safe agile methodology vs scrum

The ‘relay race’ approach to product development… may conflict with the goals of maximum speed and flexibility. Instead, a holistic or ‘rugby’ approach—where a team tries to go the distance as a unit, passing the ball back and forth—may better serve today’s competitive requirements. —Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka, “The New New Product Development Game” [1]

Note: For more on SAFe Scrum, please read the additional Framework articles in the Scrum series, including Scrum Master/Team Coach , Iterations , Iteration Planning , Iteration Goals , Iteration Review , and  Iteration Retrospective

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SAFe Scrum is an Agile method used by teams within an ART to deliver customer value in a short time box. SAFe Scrum teams use iterations, Kanban systems, and Scrum events to plan, execute, demonstrate, and retrospect their work.

Many teams use SAFe Scrum as their primary Agile Team process. However, they are not limited to Scrum and may also use SAFe Team Kanban . However, all SAFe teams apply Built-in Quality techniques and other practices and activities not defined in Scrum. SAFe Scrum teams cooperate with other Agile Teams and ART stakeholders, building and deploying Solutions that benefit its Customers.

This article describes how Agile Teams apply SAFe Scrum.

Agile Teams applying SAFe Scrum follow a regular cadence of events to achieve a common objective, delivering value to the enterprise and its customers. Teams have the authority and autonomy to plan, execute and manage their work, make decisions within their scope, and adapt to changing conditions in the best way they see fit. SAFe Principle #9, Decentralize decision-making , ensures alignment, and fosters subtle and minimal management direction for SAFe Scrum teams.

Indeed, teams determine how they do their work and the scope they can commit to within the iteration time box. They create and refine backlog items, expressed as Stories and acceptance criteria, defining and committing to iteration goals. They then build, test and deploy the new functionality, and ensure built-in quality for each solution increment.

Moreover, since Scrum teams have all the roles and skills needed to develop and deliver increments of value, they are designed to operate with the minimum possible constraints and dependencies with other teams. The self-management and cross-functional nature of the Scrum team—along with constant communication, constructive conflict, and dynamic interaction — creates a more enjoyable, fun, and productive work environment.

The SAFe Scrum Cycle

Figure 1 illustrates the basic Scrum cycle using SAFe terminology (e.g. iteration vs. sprint). Each event within this cycle provides an opportunity to inspect progress and make mid-course corrections. These events are often held at the same time and place to reduce overhead.

The following sections provide an overview of this cycle.

Scrum Iterations and events, including Iteration Planning , Review , and Retrospective , are briefly described in the following sections and in more detail in SAFe articles.

Team Backlog

The Team Backlog holds all the upcoming work needed to advance the solution. Most of the work is captured by user stories, but other work and activities (e.g., training, support) may also be included. The team backlog will have been partially filled during PI Planning , and the teams will have established their PI Objectives . Teams continually refine the backlog to ensure it always contains some stories ready for implementation without significant risk or surprise. During backlog refinement, teams review upcoming user stories and Features (as appropriate) to define, discuss, estimate, and establish acceptance criteria for upcoming backlog items . Backlog refinement is a continuous process throughout the iteration.

Iterations (Sprints) are the heartbeat of Scrum and create a rhythm for work within the larger PI timebox. All the work necessary to achieve the iteration—including planning, team sync, iteration review, and retrospective—occur within iterations. Each iteration is a standard, fixed-length timebox, typically two weeks in length.

The team delivers high-quality increments of value during the iteration as working, tested software, solutions, or other valuable artifacts. Iterations are continuous and sequential, and a new iteration starts immediately after the previous one.

Iteration Planning

Iteration Planning is the first event of the iteration. The Scrum Master/Team Coach typically facilitates this event. All team members collaborate to determine how much of the team backlog they can deliver during an upcoming iteration and summarize those stories into a set of iteration goals. The team records the resulting plan in the iteration backlog. The Product Owner ensures that attendees are prepared to discuss the most critical team backlog items and how they map to the iteration goals and PI objectives. The Scrum team may invite other people to plan and provide advice.

Iteration planning addresses the following topics [2]:

• Why is this iteration valuable?
• What can be done in this iteration?
• How will the work get done?
• How will the chosen work get done?

Throughout iteration planning, the team elaborates on the acceptance criteria for each story and estimates the effort to complete it. The team selects candidate stories based on their available capacity for the iteration. For each selected item, the team plans the work necessary to create an increment of value that meets the definition of done (DoD), ensuring that it can be considered complete. The continuous development of incremental system functionality requires a scaled definition of done to ensure that work is done right (see the Scalable definition of done in the Built-in Quality article).

Iteration planning often requires decomposing backlog items into user or Enabler stories that can typically be completed in a day or two. The team decides how the work gets done within the iteration. Once planning is complete, the team commits to the work and records the iteration backlog in a visible place, such as a storyboard, Kanban board, or Agile project management tooling. Planning is timeboxed to a maximum of about two hours for a two-week iteration.

Iteration Goals

Iteration goals are a high-level summary of the business and technical goals an Agile Team agrees to accomplish in an iteration. They are vital to coordinating an ART as a self-organizing, self-managing team of Agile teams. Iteration goals provide the following benefits:

• Aligns team members to a common purpose
• Aligns teams to common ART PI Objectives and helps manage dependencies
• Provides transparency and management information

Once the team completes iteration planning and creates the iteration backlog, the team synthesizes the work for the next iteration as a set of iteration goals, which defines why the iteration is valuable. These goals are derived from the iteration backlog and aligned with the PI objectives. Optionally, the PO may define an initial set of goals before planning; this helps set the stage for the ‘why’ and ‘what’ of planning.

Iteration goals provide Agile teams, ART stakeholders, and management with information and a shared language for maintaining alignment, managing dependencies, and making necessary adjustments during the execution of the PI.

Iteration Backlog

During iteration planning, teams pull items from the team backlog to create the iteration backlog, containing the things they intend to complete in that iteration. Since PI planning is high-level, adjustments will likely need to be made for each iteration. Moreover, the teams get feedback—not only from their prior iterations but also from the System Demo and other teams with whom they collaborate. The local team’s concerns (defects, tech debt, and maintenance), ART backlog, and committed team PI objectives all influence the content of the iteration backlog.

In SAFe, Scrum teams operate within the cadence and synchronization requirements of the ART, facilitating alignment, dependency management, and fast integrated learning cycles for the entire Solution.

During the iteration, each team collaborates to define, build, and test the stories they identified during iteration planning. They track the iteration’s progress and improve the flow of value by using story and Kanban boards and team sync events. They deliver stories throughout the iteration and avoid ‘waterfalling’ the timebox. They apply Built-In Quality practices to build the system right. These completed stories are demoed throughout the iteration and at the Iteration Review.

The team sync is a short meeting (usually 15 minutes or less), typically held about daily, to inspect progress toward the iteration goal, communicate, and adjust upcoming planned work. The team can use any structure or technique for the team sync, creating an action plan for coordinating the next workday. But the team sync is not the only time team members can make adjustments. The team collaborates and discusses adapting or re-planning work whenever needed.

High-performing teams use the team sync to find opportunities to help each other so that the team succeeds in delivering its committed iteration goals. The Scrum Master/Team Coach writes down topics that need further discussion on the ‘meet after’ board. Only the involved parties stay during the meet after to discuss these topics in more detail. Ineffective team syncs may be a symptom of deeper problems that require a systemic approach for resolution, which often becomes the responsibility of the Scrum Master/Team Coach.

The increment illustrated in Figure 1 represents how new solution functionality evolves within each iteration. Each increment is additive to all prior ones and verified, ensuring they all work together. Each is a working, tested, and usable solution that meets the agreed quality criteria in the definition of done (DoD). Further, the team can deliver multiple increments within an iteration. The sum of all the team’s increments is inspected at the iteration review.

Iteration Review

For Scrum Teams, the Iteration Review is the second to last event of the iteration. Each team inspects the outcomes of the iteration, presents the results of their work to key stakeholders, and assesses progress toward the iteration goal and PI objectives. It also determines any future adaptations to the product or process. Based on the results, stakeholders and the team collaborate on what to do next. The Team Backlog may also be adjusted to meet new opportunities. The iteration review is timeboxed to a maximum of 90 minutes for a two-week iteration.

Iteration Retrospective

The Iteration Retrospective is the last event of the iteration. Its primary purpose is to reflect on the iteration and derive new ideas to improve its process and the solution. The retrospective helps instill the concept of relentless improvement—one of the SAFe Core Values . The team discusses what went well, what problems it encountered, and how those problems were (or were not) solved. The team identifies the most helpful changes to improve. These changes are addressed as soon as possible or recorded in the backlog for the next iteration. The retrospective is timeboxed to a maximum of about 60 minutes for a two-week iteration.

