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What’s New in Leading SAFe® 5.0

The global SAFe® summit, organized by Scaled Agile Inc. has declared a new variant of the Scaled Agile Framework. The new, simplified version of the model features business activity, focusing on providing a positive customer experience and expanding the critical aspect of portfolio management. SAFe® has added more clarity, structure, and direction. This post attempts to provide an overview of some major changes in SAFe® 5.0.  This new release is intended to extend SAFe® to encompass the complete enterprise and enable improved business activity. This post attempts to provide an overview of some major changes in SAFe® 5.0.  Important Highlights of SAFe® update  Gives the big picture for better features, flow, and continuous delivery   Developing value streams patterns supports model around the request from customers  Applying SAFe® to hardware improvement accelerates the delivery of cyber-physical systems  New direction and guidance around DevOps technical skills and tools for continuous delivery pipeline  More comprehensive direction for implementing Lean-Agile methods to business domains supports business agility  Integrated participatory budgeting promotes a dynamic and collaborative method of allocating funding to value streams  New designs, patterns, and behaviors for teams and ARTs simplifies their values  Incremental updates to SAFe® 5 will guarantee it stays current with new and evolving business and technology trends.WHAT’S NEW? Below are the highlights of what’s new in SAFe® 5.0. Customer focus in SAFe® 5.0 One of the primary changes is to focus on a customer-centric approach. Version SAFe® 5.0’s motto is to give a satisfactory experience to the customer. SAFe® recommends focusing more on what the customer is getting from the business and helps them focus on decision-making. The most important ingredient is revamped core competency, which focuses on understanding the needs of customers, setting customer lifetime value, and then building products that are customer-centric. New Big Picture The below graphic incorporates the contents of SAFe®, comprising a sketch of-- Essential SAFe®, Large Solution SAFe®, Portfolio SAFe®, and Full SAFe® and the consolidated updatesSource LinkConcentrate/ Focus on Business Agility.  Business Agility is the ability to face and grow by immediately responding to buoyant market conditions, varying customer needs, and emerging technologies. It requires that everyone is committed to delivering solutions—business and technology leaders, development, IT operations, legal, marketing, finance, support, compliance, security, and others—use Lean and Agile applications to continuously deliver innovative, high-quality products and services quicker. It is the differentiator that will determine the winners and failures in the digital economy. SAFe® defines business agility as “The capacity to compete and succeed in the digital age by reacting quickly to market fluctuations and opportunities with innovative business resolutions. It expects all those concerned in furnishing solutions i.e. business and technology leaders, development, IT policies and procedures, law, marketing, finance, maintenance and support, compliance, security/ protection from hackers, and others – to apply lean and agile methods to continuously provide innovative, quality products and services quicker than the competition.” How will business agility solve the problem? Enterprises start as a customer-centric network. As the organization progresses, the entrepreneurial network moves adjacent to the newly constituted “hierarchical arrangement” which is anticipated for the organization to mature. As the hierarchy grows to accomplish the organization’s revenue and growth needs, it begins to clash with the entrepreneurial network, which leads to network failure and customer-centricity getting lost in between. Nonetheless, this allows organizations to develop, but if a change in technology or customer requirement arises, companies fail to react and change. Instead of discarding the current system, a secondary system “SAFe® 5.0 Business Agility” could be executed which allows concentrating more on formulating value streams, not just departments. New SAFe® Overview SAFe®'s seven center capabilities encourage business readiness. The visual underneath shows an unmistakable image of SAFe®'s Seven Core Competencies of the Lean Enterprise and furthermore shows their 21 measurements that assist business readiness.   Execution competencies are displayed on the left, while the support strategy competencies are on the right. The Agile-Lean Leadership competency which is the foundation is in the bottom middle. The customer is prominently emphasized in the middle as the focal feature for all the competencies. Measure and Grow at the top right is a suggestion of the importance of cyclic self-assessments to track the organization’s journey towards the principles and practices that facilitate business agility.  Source LinkMeasuring Business Agility The SAFe® framework now includes Business Agility Assessment that empowers organizations to estimate their level of business agility and get support on expediting growth. The assessment incorporates the ratings of organizations according to various standards and levels within each core competency. Outcomes from this evaluation, represented by the radar below, can be represented as a baseline. As such, these can support organizations to determine the current status and know which fields to concentrate on for enhanced growth. It can help to prioritize for maximum accomplishment on the path to business agility. TWO NEW COMPETENCIES SAFe® 5.0 acquaints us with two new abilities-- Continuous Learning Culture, and Organizational Agility. Both of the skills are depicted in detail below. Continuous Learning Culture   The Learning Culture competency outlines a set of values and methods that inspire people and the complete organization to upgrade knowledge, skill, performance, and innovation. The aforementioned culture is achieved by encouraging the organization to upgrade knowledge, executing constant improvement, and promoting a culture of innovation.   The image below outlines the three dimensions of a continuous learning culture:Learning Organization – Employees would desire to upgrade themselves at each level and therefore the organization transforms and can endure an ever-changing world.  Innovation Culture – Employees are encouraged and empowered to explore and accomplish original concepts that expedite future value delivery.  Constant Improvement – Every part of the enterprise concentrates on continuously enhancing its solutions, products, and methods. Organizational Agility  The Agility competency of an Organization defines how Lean-thinking and Agile teams optimize their business processes, amplify the approach with clear and definitive new consignments, and immediately benefit the organization as expected to capitalize on new possibilities and opportunities. This new article explains the three dimensions of organizational agility:  Lean and Agile Teams – Teams that are connected with solution delivery are trained in Lean and Agile systems and know how to adopt and exemplify the values, policies, and practices.   Lean operations business team – Teams follow Lean principles to concede, map and continuously improve the business systems that support the business products and services.   Strategy Flexibility – The enterprise is manageable and flexible enough to continuously sense the market, and immediately adjust tactics when required.FIVE COMPETENCIES RESTRUCTURED Team and Technical Agility  The Technical Agility team outlines the Lean-Agile principles and methods that high-performing Agile teams use to provide high-quality resolutions for customers. The outcome is improved productivity, more stability, quality, faster time-to-market, and quick anticipated delivery of value. This competency has been written and is classified into the following dimensions: Agile TeamsHigh Performance of the cross-functional teams ensures competency by employing efficient Agile principles and practices.Agile Unit TeamsAgile teams function within the context of a SAFe® Agile Release Train (ART), a long-lasting, team of Agile teams that bestows a shared insight and direction and is ultimately accountable for delivering solutions.  Built-in QualityAgile teams execute Agile iterations to provide high-quality, well-designed recommendations that help current and prospective business requirements.Agile Product Delivery  Agile Product Delivery is a customer-centric approach to determine, develop, and deliver a constant stream of products and services that are of value to customers and users. This supports the organization to provide solutions that delight customers, reduce development costs/ risk, and reduce competition.  DevOps and Release competency has been combined into a couple of dimensions of Agile Product Delivery as shown in the Figure below:Customer-centric Thinking – Customer centricity puts the customer at a locus and uses design reasoning to ensure that the resolution implemented will be useful, possible, achievable, and can sustain in any circumstances.  Acquire on-demand and Declare on Request– Developing on flow enhances control in product development.  Releasing the value engagements to customers in segments would help customers to satisfy their requirements.  DevOps and the Continuous Delivery – DevOps and the Continuous Delivery Pipeline create the foundation that assists organizations to deliver excellence, in cumulative parts or in segments, at any point to satisfy consumer and market requirements. Lean Portfolio Management  The Lean Portfolio Management aligns strategies and achievements by implementing Lean methods approaches/ strategies, Agile portfolio methods, and governance. These collaborations deliver organizations the expertise to meet existing commitments and enable innovation.This competency has been revised and is classified into the following dimensions:Strategy & Investment Funding ensures the entire portfolio is aligned and financed to formulate and support the solutions expected to adhere to business targets.    Agile Portfolio Operations encourage decentralized program performance and promote operational excellence.    Lean Governance accommodates decision-making of spending, auditing, forecasting engagements, and measurement.Organization Solution Delivery  The Organization Solution Delivery competency shows how to apply Lean-Agile principles and methods to product specification, expansion, deployment, accomplishment, and progress of advanced software applications, networks, etc The Business and Lean Engineering Systems competency has been renamed as Enterprise Solution Delivery and it incorporates the following dimensions: Lean Solution and Systems   Engineering applies Lean-Agile practices to manage and coordinate all the activities needed to execute, test, deploy, evolve, and sequentially decommission these systems.   Coordinating Suppliers   Suppliers are coordinated and aligned to a set of value streams. This uses coordinated vision, backlogs, and roadmaps with common program Increment points.   Continually Evolve Live Systems assure large systems, and their growing pipeline supports continuous delivery. Lean-Agile Leadership  The Lean-Agile Leadership competency specifies how Lean-Agile Leaders manage and maintain organizational change by empowering individuals and teams to reach their highest potential. Adopting a Lean-Agile mindset results in more engaged employees, increased productivity and innovation, and successful organizational change.  The Lean-Agile leadership was revised and is grouped into the following dimensions:Set by example – Leaders achieve earned prestige by inspiring the team to incorporate the leader’s example into their own personal development journey.  Principles and Mindset – Embedding the Lean-Agile approach of working in their ideas, choices, acknowledgments, and activities, leaders model the required norm throughout the organization.  Managing Change – Leaders lead the transformation by designing the environment, preparing the people, and providing the necessary resources to realize the aspired outcomes. CUSTOMER FOCUSED DESIGN THINKING The Customer Centricity mindset has extended its focus to the mechanisms and systems that are aimed at resolving issues that customers face.  Customer Centricity The customer-centric organization conducts market research to create actionable items of the problems that customers face, the solution specifications, and the solutions required to resolve issues. FOR BUSINESS TEAMS SAFe®  Team of teams in SAFe® acts as an agile release train and it presents value to the organization. They adopt the Lean and Agile values, principles, and practices that are relevant to their responsibilities and adjust their existing processes accordingly. The Agile Release Train (ART) is a long-lived team of Agile teams, which, accompanied by different stakeholders, incrementally develops, delivers, and where applicable operates one or more solutions in a value stream. ARTs comprise cross-functional teams and possess all the abilities—software, hardware, firmware, and others—needed to define, implement, test, deploy, release, and where applicable, operate solutions.ARTs operate on a set of common principles:  If a Feature misses a timed departure and is not planned in the current PI, it can be taken in the next one.  Each train delivers a new increment every two weeks.  Teams on the train are synchronized on the related PI of 8 – 12 weeks and have common Iteration start/end dates and duration.  Each ART estimates how much can be delivered in a PI.  Agile Teams welcome the ‘Agile Manifesto’ and SAFe® Core Values and Principles. They apply Scrum, Extreme Programming (XP), Kanban, etc Built-In Quality practices.  