Agile Product Delivery is a customer-centric approach to defining, building, and releasing a continuous flow of valuable products and services to customers and users.

The Agile Release Train (ART) 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.

In SAFe, an Agile team is a cross-functional group of 5-11 individuals who define, build,
test, and deliver an increment of value in a short time box.

The Architectural Runway consists of the existing code, components, and technical
infrastructure needed to implement near-term features without excessive redesign and
delay.

Business Agility is the ability to compete and thrive in the digital age by quickly responding to market changes and emerging opportunities with innovative, digitally-enabled business solutions.

Built-In Quality practices ensure that each Solution element, at every increment, meets
appropriate quality standards throughout development.

The Business and Technology icon in SAFe describes how functional domains in all parts of the enterprise enable business agility by continuously exploring new ways to apply Lean-Agile principles and practices to their unique contexts.

Business Owners are a small group of stakeholders who have the primary business and
technical responsibility for governance, compliance, and return on investment (ROI) for
a Solution developed by an Agile Release Train (ART). They are key stakeholders on
the ART who must evaluate fitness for use and actively participate in certain ART
events.

SAFe’s CALMR approach to DevOps is a mindset that guides ARTs toward achieving continuous value delivery by managing simultaneous advancements in delivery culture, automation, lean flow, measurement, and recovery.

A Capability is a higher-level solution behavior that typically spans multiple ARTs.
Capabilities are sized and split into multiple features to facilitate their implementation in
a single PI.

Communities of Practice (CoPs) are organized groups of people who have a common
interest in a specific technical or business domain. They collaborate regularly to share
information, improve their skills, and actively work on advancing the general knowledge
of the domain.

Compliance refers to a strategy and a set of activities and artifacts that allow teams to
apply Lean-Agile development methods to build systems that have the highest possible
quality, while simultaneously assuring they meet any regulatory, industry, or other
relevant

The Continuous Delivery Pipeline (CDP) represents the workflows, activities, and
automation needed to shepherd a new piece of functionality from ideation to an ondemand
release of value to the end user.

Continuous Deployment (CD) is the process that takes validated Features in a staging
environment and deploys them into the production environment, where they are readied
for release.

Continuous Exploration (CE) is the process that drives innovation and fosters alignment
on what should be built by continually exploring market and customer needs, and
defining a Vision, Roadmap, and set of Features for a Solution that addresses those
needs.

Continuous Integration (CI) is the process of taking features from the Program Backlog
and developing, testing, integrating, and validating them in a staging environment where
they are ready for deployment and release.

The Continuous Learning Culture competency describes a set of values and practices that encourage individuals—and the enterprise as a whole—to continually increase knowledge, competence, performance, and innovation.

The four Core Values of alignment, built-in quality, transparency, and program
execution represent the fundamental beliefs that are key to SAFe’s effectiveness. These
guiding principles help dictate behavior and action for everyone who participates in a
SAFe portfolio.

Customers are the ultimate beneficiaries of the value of the business solutions created and maintained by the portfolio value streams.

Customer centricity is a mindset and a way of doing business that focuses on creating positive experiences for the customer through the full set of products and services that the enterprise offers.

Design Thinking is a customer-centric development process that creates desirable products that are profitable and sustainable over their lifecycle.

Development value streams (DVS) are the sequence of activities needed to convert a business hypothesis into a digitally-enabled Solution. Examples include designing a medical device or geophysical satellite, or developing and deploying a software application, SaaS system, or an e-commerce web site.

DevOps is a mindset, a culture, and a set of technical practices. It provides
communication, integration, automation, and close cooperation among all the people
needed to plan, develop, test, deploy, release, and maintain a Solution.

An Enabler supports the activities needed to extend the Architectural Runway to provide
future business functionality. These include exploration, architecture, infrastructure, and
compliance. Enablers are captured in the various backlogs and occur throughout the
Framework.

The enterprise architect establishes a technology strategy and roadmap that enables a portfolio to support current and future business capabilities.

The Enterprise represents the business entity to which each SAFe portfolio belongs.

The Enterprise Solution Delivery competency describes how to apply Lean-Agile
principles and practices to the specification, development, deployment, operation, and
evolution of the world’s largest and most sophisticated software applications, networks,
and cyber-physical systems.

An Epic is a container for a significant Solution development initiative that captures the
more substantial investments that occur within a portfolio. Due to their considerable
scope and impact, epics require the definition of a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and
approval by Lean Portfolio Management (LPM) before implementation.

Epic Owners are responsible for coordinating portfolio Epics through the Portfolio
Kanban system. They collaboratively define the epic, its Minimum Viable Product
(MVP), and Lean business case, and when approved, facilitate implementation.

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.

A Feature is a service that fulfills a stakeholder need. Each feature includes a benefit
hypothesis and acceptance criteria, and is sized or split as necessary to be delivered by
a single Agile Release Train (ART) in a Program Increment (PI).

The Foundation contains the supporting principles, values, mindset, implementation
guidance, and leadership roles needed to deliver value successfully at scale.

Full SAFe is the most comprehensive configuration, including all seven core
competencies needed for business agility.

The Innovation and Planning (IP) Iteration occurs every Program Increment (PI) and
serves multiple purposes. It acts as an estimating buffer for meeting PI Objectives and
provides dedicated time for innovation, continuing education, PI Planning, and Inspect
and Adapt (I&A) events.

