How To Prepare for and Pass Leading SAFe
What is Leading SAFe? Who should attend Leading SAFe? How to become a SAFe Agilist? How to pass the Leading SAFe exam?
An increasing number of organizations are adopting SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) as their chosen approach for scaling, and are seeking candidates with SAFe experience and certifications, and/or training their existing staff. As of 2021, over 1 million people have trained in SAFe worldwide (remarkably this has doubled since 2019).
Leading SAFe is the most popular SAFe course and the best introduction to SAFe. I am a SAFe Program Consultant (SPC) and a Leading SAFe trainer. Below I answer some of the most commonly asked questions about the course and also offer some tips to help you prepare for the course and pass the exam.
What is Leading SAFe?
Leading SAFe is typically a 2-day course. It offers an introduction to the foundations of SAFe. According to Scaled Agile, the course helps attendees understand:
(1) What is SAFe?
(2) What is business agility and how is it supported by SAFe?
(3) How does an organization get started with SAFe?
It is taught by Certified SAFe Program Consultants (SPC) or SAFe Program Consultant Trainers (SPCT) and can be delivered in a private setting (i.e. within your organization) or a public class setting.
Is Leading SAFe the same as SAFe Agilist?
The course is called ‘Leading SAFe’ and the certification is called ‘SAFe Agilist’. Some of the other SAFe courses share names with the associated certification, but not Leading SAFe.
Who should attend Leading SAFe?
The Leading SAFe course is primarily aimed at those in leadership/ management positions, key influencers, and stakeholders.
It is featured in 3 steps on the SAFe Implementation Roadmap (see diagram below): (1) At the tipping point, when a need for change is identified, (2) training management, as part of a guiding coalition for change, and (3) training any remaining leaders and stakeholders, as part of the preparation for the Agile Release Train (ART) launch.
However, Leading SAFe is also the nearest thing Scaled Agile has to an introduction or generalist course, so it is popular with people who are new to SAFe.
If you have a specialized role: Scrum Master, Product Owner, Product Manager, Architect, or Release Train Engineer, you may prefer to look at the courses that are dedicated to those roles. However, these courses are more advanced and are often better taken after Leading SAFe if possible (particularly the RTE course which is an advanced difficulty course).
Team members (i.e. the majority of the people on the Agile Release Train) are better served by the SAFe for Teams course, which is focused on the practices related to team-level execution of SAFe.
So to summarize, you should attend leading SAFe if you are either:
- Looking for a generalist introduction to SAFe
- Working as a manager/leader/stakeholder in an organization that is considering implementing or has implemented SAFe
How to prepare for the Leading SAFe course
There are no prerequisites for attending Leading SAFe, but there are a few things you should do before the class:
- Come prepared to participate in an intense and interactive course! The course is very interactive with various activities and discussions being held in breakout groups. Make sure you are able to attend the entire course with minimal distractions.
- Make sure you know how to join the classes (i.e. you have the invite links if it is a remote class).
- If it is a remote class, ensure you have tested the tech. Your instructor may check this with you, but otherwise, you should make sure you are able to use any digital tools that are being used to deliver the course (video conferencing software, digital whiteboards, communication tools, etc).
Tip: If your company has strict security settings you may want to use a personal device. - In advance of attending the course, you should read the following SAFe articles :(1) Business Agility, (2) Lean-Agile Mindset, (3) Team and Technical Agility, (4) Agile Product Delivery, (5) Lean Portfolio Management, (6) Lean-Agile Leadership, and explore the Full SAFe Configuration at the Scaled Agile Framework website: https://www.scaledagileframework.com.
What to expect during the Leading SAFe course?
The Leading SAFe course is typically 2 days long and is quite intense! It is aimed at those in leadership roles or key stakeholders. It may be held in person or remotely. It is highly interactive with many group breakout activities. Typical class sizes are around 10–20 people.
The course is primarily focused on four of the seven Core Competencies of the Lean Enterprise: (1) Lean-Agile Leadership, (2) Team and Technical Agility, (3) Agile Product Delivery, and (4) Lean Portfolio Management.