Most people in ART are committed full-time to the train. The ART plans work periodically mostly face-to-face PI Planning events.  An Inspect and Adapt event is held at the end of every PI.  Teams and management identify backlog items via a structured, problem-solving workshop.  ARTs apply flow and synchronization to better accomplish the internal variability of investigation and improvement.  NEW SAFE® IMPLEMENTATION ROADMAP The Scaled Agile Framework for enterprises contributes integrated, well established scaling patterns that have benefited many organizations around the world to solve their business obstacles associated with speed, multiple teams' alignment, flexibility & quality, and improvement with successful Agile delivery.    The SAFe® Roadmap outlines the levels of the organization and implements SAFe® in an arranged, stable, and successful fashion. While adopting SAFe® would vary based on circumstances, the Implementation Roadmap offers insight into a fairly common implementation pattern. The roadmap has been developed by proven change management strategies and the experience of hundreds of global enterprises that have adopted SAFe®.   The SAFe® Implementation Roadmap includes 12 critical moves for the successful embracing of Lean-Agile principles and mindset and their applicability throughout the organization.WHAT ARE THE CHANGES FROM 4.5 TO 5.0  Below are the diverse levels in SAFe® 4.5 and SAFe® 5.0. SAFe®  5.0 Level  SAFe® 5.0 is the most advanced level that comes with an important update to the last version 4.5. It comes with two extra competencies i.e. Lean Enterprise and Business Agility. SAFe® 5.0 with extra two competencies also focuses on core competencies of SAFe® 4.5 that includes Technical and Team Agility, Release on Demand and DevOps, Lean Systems Engineering and Business Solutions, Lean Portfolio and Lean-Agile Leadership.  SAFe®  4.5 Level Four levels are incorporated in this SAFe® implementation-- they are Portfolio, Value Stream, Program, and Team. It is mainly used for resolutions that require several professionals to create, deploy, manage and maintain softwareWHAT DOES VERSION 5.0 IMPLY Scaled Agile Framework inspires realization within organizations that there is a need to transform development teams. They require to transform organization-wide in order to compete in today’s landscape. The focus has now whirled towards full business agility. In reference to SAFe® 5.0, Business Agility empowers organizations to capitalize on rising opportunities by allowing people to make quick settlements, designate money, and adjust the right people to work.  SAFe® confirms that a framework alone is not sufficient to achieve a successful transformation; the true difference makers are the talent i.e., leaders and teams of the organization. Globalization, fast-moving markets and the unprecedented pace of technological innovation provokes organizations to transform to survive. But their current business models, organizational hierarchy, and technology infrastructure often hold back organizations from transforming fast.  Important Highlights of SAFe® 5.0:  Focus on customer centricity and design thinking empowers the organization to recognize the problem and design the right solution.  New Measures and guidance help the organization circumscribe its current state of business agility and recognize tactical steps to enhance economic outcomes and reach its desired state.  Continuous Learning Culture competency provides a collection of values and practices that inspires everyone in the enterprise to continuously learn and innovate with mutual cooperation.  Organizational Agility helps teams optimize their enterprise processes, develop strategies with clear commitments and quickly accommodate to realize new opportunities.  SAFe® 5.0 allows teams to engage in delivering and supporting innovative business resolutions.  It organizes and helps enterprise regulate their development efforts around the full, end-to-end value flow. CONCLUSIONSAFe® 5.0 brings the significant modifications that were required for organizations to improve but also not lose core focus on customers. With business agility, organizations can now concentrate on generating value streams for their overall maturity and growth rather than focus on each department individually. The two new core competencies will empower the organizations to generate a learning culture to encourage continuous improvement in innovative solutions, performance, and growth and also modify or accommodate artifices according to the variation in market trends. Overall, it helps in bringing back the focus without losing it in the hierarchical structure of organizations.
What’s New in Leading SAFe® 5.0
Rajesh

What’s New in Leading SAFe® 5.0

The global SAFe® summit, organized by Scaled Agile Inc. has declared a new variant of the Scaled Agile Framework. The new, simplified version of the model features business activity, focusing on providing a positive customer experience and expanding the critical aspect of portfolio management. SAFe® has added more clarity, structure, and direction. This post attempts to provide an overview of some major changes in SAFe® 5.0.  This new release is intended to extend SAFe® to encompass the complete enterprise and enable improved business activity. This post attempts to provide an overview of some major changes in SAFe® 5.0.  Important Highlights of SAFe® update  Gives the big picture for better features, flow, and continuous delivery   Developing value streams patterns supports model around the request from customers  Applying SAFe® to hardware improvement accelerates the delivery of cyber-physical systems  New direction and guidance around DevOps technical skills and tools for continuous delivery pipeline  More comprehensive direction for implementing Lean-Agile methods to business domains supports business agility  Integrated participatory budgeting promotes a dynamic and collaborative method of allocating funding to value streams  New designs, patterns, and behaviors for teams and ARTs simplifies their values  Incremental updates to SAFe® 5 will guarantee it stays current with new and evolving business and technology trends.WHAT’S NEW? Below are the highlights of what’s new in SAFe® 5.0. Customer focus in SAFe® 5.0 One of the primary changes is to focus on a customer-centric approach. Version SAFe® 5.0’s motto is to give a satisfactory experience to the customer. SAFe® recommends focusing more on what the customer is getting from the business and helps them focus on decision-making. The most important ingredient is revamped core competency, which focuses on understanding the needs of customers, setting customer lifetime value, and then building products that are customer-centric. New Big Picture The below graphic incorporates the contents of SAFe®, comprising a sketch of-- Essential SAFe®, Large Solution SAFe®, Portfolio SAFe®, and Full SAFe® and the consolidated updatesSource LinkConcentrate/ Focus on Business Agility.  Business Agility is the ability to face and grow by immediately responding to buoyant market conditions, varying customer needs, and emerging technologies. It requires that everyone is committed to delivering solutions—business and technology leaders, development, IT operations, legal, marketing, finance, support, compliance, security, and others—use Lean and Agile applications to continuously deliver innovative, high-quality products and services quicker. It is the differentiator that will determine the winners and failures in the digital economy. SAFe® defines business agility as “The capacity to compete and succeed in the digital age by reacting quickly to market fluctuations and opportunities with innovative business resolutions. It expects all those concerned in furnishing solutions i.e. business and technology leaders, development, IT policies and procedures, law, marketing, finance, maintenance and support, compliance, security/ protection from hackers, and others – to apply lean and agile methods to continuously provide innovative, quality products and services quicker than the competition.” How will business agility solve the problem? Enterprises start as a customer-centric network. As the organization progresses, the entrepreneurial network moves adjacent to the newly constituted “hierarchical arrangement” which is anticipated for the organization to mature. As the hierarchy grows to accomplish the organization’s revenue and growth needs, it begins to clash with the entrepreneurial network, which leads to network failure and customer-centricity getting lost in between. Nonetheless, this allows organizations to develop, but if a change in technology or customer requirement arises, companies fail to react and change. Instead of discarding the current system, a secondary system “SAFe® 5.0 Business Agility” could be executed which allows concentrating more on formulating value streams, not just departments. New SAFe® Overview SAFe®'s seven center capabilities encourage business readiness. The visual underneath shows an unmistakable image of SAFe®'s Seven Core Competencies of the Lean Enterprise and furthermore shows their 21 measurements that assist business readiness.   Execution competencies are displayed on the left, while the support strategy competencies are on the right. The Agile-Lean Leadership competency which is the foundation is in the bottom middle. The customer is prominently emphasized in the middle as the focal feature for all the competencies. Measure and Grow at the top right is a suggestion of the importance of cyclic self-assessments to track the organization’s journey towards the principles and practices that facilitate business agility.  Source LinkMeasuring Business Agility The SAFe® framework now includes Business Agility Assessment that empowers organizations to estimate their level of business agility and get support on expediting growth. The assessment incorporates the ratings of organizations according to various standards and levels within each core competency. Outcomes from this evaluation, represented by the radar below, can be represented as a baseline. As such, these can support organizations to determine the current status and know which fields to concentrate on for enhanced growth. It can help to prioritize for maximum accomplishment on the path to business agility. TWO NEW COMPETENCIES SAFe® 5.0 acquaints us with two new abilities-- Continuous Learning Culture, and Organizational Agility. Both of the skills are depicted in detail below. Continuous Learning Culture   The Learning Culture competency outlines a set of values and methods that inspire people and the complete organization to upgrade knowledge, skill, performance, and innovation. The aforementioned culture is achieved by encouraging the organization to upgrade knowledge, executing constant improvement, and promoting a culture of innovation.   The image below outlines the three dimensions of a continuous learning culture:Learning Organization – Employees would desire to upgrade themselves at each level and therefore the organization transforms and can endure an ever-changing world.  Innovation Culture – Employees are encouraged and empowered to explore and accomplish original concepts that expedite future value delivery.  Constant Improvement – Every part of the enterprise concentrates on continuously enhancing its solutions, products, and methods. Organizational Agility  The Agility competency of an Organization defines how Lean-thinking and Agile teams optimize their business processes, amplify the approach with clear and definitive new consignments, and immediately benefit the organization as expected to capitalize on new possibilities and opportunities. This new article explains the three dimensions of organizational agility:  Lean and Agile Teams – Teams that are connected with solution delivery are trained in Lean and Agile systems and know how to adopt and exemplify the values, policies, and practices.   Lean operations business team – Teams follow Lean principles to concede, map and continuously improve the business systems that support the business products and services.   Strategy Flexibility – The enterprise is manageable and flexible enough to continuously sense the market, and immediately adjust tactics when required.FIVE COMPETENCIES RESTRUCTURED Team and Technical Agility  The Technical Agility team outlines the Lean-Agile principles and methods that high-performing Agile teams use to provide high-quality resolutions for customers. The outcome is improved productivity, more stability, quality, faster time-to-market, and quick anticipated delivery of value. This competency has been written and is classified into the following dimensions: Agile TeamsHigh Performance of the cross-functional teams ensures competency by employing efficient Agile principles and practices.Agile Unit TeamsAgile teams function within the context of a SAFe® Agile Release Train (ART), a long-lasting, team of Agile teams that bestows a shared insight and direction and is ultimately accountable for delivering solutions.  Built-in QualityAgile teams execute Agile iterations to provide high-quality, well-designed recommendations that help current and prospective business requirements.Agile Product Delivery  Agile Product Delivery is a customer-centric approach to determine, develop, and deliver a constant stream of products and services that are of value to customers and users. This supports the organization to provide solutions that delight customers, reduce development costs/ risk, and reduce competition.  DevOps and Release competency has been combined into a couple of dimensions of Agile Product Delivery as shown in the Figure below:Customer-centric Thinking – Customer centricity puts the customer at a locus and uses design reasoning to ensure that the resolution implemented will be useful, possible, achievable, and can sustain in any circumstances.  