SAFe entities
Summarize
Summary of SAFe entities
SAFe entities represent key components used in the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) to plan, track, and deliver software products efficiently. These entities facilitate structured collaboration across teams through defined work units, roles, and timeboxes, enabling organizations to deliver continuous value.
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Key Entities and Their Roles
- Epic: The largest unit of work in SAFe, representing significant business initiatives or hypotheses. Epics span multiple Program Increments (PIs) and are prioritized using WSJF (Weighted Shortest Job First) to maximize business value. Epics are decomposed into features for delivery by Agile Release Trains (ARTs).
- Feature: A deliverable smaller than an epic, sized to complete within a single PI. Features are prioritized globally within an ART backlog and further broken down into user stories for implementation by SAFe teams.
- Story: The smallest work item, capturing product requirements or business cases in user-centric language. Stories are sized to complete within one sprint, estimated using story points reflecting effort, not time.
- Agile Release Train (ART): A group of agile teams aligned to deliver a common solution jointly.
- Program Increment (PI): A timeboxed period, typically 8–12 weeks, during which ART teams collaborate to deliver incremental value. A common PI structure includes four development sprints plus one innovation and planning sprint.
- SAFe Team: An autonomous, cross-functional agile team with diverse skills working toward shared goals. Teams can be created and managed by users with specific roles, and members can be added by system administrators or designated users, with configurable permissions.
- Sprint: A subdivision of a PI measured in weeks, representing the iterative cycle for SAFe teams to deliver work.
Practical Use for ServiceNow Customers
- Create and manage epics to capture large business initiatives and decompose them into manageable features and stories for execution.
- Organize SAFe teams and assign them to work items such as stories, features, and epics for clear ownership and responsibility.
- Structure work deliveries according to PIs and sprints, ensuring alignment of multiple teams within ARTs toward shared objectives.
- Leverage role-based permissions to control team creation and membership management, supporting governance and security.
Expected Outcomes
Using these SAFe entities within ServiceNow enables customers to effectively plan and track large-scale agile initiatives, coordinate multiple agile teams, prioritize work based on business value, and deliver incremental software solutions predictably within defined timeframes.
Learn about the various SAFe entities that are used to successfully plan, track, and deliver your software products.
- Epic
Epic in SAFe is the largest unit of work, which can be continuously worked through multiple program increments. Epic captures business hypotheses. It is prioritized and assessed using the WSJF (Weighted Shortest Job First) score, which prioritizes and sequences jobs to produce optimum business value.
An epic is further decomposed into features for implementation and delivery by SAFe ARTs.
- Feature
A SAFe feature is equivalent to an epic in Agile Development. It must be small enough for completion within a program increment cycle. It is prioritized and sequenced in an ART backlog based on its global ranking. A feature is further decomposed into user stories for implementation and delivery by SAFe teams.
- Story
A SAFe story is a brief statement encapsulating a product requirement or business case written in user-centric language. A story must be small enough for completion in one sprint. The estimated effort required to complete a story is measured in story points. More points are assigned to a story requiring more effort. Story points are arbitrary measurements of the effort (not necessarily the time) required to complete a story, based on the estimates from the SAFe team members.
- Agile Release Train
Agile Release Train (ART) comprises a set of teams working towards a single solution.
- Program Increment
A program increment is set period during which teams in an ART collaborate and produce to achieve agreed-upon goals. A program increment in SAFe is similar to a sprint in Agile Development, typically spanning 8–12 weeks. The most common form of program increment comprises four development sprints followed by one innovation and planning sprint.
- SAFe team
SAFe team is an autonomous, cross-functional team containing members possessing different skill-sets who work in collaboration to achieve a common goal.
A user with the safe_scrum_master or safe_art_user role can create a SAFe team. You can assign these teams to SAFe work items such as stories, epics, and features.
Once a SAFe team is created, you can add members to it.- New customers: System administrator can add members to the team.
- Existing customers: A user with the safe_scrum_master or safe_art_user role can
add members to your SAFe team.Note:
You can restrict this function just to the system administrator by creating the safe.disallow_scrum_add_group_member property and setting it to true.
For information on how to create a property, see Add a system property.
- Sprint
Program Increments in SAFe are further segmented into sprints for teams involved in it, and are measured in terms of weeks.