SAFe or ‘Scaled Agile framework’ is a template for scaling agile principles and tools for larger organizations. Larger business initiatives could involve several agile teams with inter dependencies and collaboration. SAFe provides a framework to manage these effectively.

SAFe framework works at 3 levels

1. Portfolio Management
2. Program Management
3. Team Management

Teams are agile teams working together to deliver user stories ordered by Product owner and coordinated by scrum master.

At a program level there are multiple agile teams working to deliver what is called a ‘PSI or Potential Stoppable Increment’. The process starts with PI or ‘Program Increment’ Planning meeting where the all the teams gather to understand the vision and decide what they need to deliver for the making of the full feature or function. The team also communicate with other teams to understand what they would need from other teams to meet the final objective.

The scrum master coordinated the activities of individual teams and the RTE or ‘Release Train Engineer’ coordinates and monitors the activities from the various scrum masters to ensure smooth running of activities.

In brief this is how the cycle works.

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