Acquire on-demand and Declare on Request– Developing on flow enhances control in product development.  Releasing the value engagements to customers in segments would help customers to satisfy their requirements.  DevOps and the Continuous Delivery – DevOps and the Continuous Delivery Pipeline create the foundation that assists organizations to deliver excellence, in cumulative parts or in segments, at any point to satisfy consumer and market requirements. Lean Portfolio Management  The Lean Portfolio Management aligns strategies and achievements by implementing Lean methods approaches/ strategies, Agile portfolio methods, and governance. These collaborations deliver organizations the expertise to meet existing commitments and enable innovation.This competency has been revised and is classified into the following dimensions:Strategy & Investment Funding ensures the entire portfolio is aligned and financed to formulate and support the solutions expected to adhere to business targets.    Agile Portfolio Operations encourage decentralized program performance and promote operational excellence.    Lean Governance accommodates decision-making of spending, auditing, forecasting engagements, and measurement.Organization Solution Delivery  The Organization Solution Delivery competency shows how to apply Lean-Agile principles and methods to product specification, expansion, deployment, accomplishment, and progress of advanced software applications, networks, etc The Business and Lean Engineering Systems competency has been renamed as Enterprise Solution Delivery and it incorporates the following dimensions: Lean Solution and Systems   Engineering applies Lean-Agile practices to manage and coordinate all the activities needed to execute, test, deploy, evolve, and sequentially decommission these systems.   Coordinating Suppliers   Suppliers are coordinated and aligned to a set of value streams. This uses coordinated vision, backlogs, and roadmaps with common program Increment points.   Continually Evolve Live Systems assure large systems, and their growing pipeline supports continuous delivery. Lean-Agile Leadership  The Lean-Agile Leadership competency specifies how Lean-Agile Leaders manage and maintain organizational change by empowering individuals and teams to reach their highest potential. Adopting a Lean-Agile mindset results in more engaged employees, increased productivity and innovation, and successful organizational change.  The Lean-Agile leadership was revised and is grouped into the following dimensions:Set by example – Leaders achieve earned prestige by inspiring the team to incorporate the leader’s example into their own personal development journey.  Principles and Mindset – Embedding the Lean-Agile approach of working in their ideas, choices, acknowledgments, and activities, leaders model the required norm throughout the organization.  Managing Change – Leaders lead the transformation by designing the environment, preparing the people, and providing the necessary resources to realize the aspired outcomes. CUSTOMER FOCUSED DESIGN THINKING The Customer Centricity mindset has extended its focus to the mechanisms and systems that are aimed at resolving issues that customers face.  Customer Centricity The customer-centric organization conducts market research to create actionable items of the problems that customers face, the solution specifications, and the solutions required to resolve issues. FOR BUSINESS TEAMS SAFe®  Team of teams in SAFe® acts as an agile release train and it presents value to the organization. They adopt the Lean and Agile values, principles, and practices that are relevant to their responsibilities and adjust their existing processes accordingly. The Agile Release Train (ART) is a long-lived team of Agile teams, which, accompanied by different stakeholders, incrementally develops, delivers, and where applicable operates one or more solutions in a value stream. ARTs comprise cross-functional teams and possess all the abilities—software, hardware, firmware, and others—needed to define, implement, test, deploy, release, and where applicable, operate solutions.ARTs operate on a set of common principles:  If a Feature misses a timed departure and is not planned in the current PI, it can be taken in the next one.  Each train delivers a new increment every two weeks.  Teams on the train are synchronized on the related PI of 8 – 12 weeks and have common Iteration start/end dates and duration.  Each ART estimates how much can be delivered in a PI.  Agile Teams welcome the ‘Agile Manifesto’ and SAFe® Core Values and Principles. They apply Scrum, Extreme Programming (XP), Kanban, etc Built-In Quality practices.  Most people in ART are committed full-time to the train. The ART plans work periodically mostly face-to-face PI Planning events.  An Inspect and Adapt event is held at the end of every PI.  Teams and management identify backlog items via a structured, problem-solving workshop.  ARTs apply flow and synchronization to better accomplish the internal variability of investigation and improvement.  NEW SAFE® IMPLEMENTATION ROADMAP The Scaled Agile Framework for enterprises contributes integrated, well established scaling patterns that have benefited many organizations around the world to solve their business obstacles associated with speed, multiple teams' alignment, flexibility & quality, and improvement with successful Agile delivery.    The SAFe® Roadmap outlines the levels of the organization and implements SAFe® in an arranged, stable, and successful fashion. While adopting SAFe® would vary based on circumstances, the Implementation Roadmap offers insight into a fairly common implementation pattern. The roadmap has been developed by proven change management strategies and the experience of hundreds of global enterprises that have adopted SAFe®.   The SAFe® Implementation Roadmap includes 12 critical moves for the successful embracing of Lean-Agile principles and mindset and their applicability throughout the organization.WHAT ARE THE CHANGES FROM 4.5 TO 5.0  Below are the diverse levels in SAFe® 4.5 and SAFe® 5.0. SAFe®  5.0 Level  SAFe® 5.0 is the most advanced level that comes with an important update to the last version 4.5. It comes with two extra competencies i.e. Lean Enterprise and Business Agility. SAFe® 5.0 with extra two competencies also focuses on core competencies of SAFe® 4.5 that includes Technical and Team Agility, Release on Demand and DevOps, Lean Systems Engineering and Business Solutions, Lean Portfolio and Lean-Agile Leadership.  SAFe®  4.5 Level Four levels are incorporated in this SAFe® implementation-- they are Portfolio, Value Stream, Program, and Team. It is mainly used for resolutions that require several professionals to create, deploy, manage and maintain softwareWHAT DOES VERSION 5.0 IMPLY Scaled Agile Framework inspires realization within organizations that there is a need to transform development teams. They require to transform organization-wide in order to compete in today’s landscape. The focus has now whirled towards full business agility. In reference to SAFe® 5.0, Business Agility empowers organizations to capitalize on rising opportunities by allowing people to make quick settlements, designate money, and adjust the right people to work.  SAFe® confirms that a framework alone is not sufficient to achieve a successful transformation; the true difference makers are the talent i.e., leaders and teams of the organization. Globalization, fast-moving markets and the unprecedented pace of technological innovation provokes organizations to transform to survive. But their current business models, organizational hierarchy, and technology infrastructure often hold back organizations from transforming fast.  Important Highlights of SAFe® 5.0:  Focus on customer centricity and design thinking empowers the organization to recognize the problem and design the right solution.  New Measures and guidance help the organization circumscribe its current state of business agility and recognize tactical steps to enhance economic outcomes and reach its desired state.  Continuous Learning Culture competency provides a collection of values and practices that inspires everyone in the enterprise to continuously learn and innovate with mutual cooperation.  Organizational Agility helps teams optimize their enterprise processes, develop strategies with clear commitments and quickly accommodate to realize new opportunities.  SAFe® 5.0 allows teams to engage in delivering and supporting innovative business resolutions.  It organizes and helps enterprise regulate their development efforts around the full, end-to-end value flow. CONCLUSIONSAFe® 5.0 brings the significant modifications that were required for organizations to improve but also not lose core focus on customers. With business agility, organizations can now concentrate on generating value streams for their overall maturity and growth rather than focus on each department individually. The two new core competencies will empower the organizations to generate a learning culture to encourage continuous improvement in innovative solutions, performance, and growth and also modify or accommodate artifices according to the variation in market trends. Overall, it helps in bringing back the focus without losing it in the hierarchical structure of organizations.
What’s New in Leading SAFe® 5.0
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What’s New in Leading SAFe® 5.0

The global SAFe® summit, organized by Scaled Ag... Read More

SAFe vs Agile frameworks: Scrum Scale vs LeSS vs Spotify

The new updates to SAFe® 5.0 are a significant step in the right direction, as organizations look to promote agility across the length and breadth of their business. With their latest version, Scaled Agile Inc. has emphasized customer-centricity, expanded Agile thinking beyond technical teams, and highlighted the impact of enabling agility at the portfolio management level.The Scaled Agile Framework’s latest variant, SAFe®  5.0, was formally published on January 7, 2020. With a particular focus on business and organizational agility, SAFe® breaks out of the enterprise's technology and software sectors and embraces agility across all organization areas.  SAFe® has matured as a leading Agile -scaling framework, and it continuously enhances, consolidates the latest research, and responds to input and feedback from its customers and partners.Key Highlights of New SAFe® 5:An improved Big Picture better emphasizes flow and continuous deliveryImplementing SAFe®  to hardware development expedites the delivery of cyber-physical systemsNew direction around DevSecOps technical skills and tools better controls the constant delivery pipelineBroader demand for applying Lean-Agile approaches to business domains supports business agilityIntegrated participatory budgeting promotes a dynamic and collaborative method of allotting funds to value streamsPatterns and behaviours for planning teams and ARTs simplifies designing around valueWhy was an Update required?Global markets and the current pace of technological innovation have forced organizations to transform and compete. The current business models, organizational hierarchy, and technology infrastructure can't keep up with its needs to adapt. Agile product delivery isn't enough. It would help if you had business agility. What is business agility?Business agility allows us to develop opportunities by empowering us to make intelligent decisions, allocate money, and align the appropriate people to do the work. Business agility occurs when the entire organization uses Lean and Agile practices to continuously and proactively produce innovative business solutions quicker than the competition.With direction from SAFe® 5.0, it is easy to win in the digital age. But the framework by itself can’t organize the transformation; it requires teams and leaders to make it happen. When agility penetrates your organization, it can quickly adapt to new macro conditions in the industry. What is needed is to reconfigure groups and redeploy talent in response to changing business needs. In short: thrive in fast-moving markets.What is the Scaled Agile Framework® (SAFe®)?Scaled Agile Framework or SAFe® is a promptly available stream of information that helps practitioners achieve their goal to incorporate Agile practices at the organizational level. It provides a seamless lightweight experience for the entire software development team.There are three different segments of the SAfe® frameworkTeamProgramPortfolioSAFe® also consists of;A Design that satisfies the needs and requirements of each stakeholder associated with the projectLean and Agile principlesLoads of direction for work at Value Stream, program, team and the organization PortfolioWhy use SAFe®?Scaled Agile Framework is immensely lighter in weight and more straightforward than any of its competitors. And yet, it can take on the most complex and most significant value streams and handle the most complex system development being done in the market today.If implemented on an Agile Framework, the following are the advantages that your team, project, and the company can hold.Quality will grow by more than 50%Employee commitment and job satisfaction would increaseTimely delivery to market will get a boost up to 75%Productivity is enhanced by 50%.When Should We Use SAFe®?When implementing an agile approach consistently across more widespread, cross-cultural team programs and portfolios, the team is involved in implementing an elegant system.When teams are interested in working independentlyWhen you are attempting to scale Agile over your organization, but are grappling with regulating to achieve uniform or consistent approach beyond departments.Multiple teams trying Agile implementation but constantly facing hindrances, obstacles, and breakdownsScaling Agile across the organization but unsure what different roles may be required or what existing functions must changeAn organization wants to improve its product development lead time and understand how other organizations have achieved success in scaling Agile with SAFe®.Is the Scaled Agile Framework Different From Its Competitors in the Market?Different factors set it apart from every competitor in the market.It gives lightweight, reasonably verified results that are specific to the levelOffers valuable extensions to standard agile practicesIt gives a comprehensive understanding of software improvementOffers continuous or constant feedback on quality and refinementObtainable in a highly approachable and usable formIt is openly available and free to useIt regularly/repeatedly modifies/maintains the most regularly used agile practicesGrounds agile practices to an enterprise contextVisibility or transparency is more on all levels.Overview of Seven Core CompetenciesSAFe® 5 dwells on the Seven Core Competencies of the Lean Enterprise. These competencies combine two completely new competencies (Organizational Agility and Continuous Learning Culture). Several subsequent competencies contribute to knowledge, skills, and behaviors, enabling enterprises to deliver business agility:The Lean-Agile Leadership competency describes how Lean-Agile Leaders motivate and promote organizational change by empowering individuals and teams to reach their maximum potential.The Continuous Learning Culture competency outlines a set of values and practices that continuously encourage individuals and the enterprise to enhance knowledge, proficiency, performance, and innovation constantly.  