall the time I was consulting with a financial services fortune 500 company that was struggling with overheads related to collaboration, coordination, and quality management due to having "agile teams." The implementation of SAFe helped them reduce their time to the market by 40% and improve their employee engagement scores by 35%. This wasn't magic – it was the application of the right framework to their agile practices.

If you are questioning how the benefits of SAFe would apply to your organization, you are at the right place. Today, I will explain the benefits of adopting the Scaled Agile Framework, its differences with other approaches towards scaling, and what actual companies have achieved by utilizing the framework.

As we get to the advantages of SAFe, it is essential to understand the context of its definition. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) is a knowledge base containing integrated Lean-Agile development principles, practices, and competencies for enterprises. Developed by Dean Leffingwell and her team, SAFe has had a remarkable journey of growth since its inception in 2011.

SAFe is not another management gimmick; it is used by 70 percent of Fortune 100 and is on the rise across different sectors. Why not? Given the managed but flexible way to implement agility, SAFe is able to tackle the problems organizations encounter when trying to manage several teams working on intricate products.

The framework has been divided into four configurations to cater to differing organizational sizes and levels of complexity:

• Essential SAFe - The base level mastery focusing on the team and program level.
• Large Solution SAFe - Used for constructing large, complex solutions with multiple ARTs
• Portfolio SAFe - Syncs execution with enterprise strategy
• Full SAFe - The most versatile configuration simplified for larger scale organizations.

SAFe rests on nine principles rooted on Lean, Agile, systems thinking, and product development flow. These principles are the basis of its practices and decisions throughout the whole implementation.
 

Any enterprise transformation requires a heavy investment of time and resources; therefore, company leadership correctly scrutinizes, "What's the ROI?" The business benefits of SAFe have been documented extensively, hence its adoption as the framework of choice for firms trying to scale agile practices.

As reported in the 2023 State of Agile Report, firms that have implemented SAFe reported the following:

• Improvement in time-to-market by 25-75%
• Increase in productivity by 20-50%
• Improvement in quality by 25-75%
• Increase in employee engagement by 10-50%

The numbers above are not mere projections; rather, they reinforce the organization's competitive edge and profit. For example, one healthcare provider estimated a $3.8 million annual savings from reduced coordination expenses and quicker delivery after implementing SAFe.

Relative to other frameworks such as LeSS (Large-Scale Scrum), Nexus, or the Spotify Model, SAFe is often singled out for its detailed recommendations and more regimented framework. While these other approaches may afford more flexibility, they provide a lot less guidance, which can be difficult for companies new to scaling agile.
 

Based on what organizations report having realized post-implementation, let's consider the most significant benefits of the SAFe Agile Framework.

1. Improvement in Business-IT Alignment

The lack of alignment between business people and the technical side of things continues to be a problem in many large enterprises. SAFe addresses this difficulty directly by:

• Bringing people together during PI Planning to unite around objectives and create a shared understanding.
• Structuring around delivery of value: Value Stream organization ensures teams are arranged around delivery of customer value.
• Participation of the business through roles like Business Owners and Product Management.
• Obvious work visibility through progress and impediments.

I have conducted PI Planning sessions where executive participants experienced some of the "aha moments" during the executive integration sessions when they actually saw the impact of their strategic decisions on execution teams. This kind of cross understanding is only possible in this model and unheard of in traditional project management models.

In a telecom company I worked with previously, simply because Business and IT developed a common understanding and vocabulary of priorities, they were able to cut request feature rework by 65% after adopting SAFe.

2. Accelerated Time-to-Market

The current business environment is quite competitive, which means speed is a critical factor. The advantages of the SAFe framework for enterprises related to time-to-market are remarkable:

• Synchronized delivery cadence (steps) increases waiting time predictability and reduces idle time.
• Decision making at lower levels increases the speed at which teams operate.
• Automated cross-team coordination, architectural runway, and other factors reduce dependencies and enable faster teamwork.
• Integrated DevOps practices allow for continuous delivery capabilities.

After implementing SAFe, one retail client was able to reduce their release cycle from quarterly to bi-weekly, thus enabling them to respond to market shifts more effectively and strategically capitalize on opportunities before their competitors.

The improvements an organization witnesses are often between 30% and 75% in time-to-market as a result of implementing SAFe due to the flow-focused and value-driven nature of the framework.

3. Improving Quality and Reducing Defects

Quality must be built first into a product. In SAFe, this is addressed by:

• Practices for Built-in Quality at every level
• Quality criteria included in "Definition of Done"
• Architectural runway that guarantees fast delivery by the system's tech foundation
• Set-based paradigm where many alternatives are considered before deciding on one.
• All-inclusive responsibility for quality throughout the value chain

I had a banking client who, after implementation of SAFe, was able to reduce production defects by 82% within 6 months. Apart from the remarkable number, they also had reduced weekend emergencies and customer frustrations, and were able to dedicate more time for innovation rather than firefighting.

4. Enhanced Employee Satisfaction and Engagement

Employees are an organization's greatest asset, and the benefits of SAFe add to employee satisfaction in these critical areas:

• Reduced role ambiguity, thus less organizational conflict.
• Delegation of authority promotes greater control and ownership.
• Emergence of a learning culture motivates employee mastery.
• Continuous improvement from regular retrospectives.
• Cross-functional teamwork fosters stronger working relations.

From agile scaling abandoners exit interviews were conducted, lack of role clarity and lack of empowering policies were cited as top organizational pain points. With SAFe, clearly defined roles, defined decision-making authority, and policies encouraging self-regulation bring order.

