The SAFe® 6.0 Agilist (SA) Training Course is a comprehensive three-day program designed to equip professionals, managers, and organizational leaders with the knowledge, principles, and practical skills needed to implement the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) within complex enterprises.
The course introduces participants to Lean-Agile leadership, business agility, Agile Release Trains (ARTs), Planning Interval (PI) Planning, Agile product delivery, and Lean Portfolio Management. It emphasizes aligning organizational strategy with execution, improving cross-functional collaboration, accelerating value delivery, and supporting enterprise-wide Agile transformation.
Through instructor-led discussions, real-world business scenarios, collaborative workshops, and practical exercises, participants will learn how to apply SAFe principles to coordinate multiple Agile teams, improve decision-making, manage dependencies, and deliver continuous business value.
Duration 3 days – 21 hrs
Objectives
- Understand the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) 6.0 and its role in achieving enterprise-wide business agility.
- Explain the seven core competencies of business agility and their relevance to digital transformation.
- Apply Lean-Agile values, principles, and leadership practices to organizational initiatives.
- Understand economic decision-making, systems thinking, decentralized decisions, and value delivery.
- Organize and support cross-functional Agile teams and Agile Release Trains (ARTs).
- Participate effectively in PI Planning, including managing dependencies, risks, and objectives.
- Apply customer-centricity, Design Thinking, and Agile product delivery approaches.
- Understand Continuous Delivery Pipelines, DevOps, and release-on-demand capabilities.
- Connect enterprise strategies and investments through Lean Portfolio Management.
- Identify opportunities to implement SAFe practices and support organizational Agile transformation.
- Prepare for the SAFe 6.0 Agilist (SA) certification examination through knowledge reviews and practice assessments.
Target Audience
- Executives, Directors, and Senior Managers
- Project Managers and Program Managers
- Agile Coaches, Scrum Masters, and Agile Team Leaders
- Product Owners and Product Managers
- Portfolio Managers and Project Management Office (PMO) Professionals
- Business Analysts and Business Transformation Specialists
- IT Managers, Software Development Managers, and Engineering Leaders
- Enterprise Architects and Solution Architects
- Digital Transformation Managers
- Professionals involved in implementing or scaling Agile practices across organizations
Prerequisites
- Basic understanding of Agile methodologies, Scrum, or Kanban.
- Familiarity with project management, software development, or business operations.
- Experience collaborating with cross-functional teams.
- General understanding of organizational processes and enterprise-level initiatives.
- Exposure to Agile projects or digital transformation initiatives is an advantage.
Course Outline
Day 1 – SAFe Foundations, Business Agility, and Lean-Agile Leadership
Lesson 1: Thriving in the Digital Age with Business Agility
1.1 Understanding Business Agility
- The changing digital business landscape
- Challenges of traditional organizational structures
- Business agility and organizational competitiveness
- Responding to customer demands and market disruptions
- The importance of speed, innovation, and continuous improvement
1.2 Introduction to SAFe 6.0
- Overview of the Scaled Agile Framework
- SAFe as an operating system for business agility
- Understanding enterprise-wide Agile adoption
- SAFe configurations: Essential, Large Solution, Portfolio, and Full SAFe
- Understanding the SAFe Big Picture
1.3 Seven Core Competencies of Business Agility
- Lean-Agile Leadership
- Team and Technical Agility
- Agile Product Delivery
- Enterprise Solution Delivery
- Lean Portfolio Management
- Organizational Agility
- Continuous Learning Culture
1.4 Business Agility Assessment
- Identifying organizational agility challenges
- Assessing current Agile maturity
- Understanding gaps between strategy and execution
- Identifying opportunities for Agile transformation
Practical Exercise: Business Agility Assessment – Participants evaluate a sample organization’s existing Agile practices and identify improvement opportunities.
Lesson 2: Embracing a Lean-Agile Mindset
2.1 Introduction to Lean-Agile Thinking
- Understanding Lean thinking and Agile development
- Traditional management versus Lean-Agile management
- Lean-Agile leadership responsibilities
- Establishing continuous improvement practices
2.2 SAFe Core Values
- Alignment
- Transparency
- Respect for People
- Relentless Improvement
2.3 Lean-Agile Leadership Practices
- Leading by example
- Developing a growth mindset
- Empowering cross-functional teams
- Encouraging innovation and experimentation
- Building trust and organizational collaboration
2.4 Applying Lean-Agile Practices
- Recognizing waste and process inefficiencies
- Improving value delivery
- Encouraging decentralized decision-making
- Building organizational adaptability
Practical Exercise: Lean-Agile Leadership Case Study – Participants identify leadership challenges and recommend improvements using SAFe values.