The Team and Technical Agility competency describes essential talents and Lean-Agile principles and practices that high-performing Agile teams use to produce high-quality resolutions for their customers.  The Agile Product Delivery competency is a customer-centric way to define, build, and deliver a constant flow of necessary products and services to consumers and users.  The Enterprise Solution Delivery competency outlines how to implement Lean-Agile principles and practices to the specification, developing the world’s most comprehensive and sophisticated software applications, networks, and cyber-physical systems.  The Lean Portfolio Management competency alters plan and execution by implementing Lean thinking methods to strategize Agile portfolio operations and governance.  The Organizational Agility competency defines how Lean-thinking people and Agile teams optimize their business methods, form a strategy with specific new commitments, and immediately have the organization capitalize on new opportunities.SAFe® ConfigurationsSAFe® supports four development environment configurations.Essential SAFe®The Essential SAFe® configuration is the fundamental building block for all SAFe® arrangements and is the most straightforward starting point for implementation. This competency builds on the policies and practices found in the Lean-Agile Leadership, Team and Technical Agility, and the Agile Product Delivery competencies. SAFe is anchored by an organizational structure called the Agile Release Train (ART), where Agile teams and critical stakeholders are dedicated to a meaningful, ongoing solution mission.Large Solution SAFe®The Large Solution SAFe®  configuration includes the Enterprise Solution Delivery competency, which encourages building the largest and most complex solutions that demand various ARTs and Suppliers but do not require portfolio-level considerations. Such solution development is typical for aerospace and defence, automotive, and government industries, where the large solution—not portfolio governance—is the primary concern. The Solution Train organizational construct supports enterprises with the most notable challenges—building large-scale, multidisciplinary software, hardware, cyber-physical, and complex IT systems. Developing these solutions requires different roles, artifacts, events, and coordination.Portfolio SAFe®The Portfolio SAFe®  configuration is the most miniature set of competencies and methods that can ultimately enable business agility, as intimated by the blue ‘Business Agility’ bar at the top. This bar also incorporates a link to Measure & Grow for guidance on managing SAFe®  business agility assessments. Portfolio SAFe®  contains two additional competencies, Organizational Agility and Lean Portfolio Management, exceeding the three core competencies of Essential SAFe®. Lean Portfolio Management adjusts portfolio execution to enterprise strategy and organizes development around the flow of value through one or more value streams. Organization Agility extends Lean thinking and practice throughout the enterprise and enables strategy agility. Continuous Learning Culture describes how everyone in the organization learns together, relentlessly improves, and builds innovation into the culture. In addition to the competencies, Portfolio SAFe®  provides principles and practices for portfolio strategy and investment funding, Agile portfolio operations, and Lean governance.Full SAFe®Full SAFe®  is the most extensive configuration, including all seven core competencies needed for business agility. The world’s most extensive enterprises typically use it to maintain portfolios of large and complex solutions.SAFe®  Lean-Agile PrinciplesSAFe®  has ten permanent, underlying Lean-Agile principles. These systems inform the roles and practices of SAFe®.Take an economic viewAddressing the most high-grade value and quality for people and society in the shortest sustainable lead-time requires a fundamental understanding of building systems' economics. The SAFe®  framework highlights the trade-offs between risk, Cost of Delay (CoD), manufacturing, operational, and development costs. Moreover, every development value stream must operate within the context of an approved budget and be compliant with the guardrails which support decentralized decision-making.Apply systems thinkingThe workplace challenges and the marketplace demands knowledge of the systems within which workers and users work. Such systems are complicated, and they consist of many interrelated segments. To update, everyone must understand the broader aim of the system.  In SAFe®, systems thinking supports the development of the organization that builds the system.Assume variabilityTraditional design and life cycle practices assist in choosing an individual design-and-requirements option early in the development process. If the starting point proves to be the incorrect choice, then future arrangements take amazingly long and lead to a suboptimal design. A more dependable path is to manage multiple requirements, and empirical data is assumed to narrow the focus, resulting in a format that generates optimum economic results.Build incrementally with fast, integrated learning cyclesDeveloping solutions incrementally in a series of small iterations allow for more immediate customer feedback and mitigates risk. Subsequent increments build on the previous ones. Since the 'system always runs,' some increments may serve as prototypes for market testing and validation; others become minimum viable products (MVPs). Still, others extend the system to new and valuable functionality.  This early feedback helps determine when to change to an alternate action course.Base milestones on an objective evaluation of working systemsBusiness owners, developers, and customers have a distributed responsibility to guarantee that investment in the latest solutions will benefit economically. The sequential, phase-gate development model meets this challenge, but experience proves that it does not decrease risk as expected. In Lean-Agile development, integration features provide objective milestones to evaluate the solution during the development life cycle. Regular evaluation offers financial, technical, and fitness-for-purpose governance to ensure that a progressive investment will deliver a proportionate return.Visualize and limit WIP, reduce batch sizes, and manage queue lengthsLean enterprises endeavour to accomplish a state of continuous movement, where new system inclinations move swiftly and visibly from concept to cash.Keys to implementing flow are  Envision and restrict the quantity of work in process (WIP).  Overcome the batch sizes of work to expedite fast and more stable flow.  Manage queue lengths to decrease the delay periods for new functionality.Apply cadence, synchronize with cross-domain planningCadence creates predictability and executes a rhythm for development. Synchronization induces varied viewpoints to be understood, solved and integrated at the same time. Implementing development cadence and synchronization, joined with periodic cross-domain planning, provides the mechanisms required to function efficiently in the proximity of the inherent development ambiguity.Unlock the intrinsic motivation of knowledge workersLean-Agile leaders recognize that creativity, innovation, and employee commitment are not generally triggered by individual incentive compensation. Such personal causes can create internal competition and destroy the cooperation necessary to achieve the system's larger aim. Implementing autonomy and purpose, reducing constraints, generating an environment of mutual influence, and better understanding compensation's role is key to higher employee engagement levels. This procedure yields more desirable outcomes for people, customers, and the organization.Decentralize decision-makingObtaining quick value delivery necessitates decentralized decision-making. This subdues delays, increases product development flow, allows more instantaneous feedback, and generates more innovative solutions devised by those closest to the local knowledge. However, some choices are essential, global, and have economies of scale that justify centralized decision-making. Since both types of decisions occur, producing a solid decision-making framework is critical in guaranteeing a quick flow of value.Organize around valueMany organizations today revolve around principles developed during the last century. In the digital age, the only sustainable aggressive advantage is the pace with which an organization can respond to its customers' needs with new and innovative solutions. Business Agility demands that enterprises build around value to deliver more quickly. And when market and customer desires change, the enterprise must seamlessly and quickly reorganize around that new value flow.Choosing the Best Suited Agile frameworkThere are numerous Agile frameworks like Scrum, Kanban, XP, Crystal, FDD, etc., to contemplate businesses with various teams working on an identical product. But often, the most excellent solution is one that compounds best practices from varied scaling frameworks. The truth is, organizational leaders must approach Agile as a process that is tailored to fit the needs rather than a dormant solution.SAFe®  vs. Scrum@ScaleThe Scaled Agile FrameworkThe Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe® ) is the most successful and popular framework for scaling Scrum in big organizations. It is essential to note that SAFe®  is intended to accommodate DevOps, a process frequently deemed for future-proof Agile organizations.SAFe®  is a method that describes a highly structured framework to embrace and engage an Agile value stream in an enterprise setting. It is most desirable for large organizations to retain as much organizational and process structure as possible while reaping the advantages of a decentralized Agile method. SAFe®  is not as efficiently customizable as Scrum at Scale, so an in-depth interpretation of value creation processes is essential for planning an Agile transition process using this framework.Scrum@ScaleScrum at Scale, created by Dr. Jeff Sutherland and Alex Brown, is the newest addition to Agile scaling frameworks and was publicly launched at Agile 2014 in Orlando. Hence, it is relatively untested and undocumented compared to SAFe®, making it less suitable for extensive enterprise adoption. To be specific, it's a modular method to scaling the well-known Scrum framework.  Scrum at Scale can support scaling the framework. It is a manageable solution for organizations of all sizes. Scrum@Scale is a working model and skeleton within which Scrum teams’ networks work consistently with the Scrum Guide and can approach complicated large-scale problems and productively deliver products of high value. Scrum@Scale extends the core Scrum framework to deliver hyper-productive results across organizations.  The Scrum@Scale structure is easily manageable but hard to master. It is made up of 2 cycles, the Scrum Master cycle and Product Owner cycle, and 12 components necessary to execute Scrum at scale.SAFe®  vs. Large-Scale Scrum (LeSS)Scaled Agile FrameworkSAFe®  performs flawlessly in organizations with several hundred teams. Hence, it’s an exceptional framework for big companies. It provides these businesses with a highly reliable method for outlining, performance, and delivery through Agile Release Trains.    ARTs work on a steady flow of Program Increments lasting from eight to 12 weeks. Each Increment starts with a cross-functional team devising sessions to recognize what they’ll present, and this helps to identify and address cross-team dependencies and possible hindrances.Benefits of SAFe®Assists in resolving problems on business aspects, which other Agile frameworks fail to address  Teams perform at the highest value in the least amount of time    Synchronization across multiple teams reduces scaling issues  Outstanding assistance through educational training courses and role-based certifications  SAFe®  separates business strategies into actions, then features, then stories of work at the team level, and maps the pathway.Drawbacks of SAFe®The implementation pathway is required to be tweaked to meet the requirements of your organization. Association with economic-driven Lean development would demonstrate challenges from a cultural aspect.SAFe®  is a comprehensive solution that discusses not only team agility but also portfolio and business agility. Therefore, it is an excellent option for firms to achieve total enterprise agility with a highly disciplined approach to deliverables.Large Scale Scrum (LeSS)LeSS is the large-scale implementation of essential principles and elements of Scrum beyond cross-cultural teams. A necessary characteristic of LeSS comprises redirecting team awareness over the entire organization. However, fulfilling this can prove to be the principal impediment to scaling.    