Before we get deeper into the nuances of Program Execution and PI Planning, we must understand what SAFe Agile's business value is. If we describe the business value in SAFe, it is all about trust, collaboration, and alignment. As per ART (Agile Release Train), the business value is hypothesized in the form of objectives at PI Planning with the help of team collaboration to build alignment among them. The impact of alignment and collaboration would be either destruction or trust buildup. It simply means that SAFe in business value is nothing but predictability. 

What is SAFe?

The full form of SAFe is a Scale Agile Framework that various huge enterprises around the world use. SAFe authorizes leading organizations to attain the advantages of systems development and Lean-Agile software at scale. This framework supports and steers employee engagement improvement, dramatic quality and productivity enhancement, and faster time-to-market. In fact, this Scaled Agile Framework has been made to enable businesses to deliver value efficiently and regularly. Moreover, it offers proven knowledge of supportive practices and integrated principles for the agility of the organization. Leadership involvement, training, and education are crucial to successfully supporting a Lean-age transformation. Furthermore, you can unlock business outcomes with SAFe when you use Scaled Agile’s role-based curriculum. 

What Do You Mean by Business Value?

Business value is nothing but the standard value measure in business valuation. It refers to the whole business value, which is the total sum of all intangible and tangible elements. The intangible elements include recognition, public benefit, brand, trademarks, and goodwill. Tangible elements include stockholder equity, utility, monetary assets, and fixtures. In short, it includes an organization's financial and non-monetary values. In fact, they can be operated effectively and managed by the present project. Whether a firm is a non-profit organization or a government agency, all enterprises operate business-related activities. The concept of business value fairly relies on the requirements of the firm. However, it plays a different role when business value is managed with SAFe.

How Can You Measure Business Value?

Everyone has a question in their mind about whether the dynamic and subjective nature of business value can be measured or not. However, the answer is yes, of course. For a specific organization, the following are the factors that can be helped to measure business value:

• Brand recognition
• Profitability
• Customer loyalty
• Revenue
• Cross-selling ratio
• Market share
• Customer retention
• Customer satisfaction
• Share of wallet
• Campaign response rate

Benefits of Scaled Agile Framework on Business Value

When it comes to Scaled Agile Framework Business Value, there is a process of PI planning where teams create PI objectives of a team, and it offers a lot of benefits to the organization:

• Prepares team members towards a joint mission and creates collaboration between them.
• Render is a common language for communication between technology and business.
• Offer a crucial program predictability measure that enables the ART (Agile Release Train) and the team to boost performance.
• Encourage better communication with management and focus on the contribution of every team to business value.
• Reveal dependencies among teams that should be directed for the success of the system.
• Form a unique vision that teams can develop at the time of PI.

Also check:Benefits of Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) 

Use of SAFe to Add Business Value 

Today, many organizations use the Scaled Agile Framework or SAFe to make the team Agile and the entire organization. In fact, it is an Agile framework that involves teams, roles, processes, actions, and meetings for the company's Agile project. What is special about SAFe is that it has a foundation in lean development and offers complete support to DevOps. The principles of lean software development make the Scaled Agile Framework more efficient in delivering quality software. Overall, there are three levels in the SAFe model: the program level, the team level, and the portfolio level. Each of them has its own roles, ceremonies, and artifacts. In addition, the SAFe team delivers a PI (program increment) that covers all the team's work products. The PI is completely multilayered and acts as one of the parts of the software system. 

Understanding SAFe Program Increment (PI) and Agile Release Train (ART) in SAFe Framework

By concept, the SAFe program increment and the product increment are the same but the SAFe program increment has many tiers. Under SAFe, the PI integration strategy is continually tested and determined by the SAFe system team. As a matter of fact, the PI has been made for the best management of change, continuous testing, continuous feedback, and the truncation of incorrect technical or business strategies. The teams of SAFe build the PI in a sequence for five sprints, during which the development and testing of fully integrated PI are undertaken. The SAFe program level manages team and development cadence, and there is a PI, ART (Agile Release Train), also built by the SAFe development teams. The objective of the ART is the PI, and every SAFe team-level team is a part of the ART. As the program level of SAFe has its own teams, roles, meetings, and artifacts, it offers good support to the ART and ART teams. 

Business Success with SAFe Program Level Roles

When it comes to other roles of the SAFe program level, they are the user experience (UX) lead and the system architect, and they give support to the ART by offering application architecture. For instance, when the system architect identifies certain databases or application servers, the UX lead will create the end-user experience and ensure it is common. Of course, SAFe is a huge responsibility that adds value to the business. However, to implement SAFe successfully in the industry, it needs tools and consulting experts therefore, it is very important to consider proper investment and training as a key factor for success. Many enterprises are opting for SAFe for their business value as it has a great rate of return. As SAFe constitutes new thought leadership within the Agile framework at a mature team level, one can consider SAFe as the best approach for the business process and take it to the next step in the future. 

Read More:Levels of Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)

Program Process Roles at the Program Level and Team Level

Check out the program process roles at the level of team and program, which are as follows:

Product Manager: Develops the roadmap and vision, prioritizes and determines the program backlog, sets PI objectives, and operates with Product Owners to maximize quality delivery to the customers.

UX Designer: This person works with stakeholders to better understand the business goals of the user-system interaction. His or her responsibilities comprise UX guidelines, UI design, user experience validation through user-experience testing, and design elements.

Business Analyst: Business Analysts play a pivotal role in interpreting business epics and discerning their implications on internal and external value streams. Through their analysis, they facilitate informed decisions that drive organizational growth and enhance customer satisfaction

Business Owner: He or she is liable to deliver value with a specific ART as he/she knows about the present business context, perceives the strategic themes that affect the train, engages in reviewing or driving roadmap and program vision, makes right decisions regarding the impact on epics moving through the Kanban systems, and has a crucial role in release planning.

Release Train Engineer: Smoothens program execution and the process of agile release train, encourages continuous program-level enhancement, manages risk, and escalates impediments. He or she also eases program events like the scrum of scrums, inspect and adapt, and release planning. 

System Architect: Implement scenarios and interpret a technological vision with architectural epics that align with the business strategy. He or she has the ability to maintain a high level of understanding of system requirements, business benefits for a release train, and user needs. 

Product Owner: This person helps to expand the requirements backlog with the team that has been defined and prioritized and accepts accomplished stories into the baseline. There is only one product owner for a team, and he can be dedicated to more than one team. 

Team Member: He or she plays the role of a developer or tester and sometimes even plays the role of a system architect, technical leader, or technical writer. Usually, a team consists of five to nine members. 

Scrum Master: This person embodies the scrum rules, facilitates team meetings and interactions, and assists in driving the team's efforts to improve continuously. The role of a Scrum Master is somewhat like that of a full-time or part-time team member who has been shared across two or three teams. 

Final Words:

When SAFe is implemented in business, an ART should return to a position where business value is reflective. SAFe first builds trust within the organization and then aligns and collaborates to add value to the business. This article is all about the positive effects of using SAFe in business to achieve organizational goals. Enroll in Simpliaxis and SAFe Courses to further enhance your knowledge and skills, ensuring smoother implementation and greater success in achieving organizational objectives.