Participating in the System Demo

The System Demo provides an integrated view of new features for the most recent iteration delivered by all the teams in the ART. Each demo gives ART stakeholders an objective measure of progress during the PI. Everyone on the ART participates or at least attends the system demo.

Tracking Progress

Using a Kanban board, the team tracks its iteration progress (Figure 2). Mature Scrum teams deliver stories throughout the iteration without ‘waterfalling’ the timebox.

SAFe Scrum Roles

The Scrum team’s size ( typically ten or fewer) and structure optimize communication, interaction, and the ability to deliver value. “The Scrum team is small enough to remain nimble and large enough to complete significant work within a sprint [2].”

All SAFe Agile Teams, including those running Scrum, have two specialty team roles, each with a unique set of responsibilities (Figure 3):

• The Scrum Master/Team Coach (which may be a part-time role) is responsible for helping coordinate the flow of work to deliver to customers. They foster an environment for high performance and relentless improvement by coaching Scrum and Lean-Agile principles, helping remove impediments to progress, and facilitating team self-organization and self-management. Many SAFe Scrum Masters/Team Coaches have additional coaching responsibilities, such as coaching DevOps, Built-in Quality, Kanban, and flow.
• The Product Owner (typically a full-time role) understands the needs and expectations of customers. They serve as the team backlog content owner and prioritize the team backlog, helping to ensure the team is building the right thing in the right way.

Agile Teams are on the Train

Although teams are cross-functional, a single Agile Team may not be able to deliver complete end-user value for large systems that may include different technology platforms and a spectrum of disciplines such as hardware, software, and systems engineering. However, teams should strive to deliver end-to-end value as independently as possible to optimize flow. In support of the larger purpose, SAFe Agile teams operate within an Agile Release Train (ART) , providing an environment for aligning and collaborating with other teams to build larger solutions and figure out how to reduce or eliminate dependencies and improve Team and ART Flow .

As part of the ART, all teams plan, demo, and learn together, as illustrated in Figure 4, which helps them focus on both local concerns and the larger aim of the ART. This alignment also enables teams to explore, integrate, deploy, and release value more independently.

The Agile Teams article further defines each team’s participation in this shared responsibility of delivering customer value.

[1] Takeuchi, Hirotaka, and Ikujiro Nonaka. “The New, New Product Development Game,” Harvard Business Review, January 1986.

[2] Sutherland, Jeff, and Ken Schwaber. “The 2020 Scrum Guide,” Scrumguides.org.

Last Update: 12 April 2023

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Agile vs Scrum

Agile vs scrum. how to choose the best methodology for you.

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You’ll often hear a colleague or teammate excited to share how they’ve “gone agile.” They’ll then go on to describe their two-week sprints, backlog refinement meetings , and more. This may leave you thinking, “that sounds like scrum to me.” So, is Scrum agile? Is Agile scrum? Answering these questions and more is a great first step to ensure your team is using the right methodology. 

What is agile?

Agile is a project management philosophy that employs a set of principles and values to help software teams respond to change. Agile teams value individuals and interactions over processes and tools, working software over comprehensive documentation, customer collaboration over contract negotiation, and responding to change over following a plan. These values were set down in the Agile Manifesto along with 12 principles behind the manifesto. 

A good way to understand agile is to contrast it with another project management philosophy, waterfall. In waterfall delivery, the scope of a product is set and time and resources are flexible. Waterfall organizations will add more programmers and pad schedules to deliver the product that they decided to ship. 

In agile, the scope of the product is flexible while resources and time are fixed. Agile teams commit to deliver software on time with the team they have today. What they deliver is a flexible combination of what they’ve learned that the customer wants and what they can create in the allotted time.

Benefits of using agile

Agile teams have a strong “why” behind what they do and clarity about how they do it. The agile principles help teams break huge, ambitious goals into manageable chunks of work that they can consistently deliver. Agile software developers are empowered by countless stories of small, agile teams outperforming large competitors that use waterfall delivery. Agile teams also benefit from the “agile industrial complex.” There is a wealth of resources and tools for those needing to learn agile and a whole army of consultants eager to help with implementation. 

Disadvantages of using agile

Following agile principles can lead you to places you never thought you’d go. Agile helps teams change direction based on market and customer feedback. Chasing these ideals, you might find that your team has built something completely different than what you set out to do. This can be an unnerving feeling and you might even feel a lack of direction as you pursue new avenues and follow customer feedback in new directions. Because of these divergent outcomes, not all teams and companies can work in an agile way. But the teams that choose to overcome these hurdles often find they can ship a better product to their customers in the end. 

What is scrum?

Scrum is an agile framework that helps teams structure their work into short development cycles called sprints . Scrum teams commit to shipping work at the end of each sprint and adopt practices and a team structure that helps them achieve this cadence. Scrum takes the agile principles one step further, creating structure that helps teams live the agile principles in their day-to-day work. Scrum is a well-documented agile framework that many teams can adopt without much disruption. 

Benefits of using the scrum methodology

Scrum teams ship software on time. Rather than updating the business on your progress, you can show them! When you ship software, customers start using it. More customer usage data helps inform your direction and drives growth. Scrum teams also tend to be healthier, with less burnout and churn than others. This is because scrum practices, like sprint planning and sprint retrospectives, are focused on setting up teammates for success.

Disadvantages of using the scrum methodology

Scrum is an “all-in” approach. Success stems from the addition of new roles, like a scrum master , and the refactoring of everybody's schedules around a set meeting cadence. Many teams don’t have the resources to hire new teammates and the time for new meetings. When teams fail to go “all-in” they often fail to unlock the benefits of scrum. Additionally, not all teams can deliver work at such a high cadence. When quality suffers as a result, many teams make their sprints longer and longer. Eventually, you’re back to doing waterfall! 

Other methodologies: Kanban and Waterfall

What is kanban.

Kanban is an agile framework that helps teams deliver work on a continuous basis. Kanban teams organize their work on a kanban board with cards, columns, WIP limits, and specific commitment and delivery points. Kanban is best for knowledge work, where the product or service is largely invisible. Kanban helps teams visualize their and make strides day after day. 

What is waterfall?

Waterfall delivery is focused on the development of products or solutions based on specifications from the client or business. Teams study the requirements and build the solution over weeks, months, or even years. Waterfall is the preferred method in regulated industries where tolerances are very narrow. 

Imagine you are making a surgery robot that needs to perform a task flawlessly for a government-mandated 100 hours of operation. That constraint inspires your work and that specification becomes the focus of your development. Your team experiments and tests until your robot meets the specifications. When specifications are specific and stringent, waterfall development focuses your team on meeting the requirements above all else.

What is the best methodology for your team?

If you’re excited to begin an agile transformation you may need to choose a methodology. Agile methodologies include the team structure, practices, and tools you’d need for your org to live the agile principles. You can also step out on your own. With the agile manifesto and some creativity, you can design your own approach that works for your business and your team. 

Agile doesn’t have any set rules, while scrum has quite a few! If you are seeking a framework that can guide you on your way to more agility, choosing scrum is a strong start. Scrum will help energize your team to deliver work quickly and to pivot when needed. Additionally, there are templates you can adopt today to supercharge your scrum adoption.  If you are seeking the ultimate flexibility, you can instead inspire your team to go agile. An agile transformation is the thrilling process of breaking down what you do now and building up an agile way of working.

Agile vs waterfall

It’s uncommon that you’d find yourself needing to choose between agile and waterfall. It’s more common that you’re needing to pivot from one to the other. In moments like these, the customer is key. Is the customer more solution focused or problem focused? If a customer knows what they want and wants to pay someone to build it, you can lean towards waterfall. If the customer is experiencing a problem and you want to be the one to solve it, agile all the way. 

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One of the best parts about agile frameworks today is how well project management tools support them. Jira is built to support kanban , scrum, and more out of the box. Experts routinely expand Jira to support even the most complex agile frameworks. Get started with agile tutorials . 

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Difference Between Scrum at Scale and SAFe

• On May 25, 2023
• By David Usifo (PSM, MBCS, PMP®)

The increasing demand for agility and adaptability in a rapidly changing business environment has led organizations to seek effective ways to scale their Agile practices.

Scrum at Scale and the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) have emerged as popular solutions to address this challenge.

As organizations strive to select the best framework for their unique needs, it is essential to understand the key differences and similarities between these two approaches.

This article aims to provide a comprehensive comparison between Scrum at Scale and SAFe, illustrating their respective principles, benefits, and implementation processes.

By doing so, we hope to guide organizations in making informed decisions when scaling their Agile practices.