LeSS consists of a couple of frameworks:    Including eight teams    It also estimates for more than eight teams. Both frameworks are reliant profoundly upon the Product Owner.  LeSS Huge includes Product Owners that operate amidst their smaller areas. For leaders who follow Lean Economics, LeSS can be more effective due to its importance on systems thinking, doing more with LeSS, and queuing theory.Benefits of LeSSComfortable and flexible due to its Scrum origins    Sets more strain on system-wide thinking    Parks more Locus on a product preferably than a project    Massively reliant on a single Product Owner and backlogLimitations of LeSSScaling only works for an organization which has an extensive Scrum foundation    LeSS is formed around Scrum and is not a straightforward extension of other methodologies.    A single Product Owner may attempt to control multiple teamsChoose the Most Appropriate Agile framework.There are numerous assorted Agile frameworks to consider for organizations that have diverse teams operating on similar products. But often, to get the best results, the best practices from different scaling frameworks are merged. The truth is, organizational leaders must consider Agile as a process they tailor to suit their requirements rather than an inert solution. Hopefully, this SAFe®  vs LeSS comparison makes your decision-making process a little more comfortable.SAFe®  vs SpotifySpotify: a lightweight frameworkUnlike SAFe®, the Spotify model is not considered an extensive toolbox. The Spotify model contributes a relatively lightweight framework that stresses the necessity to generate many interactions to limit the silo side formed by teams.It would be essential to determine how every team must work in a standard way or have 100% freedom provided to the groups. Moreover, the Spotify model doesn’t deliver any solution to control the Portfolio like SAFe®. We could associate the Spotify model’s philosophy with Scrum, as it is a lightweight framework in which the teams would have to produce the details.SAFe®  a heavy frameworkSAFe®  extends a comprehensive and complete framework. Experts view it as a framework that is too detailed. So, the question that arises is: Is SAFe®  an agile framework? SAFe®  empowers to work, to coordinate, to train, to put in place its processes whether it suits the organization or not. It is hence a complete solution. Unlike the Spotify model, everything is already fixed, and only an expert can be expected to have the imagination to improve it.Challenges of scaling agile principles and practicesThe Scaled Agile Framework discusses the obstacles encountered when scaling agile beyond a single team.  SAFe®  supports collaboration, coordination, and delivery across a vast number of agile teams.This framework leverages three primary bodies of knowledge:Agile software methodological development  Lean product methodological development  System thinkingHurdles in Scaling AgileThere are several hurdles that an organization faces when it is required to scale agile principles and practices.Long term planning absence The development team implementing agile principles usually enhances/improves their product backlog to two to three iterations.  In huge organizations, the product marketing team would like to release the products in the market, and the teams would perform at a high-level roadmap of 12-18 months. They then cooperate on plans for three months of work.  The agile development teams would refine product backlog for 2-3 iterations and have detailed task plans ready, and often new changes are limited to the subsequent iterations.Lack of agile practicesThe agile development teams operate within the framework to help determine how to be elegant, but work is deficient for agile methods at the management level. The cross-functional units that can manage complicated levels of accountability and planning are missing.Delegated authority handlingIn the Scrum framework, the Product Owner accepts the product life cycle’s charge accompanied by investment return.  The Product Owner is fully accountable for the completion/ performance of the product. On a large scale, there is a requirement to have a view of multiple team backlogs. A Product Manager is usually accountable for controlling multiple team backlogs. There is still a barrier as the Product Owner is separated from the development of the organization.Lack of synchronizationAgile frameworks provide freedom to development teams to create their ways of work. There are hundreds of development teams at a large scale, and it proves to be a hurdle for the teams to be entirely self-organized.  The self-organized teams operating on identical products will face a challenge to synchronize their deliverables and deliver them together.Absence of InnovationWith large organizations working in agile, a need arises for an additional iteration after a release that improves their practices. This assists in planning for the next planning increment.  A large-scale agile model also requires testing everything that is operating concurrently till the end.  SAFe®  is a framework that helps organizations to handle the barriers they face while scaling agile and lean. To use the Scaled Agile Framework effectively, it is essential to know and understand its principles.ConclusionSAFe®  5.0 brings the necessary changes required for organizations to grow and not lose their core focus, i.e. customers. Companies can now create value streams for their overall growth with business agility rather than each department individually.The two new core competencies will allow the organizations to create a learning culture to promote constant improvement in innovative solutions, performance, and growth and change or adapt strategies according to the change in market trends. Overall, SAFe®  5.0 brings the main focus back into the picture without losing it in the hierarchical structure of organizations.Frameworks like SAFe®  provide a viable option for helping businesses achieve their business outcomes: Jira, an enterprise agile planning platform, is built for SAFe®. Jira can improve visibility, strategic alignment, and enterprise adaptability to accelerate your digital transformation.
SAFe vs Agile frameworks: Scrum Scale vs LeSS vs Spotify
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SAFe vs Agile frameworks: Scrum Scale vs LeSS vs S...

The new updates to SAFe® 5.0 are a significant st... Read More

Best Product Owner Certifications in 2021

The one person responsible for maximising the product value, representing the stakeholders, prioritizing the backlog, empowering the team, maintaining Agile and Scrum processes and defining the product vision—who is that one superstar on an Agile team who does all this? The Product Owner!Product Owner roles have seen a sharp rise in recent years. If you see yourself as a Product Owner, managing business and stakeholders, then it is prudent that you validate your skills with a Product Owner certification and set yourself up for career success.Product Owners with industry recognised credentials earn upwards of $105,845, significantly more than their peers who are not certified.Irrespective of whether you are a seasoned Product Owner or are just sinking your teeth into the world of Agile and Scrum, a credential in your toolkit will greatly enhance your career prospects. So, here’s a roundup of the most valued Product Owner certifications you can choose from and get ready for 2021.1. CSPO®2. A-CSPO®3. PSPO™4. PMI-ACP®5. SAFe® Product Owner Product Manager1. CSPOThe Certified Scrum Product Owner certification is an offering from Scrum Alliance. Among the most popular Product Owner certifications, this credential is a validation of your knowledge of Scrum, the scope of the Product Owner’s role and skill in maximizing value and the Scrum team’s work.CSPOs are in great demand across industries as they have the credibility to lead product development initiatives.Other benefits of the CSPO certification include:Training led by Scrum Alliance approved Certified Scrum Trainers® (CSTs)Get a 2-year membership with Scrum AllianceGain access to a number of local groups of Scrum users and social networksQualify for higher certifications such as the A-CSPO®Widen the scope of your career with the knowledge of popular Agile practices.Enhance your repertoire with in-demand Scrum skills and demonstrate your Scrum knowledge.Actively engage with the community of Agile practitioners dedicated to continuous Scrum practice and improvement.Create a better product by leading and implementing Scrum in the team.Define the product vision and direct team members to yield high value at the end.Ensure smooth communication between the stakeholders and team members.Earn higher salaries than your non-certified counterparts (USA: $105,845)Top companies hiring CSPO professionalsFidelity InvestmentsCapital One Financial CorpAmazon.comT-Mobile, IncAmerican ExpressSource: PayScaleWhere to take training for certificationThe training must be taken from a Certified Scrum Trainer (CST) or Registered Education Provider (REP) or a Certified Agile Coach of Scrum Alliance.Who should take the training for CSPO certification?This course can be taken by:Project Managers Developers Product Owners Managers-Software development Architects-Software development Product Managers Software developers Software testers Team leads/Team members interested in learning ScrumWho is eligible for the CSPO certification?There are no eligibility requirements for the CSPO certification.Duration to get CSPO certifiedAll participants need to attend the 2-day in-person or 14 hours live online CSPO training from a CST, at the end of which they will receive their credential. Course/Training fee for CSPO certificationThe course fee depends on the training provider and differs from region to region.In India: INR 24999  U.S: USD 1295Canada: CAD 1495Exam fee for CSPO certification: No exam needs to be taken in order to earn the CSPO credential. Attending a 2-day/14-hour course is mandated to earn the credential.Renewal fee for CSPO certification: $100, every 2 years2. A-CSPO℠The Advanced Certified Scrum Product Owner℠ (A-CSPO℠) credential is also offered by the Scrum Alliance, and as the name suggests is an advanced course to be pursued after gaining the CSPO. The A-CSPO validates your ability to manage multiple projects and stakeholders and deliver business value. A-CSPO being an advanced level certification is much sought after by organizations who want to hire professionals with advanced Product Owner abilities.Other benefits of the A-CSPO certification include:Training by Scrum Alliance approved Certified Scrum Trainers® (CSTs)2-year membership with Scrum AllianceAccess to a number of local groups of Scrum users and social networksGain enhanced Agile Scrum implementation skillsSet yourself apart from others in the marketplaceAs a highly trained Agile professional, show advanced value to your employerEarn high salaries - 111033 USD (average)Top companies hiring A-CSPO professionalsSAP LabsSalesforceAdobeWikispeedOracleVisteonGEBBCMicrosoftBarclaysRobert BoschWhere to take training for A-CSPO certification?The training must be led by a Certified Scrum Trainer (CST) and delivered by a Registered Education Provider (REP) or a Certified Agile Coach of Scrum Alliance.Who should take the training for A-CSPO certification?Professionals in the following job roles can take this course:Project ManagersDevelopersProduct OwnersManagers-Software developmentArchitects-Software developmentProduct ManagersSoftware developersSoftware testersTeam leads/Team members interested in learning ScrumWho is eligible for the A-CSPO certification?The A-CSPO requires the following eligibility:At least 12 months of work experience specific to the role of Product Owner (within the past five years) and an active CSPO credentialDuration to get A-CSPO certified: All participants need to attend the 2-day in-person or 14 hours live online A-CSPO training from a CST, at the end of which they will receive their credential.Course fee for A-CSPO certificationThe course fee depends on the training provider and differs from region to region.In India: INR 41999U.S.: Will be updated shortlyCanada: Will be updated shortlyExam fee for A-CSPO certification: No exam needs to be taken in order to earn the A-CSPO credential. Attending a 2-day/14-hour course along with the required experience is mandated to earn the credential.Renewal fee for A-CSPO certification: $175, every 2 years3. PSPO™Professional Scrum Product Owner™ Level I (PSPO™) is a credential offered by the Scrum.org. While the certification does not require you to take a training, an assessment needs to be cleared in order to get certified. The PSPO is a reflection of your ability to maximise skills, enhance product value and use Agile perspectives to deliver successful products.The PSPO is highly regarded in the industry as it is a rigorous exam and is based on the objectives outlined in the Scrum Guide.   