SAFe entities
Summarize
Summary of SAFe entities
This content explains the key entities used in the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) to effectively plan, track, and deliver software products. Understanding these entities enables ServiceNow customers to align their agile practices with SAFe methodology, facilitating structured work breakdown, prioritization, and collaboration across teams and program increments.
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Key Entities and Their Roles
- Epic: The largest unit of work representing a significant business objective or requirement. Epics span multiple program increments, are prioritized using WSJF (Weighted Shortest Job First), and are decomposed into features for delivery by Agile Release Trains (ARTs).
- Feature: Comparable to an epic in Agile Development but smaller, features must be completable within a single program increment cycle. Features are prioritized in the ART backlog and further broken down into user stories.
- Story: A concise, user-focused requirement or business case, small enough to complete within one sprint. Stories are estimated with story points reflecting relative effort, facilitating team planning and tracking.
- Agile Release Train (ART): A group of agile teams collaborating to deliver a single solution. ARTs execute program increments to produce incremental value.
- Program Increment (PI): A timeboxed period, typically 8–12 weeks, composed of several development sprints plus an innovation and planning sprint. PIs enable teams within an ART to align on goals and deliver tested software incrementally.
- SAFe Team: A cross-functional, autonomous agile team with diverse skills. Teams are created and managed with roles such as safescrummaster or safeartuser, can be assigned to SAFe work items, and collaborate within ARTs.
- Sprint: Subdivisions of a program increment, measured in weeks, during which teams deliver incremental work.
Practical Application for ServiceNow Customers
- Create and manage epics, features, and stories within ServiceNow to align with SAFe planning and delivery cycles.
- Define and organize Agile Release Trains to coordinate multiple teams working on a common solution.
- Plan and track program increments and sprints to ensure incremental delivery of value.
- Set up and assign cross-functional SAFe teams with appropriate roles and permissions to collaborate on work items efficiently.
- Use WSJF scoring to prioritize epics and features, optimizing business value delivery.
Additional Notes
- System administrators or users with specified roles can manage team membership and permissions.
- System properties can be configured to restrict team member management, enabling controlled governance.
- Related artifacts like SAFe PI objectives and SAFe boards at ART and team levels support detailed planning and tracking.
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 and is prioritized and assessed using the WSJF (Weighted Shortest Job First is used to prioritize and sequence jobs to produce optimum business value) score.
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.