Table of Contents

What is Scrum at Scale?

Scrum at Scale is a lightweight framework designed to help organizations effectively scale the Scrum methodology across multiple teams.

Created by the co-founder of Scrum, Jeff Sutherland, it is based on the core principles and values of Scrum, extending them to larger contexts.

The framework comprises a decentralized approach that enhances collaboration and communication, fueling faster delivery and improved quality of products and services.

Scrum at Scale is structured around the Scrum of Scrums, a meta-Scrum team that coordinates the work of multiple Scrum teams working together.

What is the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)?

The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) is a comprehensive framework for scaling Agile practices across an enterprise.

It is built on the foundations of Agile, Scrum, Lean, and systems thinking, offering a structured approach to delivering high-quality products and services.

SAFe comprises multiple levels, including Team, Program, Large Solution, and Portfolio, with each level providing specific roles, artifacts, and processes to enable scaling.

Scrum at Scale vs SAFe: Differences

While both of these frameworks are designed to scale Agile practices, they have different methodologies and focus areas.

Here’s a comparison of the two using various aspects:

1. Framework Structure

Scrum at Scale consists of two main components: the Scrum Master Cycle (focused on continuous improvement) and the Product Owner Cycle (focused on product delivery).

These cycles are connected through a shared backlog and their respective cycles are synchronized through scaled events like the Scrum of Scrums and Meta-Scrum.

SAFe on the other hand integrates various Agile and Lean practices at different levels of the organization: Team, Program, Large Solution, and Portfolio.

Each level has specific roles, artifacts, and ceremonies, forming a structured hierarchy.

Scrum at Scale doesn’t introduce many new roles, but rather focuses on scaling the existing Scrum roles (Scrum Master, Product Owner, and Development Team) across multiple teams and levels in the organization.

While SAFe introduces numerous new roles at various levels, such as Release Train Engineer, Solution Architect, System Architect, Product Management, and more.

These roles provide guidance and coordination across different teams and levels in the organization.

3. Flexibility

Scrum at Scale is highly flexible and less prescriptive, allowing organizations to adapt and customize the framework to their specific needs and context providing a set of guiding principles and practices without dictating a rigid structure.

SAFe on the other hand is more rigid and prescriptive, providing detailed guidance on roles, artifacts, and events.

While it can be customized to some extent, it generally requires more significant changes to an organization’s existing processes and structures.

Scrum at Scale primarily focuses on scaling Scrum itself, aiming to create a network of interconnected Scrum teams that can deliver complex, large-scale products.

While SAFe focuses on integrating Agile and Lean practices across the entire organization, from portfolio management and product development to release management and team-level work, aiming to create a comprehensive and unified approach to scaling Agile.

5. Adoption

Scrum at Scale can be adopted incrementally, allowing organizations to start small and scale up as needed.

This makes it a more suitable choice for organizations that are already using Scrum and want to scale it across more teams or departments.

SAFe typically requires a more significant upfront investment in terms of time, resources, and organizational change.

It’s more suitable for larger organizations with complex structures or those seeking a complete transformation to Agile practices.

Scrum at Scale vs SAFe: Similarities

Despite these differences, there happen to be some similarities between these two frameworks including:

• Agile and Lean principles : Both Scrum at Scale and SAFe are based on Agile and Lean principles, striving to improve flexibility, speed, and customer-centricity.
• High-quality products and services : Both frameworks focus on delivering high-quality products and services by enhancing collaboration, communication, and continuous improvement.
• Alignment of teams and organizations : Both Scrum at Scale and SAFe emphasize the importance of aligning teams and organizations around a shared vision and goals.
• Empowerment of teams : Both Scrum at Scale and SAFe emphasize the importance of empowering cross-functional, self-organizing teams to make decisions and continuously improve.
• Focus on customer-centricity : Both frameworks prioritize delivering value to the customer and emphasize the need to solicit and incorporate customer feedback throughout the product development process.
• Adaptability and Continuous Improvement : Scrum at Scale and SAFe both encourage organizations to regularly inspect and adapt their processes, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and learning.
• Iterative and Incremental Development : Both frameworks promote the use of short, time-boxed iterations (sprints or increments) to deliver small, releasable increments of value, allowing for faster feedback and reduced risk.
• Scaling ceremonies : Scrum at Scale and SAFe both extend Scrum ceremonies, such as sprint planning, daily stand-ups, and sprint reviews, to accommodate larger groups of teams working together.

Benefits of Using Scrum at Scale

Implementing Scrum at Scale provides organizations with several benefits. Some of these include:

• Increased collaboration and communication : By fostering a culture of teamwork and shared responsibility, Scrum at Scale enables teams to work more effectively together, breaking down silos and promoting knowledge sharing.
• Faster delivery and improved quality : By streamlining processes and removing impediments, Scrum at Scale helps teams deliver high-quality products at a faster pace, enabling organizations to respond more quickly to market demands.
• Scalability and applicability : The flexibility of the Scrum at Scale framework allows it to be applied across various industries and organizational sizes, making it a suitable choice for a wide range of companies.

Key Roles and Responsibilities in Scrum at Scale

Scrum at Scale introduces these key roles that work together to drive the scaling process:

• Scrum Master : Facilitates Scrum events and ensures that the Scrum framework is adhered to while coaching teams on Scrum principles.
• Product Owner : Defines and prioritizes the Product Backlog, ensuring that the team is working on the highest-value items.
• Development Team : Cross-functional group responsible for delivering high-quality, potentially shippable increments at the end of each sprint.
• Executive Action Team : A group of senior leaders responsible for removing organizational impediments and driving the Agile transformation.
• Scrum of Scrums : A coordinating body that comprises representatives from multiple Scrum teams, responsible for synchronizing efforts and ensuring smooth collaboration.

Implementation Process of Scrum at Scale

Implementing Scrum at Scale involves the following steps:

• Assessing organizational readiness : Determine the current level of Agile maturity within the organization and identify areas for improvement.
• Creating a transformation roadmap : Develop a strategic plan for scaling Scrum, including goals, timelines, and necessary resources.
• Building cross-functional teams : Form self-organizing, cross-functional teams that can work autonomously towards shared objectives.
• Implementing Scrum at Scale practices and ceremonies : Train teams on Scrum at Scale principles and facilitate the adoption of its practices, ceremonies, and roles.

Benefits of Using SAFe

Organizations that adopt SAFe can expect the following benefits:

• Accelerated product delivery : SAFe’s structured approach helps organizations deliver products and services faster by synchronizing and aligning teams across the enterprise.
• Improved alignment between business and IT : SAFe fosters collaboration between business and technology teams through shared planning and execution, leading to better alignment and shared understanding of business goals.
• Enhanced visibility and transparency : With its focus on metrics, reporting, and continuous improvement, SAFe provides increased visibility into the progress and performance of teams and projects across the organization.

Key Roles and Responsibilities of SAFe

SAFe introduces several key roles that are critical to its successful implementation:

• Release Train Engineer (RTE) : Acts as the chief Scrum Master for an Agile Release Train (ART), responsible for coordinating and facilitating activities across teams.
• Product Manager : Works with Product Owners to define and prioritize features for an ART, ensuring alignment with business objectives and customer needs.
• System Architect : Provides technical leadership and guidance to teams on architectural and design decisions, ensuring consistency and quality.
• Agile Team : A cross-functional group of individuals responsible for delivering high-quality, customer-centric solutions.
• Business Owners : Stakeholders who provide guidance, input, and decision-making on product strategy, investment, and prioritization.

SAFe Implementation Process

The SAFe implementation process typically involves the following steps:

• Assessing organizational maturity and readiness : Evaluate the current state of Agile adoption within the organization and identify areas for growth and improvement.
• Identifying Value Streams : Map out the flow of value through the organization, identifying key value streams and the teams responsible for delivering them.
• Implementing Agile Release Trains (ARTs) : Form ARTs by organizing teams around value streams, ensuringthey have the necessary skills and resources to deliver value incrementally and continuously.
• Establishing Lean-Agile Leadership : Cultivate a culture of Lean-Agile leadership within the organization, with leaders demonstrating and promoting the principles and practices of SAFe.

Choosing the Right Framework for Your Organization

When selecting the appropriate framework for scaling Agile, organizations should consider the following factors:

• Organizational culture and readiness : Determine the extent to which Agile values and principles are embedded within the organization and the willingness to embrace change.
• Size and complexity of the organization : Larger, more complex organizations may benefit from the more structured approach of SAFe, while smaller or less complex organizations might find the flexibility of Scrum at Scale more appealing.
• Existing processes and tools : Evaluate the compatibility of the chosen framework with the organization’s current processes, tools, and infrastructure.
• Goals and objectives of scaling Agile : Clearly define the desired outcomes of Agile scaling efforts and select the framework that best aligns with these goals.