Lesson 3: Understanding SAFe Lean-Agile Principles
3.1 Introduction to the Ten SAFe Principles
- Understanding the importance of SAFe principles
- Applying principles to business and technology delivery
3.2 Exploring the Ten Principles
- Take an economic view
- Apply systems thinking
- Assume variability; preserve options
- Build incrementally with fast, integrated learning cycles
- Base milestones on objective evaluation of working systems
- Make value flow without interruptions
- Apply cadence; synchronize with cross-domain planning
- Unlock the intrinsic motivation of knowledge workers
- Decentralize decision-making
- Organize around value
3.3 Economic Framework and Decision-Making
- Understanding Cost of Delay
- Economic trade-offs and prioritization
- Decentralized versus centralized decision-making
- Evaluating business value and delivery risks
3.4 Applying SAFe Principles in Enterprise Environments
- Improving coordination across departments
- Managing organizational dependencies
- Improving planning and decision-making
- Aligning teams toward common objectives
Day 1 Workshop: Applying SAFe Principles to Real-World Business Challenges.
Day 2 – High-Performing Agile Teams, ARTs, and PI Planning
Lesson 4: Creating High-Performing Teams and Agile Release Trains
4.1 Establishing Cross-Functional Agile Teams
- Characteristics of high-performing Agile teams
- Agile team roles and responsibilities
- Establishing shared goals and accountability
- Collaboration across business and technology teams
- Managing team dependencies
4.2 Team and Technical Agility
- Understanding Team and Technical Agility
- Agile team practices and delivery approaches
- Iterative and incremental development
- Built-in Quality principles
- Technical excellence and continuous improvement
4.3 Organizing Agile Release Trains (ARTs)
- Definition and purpose of an Agile Release Train
- Organizing teams around value streams
- Key roles within the ART:
- Release Train Engineer (RTE)
- Product Management
- System Architect
- Business Owners
- Agile Teams and Scrum Masters
- ART synchronization and collaboration
4.4 Improving ART Performance
- Managing cross-team dependencies
- Promoting visibility and transparency
- Measuring delivery performance
- Continuous improvement across multiple teams
Practical Exercise: Agile Release Train Organization Workshop – Participants design an ART structure based on a sample enterprise scenario.
Lesson 5: Experiencing Planning Interval (PI) Planning
5.1 Introduction to PI Planning
- Definition and purpose of PI Planning
- PI Planning as a key SAFe alignment event
- Benefits of collaborative planning
- Roles and responsibilities during PI Planning
5.2 Preparing for PI Planning
- Business context and strategic direction
- Product vision and roadmap
- ART backlog and prioritized features
- Capacity planning and team readiness
- Identifying dependencies and constraints
5.3 Conducting PI Planning
- Typical PI Planning agenda
- Business context presentation
- Product vision presentation
- Team breakout sessions
- Draft plan reviews
- Management review and problem-solving
- Final plan presentations
5.4 Developing PI Objectives
- Defining team PI Objectives
- Committed and uncommitted objectives
- Understanding business value assignment
- Aligning objectives with business priorities
5.5 Managing Risks and Dependencies
- Identifying cross-team dependencies
- Visualizing dependencies through planning boards
- Risk identification and escalation
- Applying ROAM risk management:
- Resolved
- Owned
- Accepted
- Mitigated
5.6 Finalizing PI Planning
- Confidence vote
- Finalizing team and ART commitments
- Establishing alignment across teams
- Communicating outcomes and next steps
Major Practical Workshop: Simulated PI Planning
Participants work in assigned Agile teams to:
- Review business priorities and product features.
- Estimate team capacity and develop iteration plans.
- Identify cross-team dependencies.
- Create team PI Objectives.
- Apply ROAM to identified risks.
- Present team plans and participate in a confidence vote.
