SAFe Release Notes

Work Differently. Build the Future.

Here you’ll find information about our previous product launches. Read through to learn more about our newest features.

Release Notes for 2023 November Product Launch

November 1, 2023

piplanning.io

  • piplanning.io – A single-source application that simplifies PI Planning and PI execution 
  • Solution Boards – Share dependencies across ARTs and give key stakeholders a unique and simplified view to manage and track cross-ART dependencies
  • Plan Readout View – One space to present and talk about your objectives, risks, and capacity

Lean Portfolio Management

  • Updated Strategic Themes article – Outlines how to formulate strategic themes
  • Updated Enterprise article – Provides new guidance on Enterprise portfolio management: clarifies the collaboration between the enterprise and the stakeholders in each portfolio to define strategy and budget, coordinate enterprise cross-cutting initiatives, and measure enterprise portfolio delivery
  • New Value Management Office article – Describes the key people interactions and responsibilities of the Value Management Office (VMO) and the deep connection with the LACE to support your overall transformations
  • SAFe CoFund – A Participatory Budgeting application that allows you to inform value stream funding collaboratively 

It’s all about people

  • Updated SAFe Principle #8, Unlock the intrinsic motivation of knowledge workers –  Digs into the latest brain science and organizational research and provides more specifics to promote what motivates your people and remove things from your organization that undermine it
  • Agile HR Explorer – A course designed for HR professionals and leaders in a Lean-Agile environment to gain a high‐level understanding of Agile methodology and its influence on Human Resources

Flow

  • New Coaching Flow article – Provides everything that individuals need to understand how they can coach flow at their level of the organization, including a new coaching flow responsibility wheel, which outlines five critical steps for coaching flow successfully
  • Updated SAFe Principle #9, Decentralize decision-making – Introduces the thinking and guidance you need to decentralize decision-making successfully inside your organization by looking at the anatomy of a decision, the four key options that face any decision maker, and the criteria you need to decide which one of those four options will be most effective
  • Micro-credentials
    • Facilitating Value Stream Mapping – An e-learning series and workshop that can be completed in a few hours to help you develop confidence for facilitating the Value Stream Mapping Workshop
    • Measuring Flow – An online experience from which you’ll learn all about the Flow metrics, practice measuring flow at each level, and develop the skills to tell the stories contained in the data in a few hours

Release Notes for Agile HR Explorer

June 15, 2023

Course Details
Agile HR Explorer is a one-day introductory course designed for HR professionals and Lean-Agile leaders. It provides a high‐level understanding of Agile methodology and its influence on Human Resources. In Agile HR Explorer, learners will explore the new world of work and learn why Agile is instrumental in creating more stable, responsive, and successful organizations.

Attendees learn:

  • New World of Work – explore the latest revolution of work and its disruptive impact on organizations and HR
  • Agile Foundations – covers the history of Agile and its values, principles, and underlying concepts
  • Intro to Agile HR – explains the meaning of Agile HR and Agile4HR vs. HR4Agile
  • Mini Case Studies – practical stories to help learners apply the newly gained knowledge
  • Practices and Themes – guidance for applying Agile values and principles to different HR practices

Who created the course?
This is a third-party course created by Agile HR expert, Fabiola Eyholzer, of Just Leading Solutions©.

What’s included:

  • Course workbook
  • Option to pursue certification from Just Leading Solutions
Sign Up

Release Notes for March Launch 2023

March 15, 2023

We’ve updated the Scaled Agile Framework®, including all courseware and assets, to version 6.0. We’ve also launched a new platform called SAFe® Studio, which offers a unified, updated experience for teams to learn and implement SAFe, from courses to the community.

These new products help you

  • Unite your organization with the same updated language
  • Get the methods to understand and measure your transformation’s strengths and gaps
  • Grow your teams’ skills and expertise through targeted, role-based 6.0 courses that provide valuable SAFe® 6 certification
  • Coach teams and ARTs on how to optimize using flow accelerators that apply to their unique transformations
  • Apply guidance day-to-day with a wealth of collaboration tools, online learning, instructional videos, downloadable toolkits, and more through SAFe Studio

Learn more in the following sections.

SAFe® 6.0

What is it? The newest version of the Scaled Agile Framework and guidance.

Major updates to Scaled Agile Framework include:

Strengthening the foundation for business agility

Empowering teams and clarifying responsibilities

  • Updated role articles and responsibility wheels
  • New Scrum Master/Team Coach title
  • Key collaborations for four of the content authority roles

Speeding up value flow

Enhancing agility across the business

  • Extended SAFe business and technology patterns
  • SAFe beyond IT homepage

Building the future with Al, Big Data, and Cloud

Delivering better outcomes with Measure and Grow and OKRs

Other important changes:

  • SAFe backlogs
  • Spanning palette
  • Enterprise solution delivery
  • Terminology changes

The following courses reflect these changes:

More updated courses coming soon.

SAFe Studio

What is it? The new platform to learn, practice, and manage SAFe daily

SAFe Studio will include:

More on-demand learning options

  • Online, self-guided learning modules
  • Easily digestible pieces of information
  • Collaboration with the global community of SAFe professionals

Curated information and role-specific tools

  • Intelligent Framework articles
  • Content playlists based on employee interests and roles

Enterprise-centric features

  • Enterprise-generated playlists and resources for even more relevant experiences
  • Growth Recommendation integration to track progress
  • Localization for a global workforce
  • Enterprise-grade functionality and security

Expanded Partner Finder

There are over 500 partners worldwide with in-depth SAFe expertise. The expanded partner finder has additional search functionality to find partners that can support your organization’s specific needs. 