In conclusion, both Scrum at Scale and SAFe offer valuable approaches to scaling Agile practices within organizations.

By understanding the key differences and similarities between these two frameworks, organizations can make an informed decision about which framework best aligns with their needs, culture, and goals.

Ultimately, the successful transformation and scaling of Agile practices rely on the organization’s commitment to continuous improvement, collaboration, and adaptability.

David Usifo (PSM, MBCS, PMP®)

David Usifo is a certified project manager professional, professional Scrum Master, and a BCS certified Business Analyst with a background in product development and database management.

He enjoys using his knowledge and skills to share with aspiring and experienced project managers and product developers the core concept of value-creation through adaptive solutions.

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Everything you need to know about scrum, what are sprint plans in scrum, who is a scrum master: everything you need to know, scrum master: what are the roles and responsibilities, how to become a certified scrum master, how to become a certified scrum product owner, scrum vs agile: what is the difference, agile scrum tutorial: what is scrum and how to master it, scrum vs kanban: battle of the agile frameworks, scrum vs safe: what is the difference, who is a product owner & what do they do, csm vs cspo: which is the right agile certification for you, safe fundamentals: what is safe, what is the scaled agile framework (safe), top 50 scrum master interview questions you need to know in 2024, top 50 scaled agile interview questions you need to know in 2024, how to get safe certified, how to choose the right safe certification for you, safe agile certification exam requirements: everything you need to know.

Over the past few years Agile approaches, Scrum and Scaled Agile Framework , have gained a lot of popularity in the project management industry. Unlike Scrum, SAFe is the perfect technique for adopting Agile at an enterprise scale. In this article, we’ll look at Scrum vs SAFe, and their differences and similarities. If you want to go beyond this blog & understand Scrum, you can visit our CSM Certification . Once you know more about how each approach is unique, you’ll be able to choose the best framework among them.

What is Scrum?

Scrum at large scale.

• What is SAFe?

Scrum vs SAFe: Key Differences

How to choose the right agile framework.

Scrum is a lightweight  agile framework,   within which people can address complex adaptive problems, while productively and creatively delivering products of the highest possible value.

Scrum relies on three important roles (Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Development Team) in order to plan, organize, administer and optimize a process. T he product owner creates a list of tasks to be completed and the scrum team breaks the list down to smaller pieces known as sprints . A sprint typically lasts two to four weeks and results in project deliverables ready to be shipped to the customer. The team repeats this process over several sprints until the project is complete or the budget is exhausted. It is a highly successful and widely used agile approach with multiple benefits.

A big challenge with Scrum is scaling it to larger and more complex projects that require multiple teams to work on. Also integrating it with enterprise-level management functions such as program management and overall project portfolio management . That is why a lot of agile frameworks are now available for large-scale enterprise projects. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) is one of them. 

There are expert scrum masters, if you want to get into that list you must visit CSM Training by Edureka.

What is the Scaled Agile Framework(SAFe)?

Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) is an enterprise-scale development framework which uses a combination of existing lean and agile principles and combines them into a templated framework for large-scale projects.

It is based on three primary bodies of knowledge:

• Agile Development
• Lean Product Development
• Systems Thinking

SAFe adds extra layers of communication and controls to allow people to use agile frameworks (like Scrum) with very large groups. It attempts to incorporate core values like alignment, built-in quality, transparency, and program execution. Using these values SAFe brings substantial improvements to delivery time, employee engagement, work productivity and mainly, quality of the product. SAFe focuses on portfolio management, value stream management, program management, and team management. 

Now, that you are aware of both the frameworks, let’s check out how Scrum and Scaled Agile Framework are different.

To conclude, if you want to use Agile, but you work in a large organization that deals with large scale and mission-critical projects then SAFe would serve you better than scrum.

There is not a framework which is better than the other. There are a few elements to consider when selecting an Agile framework that suits your needs better, like:

• The context of implementation and objective of the organization
• Level of involvement of management within the project
• Size: How many employees are working within the company?
• Company structure
• The type of project to manage
• Stakeholders requirements and opinions

This brings us to the end of  ‘Scrum vs SAFe’ article. Hope you are clear with all that has been shared with you in this article. Make sure you are well versed with the Scrum terminology before you start using it. There can be no better time than right now to  get certified in Scrum through our Scrum master Training . 

Got a question for us? Please mention it in the comments section of this “Scrum vs SAFe” article and we will get back to you as soon as possible. Alternatively, you can also check out CSM Training in Bangalore . 

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What’s the Difference Between Scrum and SAFe®?

Preeth Pandalay

An executive turned transformation consultant with 25+ years of learning, Preeth trains and coaches... Read more

Scaled Agile Framework® (SAFe®) and Scrum are frameworks functioning under Agile principles and values. Although there are a finite set of differences between these two, it is always a better idea to have an in-depth understanding of SAFe® and Scrum to avoid confusion for newbies as well as professionals. To begin with, let us have a look at the definitions of SAFe® and Scrum.

According to Scrum.org, Scrum is a framework within which people can address complex adaptive problems, while productively and creatively delivering products of the highest possible value. This definition consists of Scrum's roles, events, artefacts, and the rules that bind them together .

SAFe® , on the other hand, is a framework that explains an approach for scaling agile for working in larger enterprises and bigger teams, working on the same or multiple products.

In simpler words, Scrum is a framework mostly based on the principles and values of Agile focusing on a smaller number of teams. While SAFe® is implementing agile at an Enterprise level.

Differences between Scrum and SAFe®

Scrum primarily depends on three roles for planning, organising, administering and optimising a process namely -

• Scrum Master: He/she is responsible to look after a certain job during the sprint.
• Product Owner: He/she is responsible for planning, organising and carrying out communications with the company.
• Development Team: The team’s objective is the execution of the advised job for each sprint.

The core objectives of SAFe® are:

• Lean Software Development
• System Thinking

The primary difference between Scrum and SAFe® is in the way they are taken into practice. SAFe® is a scaled framework that is advanced in a manner that fills the gap Scrum has left behind. Between Scrum and SAFe®, although the latter lacks focus on release planning and retrospect for improvement, the former largely focuses on the same.

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Table of Contents

What is scrum, what is safe®️, what is the difference between scrum and safe, scrum vs. safe (scaled agile framework) – key differences between two.

SAFe vs scrum holds popularity among organizations owing to the multitude of associated benefits. Moreover, their awareness is increasing, combined with a lack of exact or practical knowledge. It results in assumptions concerning the lack of difference between the two. The assumption will hamper the appropriate functioning and performance of job roles, especially among the candidates working in posts of Product Owners, Stakeholders , Scrum Masters , and teams. The article enlists the definition followed by a SAFe vs scrum comparison.  

Scrum is a structure or framework that helps ease framing a solution. It is a simple method that requires constant practice, application, and an active mindset to master. It increases productivity and creativity to deliver the highest value even on complex problems. Scrum is considered most suitable for teams and small-scale organizations. 

In other words, it is an iterative method that categorizes the procedure into small steps, making the task more achievable. It maintains regular delivery and incorporates results from cross-functional teams obtained through a particular rule set. The procedure is made possible by three lead roles in the organization, product owner , scrum master, and scrum team. 

The product owner plays a primary role by planning, organizing, and communicating the schedule based on the product. The scrum master ensures the completion of the job during sprints, and the scrum team acts to complete the project. 

SAFe is an acronym for Scaled Agile Framework or Scalable Agile Framework that provides the methods to execute the business strategy. It is an organization-based framework rather than a team or individual focussed that scales the scrum framework to yield the results. Safe considers previous tasks or products along with planning. It indicates the ability of SAFe to consider the company's past and future situations. The act is crucial for the progress and development of the company by helping it on an overall basis rather than focussing on its position at a specific time.

SAFe is divided into three components, lean product and agile software development , and system thinking. It is considered a mindset, while scrum is a framework formed according to agile. 

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SAFe vs scrum holds differences, yet we find similarities among the two in following agile . The differences lie in numerous aspects, such as scaling, the actual endeavor they both are, and the manner of functioning. Their suitability for individuals and teams also varies along with ease in handling and application. The comparison between SAFe vs scrum is tabulated:

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SAFe vs Scrum, though they seem similar, there are numerous distinctions between them. They both follow the agile framework and aim to provide benefits to the companies. However, they differ in scale and variety of other elements. They provide different benefits to the team and organization. 

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What is the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)?

When you’re a small startup with only a few like-minded people on a single team, of course you can be flexible.

