SAFe is designed to create alignment and predictability across teams. But without discipline and structure, it can feel overwhelming and chaotic.
Our teams experienced this first-hand. Instead of smooth delivery, we battled late requirements, unfinished features, and constant scope changes. Here’s how we turned things around.
The Problems We Faced
- Late PI Requirements — Business objectives only arrived at the end of the quarter, leaving no time to refine.
- Features That Never Finished — Work spilled over repeatedly, eroding trust.
- Business Misalignment — Different units had different priorities, and teams lost clarity.
- Scope Changes Mid-Quarter — Delivery was disrupted, predictability destroyed.
Proven Solutions Based on SAFe and Agile Best Practices
Here’s how we addressed them, incorporating official SAFe recommendations like proactive backlog grooming and regular syncs. These align with ACP’s focus on collaboration and iterative value delivery.
- Set Requirements and Business Objectives Mid-Quarter for the Upcoming PI To avoid last-minute rushes, business should define objectives and requirements around the middle of the current quarter. This gives ample lead time for preparation, aligning with SAFe’s emphasis on a well-prioritized program backlog as a key input to PI Planning.
- Have Technical Teams Calculate PI Capacity Early Agile Teams should own capacity planning based on historical velocity, factoring in time off and non-feature work. This sets realistic commitments and reduces incomplete features, a core SAFe practice done pre-PI to inform planning.
- Collaborate on Refinement Once Objectives Are Set After mid-quarter alignment, each Agile Team – including architects, Business Analysts (BAs), and the Product Owner (PO), along with process owners – refines requirements together. We’ve found scheduling consistent meetings, like three times a week in the afternoons, works wonders for breaking down features into stories and estimating effort. This ongoing refinement (ideally 5-10% of capacity) is a SAFe staple, often tied to events like PO Sync for a healthy backlog.
- Bring Refined Features to PI Planning for Breakdown and Dependencies With refinement done, Agile Teams join the PI Planning event equipped with groomed features. During this two-day session, features are further decomposed, objectives committed, and dependencies mapped – ensuring everyone aligns on the plan.
- Use a Program Board to Visualize Iterations and Dependencies Post-planning, create a Program Board to outline iterations (sprints) for each team, what they’re tackling per iteration, and cross-team dependencies. This visual tool, central to SAFe, highlights risks early and keeps delivery on track.
- Schedule Bi-Weekly ART Sync Meetings Led by the RTE The Release Train Engineer (RTE) facilitates bi-weekly ART Syncs (combining elements like Scrum of Scrums and PO Sync) with business stakeholders, Scrum Masters (SMs), architects, BAs, and POs from each team. Agenda covers: a) Progress overview (e.g., PI burn-up charts) b) Team updates c) Dependencies (from the Program Board) d) Risks and issues e) Scope changes (with gated approvals to minimize disruptions) f) Decisions and actions This cadence catches misalignments fast, per SAFe’s guidance on regular syncs for transparency and issue resolution.
At Agilo, these steps cut our feature carryover and improved business buy-in significantly. We’ve captured the full process – timelines, boards, and sync agendas – in an Excel template. Download it here to customise for your ART.
SAFe doesn’t fail because of the framework. It fails when structure is missing. By shifting requirements earlier, refining consistently, and keeping business and delivery aligned, we rebuilt trust and predictability.