The technology company I counseled with noted a direct engagement and satisfaction increase after the implementation of SAFe—an engagement framework which drastically reduced the employee turnover rate to 7% from 24%.

5. Enhanced Predictability and Planning

While Agile-focused frameworks lean towards an emphasis on change, it is critical for businesses to have a plan. One of the SAFe perks for product owner executives is the forecast accuracy:

• Program Increment (PI) planning establishes firm commitments to specific time frames
• Cadence-based demonstrations serve as milestones for verifying progress
• Objective metrics through Program Predictability Measure
• Capacity allocation optimizes the balance between innovation and maintenance work
• Dependencies identified early in Planning Events

A government agency I counseled with was working without the discipline of SAFe and were struggling to meet deadlines because of a lack of planning. Post-implementation of SAFe, the agency can now deliver on their PI commitments 92% of the time, trust from stakeholders and alleviating the burden of constant deadline pressure.

6. Enhanced Portfolio Management and Investment Strategies

ROI is maximized when value flow is monitored to ensure that investment capital is channeled into the most valuable initiatives. With regard to portfolio management, the SAFe framework offers considerable value:

• Funding is aligned to strategy through Lean Portfolio Management
• Project-based funding is replaced with stable value stream funding
• Strategic boundaries enable decentralized decision making
• Epics are completed from start to finish, and this process is visualized using the portfolio kanban.

One of our manufacturing clients realized that after a year of implementing SAFe's portfolio management practices, they were able to rechannel 30% of their technology budget from low-value maintenance activities to strategic work. This allowed them to market two new products that positioned them as leaders in their industry, something that would not have been possible prior to this change.

7. Enterprise-Wide Agility and Adaptability

Perhaps the most noteworthy of the business advantages of SAFe is the development of true enterprise agility:

• Ingrained responsiveness across Subordinate Levels
• Dynamic, Versatile, responsive and adapting strategy formulation
• Dedication capacity supported and nurtured culture of innovation
• Encouragement experiment principles of a learning organization
• Progressing beyond it metrics of business agility

One notable example was an insurance company who applied SAFe in the context of a digitally disruptive market entrant. They completely pivoted their digital strategy in one PI planning event, something that would normally take them months under their waterfall approach.
 

While the SAFe benefits are noteworthy, here are some potential challenges to consider:

• Leaders need to be active participants: SAFe is not something with only superficial endorsement. It involves active engagement and participation by leadership.
• Funding cost: There is a significant upfront cost for training across many roles.
• Shifting from control and command to servant leadership is difficult: There will always be cultural push back.
• Confusion on implementation: Defined at the full scope, SAFe can be confusing to implement in the beginning.
• Lack of maintaining agility: A downside of having something as robust as SAFe is that it risks over-process comes in without sharp control.

All of these challenges can be addressed with adequate mitigation planning using proper planning and expectation setting. Starting with Essential SAFe often delivers better results than attempting Full SAFe immediately.
 

Not all organizations require leverage in the context of the SAFe framework. The benefits of SAFe for enterprises are clearer for those that:

• Have a minimum of 5 or more teams working on a solution or a product.
• Require better inter-department and intra-department coordination.
• Are having challenges with meeting delivery timelines or delivery quality.
• Struggling with multiple teams and components dependencies.
• Want better linkage between organizational strategy and execution.

SAFe can be viewed as overly cumbersome by organizations that only have a small number of teams. An organization that has independent teams that work on different products is likely to derive less value from SAFe's attempt at coordination.

Reflect using this readiness assessment checklist:

• Do you have executives ready to actively participate?
• Are you willing to allocate resources for training and coaching?
• Do you have the time, 12-18 months, to wait for the transformation to take form?
• Are you facing challenges with coordination of multiple agile teams?
• Do you think better alignment of strategy and execution would make a positive impact?

In case most of these questions were answered in yes, SAFe is an effective solution for the organization's challenges.
 

If you are fully sold on the benefits of SAFe and are prepared to consider its application, you will need to:

1. Start by training Lean-Agile change agents: Train executives and change agents using certified SAFe courses.
2. Train Executives and Managers: Mastery in leadership is vital to achieving goals.
3. Identify Value Streams and ARTs: Articulate the ways value is delivered towards customers.
4. Create Implementation Plan: Initial steps involves launching one ART as a pilot.
5. Prepare for First PI Planning: Train teams and get the necessary arrangements for logistics.
6. Launch ART With PI Planning: This marks the official start of SAFe implementation.
7. Execute and Deliver: Follow the plan and conduct milestones as per the regimen.
8. Reflect and Improve: Through Innovation & Planning iterations, retrospect and strategize on change.
9. Expand to Additional ARTs and Value Streams: Scope out other streams and ARTs based on learned lessons.
    

In my experience with numerous organizations working to implement SAFe, I discovered that the advantages of SAFe are most evident when looked at from the perspective of business transformation, not simply an IT methodology. Businesses that consider SAFe as a means of achieving enhanced value rather than a way to 'do agile at scale' tend to have the most remarkable outcomes.

The Scaled Agile Framework is an approach that is tried and tested when it comes to developing and delivering software and systems at an enterprise level in the least amount of time possible. It enables organizations to become lean agile enterprises by setting forth values, principles, and practices.

If your organization is having difficulty with the coordination of several teams, aligning the strategy with execution, or providing value quickly enough, then SAFe offers a solution with step-by-step instructions for implementation. Most organizations do consider it worthwhile due to faster delivery, heightened employee engagement, better quality of output, and improved organizational morale.

SAFe offers a compilation map to ease the complexity that comes with mapping multiple agile practices and guiding organizations in achieving business agility.