But if you do things right, you won’t stay small forever. With each hire, the Agile team grows, and staying Agile becomes more of a challenge. The Scaled Agile Framework — SAFe for short — can help you stay nimble and follow Agile principles, even with 1000s of employees.

In this article, we break down what SAFe is, its benefits, when it’s a good or bad idea, and how you can start to implement it.

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The Scaled Agile Framework is a patchwork framework of various techniques and concepts designed to help enterprises become more Agile — despite their size.

For example, SAFe emphasizes both Lean and Agile values in leadership, a mix of Scrum and eXtreme Programming for teams, and an organization-wide focus on customers through Design Thinking. You can make sure your team is using design thinking throughout the entire project by using design thinking tools .

It also includes a focus on DevOps development practices like Continuous Integration.

And this is all included in the most “basic” version of SAFe — the Essential level. It’s aimed at smaller organizations or departments within a larger enterprise.

( Image Source )

So don’t expect us to teach you the ins and outs of SAFe in a couple of paragraphs. At least we distilled it into 2,000 words rather than 10,000+.

What are the 4 levels of Scaled Agile Framework?

In SAFe 5 — the latest version — the 4 levels are Essential, Large Solution, Portfolio, and Full.

These levels indicate different versions of SAFe, designed for organizations of different sizes and with various regulatory requirements.

• Essential level: the “bare minimum” for managing a large number of projects and Agile teams, includes Kanban, Scrum, Design Thinking, and more. This level was made by merging the previous Team level and Program level into one option in SAFe 5.
• Large Solution level: all of Essential, but with another level for managing regulations, stakeholder relationships, and control high-level plans.
• Portfolio level : adds portfolio management, strategic objectives, high-level resource management , and more.
• Full SAFe: includes everything listed above.

With every level, you can feel the scale of SAFe’s ambition. It’s a framework for the big leagues.

SAFe vs. other Agile scaling frameworks

SAFe is by far the most used framework for implementing Agile at scale.

According to data from the 2020 Status Quo (Scaled) Agile report, SAFe is easily the most popular choice.

Over half of Agile enterprises that use scaling frameworks use SAFe. The only close runner-up is custom in-house frameworks.

A closer look at the other frameworks shows why most companies choose SAFe or building from scratch.

The LeSS ( Large Scale Scrum ) framework focuses on scaling Scrum without much attention to the surrounding business processes in a large organization. It expects all teams to self-organize between themselves.

According to the co-author of the original white paper, the Spotify Model isn’t exactly a framework. It’s an aspirational model that they never implemented successfully .

We’re big fans of Spotify, but when it comes to project management, we call it like we see it.

The original Scrum creators have also released their own frameworks for scaling Agile.

Jeff Sutherland developed and released Scrum@Scale in 2014. It structures the whole organization into a Scrum of Scrums. Unsurprisingly, the SoS is a unit of multiple Scrum teams working together.

The other Scrum co-creator, Ken Schwaber, created the Nexus framework in 2015. It’s a basic approach for scaling up Scrum to integrate multiple teams working together on a single product.

What are the SAFe principles?

SAFe’s 10 Lean Agile principles focus both on processes and value, and iterations and decentralization. In other words, SAFe merges core aspects of Lean and Agile concepts into one philosophy.

• Take an economic view. Focus on value maximization and reducing running costs, as you would in Lean.
• Apply systems thinking. Don’t lose sight of the big picture when trying to optimize a single process.
• Assume variability, preserve options. Don’t settle on design options before they prove to be the best choice, empirically.
• Build incrementally with fast, integrated learning cycles.
• Set realistic milestones based on your workflow. For example, the final release of a product increment.
• Visualize and limit work-in-progress, reduce batch sizes, and manage queue lengths. Keep your focus narrow.
• Apply cadence, synchronize with cross-domain planning. Focus on the rhythm to maintain momentum.
• Unlock the intrinsic motivation of knowledge workers. Developers, programmers, and designers already want to do good work. Don’t get in their way.
• Decentralize decision-making. Managers don’t have a monopoly on good ideas, and always waiting for their input creates bottlenecks.
• Organize around value. Focus everything on the value you can deliver to customers.

What are the benefits of the Scaled Agile Framework?

Some of the main benefits of using the SAFe framework are better cooperation between teams, planning security, and customer satisfaction.

Luckily, you don’t need to take our word for it. A 2020 study by Koblenz University of Applied Sciences backs us up.

The majority of respondents felt SAFe was good or very good at facilitating:

• Cross-team collaboration
• Planning security
• Customer focus

But it’s not all roses and sunshine. The complexity and different moving parts in the SAFe framework have some downsides.

Less than 50% of the respondents felt that SAFe does a good job at:

• Ensuring high velocity

While SAFe offers reliable processes for managing your company at a high level, you give up some of the speed that other Agile frameworks deliver.

SAFe vs. Scrum vs. Waterfall

In this section, we’ll compare SAFe to Scrum and the traditional Waterfall methodology.

Let’s take a look at some of the core differences between these approaches:

SAFe is a framework for scaling Agile, but its innate complexity slows down the velocity. It may not win on speed, but it’s an excellent option for maintaining customer-centricity and flexibility at scale.

Scrum offers the fastest speed to market and the most flexibility, but it struggles with scale and cross-team organization.SAFe is a framework for scaling Agile, but its innate complexity slows down the velocity. It may not win on speed, but it’s an excellent option for maintaining customer-centricity and flexibility at scale.

SAFe and Scrum both feature the “Scrum Master” role, but they’re not the same thing. Their responsibilities are like night and day.

A SAFe Scrum Master acts more like an organization-wide consultant. They advise on high-level issues like predictability and flow rather than leading one Scrum team. They act more like an Agile Coach.

Waterfall offers scalability and easy standardization, at the cost of flexibility, speed, and customer involvement. You can minimize the issues by adapting some Agile practices into the process.

Read our in-depth breakdown of SAFe vs. Scrum for a more in-depth comparison of those frameworks.

Is SAFe the right choice for your company?

Unlike Scrum, as an organization-wide — or at least program-wide — framework by default, you can’t choose SAFe on a project-by-project basis.

Instead, you need to make the required up-front investment of learning and adopting the framework throughout your organization. It’s a framework that aims to manage all projects better, after all.

What companies use Scaled Agile?

With the focus on scale, it’s no surprise to see the large enterprise well represented. FedEx, American Express, NTT Data, and Nokia Software all use SAFe to different extents.

The list of users also includes companies you wouldn’t typically associate with Agile, like Chevron, a multinational oil and energy company.

Why might that be? Unlike typical Agile frameworks, SAFe also accounts for strict regulations and crushing price pressure.

We’ve already covered the benefits in detail, so let’s take a closer look at SAFe’s shortcomings.

What are the downsides of SAFe?

SAFe’s greatest strength is also its greatest weakness. The complex mix of different frameworks and techniques makes it tough to implement.

The focus on system-wide change and variability can also slow down the velocity of new projects.

Not to mention, it’s not like you’re adopting SAFe in a vacuum. Your departments, teams, and employees already have their tried and tested methods.

And in the State of Agile survey, the no. 1 challenge to adopting and scaling Agile was a resistance to change.

The more complex the new framework is, the more difficult the transition will be. As a whole organization, the journey to SAFe will be a challenge. The Agile principle of speed gets lost in the process.

But for some companies, the work will be worth it. An Agile release train can transform how your company works.

Companies that will benefit from SAFe

SAFe is a viable choice for many companies, and, for some, it’s a complete no-brainer.

Companies that meet these criteria will benefit from SAFe:

• Large companies that struggle to maintain the focus on the customer
• Large companies in fast-moving industries where flexibility is vital
• Medium-sized companies that manage a wide portfolio of different projects
• Companies in regulated industries with demanding external stakeholders
• Companies with tough price pressure and demanding customers that want to go Agile

Don’t brush SAFe off even if none of these describe your situation perfectly. It’s a non-exhaustive list that focuses on ideal use cases.

If you want to focus more on customers, manage stakeholders better, and remain flexible from planning to execution, SAFe could be right for your company.

How monday.com can help you better implement SAFe throughout your company

Changing project management frameworks is like shifting the foundation of your company. It’s a huge change, and you need the right tools and approach to do it successfully.

monday.com is a Work OS with the features, extensibility, and integrations you need to create a stable base for your company.

Standardize workflows with custom boards and access control

When you’re trying to make the transition, standardization is your best friend. If you can’t give your teams ready-made tools, they’ll create something unique.

For example, you can easily customize our feature backlog template to create a program backlog.

Control the user access to each board with user permissions. You can give view-only access to low-level stakeholders and team members. That way, you can avoid unwanted edits.

You can also limit the number of boards visible to different users. When nobody sees more than they need to, it’s easier to focus on work.

