Why Companies Choose SAFe®

Agile isn't new, but as organizational environments evolve to produce products more effectively and economically. The framework has gained popularity and is now a must for businesses looking to achieve quantifiable outcomes. Many firms have successfully implemented Agile for a team or department at some point.

Business executives may require assistance with scaling when it's time to extend your company's Agile framework from a small number of self-organized IT teams to the full enterprise. Because businesses and organizations are complicated, choosing a scaling strategy should not be taken lightly. Professionals looking to enhance their knowledge of SAFe implementation must enroll in one of the credible agile courses.

In this post, we describe why SAFe is the chosen methodology of many businesses. 

Why Should Companies Choose SAFe?  

SAFe is a thorough and proven scaling technique. The majority of frameworks, if not all of them, outline the essential processes for scaling. However, they don't include detailed implementation instructions. SAFe offers advice on how to implement it along with tactical and strategic ideas. Lets understand why SAFe is gaining so much popularity. 

1. Putting the user experience first 

SAFe prioritizes user experience (UX) by integrating customer-centric practices into product development. This ensures that solutions meet real user needs effectively and delightfully. 

• Customer-centric Mindset. Encourages teams to empathize with end-users and focus on delivering value-driven solutions that solve real problems. 
• Continuous Feedback Loops. Regularly gathers insights from users through iterative testing, reviews, and feedback to refine and enhance the product. 
• Design Thinking Integration. Embeds design thinking principles, ensuring intuitive, accessible, and aesthetically pleasing interfaces. 
• Collaborative Cross-Functional Teams. Brings together developers, designers, and stakeholders to align on creating seamless user experiences. 
• Prioritization of User Stories. Ensures user stories and features reflect actual user needs and are consistently refined through the backlog process. 
• Lean UX Practices. Focuses on rapid prototyping, experimentation, and validating ideas with users to save time and resources. 
• Outcome-Driven Metrics. Uses metrics like Net Promoter Score (NPS) and usability ratings to measure the success of the user experience. 

2. More Scope for Innovation  

SAFe fosters innovation by creating an environment that supports experimentation, continuous improvement, and creative problem-solving across all levels of an organization. 

• Innovation Through Iteration. Encourages iterative development, allowing teams to test ideas, gather feedback, and refine solutions without fear of failure. 
• Dedicated Innovation Time. Allocates time in the PI (Program Increment) for teams to focus on exploring new ideas and addressing challenging problems. 
• Cross-Functional Collaboration. Promotes collaboration across teams and disciplines, sparking creativity through diverse perspectives and expertise. 
• Lean Startup Practices. Supports hypothesis-driven development, where teams validate ideas quickly using experiments and user feedback to reduce risks. 
• Empowered Agile Teams. Grants teams autonomy to explore innovative solutions while staying aligned with organizational goals. 
• Feedback-Driven Improvements. Uses regular feedback loops, retrospectives, and customer insights to continuously refine and enhance ideas. 
• Focus on Value Creation. Aligns innovation efforts with delivering maximum value to customers, ensuring practical and impactful outcomes. 
• Supportive Leadership. Leaders cultivate a culture of innovation by encouraging experimentation, providing resources, and recognizing creative contributions. 

3. It is free of cost, and available in a usable form

Even though SAFe® materials are protected by copyright, preventing others from modifying or redistributing them, they are all available completely free of cost. The materials are in an extremely understandable manner, thus making its implementation a piece of cake for even the most novice user.

4. SAFe® is lightweight

Unlike other comparable large-scale frameworks, SAFe® does not require much effort to master. The entire Framework is available on its website, with a clear diagram that shows all of the roles, activities and important deliverables. It also acts as a navigational aid to the rest of the Framework website. Making implementation even easier, the website is only one level deep- each graphic on the first page takes you to another page consisting of a more comprehensive explanation, along with other reference links.

Considering all this, it would be an understatement to say that SAFe® is easy to implement.