Day 1 — Starts with an overview of SAFe, and then focuses on Lean-Agile Leadership through the lens of the ten SAFe Lean-Agile Principles. There is then a lesson on Team and Technical Agility, which covers Agile Teams, Agile Release Trains, and Quality practices. The day usually concludes by starting the Agile Product Delivery lesson and discussing Customer Centricity and Design Thinking.
Day 2 — Picks up continuing the Agile Product Delivery lesson. After learning about the Program Backlog, much of the day is focused on a PI Planning simulation. The attendees are put into teams and do a simulation of PI Planning based on a scenario briefed by the course instructor. The lesson concludes with a section on DevOps and the Continuous Delivery Pipeline. The next lesson covers Lean Portfolio Management and discusses how to align strategy and execution. After that, there is a lesson on Leading the Change, which focuses on the attendee's roles as Lean-Agile Leaders and discusses SAFe Implementation. The course concludes with a brief final lesson that covers the SAFe Community Platform, where attendees take the exam and can access additional tools and resources.
Below are screenshots of two Miro boards that I use to teach the course remotely. The tools that you use vary depending on your instructor. If the course is being delivered remotely they will most likely be using some kind of online whiteboard (Miro, Mural, etc) and a video conferencing tool (Zoom, MS Teams, etc) with breakout rooms.
As you can see in the image below there is lots of content and many interactive activities. In this example, we had enough people to form 3 groups for breakout activities.
The second board below is for the PI Planning Simulation on Day 2. I like to use the Geek Books example, which is an online book store. In this activity, the teams participate in a condensed simulation of PI Planning, with participants playing the roles of Scrum Master, Product Owner, and team members.
How difficult is the Leading SAFe exam?
The Leading SAFe 5.1 exam is 90 minutes, and 45 questions with a 35/45 (77%) score required to pass. Questions are multiple-choice, and the exam is taken online after the course (you have a time limit of 30 days to sit the exam). The exam is taken online in your web browser via Scaled Agile’s Community Platform, which you will receive an invite to after registering for a course.
It is not an easy course but most people should pass it if they prepare properly. Scaled Agile categorizes this exam as “Foundational; Competent, some knowledge or experience; can perform tasks with assistance”. If you don’t pass on your first attempt you can purchase additional resits for $50 per attempt.
How to pass Leading SAFe
Below are some tips to help you pass the Leading SAFe exam:
- Do the pre-course reading, so you understand more when attending the class
- Pay close attention to the Exam Study Guide (click here). It provides a percentage breakdown of the topics that appear in the exam (i.e. 9% of the exam is focused on Team and Technical Agility). Be aware that there is additional reading that you need to do. Some answers are not covered during the course but are discussed in the articles listed in the Exam Study Guide.
- Make use of the practice exam on the SAFe Community Platform. It is an exact replica of the real exam in terms of the format. You can sit the practice as many times as you want (the questions do not change but the order does). Try to score about 90% before sitting the actual exam. Note:
About half of my students say the difficulty level of the practice vs actual exam is equal, but the other half have told me they found the practice exam to be easier. - Study the areas you are weak in. Team members often struggle with the Lean Portfolio Management questions. Whilst managers often struggle with the questions on Team and Technical Agility.
- If possible take the exam within around 10 days of attending the course, while the information is fresh in your mind.
After passing the exam you will receive a digital certificate (like mine below).
You will also receive an email to activate and claim your digital badge, which you can use to share and verify your achievement with your professional network.
Final thoughts
I hope this article helps you prepare for Leading SAFe, and that you enjoy the course! If you are looking for an introduction to SAFe, Leading SAFe is a great choice. By attending Leading SAFe you will understand:
- What SAFe is and what capabilities it helps to enable
- SAFe’s ten Lean-Agile Principles and the practices and behaviors that support them
- What a team-of-teams approach looks like (ART)
- How to align strategy and execution (LPM)
- What PI Planning looks and feels like
- What your role is as a leader
I do not currently teach public SAFe classes, but if you have any questions about the course or SAFe in general, then please feel free to contact me at www.linkedin.com/in/tom-boswell/ or at www.tomboswell.com and I will help you out if I can 😀
If you wish to read more of my articles about SAFe please follow me on Medium here https://blog.tomboswell.com and/or subscribe to my newsletter for notifications.
