The Arrowhead Labs course “Leading SAFe — For Leaders” is a unique offering that connects The Feld Group Institute (TFGI) Transformation Framework to the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe ®) practices and competencies to enable your organization’s Lean Operating Model. The course is delivered with all the original, unmodified Leading SAFe content, including the Certified SAFe Agilist (SA) exam, but includes highlighted critical alignments between TFGI’s best practices and the SAFe framework.  The course is delivered by Arrowhead Labs, the first organization that is a both a TFGI affiliate and SAFe Transformation Partner. 

The “Leading SAFe for Leaders” course is a critical first step because it creates a common lexicon and way of thinking about strategy and execution for the Enterprise to realize improved agility. It helps leaders understand the SAFe implementation roadmap clearly and is foundational for aligning the “game changers” in the organization toward a sustainable transformation journey. As leaders, you will gain an actionable understanding of SAFe and your critical role as change agents. The alignments between SAFe and TFGI’s Transformational framework enable organizations to achieve Business, Architectural, and Productivity outcomes in a lean-agile enterprise.

Leading SAFe Overview

The SAFe Agilest (SA) certification is for executives, managers, and Agile change agents responsible for leading a Lean-Agile change initiative in a large software enterprise.  Leading SAFe is the baseline curriculum introducing SAFe principles and practices, and is a critical first training event for organizations intending to implement SAFe.  We intend to use this course to help leaders understand methods for scaling agile practices, lean-agile leadership, and SAFe mechanics.

You will gain the knowledge necessary to lead an enterprise agile transformation by leveraging the Scaled Agile Framework, with its underlying principles of lean thinking, and product development flow.

The course will be led by two Scaled Agile SPCs.

Learning Goals

• Lead the transformation to Business Agility with SAFe
• Become a Lean-Agile Leader
• Understand customer needs with Design Thinking
• Enable Agile Product Delivery
• Implement Lean Portfolio Management

Pre-Requisites

• 5+ years’ experience in technology leadership, software development, testing, business analysis, product, or project management.
• Some knowledge and/or experience with agile development or Scrum is helpful

Class Schedule

The class lessons are broken into 7 parts over two days when it’s in classroom delivery. For the online class, we’ve divided these modules over 5 days of class, with a self-paced pre-session that we hope will prepare you for the intensive virtual sessions.  We can customize the schedule based on your team’s unique needs and availability.

• Lesson 1: Thriving in the digital age with Business Agility
• Lesson 2: Becoming a Lean-Agile leader
• Lesson 3: Establishing Team and Technical Agility
• Lesson 4: Building Solutions with Agile Product Delivery (PI Planning Simulation)
• Lesson 5: Exploring Lean Portfolio Management
• Lesson 6: Leading the Change
• Lesson 7: Becoming a Certified SAFe Agilist

Sample Schedule

• Before Class: 15 Minute Self Paced Webinar
• Monday: 1 to 5 PM CT (4 Hours) – Sections 1 & 2
• Tuesday: 1 to 5 PM CT (4 Hours) – Remaining Section 2 & 3
• Wednesday: 1 to 5 PM CT (4 Hours) – Section 4
• Thursday: 1 to 5 PM CT (4 Hours) – Remaining Section 4
• Friday: 1 to 5 PM CT (4 Hours) – Section 5, 6 & 7 + Parking Lot and Wrap-up

Content Summary

1. Intro to SAFe: Introduction to the Scaled Agile Framework™.
2. Lean Thinking: An overview of Lean Software Development and Product Development Flow.
3. Agile Development: Application of Agile development in the enterprise context. Business Benefits.
4. Agile Release Train: Identification, implementation, and execution of Agile Release Trains — long-lived programs whereby teams-of-agile-teams optimize quality and velocity delivery for the enterprises larger value streams.
5. Lean Portfolio Management: Agile transformational patterns for Strategy and Investment Funding, Program Management, and Governance.
6. Agile Architecture: Principles of Agile Architecture, the role of System and Enterprise Architects, and Architecting with Flow.
7. Scaling Leadership: Scaling Enterprise Lean-Agile leadership.

Need Additional Classes?

Arrowhead Labs can instruct a range of virtual Innovation, Design Thinking, and Scaled Agile courses.  These classes are private for your organization and we can customize the delivery to make training a key cultural change agent for your SAFe implementation.

Classes we can offer:

SAFe Classes: Leading SAFe; SAFe for Teams; PO/PM; DevOps; Scrum Master; Lean Portfolio Management; SAFe for Architects; Agile Product Management

Innovation & Design: Strategyzer (Business Model Canvas, Value Prop Canvas, Testing Business Ideas); Design Sprints; Ideation & Customer Journey Workshops; Rapid Prototyping; Innovation Games; Innovation for IT; Leading for Creativity

About Arrowhead Labs

Arrowhead Labs has deep expertise in disciplines like DevOps, scaling agile practices, enterprise architecture, software development, service management, and cybersecurity. As a distributed organization, we live distributed teamwork, and use techniques like the ones we mentioned above to quickly create this set of practical tips to help you along your journey. As change catalysts, we work with clients to apply the transformation frameworks of the Feld Group Institute and Scaled Agile Inc’s SAFeⓇ Framework. We act as advisors, guides, and embedded coaches, helping our clients organically and sustainably transform into breakaway organizations.

We would love to talk with you about the ways Arrowhead Labs can help you today to achieve competitive differentiation in this complex environment.