What exactly is SAFe methodology?

Scaled Agile Framework SAFe, is a freely available online knowledge base that provides a simple, lightweight experience for the software development team. The whole framework is divided into three segments Team, Program and Portfolio. But before we get into the three segments, let's take a minute to describe a few important terms frequently used in conjunction with SAFe methodology.

Agile Team

The Agile Team is a cross-functional group of 5 to 11 people who bear the responsibility to define, build, test, and deploy some element of product, within a defined time period. Usually, the team consists the Dev Team, Scrum Master, and Product Owner roles that power the Agile Release Train (ART)a

Agile Release Train (ART)

The Agile Release Train (ART) is a long-lived team of Agile teams that coordinates with other stakeholders to incrementally develop and deliver solutions in a value stream. With typical 50-125 people, the bunch of agile teams commit, develop and deploy together. ARTs are cross-functional teams that include software, hardware, firmware, and other stakeholders needed to define and implement enterprise value solutions aligned with the business and strategic mission of the organization.

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Team level

The team level describes how each agile team powers the train. It comprises of the roles, activities, events, and processes defined to build and release different features and values streams in the product. They perform the clear majority of the work that delivers customer value. 

Program Level

The Program Level contains the roles and activities needed to continuously deliver solutions via an Agile Release Train (ART). The program level is where ARTs deliver one or more systems or in some cases, the entire software solution.  The long-lived, flow-based, self-organizing nature of the ART, in many ways, is the backbone of SAFe methodology.

Portfolio Level

The SAFe portfolio level contains the people and processes necessary to build systems and solutions that the product or enterprise needs to meet its strategic objectives. The Portfolio Level govern the principles, practices and roles needed by ART’s to build value streams. In larger organizations, there can be a bunch and variety of SAFe portfolio’s, similar or varying in nature of the solutions they provide.