Use robust integrations to destroy cross-departmental data silos

In 2021, no office or department is complete without its own suite of SaaS tools. That can create problems, as manually sharing that data is time-consuming and often gets overlooked.

Enter monday.com. With over 40 native integrations, you can easily crush data silos created by different teams using different tools.

For example, you can connect all data from the development team (Jira), the support team (Zendesk), and the rest of the company.

With monday.com, you can sync items with issues from 3rd-party platforms, send automated messages, and more.

Centralizing data leads to better collaboration and more realistic high-level decision-making.

Use the monday.com Apps Framework to build the functionality you need

Whether you’re an enterprise — or a smaller company with a varied portfolio of projects — it might feel like no project management tool is up to the task.

With our low-code Apps Framework, you can build the functionality you need without big budgets or long timelines.

Our API and 50+ ready-made adaptors make it easy to set up new integrations — even with your own custom-developed tools.

Keep your company nimble with the SAFe and monday.com

Size doesn’t have to mean the end of agility, speed, connectivity, and other Agile principles.

By finding and adapting the right version of SAFe, you can use a tailored mix of frameworks, concepts, and techniques to maintain your ideal company culture.

To make integrated, company-wide change possible, you need a reliable, accessible platform that all your teams can use effectively.

The unique features, usability, and extensibility make monday.com the perfect fit for SAFe organizations.

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Engineering Practices

Scrum vs SAFe: How to choose the best Agile methodology?

Scrum and safe are two popular agile methodologies, used to develop products and test them. both focus on the importance of collaboration. but which one is right for your organization.

Scrum and SAFe are two popular agile methodologies, used to develop products and test them. Both focus on the importance of collaboration between developers and other stakeholders as well as frequent feedback loops. But which one is right for your organization? To answer that question, we'll review Scrum and SAFe in depth and compare them.

Scrum is by far the most popular agile method, but SAFe is gaining some traction.

Now that you've got the basics of Scrum and SAFe, it's time to compare them.

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Scrum is the most popular agile method, but SAFe is gaining some traction. Both have their pros and cons, so which one should you use? If your company has already adopted an agile framework, then stick with it! However, if you're still trying to decide between Scrum and SAFe (or even if you haven't started yet), keep these things in mind:

Scrum has more flexibility than SAFe because there are no formal roles or process steps within the organization. This makes it easier for organizations with larger teams and less formal processes—like startups—to adopt an agile approach successfully since they won't need all those extra roles or processes as much (but still need guidance from experts).

Scrum is easier to learn, use and adopt than SAFe.

Scrum is more informal, easier to learn and adopt, and doesn't require a formal IT department.

SAFe is more prescriptive in nature, which means it's harder to use than Scrum.

SAFe requires more time to learn than Scrum because of its complexity.

Both methodologies emphasize early and frequent testing by developers.

Both Scrum and SAFE require that developers test their own code. This is one of the most important differences between them:

In Scrum, each developer has his or her own dedicated project with a limited scope of work; this means that each team member can focus on just one thing at a time. As such, there's less pressure on them to do too much work at once—and when they do need help from other people within their organization (e.g., QA testers or product owners), it's easier for everyone gets involved because everyone knows what needs testing before moving forward in development cycles.

In SAFE methodology, however...well...there aren't any dedicated projects per se! Instead, everything is lumped together into large buckets called "stories" which contain requirements from multiple stakeholders throughout different parts of an organization without clear boundaries between them (like separate teams).

SAFe allows for a more rigorous evaluation of technology risks in large organizations.

SAFe is a framework that allows for a more rigorous evaluation of technology risks in large organizations. It helps you to identify the risks associated with your technology choices so that you can make informed decisions about when and how to invest in new technologies.

While not as formal as SAFe, Scrum still has specific roles and responsibilities.

While not as formal as SAFe, Scrum still has specific roles and responsibilities. A Scrum team is made up of a product owner, scrum master and developers. The product owner is responsible for deciding what to build; they don't have any direct authority over other people on the team or decision-making power over the project itself. The scrum master acts as a facilitator between developers and their teammates, ensuring everyone is working together toward common goals while helping them avoid conflicts that may arise from different priorities or viewpoints.

Finally, any given developer will be part of one or more teams within an organization rather than working alone (though this does happen sometimes).

SAFe will allow larger organizations to more easily adopt agile practices.

The SAFe framework is more formal than Scrum, but it still allows for a lot of flexibility and customization.

SAFe also has a much larger scope than Scrum: rather than focusing on only one product or feature at a time, you can apply any one or several of these principles throughout your entire organization. This makes it easier for larger organizations in particular—with multiple teams working together across departments and geographies—to adopt agile practices effectively because there are fewer barriers imposed by standardizing processes across large numbers of stakeholders involved in making decisions about them.

Whether you choose Scrum or SAFE depends on the size of your organization and its tolerance for documentation and bureaucracy.

If you are a small team, Scrum will be more suitable for your needs. It allows for quick implementation and can be implemented within days (rather than weeks) if done correctly. On the other hand, SAFE requires more preparation time before it can be used by teams as well as a significant investment in training materials that must be reviewed by everyone before being used in any project meetings or sprints.

I think Scrum is a better choice for smaller organizations and SAFe is a great choice if you want to avoid the overhead and bureaucracy of Scrum for larger organizations. It’s a little more complicated than Scrum, but it allows companies to adopt agile practices without getting bogged down in the details.

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SAFe Agile Vs Agile: The Differences

Home Blog Agile SAFe Agile Vs Agile: The Differences

It was only a relatively few years ago that traditional waterfall project management was pretty much the only way to go. And while it worked well for many projects – especially ones considered ‘predictive’ – it didn’t work so well for ones we will call adaptive. And so, over the past 20 years and especially the last 10 or so, agile has been increasingly used in projects, primarily software-based ones.   SSM  certification will help you master the role of scrum master and train you to clear the exam in one go.

Comparison of Agile and Scaled Agile Framework

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What Exactly is Agile?

According to the  Agile  Alliance, Agile is “the ability to create and respond to change. It is a way of dealing with, and ultimately succeeding in, an uncertain and turbulent environment.”   

It is  a  set of values and principles as expressed in the Agile Manifesto. While it can be used for a variety of projects it typically refers to a group of approaches to software development using iterative  (repeated processes)  and incremental  (successively added functionality)  development.  

The  Agile  M anifesto   states  that :  

We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:  

• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools  
• Working software over comprehensive documentation  
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation  
• Responding to change over following a plan  

That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.  

There is also an underlying set of 12 principles.  The first two principles state that “o ur highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software ” and that we “w elcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer’s competitive advantage. ”  

Some of the more common Agile methods include Scrum, Extreme Programming (XP), Kanban, and Feature-Driven Development (FDD.) Of these, Scrum is by all accounts the most  popular,  so we’ll focus there.   

For the most part, all Agile methodologies have certain things in common – they use timeboxes, which Agile Alliance describes as “ a previously agreed period of time during which a person or a team works steadily towards completion of some goal. ”  

They employ iterations to “develop the product through a series of repeated cycles and increments to successively add to the functionality of the product. ”  The graphic below  displays the Agile Scrum process .  

At the end of a timebox – or sprint -  the entire Scrum Team is accountable for creating a valuable, useful  i ncrement . Regular interactions with stakeholders, small batches of work, regular reviews and retrospectives improve the process and therefore, the product.

Read about 5 whys root cause analysis in agile teams, along with its approaches and success factors, in our blog posts.

T he Scrum variant of Agile defines three important  roles :  

• A Product Owner orders the work for a complex problem into a Product Backlog .  He or s he is also responsible for d eveloping and explicitly communicating the Product Goal , o rdering Product Backlog items ,  an d e nsuring that the Product Backlog is transparent,  visible,  and understood.  
• The Scrum  (or Development)  Team turns a selection of the work into an  i ncrement of value during a Sprint. The Scrum Team and its stakeholders inspect the results and adjust for the next Sprint.  They are  cross functional,  self-organizing and decide how to do the work.   
• The Scrum Master is accountable for the Scrum Team’s effectiveness. They do this by enabling the Scrum Team to improve its practices, within the Scrum framework  and by removing impediments.   

Scrum uses several events or “ceremonies” to inspect progress toward the sprint goal and adapt the sprint backlog (items to be worked on) as needed:  

• Daily Scrum - The purpose of the 15-minute Daily Scrum is to inspect progress toward the Sprint Goal and adapt the Sprint Backlog as necessary, adjusting the upcoming planned work.  
• Sprint Review - The purpose of the Sprint Review is to inspect the outcome of the Sprint and determine future adaptations. The Scrum Team presents the results of their work to key stakeholders and progress toward the Product Goal is discussed.  
• Retrospective - The purpose of the Sprint Retrospective is to plan ways to increase quality and effectiveness. The Scrum Team inspects how the last Sprint went with regards to individuals, interactions, processes, tools, and their Definition of Done .  