Other benefits of the PSPO certification include:Own the product visionMaximize your team’s ROIImprove business value and ROIMotivate and lead Agile teams and team membersValidate your commitment to continued excellence and qualityDemonstrate your proficiency in ScrumGrow your career in Scrum with confidence Ace your interviews and get noticed for promotions at your current jobCommand higher salaries than your non-certified peersBe part of a network of industry leaders and Agile professionalsGain a stepping stone for the advanced level Professional Scrum Product Owner™ II Certification (PSPO™ II)Get the PSPO I logo that you can use to identify your achievementGet your name listed on Scrum.orgEarn salaries in the range of $98,612Top companies hiring PSPO professionalsJ.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (JPMCC)Cisco Systems IncImproving EnterprisesUnitedHealth GroupBank of America Corp. (BOFA)Source: PayScaleWhere to take training for the PSPO certification: Take the training from Scrum.org’s Professional Training Network under the guidance of certified Professional Scrum Trainers (PSTs).Who should take the training for PSPO certification?This course can be taken by:Project ManagersDevelopersProduct OwnersManagers-Software developmentArchitects-Software developmentProduct ManagersSoftware developersSoftware testersTeam leads/Team members interested in learning ScrumLeadership Team Who is eligible for the PSPO certification?There are no eligibility requirements for the PSPO certification.Duration to get certified: If you opt for training, you will have to attend two days or 16 hours of PSPO™ I training under a Professional Scrum Trainer (PST). You will then receive a key to the PSPO™ I Assessment. Once you pass the Assessment, you are declared PSPO™ I certified and can download your certificate.Course fee for PSPO certificationThe course fee depends on the training provider and differs from region to region.In India: INR 25999  U.S.: USD 1299Canada: CAD 1499Exam fee for PSPO: $200 USD per attemptPSPO Exam DetailsExam Type: Closed book,Format: Multiple Choice, Multiple Answer and True/FalseDifficulty: IntermediateLanguage: English onlyTime limit: 60 minutesNumber of Questions: 80Passing score: 85%Retake fee for PSPO Exam: $200 USD for each re-take attempt. Participants of Scrum.org classes get free retakes if they take and fail the assessment within a certain time frame. Renewal for PSPO certification: Your PSPO certification has a lifetime validity and does not require renewal4. PMI-ACP®The Project Management Institute (PMI)® a world-renowned body known for its flagship project management credentials, now offers professionals a chance to hone their agile skills with the PMI- Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)® credential. Its mandatory requirement of real-world Agile expertise and a thorough knowledge of Agile practices, tools and techniques means that holders of the PMI-ACP are Agile experts in every sense of the word.The PMI-ACP has huge demand in Agile organizations as it gives holders a 360-degree view of Agile and adds huge value to the skill set of a product owner.Other benefits of the PMI-ACP certification include:Helps you qualify for Agile jobs with expertise in Agile methods like Scrum, FDD, Kanban, etc. which are in demand in the industryEquips you with knowledge of various Agile methodsMakes you marketable as it opens doors to many project development methodologiesGain soft skills to manage your role eloquently  Earn more than your non-certified peers ($109,556)Top companies hiring PMI-ACP professionalsBooz, Allen, and HamiltonAccentureInternational Business Machines (IBM) Corp.Usaa InsuranceAmazon.com IncSource: PayScaleWhere to take training for the PMI-ACP certification: The training must be taken from an Authorized Training Partner (ATP) of PMIWho should take the training for PMI-ACP certification?This course can be taken by:Project ManagersProject PlannersQuality Assurance StaffDevelopers/ProgrammersDesigners, TestersProject ControllersProduct OwnersScrum MastersScrum Team MembersWho is eligible for the PMI-ACP certification?The PMI-ACP requires the following eligibility:Secondary degree21 contact hours of training in agile practices12 months of general project experience within the last 5 years. A current PMP® or PgMP® will satisfy this requirement but is not required to apply for the PMI-ACP.8 months of agile project experience within the last 3 yearsDuration to get certified: Once you complete the required training you must take time out to vigorously prepare for the exam. You then need to set the date and give the 3-hour exam. Once you pass the exam you may refer to yourself as a certification holder although your certificate package can take six to eight weeks to arrive in the mail.Course fee for PMI-ACP certification:The course fee depends on the training provider and differs from region to region.In India: INR 25999  U.S.: USD 1299Canada: CAD 1499Exam fee for PMI-ACP: $435 (for members), $495 (for non-members)PMI-ACP Exam Details:Exam Type: Closed book Format: Multiple Choice Difficulty: Intermediate Time limit: 3 hours Number of Questions: 120 of which 20 are considered pre-test questions and do not affect the score. Passing score: 85%Renewal for PMI-ACP certification: To maintain your PMI-ACP, you must earn 30 professional development units (PDUs) in agile topics every three years.5. Certified SAFe® Product Owner / Product Manager (SAFe® POPM)If scaling Scrum is your forte, then this is the right credential for you. This credential, an offering from the Scaled Agile, Inc., validates your product owner skills in delivering value by applying the principles of Lean to ensure Agile success at the enterprise scale, improving the Agile Release Train and ensuring customer satisfaction while improving bottom line margins.Considering that the Scaled Agile Framework is widely used in Agile organizations, there is a huge demand for SAFe POPM certified professionals, who can deliver continuous value at the enterprise level.Other benefits of the SAFe POPM certification include:Master key SAFe® product ownership/product management concepts like Lean Agile principles and valuesCollaborate with Agile teams to deliver valueMaster Program Increment PlanningOne-year membership to the SAFe Community PlatformOpen yourself upto new opportunitiesSAFe Product Owner/Product Manager (SPOPM) salary ranges from $83,865 to $124,613Access to Meetup groups and events that connect you with other Certified SAFe ProfessionalsTop companies hiring SAFe POPM professionalsBoschLockheed MartinPepsiCoAnthemCiscoStandard CharteredCapitalOneThalesFitBit  AstraZenecaSource: PayScaleWhere to take training for the SAFe POPM certification: The training must be taken from an authorized training partner of Scaled Agile, Inc. Who should take the training for SAFe POPM certification?This course can be taken by:Program or Project ManagersScrum MastersRelease Train EngineersBusiness AnalystsAgile CoachesSAFe Program ConsultantsDevelopment ManagersCTOsConsultantsArchitectsEngineersDirectorsProduct ManagersProduct OwnersDelivery ManagersSolution Train EngineersSoftware DevelopersWho is eligible for the SAFe POPM certification?The SAFe POPM requires the following eligibility:Two-day training from an authorized training provider of Scaled Agile Inc. Experience in Lean and AgileDuration to get certified: Once you complete the mandatory 2-day training you can set a date to take the 1.5 hrs SAFe POPM exam. On passing the exam, you become a Certified SAFe® 5 Product Owner / Product Manager. You will receive your SAFe®️ 5 Product Owner / Product Manager PDF Certificate and Digital Badge within 5-7 working days.Course fee for SAFe POPM certificationThe course fee depends on the training provider and differs from region to region.In India: INR 55999  U.S.: USD 1099Canada: CAD 1395Exam fee for SAFe POPM: First exam attempt is included as part of the course registration fee if the exam is taken within 30 days of course completion.SAFe POPM Exam DetailsExam Type: Closed book Format: Multiple choice, multiple response Difficulty: Intermediate Time limit: 1.5 hours Number of Questions: 45 Passing score: POPM4 = 35 out of 45 (77%); POPM5 = 33 out of 45 (73%)Retake fee for SAFe POPM Exam: Each retake costs $50Renewal for SAFe POPM certification: SAFe POPM needs to be renewed each year by paying a $100 fee and earning a minimum of 10 continuing education/outreach hours (PDUs).SummaryProduct Owners are the rock stars of an Agile team—confident, articulate, sharp, great communicators and problem solvers! A solid Product Owner certification along with these qualities can give your career a total makeover and make you a team favourite. 
Best Product Owner Certifications in 2021
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Differences Between Certified SAFe® Agilist(SA) vs Certified SAFe® Practitioner(SP)

Business Agility can be defined as the ability to compete and thrive in the digital age by quickly responding to market changes and emerging opportunities with innovative, digitally enabled business solutions. As organizations strive to achieve business agility, they find they are quickly outgrowing small-team Agile and need to decide on an approach to scale to the enterprise. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe®) for Lean Enterprises is a knowledge base of proven, integrated principles, practices, and competencies for achieving business agility using Lean, Agile, and DevOps. It has several levels to which one can scale from Essential to Full SAFe®.Due to its scalability and its number of roles and ceremonies, companies are increasingly expecting team members to not only be trained in SAFe® but also become certified. Since SAFe® is the most popular form of Scaled Agile, it is wise to consider becoming certified in this framework. This article will compare and contrast two certification - Certified SAFe® Agilist (SA) vs Certified SAFe® Practitioner (SP). Please note that you cannot ‘test out’ for either of these certifications but must attend classes.Certified SAFe® AgilistThis is the certification that I acquired when I first started venturing into SAFe®. My certificate says “A Certified SAFe® 5 Agilist (SA) is a SAFe® enterprise leadership professional who is part of a Lean-Agile transformation. Key areas of competency include the application of Lean-Agile principles, execution and release of value through Agile Release Trains (ARTs) and building an Agile portfolio with Lean-Agile budgeting.” So, while it is a very good entry point and covers SAFe® thoroughly, there is no specific prescribed role other than ‘leadership’ and being part of the team, especially one involved as part of a Lean-Agile transformation.PrerequisitesLeading SAFe® /SAFe® Agilist Certification Course; 5+ years’ experience in software development, testing, business analysis, product, or project management; experience in Scrum. Leading SAFe® is a two-day course. Prices vary but they tend to be less than $1,000 USD. Attendees discuss how to establish team and technical agility and organize and re-organize around the flow of value. There are also exercises for supporting a key ceremony called PI Planning. Students also begin to understand how to implement a Lean Portfolio Management function in their enterpriseKey areas of competencyApply SAFe® to scale Lean and Agile development in the enterprise Apply Lean-Agile Mindset and principles Plan and successfully execute Program Increments Execute and release value through Agile Release Trains Build an Agile portfolio with Lean-Agile budgeting Exam detailsIn the author’s experience, the exam is difficult but not as difficult as, for example, the Project Management Professional® exam. Some questions may be situational but overall, they want to ensure that you understand the framework and its underlying principles.  The exam can be taken any time after the class is completed but ideally should be taken within 30 days. It is a non-proctored, closed-book, multiple-choice exam which can be accessed on-line within the SAFe® Community Platform.  Candidates have 90 minutes (1.5 hours) to complete the exam. There are 45 questions and passing score is 77% or 35 correct. Currently the exam is only provided in English. The first exam attempt is included as part of the course registration fee if the exam is taken within 30 days of course completion. Each retake attempt costs $50 USD.  Retake policy – Second attempt on exam (first retake) can be done immediately after the first attempt. The third attempt requires a 10-day waiting period. The fourth attempt requires a 30-day waiting period. (It is not unusual for companies providing such exams to impose longer waiting periods if you fail. They want to give you more time to study.) Sample questionSeveral sample questions are provided online by Scaled Agile Framework. This is a typical SA question from their pool: What does SAFe® Principle #3, "Assume variability; preserve options," enable? Specification traceability Better economic results Stronger Definition of Done Up front design of systems The answer is ‘Better economic results.’ Exam study materialsCourse materials – The course materials are an essential artifact from the course and can be downloaded from the SAFe® Community Platform. Study guide – This guide details the job role and all resources related to the exam, including a detailed reading list. Access is available through the Learning Plan in the SAFe® Community Platform upon course completion. Practice test – The practice test is designed to be predictive of success on the certification exam and it has the same number of questions, level of difficulty, and time duration. It is part of the Learning Plan in the SAFe® Community Platform and can be taken an unlimited number of times at no cost. This is not the actual exam and passing it does not guarantee success on the certification exam. Sample Questions – A web-enabled, flashcard style version of the sample questions can be found online and in the study guideWhat you getCertification includes: Certified SAFe® Agilist PDF certificate. Certified SAFe® Agilist digital badge to promote your accomplishment online. One-year membership to the SAFe® Community Platform, which includes access to the SA Community of Practice. Access to Meetup groups and events that connect you with other SAFe® certified professionals. A variety of learning resources to support you during your SAFe® journey. Certified SAFe® Practitioner (SP)The SA certificate is not designed for any specific role but is more foundational. The SP certificate provides the skills needed to become a high-performing team member on an Agile Release Train (ART) and collaborate with other teams. As with the SA certification, you must first attend a two-day course. You cannot ‘test out.’ Certification expires one year from the date it is earned.  Attendees also learn how to write user stories, plan and execute Iterations, and experience a PI Planning event. Attendees learn about the Continuous Delivery Pipeline, the importance of a DevOps culture, how to effectively integrate with other teams on the ART, and what it takes to continuously improve. Key areas of competencyExplain SAFe® Agile Principles Plan Iterations Plan Program Increments Execute Iterations and demonstrate value Improve Agile Release Train processes Integrate and work with other teams on the Agile Release Train Perform as a member of an Agile Team on an Agile Release Train Prerequisites:SAFE® For Teams two-day course; familiarity with Scrum, Kanban, and XP; familiarity with Agile concepts and principles; working knowledge of software or hardware development processesExam detailsThe exam can be taken any time after the class is completed but ideally should be taken within 30 days. It is a non-proctored, closed-book, multiple-choice exam. It can be accessed on-line within the SAFe® Community Platform.  Candidates have 90 minutes (1.5 hours) to complete the exam. There are 45 questions and passing score is 77% or 35 correct. Currently the exam is only provided in English. The first exam attempt is included as part of the course registration fee if the exam is taken within 30 days of course completion. Each retake attempt costs $50.  Retake policy – The second attempt on exam (first retake) can be done immediately after first attempt. The third attempt requires a 10-day waiting period. The fourth attempt requires a 30-day waiting period. Sample questionSeveral sample questions are provided online by Scaled Agile Framework. This is a typical SA question In SAFe®, which two items belong in the Team Backlog? (Choose two.)   User Stories Enabler Features Epics Spikes Tasks The answer is user stories and spikes. A spike’s purpose is to gain the knowledge necessary to reduce the risk of a technical approach, better understand a requirement, or increase the reliability of a story estimate.Exam study materialsCourse materials – The course materials are an essential artifact from the course and can be downloaded from the SAFe® Community Platform. Study guide – This guide details the job role and all resources related to the exam, including a detailed reading list. Access is available through the Learning Plan in the SAFe® Community Platform upon course completion. Practice test – The practice test is designed to be predictive of success on the certification exam and it has the same number of questions, level of difficulty, and time duration. It is part of the Learning Plan in the SAFe® Community Platform and can be taken an unlimited number of times at no cost. This is not the actual exam and passing it does not guarantee success on the certification exam. Sample Questions – A web-enabled, flashcard style version of the sample questions can be found online and in the study guide. What you getBecoming a Certified SAFe® Practitioner (SP) is an important step towards becoming part of a SAFe® team. Certification includes:  Certified SAFe® Practitioner PDF certificate Certified SAFe® Practitioner digital badge to promote your accomplishment online One-year membership to the SAFe® Community Platform, which includes access to the SP Community of Practice Access to Meetup groups and events that connect you with other certified SAFe® professionals A variety of learning resources to support you.Which certification should I choose?There is no one ‘right’ answer to this. Not all students are the same. When the time came to learn more about SAFE®, I asked myself the same question. Since I wasn’t seeking a specific role within a SAFe® team but was trying to attain a broader understanding of the framework, the SA certificate was sufficient, at least as an entry point. I found it gave me an excellent overview of the framework and I would feel poised to work in a SAFE® environment. However, if your goal is to be an active part of a team, it would appear that the SP certification might be the better choice as that is its primary focus.  Maintaining certificationYou can no longer renew your certification on an individual level. As of January 2021, Scaled Agile has moved to a membership model for the SAFe® Community Platform. With this transition you will now be able to renew your membership at one of three tiers, two of which will include a bundle renewal of all your SAFe® certifications. If you don’t need or want to include renewal of your certifications, you have the option to simply renew your membership to continue access to all the assets, tools, and resources to help you grow as a SAFe® professional.  The three Membership tiers are:SAFe® Program Consultant Membership ($895/year) - For members who currently hold SPC or SPCT certifications. Renews all certifications, provides access to all SAFe® content, and enables SPCs/SPCTs to train others to lead a Lean-Agile transformation. Certified SAFe® Membership ($295/year) - For members who currently hold one or more certifications, and who may benefit from a bundled pricing approach. Renews all certifications except SPC and/or SPCT, provides access to basic and some advanced content and continued access to course learnings and assets. Individual SAFe® Membership ($195/year) - For those who don’t seek certification but still benefit from the valuable content on the SAFe® Community Platform. No certification renewals included. Comparison tableSASPLearners are in these rolesCEO, Project Manager, Scrum Master, Team Lead, Release Train Engineer, Product OwnerProject Manager, Scrum Master, Team Lead, Release Train Engineer, Product Owner, Consultant, Agile Coach, Business AnalystTopics coveredThriving in the Digital Age with Business AgilityBecoming a Lean-Agile LeaderEstablishing Team and Technical AgilityBuilding Solutions with Agile Product DeliveryExploring Lean Portfolio ManagementLeading the ChangeIntroducing the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe®)Building an Agile TeamPlanning the IterationExecuting the IterationExecuting the Program IncrementPracticing SAFe®What attendees getAttendee workbookPreparation and eligibility to take the SAFe® 5 Agilist (SA) examOne-year membership to the SAFe® Community PlatformAttendee workbookPreparation and eligibility to take the SAFe® 5 Practitioner (SP) examOne-year membership to the SAFe® Community PlatformPrerequisitesHighly recommended: 5+ years’ experience in software development, testing, business analysis, product, or project managementExperience in ScrumHighly recommended: Familiarity with Agile concepts and principlesAwareness of Scrum, Kanban, and XPWorking knowledge of software and hardware development processesExam detailsCompletion of this course gives you access to the exam and all related study materials as part of your Learning Plan in the SAFe® Community Platform.Completion of this course gives you access to the exam and all related study materials as part of your Learning Plan in the SAFe® Community Platform.Professional Development Units & Scrum Education UnitsConclusionThe Scaled Agile Framework is by far the leading approach towards scaling Agile. There is a variety of roles and certifications available. Both the SA and SP certificates will prepare you to enter the Scaled Agile world. It really depends on what you are looking to accomplish/learn from your course and what perspective you are learning from.To summarize, SA is a good foundational course if you are an individual new to SAFe® learning. SAFe® for Teams (SP) course is an intermediate level course that helps team members and SAFe® teams better understand how to work together to accomplish work and project goals. So, if you expect to be a member of a team involved in Release Trains and PI Planning, SP may be the logical starting point on your SAFe® journey. 
Differences Between Certified SAFe® Agilist(SA) vs Certified SAFe® Practitioner(SP)
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What Are the Responsibilities of Safe® Scrum Master?

With the steep upward trend in the adoption of agile practices across the IT industry, various frameworks have gained momentum. This has led to an appetite for exploring new ways of working and setting performance benchmarks. More and more organizations are looking for people who can help them effectively run in a new environment comprising of frameworks based on Agile and its variants. The recent survey published by version one clearly points out the Scaled Agile framework as one of the highly preferred models. With such a huge setup, skilled and trained people are required to run the show. Hence, the demand for certified SAFe® Scrum Masters has gained momentum in the last couple of years. The organizations, now, realize the criticality of this role for the implementation of scaled agile and its practices.  What is SAFe®? SAFe stands for “Scaled Agile Framework®”. It helps in scaling the agile practices up to the enterprise level. The organization as a whole works together in delivering a solution to the client. All the layers have their purpose and deliverables. It has been designed to “continuously and efficiently deliver value on a regular and predictable schedule” – scaledagile.com. Over the years, the Scaled Agile framework has evolved as one of the highly appreciated frameworks across the IT industry. The scaled agile framework has different configurations that can be used for the need of the organization. The model is made in such a way so that it can cater to all sizes and complex environments. There are different SAFe roles that are needed to implement the outline across the enterprise. In this article today we will talk about one of the most vital roles that serve the different layers of the organization, that of the SAFe Scrum Master.  SAFe® Scrum Master A Scrum Master in the SAFe enterprise context is a servant leader who helps the teams achieve their goal through constant coaching, mentoring, and smooth facilitation of processes. It is the Scrum Masters who ensure that the team is focused and know the tasks they have to accomplish in the time given. Along with this, when we talk about SAFe, the scrum master is required to interact with different teams such as Product management and Portfolio management teams, or other release trains to ensure alignment. The role calls for the facilitation of Team and Program Level events for effective program execution. Image SourceResponsibilities of a SAFe® Scrum Master Kaizen as the way of delivery – The SAFe Scrum Master helps the team to learn from their mistakes and instills a sense of ownership for their actions and commitment. With the facilitation of the team retrospective, they try to surface hidden emotions and find new effective ways of improvement. Also, they help the team with problem-solving methods to create a better self-organizing team.  Towards achieving sprint/release goals – The SAFe Scrum Master helps the team in creating increments that not only add value but also improve productivity. They help the teams to become more predictable. With effective facilitation, the team comes out with positive outputs after the end of each ceremony. The SAFe Scrum Master helps them through planning their iterations and scaling them up to the release planning level. They help organize the PI events which require certain pre-work for better PI outputs.   Achieving the objective of release train – As part of scaling agile, the SAFe Scrum Master helps in aligning the teams with larger release trains, ensuring the common organization goal is met. Support the product owner for product backlog management and prioritization – The SAFe Scrum Master assists the Product Owner to manage the backlog and helps them with prioritization and estimation methods to define a healthy backlog.  Being a change agent for SAFe adoption – The SAFe Scrum Master serves as a pillar in the implementation of scaled agile and its practices. They coach the different layers in the framework by participating in the Scrum Master Community of Practice and supporting the organization’s coaches.  Manage impediments backlog and remove them – Many times, the implements go beyond the scope of the team's work span, and in such cases, the Scrum Master can reach out to external entities in getting the issues resolved. This helps in the timely execution of the sprint. Endorses SAFe practices – SAFe offers direction to support the teams in continuously improving the quality of their deliverables and adhering to the Definition of Done.  Displays Lean-Agile leadership – Reveals the actions of a Lean-Agile Leader with a Lean-Agile Mindset. Helps the team embrace SAFe Core Values, adopt and apply SAFe Principles, and implement SAFe practices.  Facilitates SAFe ceremonies – Facilitation is yet another activity in the bucket list of responsibilities. Facilitation of events, like the Daily Stand-up, Sprint Planning, Sprint Review, and Sprint Retrospective ensures the optimal team performance and meeting of the timelines. The SAFe Scrum Master comes up with innovative ways to make the ceremonies effective and fruitful. Builds a highly motivated and self-organized team to deliver high business value – This is one of the main responsibilities of the SAFe Scrum Master. The focus is on improving the team dynamics and functioning. The Scrum Master coaches the team on self-organization through coaching/activities. The SAFe Scrum Master ensures the team maintains healthy relationships, by handling internal conflicts and challenges. Conflicts arise but being emotionally intelligent and keeping the dynamics healthy helps the team to move ahead.  