Enhanced Filtering

Filter partners by their specific SAFe capabilities, which are verified SAFe activities that a partner has delivered in the field. Be more informed when deciding which SAFe Partners to engage.

Enhanced Listings 

  • The Platform Partner listing has been enhanced to see, at-a-glance, what types of tools, software, or platforms partners offer to help you achieve your business goals and visualize the flow of work
  • Listings for Transformation Partners now offer more in-depth information about experience in the field, customer success stories, company metrics, and upcoming SAFe classes so that you can determine the right partner for you in one place

We’re proud to be SOC 2® certified. This certification demonstrates our commitment to protecting customers’ user profiles and personal information. 

Release Notes for Summit Launch 2022

August 23, 2022

What’s the solution to digital disruption? How do you achieve it? By including everyone in your transformation. At the Summit Launch, we shared features that enable new, global, and non-IT members. Here’s an overview.

Features to include people in new roles: 

Features to learn and practice SAFe in your language:

  • Courses in new languages
  • New exam platform

Features to expand beyond IT:

Features to measure and improve your business agility:

Release Notes for Spring Launch 2022

March 23, 2022

Changing consumer needs make it imperative to grow into the unknown, which can be scary. Spring Launch was all about features that remove the fear of digital disruption. Whether you were handed a new position due to a pandemic or asked to change your current role without any preparation, we’ve got you covered with products that will help you feel confident in your new (or newish) role. 

These products will help you deliver value to customers faster:

Connecting the dots between daily work and customer value isn’t always easy. Our new products make this connection much clearer and show you where more attention is needed to mitigate handoffs and reduce delays.  

  • Organize Around Value Community (OAV) Page: Here you’ll find resources for all four stages of the OAV journey: generate buy-in, prepare to identify value streams and ARTs, run the SAFe® Value Stream and ART Identification workshop, and take action
  • OAV Practice Guide: These self-paced, interactive online assets help you practice each of the four steps outlined above
  • OAV Collaborate Templates: Our predesigned, interactive workspaces allow everyone to participate in the Value Stream and ART Identification workshops
  • Value Stream Mapping Community Page: This page has all the resources you need to prepare for and facilitate the Value Stream Mapping workshop, including:
    • Enablement videos
    • Value Stream Management Workshop content
    • SAFe Collaborate templates for remote delivery
    • A foundational e-learning
  • Value Stream Mapping Collaborate Templates: Use these templates to create a detailed map of the following:
    • Your current-state value stream and its performance metrics
    • A list of bottlenecks that impact delivery flow
    • A detailed design of your future-state value stream with projected, measurable benefits
    • An action plan with backlog items to implement right away
  • Measure Community Page: Find guidance for applying metrics at all levels of your organization. We’ve also added a short video to guide you through measuring progress toward business agility.

Certified SPCs and SAFe Enterprise members can access all of these resources.

These products will help you launch a Lean portfolio:

Implementing Lean Portfolio Management (LPM) is complex. It can be a long journey filled with a lot of organizational change. These features will equip you to confidently lead the change. 

  • LPM Getting Started Workshop (Day 3 of the Lean Portfolio Management course): This course now includes proven success patterns for added learning benefit
  • LPM Practice Guide: This is a self-paced, online asset with several modules designed to take you through the entire LPM journey, step by step. You can find this practice guide and many other LMP resources on the Adopt LPM Community Page.
  • Leading in the Digital Age Program: The first two modules of this lean-agile leadership development program blend a live and self-paced learning format

Certified SPCs, LPM course attendees, and SAFe Enterprise members can access these resources.

These products will improve your SAFe practice as an RTE:

We know that learning and practice are critical for developing your sense of empowerment and ownership as an RTE. You can use the tools below to learn more about what’s expected of you and how to be successful as an RTE.

  • Role-Based Homepage: This role-based learning plan is tailored to RTEs
  • RTE Essentials E-learning: These are e-learning modules that provide the critical knowledge, tips, techniques, and tools you need as a brand-new RTE
  • ART Event Facilitator Guides: To help you and your teams navigate and feel confident in these ART events, we created step-by-step facilitator guides that include a purpose and agenda, preparation activities, and tips to overcome common challenges 
  • Virtual Workshops in SAFe Collaborate: These are multi-activity events that create a one-stop-shop for more complex SAFe activities.
  • PI Planning in SAFe Collaborate: Organize your PI Planning activities and consolidate access to important collaboration details like the program board and team boards.
  • SAFe 5.1 Course Updates: All courses have been updated with the latest 5.1 Framework guidance. Leading SAFe is now available in Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Korean, and Brazilian Portuguese.
  • RTE Role-Based Assessment: Use this assessment to see how you’re progressing as an RTE.
  • Team and Technical Agility Assessment and Growth Recommendations: Uncover your team’s real capabilities with an assessment activity and resources  

Those with “RTE” selected on their SAFe Community Platform role can access these resources. SAFe Enterprise members can participate in unlimited SAFe Collaborate workshops and events.