Instead of command and control as practiced in a traditional waterfall, agile employs servant leadership which is a  philosophy and practice of leadership based on listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment, and community building.   

What exactly is SAFe® Agile?

As mentioned above, Agile was designed for small teams and  SAFe ® was  designed to scale to various levels, from essential to full  SAFE®.  It rests on the Agile Foundation and expands on it.   

Cprime  recently published a report called  Agile at Scale 2020 . The report was based on a  survey   of  companies who are scaling Agile beyond small teams and often to the enterprise. The size of development teams ranged from <50 (32%) to an astonishing  1001+ (18.4%).    

According to the same study,  the leading framework at 34% is  SAFe®  while “Scrum only” is at 24%. The study doesn’t dig deeper into those numbers but it’s realistic to think that as companies scale to the  enterprise,  they require something more than Scrum only.   

SAFe® for Lean Enterprises is a knowledge base of proven, integrated principles, practices, and competencies for achieving business agility using Lean, Agile, and DevOps. It has several levels to which one can  scale :  

Essential  SAFE®  -   contains the minimal set of roles, events, and artifacts required to continuously deliver business solutions via an Agile Release Train (ART) as a Team of Agile Teams.  

Large Solution  SAFe ®   describes  additional roles, practices, and guidance to build and evolve the world’s largest applications, networks, and cyber-physical systems. I t i ncorporates an additional competency called Enterprise Solution Delivery.  

Portfolio  SAFe®   aligns  strategy with execution and organizes solution development around the flow of value through one or more value streams. It is the smallest configuration that can be used to achieve Business Agility and adds the core competencies of Lean Portfolio Management, Continuous Learning Culture, and Organizational Agility.  

Full  SAFe ®  represents  the most comprehensive configuration. It supports building large, integrated solutions that typically require hundreds of people to develop and maintain.   

Like Agile, the  SAFe®  framework has several defined roles, some of which are dependent on the level to which one aspires.

Key  SAFe®  roles at  the Essential  level      

The key  SAFe®  roles and main responsibilities at the  E ssential  level are:  

• Business Owner s  – key stakeholders who are ultimately responsible for the business outcome.  
• System Architect/Engineer – responsible for designing and sharing the architectural vision across the agile release train, which means the work delivered will be fit for purpose.  
• Product Manager – responsible for prioritizing features and ensuring they are well described and understood  
• Release Train Engineer – responsible for ensuring the agile release train (the team of agile teams) work well together and follow the processes  
• Agile Team s  – responsible for delivery and quality of the work undertaken.  
• Scrum Master – responsible for ensuring the team works well and follows the processes.  
• Product Owner – responsible for prioritizing stories and ensuring they are well described and understood.  To effectively fulfill the SAFe product owner role and collaborate efficiently with the team to deliver valuable products, attending   SAFe courses  are recommended.  

Key  SAFe®  roles at  Large Solution  level    

The key  SAFe®  roles and main responsibilities at  large solution level include  all of  the above and:  

• Solution Architect/Engineer – responsible for designing and sharing the architectural vision across multiple agile release trains, which means the solutions delivered will be fit for purpose.  
• Solution Management is responsible for defining and supporting the building of desirable, feasible, viable and sustainable  large-scale  business solutions that meet customer needs over time.  
• The Solution Train Engineer (STE) is a servant leader and coach for the Solution Train, facilitating and guiding the work of all ARTs and Suppliers in the Value Stream.  
• Customer – consumes the output from the agile release train. Could be external customers or people within the organization. The customers are the people who will have the final view on whether the output was valuable.  

Key  SAFe®  roles at Portfolio level  

The key  SAFe®  roles at portfolio level are:  

• Epic Owners – responsible for defining an epic, articulating its  benefits,  and facilitating its implementation.  
• Enterprise Architect – drives architectural initiatives for the portfolio.  

Full  SAFe®  has no new defined roles.   

Planning   While b oth Scrum and Agile plan their work at the beginning of each sprint,  SAFe ®  has a unique event, called a Program Increment.  Key to this is the Agile Release Train (ART) which  is a long-lived team of Agile teams, which, along with other stakeholders, incrementally develops, delivers, and where applicable operates, one or more solutions in a value stream.     A Program Increment (PI) is a timebox during which an Agile Release Train delivers incremental value in the form of working, tested software and systems. PIs are typically 8 – 12 weeks long.    Typically,  there are  four development Iterations, followed by one Innovation and Planning (IP) Iteration. A  PI is  to an Agile Release Train (ART) (or Solution Train), as an Iteration is to the Agile Team. It’s a fixed timebox for planning, building, and validating a full system increment, demonstrating value, and getting fast feedback.  

Each PI  

• Plan s  the ART’s next increment of work  
• Limit s  work in process (WIP) . Limiting work in process is from Kanban , and   contributes to better focus, clearer communication, and more realistic analysis and projection .    
• Summarize s  newsworthy value for feedback  
• Assure s  consistent, ART - wide retrospectives   

The Program Board is used when teams come together for two-day planning  sessions :   

 Image Source

It should be noted that  SAFe® utilizes a concept called Value Streams.  Value Streams represent the series of steps that an organization uses to implement Solutions that provide a continuous flow of value to a customer.  

A  SAFe®  portfolio contains one or more value streams, each of which is dedicated to build and support a set of solutions, which are the products, services, or systems delivered to the Customer, whether internal or external to the Enterprise.  

How are Agile, Scrum and  SAFe ®  Similar?  

Scrum, like XP and Kanban is a type of Agile. So, all Agile types are similar in that th ey  work in short bursts of work and stay in close contact with customers. So, the real comparison is between Scrum and  SAFe ®.  

Scrum/Agile and  SAFe ®  are similar in that they use roles outlined in the Scrum Guide such as Product Owner, Scrum Master and Teams. The same rules apply about using sprints, sprint reviews and retrospectives.   

Benefits  

Some of the benefits of Agile include:  

• Customer satisfaction- their regular involvement assures that they will get what they want  
• The ability to quickly pivot away from suboptimal solutions  
• Reduced risks due to shorter timeboxes and quality integrated into the team  
• Allows for continuous improvement due to regular retrospectives  

SAFe®  has all those benefits but also adds the ability to not only look at work in terms of value streams but also to take into consideration the portfolio that is connected to the strategy of the enterprise.   

Conclusion    

Agile has developed over time into a framework that provides business agility, allowing organizations to remain flexible in their approach to getting work done. Defined roles, small batches of work and regular cadence all  contribute to a focus on product delivery while minimizing risk. 

However, Agile focuses on small teams and once work expands to the enterprise, a scaling methodology is required to enable teams to work while still focusing on the larger strategic picture. Scaled Agile Framework is one such methodology. It maintains the core ideas of Agile but adds roles and ceremonies that allow it to serve at whatever level of the organization is required.  KnowledgeHut best Agile certifications  will help boost your knowledge and get through the exam.

Jim Stewart

Since 2003, as a principal of JP Stewart Associates, Jim has been engaged in multiple endeavors including consulting, training and mentoring. A PMP since 2001 and Certified Scrum Master since 2013, he provides PMP Prep training both in public and private in-house sessions. In consulting, he frequently contributes by helping organizations increase their project maturity. He recently consulted to a financial services firm to help them set up a project management office. Jim is on the PM advisory board of MindEdge, Inc. and is co-author of the upcoming book, “Facilitating Project Planning Meetings: A Practical Guide to Ensuring Project Success.”

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Kanban vs. Scrum Agile methodology: Which is better?

Kanban is a card-based task process visualization tool that can be used on its own or as part of methodologies like Scrum , which is an organizational approach for helping teams manage and optimize complex tasks over time. Both can be incorporated into the broader Agile project management philosophy.

As anyone who's ever tried to slice a tomato with a dull knife will tell you, mise en place is a lot easier if you take the time to sharpen your knife first. That's why I make it a point to try to find the most appropriate project management tactic for a job before I get to work.

My go-to approach is the "waterfall"-style breakdown of linear steps I can progress through one by one. But when a given project turns out to be more complicated than usual because it incorporates multiple team members, collaboration across teams, or industries that involve additional complexities, that one-by-one waterfall trickle can turn into an unmanageable cascade.

In these cases, a more flexible Agile approach makes more sense. While some people mistakenly think of this as a separate concept to pit against Kanban vs. Scrum methodologies, it's actually more of an umbrella they can fall under. Here's how the three terms break down.

Table of contents:

What is Agile methodology?