5. Specificity of SAFe®

SAFe® does not just offer you guidelines for process development, rather offers the processes themselves. In this aspect, it is different from the other more generalized industry frameworks because of its sheer practicality. The Framework also offers specific terms, concepts and practices to be used by software developers, to make the company itself more Lean and Agile. This hands-on aspect helps people who are more interested in developing the software itself, than in throwing around words about the methodologies in software development.

SAFe® has also succeeded in codifying and simplifying the more common agile practices and their definitions in use today. On the aforementioned Big Picture, many keywords such as “scrum master” and “agile teams” are given clear definitions, thus increasing the user’s comprehension.

6. An extension of agile practices

Most companies would have used agile and lean practices at their practitioner and team levels, and the common ones in use today are Scrum and XP. SAFe® simply extends this agile model up to the program and enterprise levels by parsing the elements of these practices, such as the hierarchy of features, epics and stories. They have also added some novel, useful concepts of their own, such as the “Agile Release Train”.

SAFe® is enterprise-centric in its software development methods, whereas the traditional agile practices have always been too centred on the development team. The Framework does its estimates at the program and portfolio levels, before stepping down to the more detailed levels required for stories and story points. This is extremely important for doing agile at the scale required for large companies.

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Top Industries Benefiting from SAFe  

SAFe drives agility, innovation, and efficiency across industries. Let’s explain in detail why SAFe is preferred across industries. 

• Information Technology (IT): IT companies use SAFe to manage complex development cycles. It aligns teams and accelerates software delivery. SAFe helps with cloud migrations and large-scale implementations. 
• Finance and Banking: Banks leverage SAFe for efficient operations and compliance. It supports the fast delivery of secure apps and digital solutions. SAFe enhances collaboration in financial product development. 
• Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals: SAFe improves healthcare innovation and patient solutions. It accelerates drug development and regulatory compliance. Telehealth and EHR system development benefit greatly. Numerous companies in this sector are reaping the benefits of SAFe framework. 
• Automotive and Manufacturing: Automotive firms use SAFe for building software-driven vehicles. It integrates design, engineering, and supply chain operations. IoT systems and autonomous vehicle projects thrive under SAFe. 
• Telecommunications: Telecom companies manage large projects, like 5G rollouts, using SAFe. It ensures faster deployment of services. Customer satisfaction improves in competitive markets. 
• Retail and E-Commerce: Retailers enhance customer experience through SAFe. It delivers digital platforms and personalized marketing. SAFe supports seamless omnichannel solutions. 
• Government and Public Sector: Governments adopt SAFe for better project timelines and transparency. Citizen-focused digital solutions are developed efficiently. Waste is reduced significantly. 
• Aerospace and Defense: Aerospace industries rely on SAFe for safety-critical projects. It ensures high-quality systems and regulatory compliance. Large-scale programs are managed effectively. 

A Complete Picture of Software Development

SAFe® includes all the aspects of software development, right from the start to the finished product. A variety of roles, such as System Architect, UX experts, Product Managers and even Product Owners are included in the Framework model, increasing its reliability. Features of SAFe® includes all the elements that a modern enterprise requires to develop and deliver software.

Moreover, the Framework is maintained and polished religiously by its creators, and the updates are available on the website completely free of charge. The evolution of the Framework seems to be based on actual experience and feedback received from the users, rather than on theoretical concepts.

The core belief of the makers is simple- Better systems and software make the world a better place. Looking at the success stories, it is evident that many enterprises-large and small-are getting outstanding business benefits from the application of SAFe®, in terms of productivity, quality and the time to market.

A Scaled Agile Framework might just be what you need to take your valuable enterprise to the next level.

Conclusion 

It is essential to adopt agile technique in order to thrive in this cutthroat business environment. Regardless of your company's size, needs, and sector, scalable agile frameworks are the ideal way to grow your organization. It enables high-quality production without compromising delivery time. All these factors show why safe agile is important for businesses.  

It has demonstrated its functionality for more than ten years. A scalable agile framework is being considered by more than 20,000 businesses as a potential way to continuously improve as customer and market demands change. SAFe is a great option for business owners that are actively seeking to improve their lean-agile implementations. KnowledgeHut agile courses can be really helpful for professionals looking to learn this methodology.