Day 3 – Agile Product Delivery, Lean Portfolio Management, and SAFe Implementation
Lesson 6: Exploring, Executing, and Releasing Value
6.1 Customer-Centricity and Design Thinking
- Understanding customer-centric product development
- Identifying customer needs and expectations
- Applying Design Thinking principles
- Understanding customer journeys
- Developing solutions based on customer value
6.2 Agile Product Delivery
- Aligning product development with business objectives
- Prioritizing the ART backlog
- Understanding Features and Enablers
- Applying Weighted Shortest Job First (WSJF)
- Managing product delivery priorities
6.3 Continuous Delivery Pipeline
- Understanding the Continuous Delivery Pipeline
- Continuous Exploration
- Continuous Integration
- Continuous Deployment
- Release on Demand
6.4 DevOps and Continuous Improvement
- DevOps culture and collaboration
- Automating delivery processes
- Improving development and operational alignment
- Quality assurance throughout delivery
- Supporting faster and more reliable releases
6.5 Measuring Agile Delivery Performance
- Flow Distribution
- Flow Velocity
- Flow Time
- Flow Load
- Flow Efficiency
- Continuous improvement based on delivery metrics
Practical Exercise: WSJF Prioritization Workshop – Participants prioritize business features and identify opportunities to improve value delivery.
Lesson 7: Empowering a Lean Portfolio
7.1 Introduction to Lean Portfolio Management
- Understanding the purpose of a SAFe Portfolio
- Traditional portfolio management versus Lean Portfolio Management
- Aligning organizational strategy with execution
- Connecting enterprise goals to Agile initiatives
7.2 Portfolio Strategy and Investment Funding
- Defining strategic themes
- Understanding the Portfolio Vision
- Identifying value streams
- Linking investment decisions with business priorities
7.3 Portfolio Kanban and Epic Management
- Introduction to Portfolio Kanban
- Identifying and evaluating Portfolio Epics
- Epic hypothesis statements
- Understanding MVPs in portfolio decision-making
- Managing portfolio workflow and prioritization
7.4 Lean Budgeting and Governance
- Traditional budgeting versus Lean budgeting
- Establishing Lean budgets
- Applying budget guardrails
- Decentralized investment decision-making
- Monitoring portfolio performance
7.5 Portfolio Execution and Continuous Improvement
- Aligning ARTs with portfolio priorities
- Reviewing portfolio performance
- Measuring strategy execution
- Improving organizational responsiveness
- Supporting long-term business agility
Practical Exercise: Lean Portfolio Management Workshop – Participants identify strategic themes, prioritize sample Epics, and recommend investment decisions.
Lesson 8: Leading SAFe Adoption and Organizational Change (Extended 3-Day Module)
8.1 Leading Agile Transformation
- Understanding the challenges of enterprise Agile adoption
- Developing leadership support
- Aligning stakeholders toward transformation objectives
- Building a Lean-Agile culture
8.2 SAFe Implementation Roadmap
- Understanding the SAFe Implementation Roadmap
- Identifying value streams and ART opportunities
- Preparing teams and leaders for adoption
- Establishing initial implementation priorities
8.3 Managing Organizational Change
- Identifying resistance to change
- Stakeholder communication and engagement
- Building organizational readiness
- Establishing feedback and continuous improvement mechanisms
8.4 Developing a SAFe Implementation Action Plan
- Assessing organizational challenges
- Identifying short-term improvement opportunities
- Developing implementation priorities
- Establishing measurable success criteria
Practical Exercise: SAFe Transformation Action Planning – Participants create a preliminary implementation roadmap relevant to their business environment.
Lesson 9: Course Review and SAFe Agilist Certification Preparation
9.1 Comprehensive Course Review
- Business Agility and SAFe fundamentals
- Lean-Agile values and principles
- Team and Technical Agility
- Agile Release Trains
- PI Planning
- Agile Product Delivery
- Lean Portfolio Management
- Leading organizational change
9.2 Certification Examination Preparation
- Overview of SAFe Agilist certification requirements
- Understanding examination domains
- Reviewing key concepts and terminology
- Sample certification-style questions
- Exam preparation strategies
9.3 Final Knowledge Assessment
- Knowledge assessment or mock examination
- Review of responses and key learning points
- Clarification of common misconceptions
- Individual learning and improvement plans
9.4 Training Wrap-Up
- Summary of major learning outcomes
- Participant feedback and evaluation
- Identifying next steps for practical implementation
- Course completion