What is kanban, what is scrum, applying agile methodology: kanban vs. scrum.

Agile vs. Waterfall

Which project management methodology should you use?

What is "agile" project management.

Agile project management (with a little "a") is any application of the greater Agile methodology to help workflows become more responsive. With an agile framework, project managers simplify complex goals into separate groups of tasks for teams to handle in sequences that make sense for their personnel but may not be linear. Agile projects are fluid and adaptive rather than prescriptive.

Agile methods are most popular in industries where projects contain many moving parts and a lot of unknowns, like product and software development. Since Kanban and Scrum are commonly associated with agile, you can think of them as follows:

Agile is an overarching philosophical concept for project management.

Kanban helps organize tasks within a project.

Scrum is an organizational structure.

You could technically use all three concepts at the same time and none would cancel another out. But each concept can also be used separately depending on what the project's priorities are.

As a proper noun, " Agile " refers to the original agile management framework from which other agile approaches have been derived. Conference planners conceived Agile in 2001 to help project manage for the booming software development industry. In their manifesto , they outlined Agile's fundamental tenets as:

"Individuals and interactions over processes and tools"

"Working software over comprehensive documentation"

"Customer collaboration over contract negotiation"

"Responding to change over following a plan"

In practice, Agile methodology is much more flexible than the traditional waterfall approach, which depends on tasks falling in a simple order. Instead, Agile arranges tasks into groupings of smaller projects that, rather than leading to other steps like dominoes, simply build up to the completion of the overall project goal. By reducing a big, complex outcome into separate pieces, tasks can be divided up, so team members can meet individual timelines and adapt as needed.

The benefits of Agile management include:

Faster delivery times

More collaboration

The ability to continuously incorporate customer feedback and adapt to market changes

The trade-off is that Agile projects are more susceptible to scope creep, as the parameters of the project aren't strictly defined. If you're not careful, tasks can get added to the project and it'll balloon into something unmanageable. 

Agile is ideal for:

Organizing projects with a lot of separate parts

Applying changes to projects as they move down the pipeline

Helping teams collaborate effectively

Agile is kind of like a team scavenger hunt. The items on the list don't need to be found in order, and the entire team doesn't need to help find each and every one, so you're better off splitting the list up and having parts of the team work on finding different things at the same time. If one group runs into trouble or gets stuck, the other groups can keep working—it allows the team as a whole to keep progressing even if a part of the team hits an obstacle.

Agile software

Since Agile is a general philosophy rather than a hard-and-fast practice, really any project management platform that isn't waterfall/Gantt chart-specific will work well for Agile projects.

Explore the differences between Trello vs. Jira , two common tools that help teams apply agile methodologies.

Kanban isn't a separate methodology from Agile: it's an approach that can be used in tandem with Agile and other flexible project management styles. 

In fact, Kanban was developed long before Agile was even a thing. It was first developed in the 1940s by a Toyota executive named Taiichi Ohno, and is today recognized as an "agile" project approach because it prioritizes similar values like adaptability, efficiency, and improved collaboration.

The Kanban approach is a means of visualizing a project's status and progress via Kanban boards. (The Japanese word "kanban" means "billboard.") A Kanban board is divided into columns representing different stages of completion, like "not started," "in progress," and "complete." Tasks are sorted into columns and tagged with information, like priority level, person working on it, and project status.

There's no real wrong way to structure a Kanban-style task visualization (typically referred to as a Kanban board), but there are four key concepts that can help you stay on track using Kanban:

Separate tasks into individual cards and consolidate all relevant information, documentation, and assets with them.

To stave off burnout and maintain efficiency, put a realistic limit on the number of cards an individual can juggle at one time while ensuring at least one task is always being advanced.

Prioritize cards by importance.

Never stop scrutinizing the overall performance to ensure efficiency is constantly improving (also called kaizen ).

Kanban doesn't compete with Agile—in fact, it's often used as part of an agile project management approach. Teams can use Kanban boards to help them keep track of their Scrum sprints or stay organized across departments. Just be aware that Kanban doesn't solve any pre-existing workflow issues, like Scrum may be able to, since it's really more of an organizational tool. If the top card in your "To Do" list falls behind and the remaining cards in the list can't start until the top card is completed, it will still cause delays.

Kanban is best for:

Projects involving many teams and players

Distributed teams that need a central project plan

Teams that prefer highly visual project and progress tracking

If you're the type who always starts their project with a big whiteboard, or who maintains a massive wall of sticky notes, or if your project management system ever makes you feel like you're looking for Pepe Silvia , then Kanban boards are for you. 

Kanban software

Trello made its name as the original digital Kanban tool, but nowadays many project management platforms offer Kanban views alongside calendars, Gantt charts , and task lists.  Here's a list of the best Kanban software .

Learn how to automate a Kanban board to update tasks automatically.

Scrum , unlike Agile and Kanban, is a prescriptive structure for managing projects that requires a manager, a team, a predetermined short timeline, and regular progress reporting. A Scrum project uses the following structure:

The project manager, or "Scrum Master," works with their team to identify the set of tasks to be accomplished and organizes them into a "product backlog." This project manager will then arrange smaller sets of tasks into even smaller units of tasks called a "sprint backlog."

The team enters a finite period (typically two to four weeks) called a "sprint." The entire team works through the sprint to complete the tasks in the established backlog, but there's no predefined map or order of priorities for completing these tasks.

As the team progresses through the sprint at their own pace, the project manager leads short meetings called standups every day, during which the team members report their progress and any challenges they've run into.

During a "sprint retrospective" after a sprint, individual team members share their experiences to help identify strengths and weaknesses with the goal of improving the efficiency of upcoming sprints.

Sprints are flexible by design, allowing priorities to change on the fly and ensuring team members are equipped to pivot as needed as unforeseen complications arise.

Scrum is best for:  

Teams with complex, multifaceted objectives

Projects in inherently dynamic industries, like development and tech

Teams working on a product that is actively being used or tested by customers providing feedback

Scrum is the tool to use if your projects change so frequently that they start to feel a bit like a game of Whac-a-Mole, with tiny changes and updates appearing too quickly for a less flexible project management system to adjust. 

Scrum software

The best software platforms for Scrum teams are purpose-built for sprint planning and offer features like backlog management and the ability to organize product versions, features, and releases. Jira is a popular example here.

Scrum vs. Agile

Since Scrum is one of the most popular forms of Agile project management (if not the most popular), Scrum is sometimes confused with Agile or used interchangeably with it. But Scrum is simply a project framework that fits into the Agile philosophy. Scrum can be considered agile, but Agile as a philosophy includes many more approaches than Scrum.

If you're deciding between Kanban vs. Scrum, first remember that they aren't mutually exclusive approaches to managing projects. A Kanban board can be a great tool for tracking individual tasks within a Scrum sprint or organizing an entire sprint or product backlog. But they do have some distinct scenarios they're ideal for.

Agile vs. waterfall

Agile can be viewed in opposition to a more straightforward waterfall approach to project management, as it allows for more nimble movement from task to task and project to project, whereas waterfall moves linearly from one task to the next. Within an agile-style project, teams and individuals can prioritize tasks within groups or cycles as needed, while waterfall projects require a given task to be completed before subsequent tasks can be started.

Many project managers find that an agile approach works best because it allows them to break down projects into more manageable component parts that can be distributed amongst team members. Meanwhile, others find that a waterfall approach is necessary because a complex project requires one team member to complete their task or set of tasks before the next one can proceed.

The Kanban vs. Scrum debate will ultimately come down to how your business or organization is structured and whether you think visualization will help organize tasks. It's not a zero-sum game, though, so it may make sense to apply both to a dispersed team with complex projects and many sub-tasks. You might even find that a more sequential waterfall approach is preferable to an agile one.

In summary:

Kanban is a great fit for teams that would benefit from visualizing tasks to keep them organized.

Scrum can help teams handle inherently complex tasks or meet goals by organizing them into short, flexible sprints.

Agile projects work best for teams with broad goals by allowing them to adapt to changing deadlines, needs, or priorities.

Waterfall frameworks can be effective when tasks or projects require clearly defined linear sequences.

Whichever project management philosophy or methodology you choose, Zapier's no-code automation can help your team move from start to finish.

Related reading:

Workflow automation: Definition, tutorial, and tools

Asana vs. Jira: Which is best?

The best free project management software

The 5-day sprint: How to jumpstart a new app, website, or project

RACI: A map for team structure (with template)

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Amanda Pell

Amanda is a writer and content strategist who built her career writing on campaigns for brands like Nature Valley, Disney, and the NFL. When she's not knee-deep in research, you'll likely find her hiking with her dog or with her nose in a good book.

• Project management

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