Understand team dynamics – Every team in Agile has its own way of working together as a group. They create their working agreements which are usually lightweight, but as they are committed to following certain rules, the SAFe Scrum Master is responsible for emphasizing that work is carried out in accordance with those rules. The rules can be around ceremonies, quality, deliverable timeline, or just around communication. It can be anything that helps the team to stay bonded, transparent, and disciplined. Manage the dependencies with other teams involved in the program – The SAFe Scrum Master helps the development team to constantly expand in terms of interactions and working rapport with other teams. They represent the team in the Scrum of Scrums (SoS) meeting, which helps the team to stay updated on the latest developments in terms of backlog, dependencies, risks, or other concerning areas. It helps them to be ready for any upcoming challenge. The Scrum of Scrums helps the team build active associations with the System Team, Architecture, and Shared Services, etc. Not only the Scrum Master, but the complete team holds the responsibility of creating a working relationship across the teams. ART Ceremonies – In the Scaled Agile framework, apart from team ceremonies, the SAFe Scrum Master has to assist the team in setting the groundwork for Agile Release Train activities, which includes PI Planning, focusing on laying out a plan for an entire release, System Demos, and the Inspect and Adapt.  Facilitates estimation from Feature to story level – The development teams need support in understanding the estimation of the backlog items both at sprint and release level. The SAFe Scrum Master helps them identify models that can be used for efficient estimation of stories and features. Estimation helps the team in planning their work for upcoming sprints, which in turn, helps in the overall commitment.Improves organization agility – Along with working through their teams, the SAFe Scrum Master is required to work collaboratively with other Scrum Masters, management, and stakeholders to help the team stay aligned with the committed goals, and promote improvement towards the overall development of the Value Stream. The SAFe Scrum Master has to focus on both internal and external team activities to ensure effective and timely deliveries.  How SAFe® Scrum Master is different from Non-SAFe Scrum MasterIn a Scaled Agile framework, the teams at the development level follow methods/frameworks that can align with the organization's goals. The team can adopt Scrum, Kanban, XP, etc. or any other framework that works best for their requirement. A SAFe Scrum Master does not specifically have to work on Scrum implementation if the team is following another method.  However, when implementing SAFe Scrum, the Scrum Master has to live and follow Scrum practices and scale them across all teams. A SAFe Scrum Master not only supports the development team with all the responsibilities of a Scrum Master but also helps in running SAFe activities and gets involved in continuous improvement at all layers. In contrast, the Scrum Master in a non-SAFe team focuses only on the development team and its timely deliveries including impediment removal and risk mitigation. In short, the role also gets scaled up! How to become a SAFe® Scrum Master To become a SAFe Scrum Master, you must undertake training through accredited institutes. They not only provide an in-depth understanding of the topics but also teach how to enforce the implementation journey. The participants get to learn how to create high-performing teams. The certification signifies that the person is ready for the role and can help the organizations realize their goals. The course completion is followed by an exam to access the candidates’ knowledge.  The SAFe Scrum Master plays a critical role in scaling Scrum across the enterprise. To achieve success in this role, he or she must have skills in collaboration, emotional intelligence, and servant leadership attributes. It is not about just working with the teams, but with the organization as a whole.
What Are the Responsibilities of Safe® Scrum Master?
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Importance of CSPO Certification for Product Owners

Who is a Product Owner? As the name suggests, the Product Owner is a professional who adds value to the company. The Product Owner understands the product holistically, takes requirements from the clients, discusses the client requirement with the development team, and drafts plans to drive business growth. In short, the Product Owner is the most invaluable asset of an organization who plays one of the most significant roles. All the steps a Product Owner takes – from pre-development to post-development, become the face of the final product. Roles and Responsibilities Being a capable Product Owner means getting ready to accept the challenges that come with the role. The list of responsibilities of a Product Owner includes the following: To establish the high-level vision and goals required to optimize the return-on-investment for the effort. To make a list of the Product Backlog, functionalities, and prioritize them based on value, risk, and size. To help PO decide when to release software to the market addressed to the customer requirements. To inspect the features/functionality produced at the end of each Sprint and identify ways to improve its business value. To estimate the budget necessary for the product development.What is CSPO® certification? CSPO, an acronym for Certified Scrum Product Owner, is a certification offered by the Scrum Alliance®, a global member-driven certifying body that manages and maintains Agile certifications. The CSPO certification prepares an individual with the right set of skills, knowledge, and understanding required to become a professional Product Owner. Why is it important to have a certification as a Product Owner? Let us understand the importance of PO certification with the help of an example. Suppose you are an HR of a company that is actively looking to hire candidates to design a website. Candidate—1: Holds no certification and has no experience on how to design a website. Candidate – 2: Holds a certification from a recognized institute and has strong fundamental knowledge on how to design a captivating website. Whom will you choose – Candidate-1 or Candidate-2? Without second thoughts, you will choose the second candidate for the website designer role. Right? Similarly, when you opt for a Product Owner job profile, the first thing your hiring team looks for is CSPO certification. Recruiters prefer a CSPO certified candidate as they are aware that he or she knows the job profile, roles, and product responsibilities of Product Owners. Who can attend the CSPO training? The CSPO training is for professionals looking to enhance their vision on products or for individuals aspiring to become Product Owners. The course covers all the roles and responsibilities required to become a professional Product Owner. To be more specific, Product Managers, Product Owners, managers, stakeholders, sales executive managers, and business analysts can enroll for CSPO certification. There are no prerequisites and any individual looking to upgrade their skill set and improve their earning potentials can attend the CSPO certification training and get certified.  How will the certification benefit you and the organization? Whether you are a newbie looking for a career or as a Product Owner or a working professional wishing to upgrade your skills, knowledge, and expertise, CSPO certification is there for all.  Regardless of their background, anyone can opt for the CSPO certification to start their career as a Product Owner.  Unlock Job Opportunities  Getting a CSPO certification is the key to unlocking lucrative job opportunities as well. That means opting for CSPO certification will increase your employability as well as selection rates. Ten out of nine times, recruiters prefer a CSPO certified candidate than those without CSPO certification. Why? Because recruiters believe candidates who have taken CSPO training know the Product Owner roles and responsibilities better than others.Learn Prioritization Prioritizing the product backlog items is a vital step towards product development. A core responsibility of a Product Owner is to provide the development team with detailed instructions to enable the workforce to complete the assigned tasks in the stipulated time. The CSPO certification program offers excellent modules that allow Product Owners to learn how to manage the product backlog in a systematic way. Start from scratch CSPO certification is a beginner-friendly course that needs no pre-requisite knowledge or skills. Simply put, you do not have to know a lot about the Scrum framework to become a Scrum product manager. The PO course starts from scratch and includes different modules covering the Agile Manifesto, Scrum framework, and many other sections to help aspirants understand the CSPO role better. The CSPO certification explains all the roles and responsibilities of a Product Owner in a simple way. Understand the Team  One of the most significant roles of a product manager is to collaborate with the development team to get the work done as per the client’s requirements. A PO must know how to facilitate the team to make a reasonable commitment for each Sprint, without sacrificing quality or pace, and providing timely deliveries. CSPO certification training has modules that teach the PO how to handhold the team and meet customer needs. Improve Client Interaction Effective interaction with the client is the key to unlock deals faster. The PO must have efficient communication skills to understand the customer requirements and get clarity on their expectations. The CSPO certification covers excellent communication-builder course materials that help aspirants to build exemplary communication skills. As a result, the PO interacts better with the client and is able to understand and convey their needs effectively with the team.  Get the competitive advantage Undoubtedly, choosing CSPO training gives you a competitive advantage over non-certified individuals. You will find the advantage of being CSPO certified when applying for the same job profile. CSPO certification covers a comprehensive syllabus that explains the roles and responsibilities of a Product Owner in the most sophisticated, simplified, straightforward, and tech-savvy way. Earn more There is noone who would not be happy to get a higher salary! One more perk of choosing CSPO certification is high pay. Along with getting skills, knowledge, and capabilities, you will also improve your earning potential to a great extent. Why is it the most sought certification? Of all the product management credentials, the CSPO certification is the most sought-after credential in the industry. It is the most rewarding certification and a must for any individual looking to work in a product-based firm. Easy-to-learn modules and short-time course duration make the course an in-demand certification. Here are the top three compelling reasons why the CSPO certification is the most sought after.  Universally accepted — CSPO is a universally-accepted certification. That means, on completion of the course, the global scope opportunities will be high. It is accepted across all industry sectors and domains, such as Information Technology, manufacturing, automobiles, and many more. Beginner-friendly – One of the reasons for the high demand for CSPO certification is that the course is set-up in such a simple manner that even a beginner can understand the core concepts with little effort.  One-in-all Package – CSPO is a one-in-all package for anyone looking to start their career as a PO. Not only does the training cover discussing the roles and responsibilities of the job profile of a Product Owner, but it also shows the way to becoming a better leader.  Salary Range The salary offered to a certified Product Owner is impressive. The salary hike that comes with the successful completion of CSPO certification more than justifies its course fee. This table lists out the average salary of certified PO in different countries in their respective currencies. Let us have a look:CountryCurrencySalary per AnnumIndiaINR981,000 – 3mUnited StatesUSD86,000 - 130,000United KingdomGBP40,000 – 68,000AustraliaAUD82,000 – 185,000UAEAED65,000 – 428,000 CSPO Duration The duration of CSPO certification is two-days. After two-days CSPO certified training from a recognized institute, the PO aspirant will get the course certificate along with a two-year Scrum Alliance Membership. At present there is no exam associated with the certification. Becoming an Ideal Product Owner in 2021 If you ever envision yourself working for a product-based firm, there is no better time to enroll for the CSPO certification than today!  Conclusion On a final note, taking a CSPO certification is more than just getting a professional degree. The certificate will help you unlock your potential and open new doors to steer your career in a new direction. Are you looking to harness the benefits of CSPO certification? Why not start today! Register today and get yourself CSPO certified, and start your journey as a Product Owner.
Importance of CSPO Certification for Product Owners
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Importance of CSPO Certification for Product Owner...

Who is a Product Owner? As the name suggests, th... Read More