The Inspect and Adapt (I&A) is a significant event, held at the end of each Program
Increment (PI), where the current state of the Solution is demonstrated and evaluated
by the train. Teams then reflect and identify improvement backlog items via a
structured, problem-solving workshop.

Iterations are the basic building block of Agile development. Each iteration is a
standard, fixed-length timebox, where Agile Teams deliver incremental value in the form
of working, tested software and systems. The recommended duration of the timebox is two weeks. However, one to four weeks is acceptable, depending on the business
context.

Iteration Execution is how Agile Teams manage their work throughout the Iteration
timebox, resulting in a high-quality, working, tested system increment.

Iteration Goals are a high-level summary of the business and technical goals that the
Agile Team agrees to accomplish in an Iteration. They are vital to coordinating an Agile
Release Train (ART) as a self-organizing, self-managing team of teams.

Iteration Planning is an event where all team members determine how much of the
Team Backlog they can commit to delivering during an upcoming Iteration. The team
summarizes the work as a set of committed Iteration Goals.

The Iteration Retrospective is a regular meeting where Agile Team members discuss
the results of the Iteration, review their practices, and identify ways to improve.

The Iteration Review is a cadence-based event, where each team inspects the
increment at the end of every Iteration to assess progress, and then adjusts its backlog
for the next iteration.

Large Solution SAFe describes additional roles, practices, and guidance to build and
evolve the world's largest applications, networks, and cyber-physical systems.

Lean Budget Guardrails describe the policies and practices for budgeting, spending,
and governance for a specific portfolio.

Lean Budgets provide effective financial governance over investments, with far less
overhead and friction, and supports a much higher throughput of development work.

The Lean Enterprise is a thriving digital age organization that exhibits business agility —
responding quickly to market changes and emerging opportunities by delivering
innovative systems and solutions to its customers in the shortest sustainable lead-time.

The Lean Portfolio Management competency aligns strategy and execution by applying
Lean and systems thinking approaches to strategy and investment funding, Agile
portfolio operations, and governance.

Lean User Experience (Lean UX) design is a mindset, culture, and a process that
embraces Lean-Agile methods. It implements functionality in minimum viable
increments and determines success by measuring results against a benefit hypothesis.

The Lean-Agile Leadership competency describes how Lean-Agile Leaders drive and
sustain organizational change and operational excellence by empowering individuals
and teams to reach their highest potential.

Measure and Grow is the way portfolios evaluate their progress towards business agility and determine their next improvement steps.

The Lean-Agile Mindset is the combination of beliefs, assumptions, attitudes, and
actions of SAFe leaders and practitioners who embrace the concepts of the Agile
Manifesto and Lean thinking. It’s the personal, intellectual, and leadership foundation for
adopting and applying SAFe principles and practices.

SAFe is based on ten immutable, underlying Lean-Agile principles. These tenets and
economic concepts inspire and inform the roles and practices of SAFe.

Metrics are agreed-upon measures used to evaluate how well the organization is
progressing toward the portfolio, large solution, program, and team’s business and
technical objectives.

Milestones are used to track progress toward a specific goal or event. There are three
types of SAFe milestones: Program Increment (PI), fixed-date, and learning milestones.

Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) is the practice of developing a set of related
system models that help define, design, and document a system under development.
These models provide an efficient way to explore, update, and communicate system
aspects to stakeholders, while significantly reducing or eliminating dependence on
traditional documents.

Nonfunctional Requirements (NFRs) define system attributes such as security,
reliability, performance, maintainability, scalability, and usability. They serve as
constraints or restrictions on the design of the system across the different backlogs.

Operational value streams (OVS) are the sequence of activities needed to deliver a product or service to a customer. Examples include manufacturing a product, fulfilling an order, admitting and treating a medical patient, providing a loan, or delivering a professional service.

The Organizational Agility competency describes how Lean-thinking people and Agile teams optimize their business processes, evolve strategy with clear and decisive new commitments, and quickly adapt the organization as needed to capitalize on new opportunities.

Participatory Budgeting (PB) is the process that Lean Portfolio Management (LPM) uses to allocate the total portfolio budget to its value streams.

Program Increment (PI) Objectives are a summary of the business and technical goals
that an Agile Team or train intends to achieve in the upcoming Program Increment (PI).

The Portfolio Backlog is the highest-level backlog in SAFe. It provides a holding area for
upcoming business and enabler Epics intended to create and evolve a comprehensive
set of Solutions.

The Portfolio Kanban system is a method to visualize and manage the flow of portfolio
Epics, from ideation through analysis, implementation, and completion.

Portfolio SAFe aligns strategy with execution and organizes solution development
around the flow of value through one or more value streams.

The Portfolio Vision is a description of the future state of a portfolio’s Value Streams and
Solutions and describes how they will cooperate to achieve the portfolio's objectives and
the broader aim of the Enterprise.

Pre– and Post–Program Increment (PI) Planning events are used to prepare for, and
follow up after, PI Planning for Agile Release Trains (ARTs) and Suppliers in a Solution
Train.

Product Management is responsible for defining and supporting the building of
desirable, feasible, viable, and sustainable products that meet customer needs over the
product-market lifecycle.

The Product Owner (PO) is a member of the Agile Team responsible for defining Stories
and prioritizing the Team Backlog to streamline the execution of program priorities while
maintaining the conceptual and technical integrity of the Features or components for the
team.

The Program Backlog is the holding area for upcoming Features, which are intended to
address user needs and deliver business benefits for a single Agile Release Train
(ART). It also contains the enabler features necessary to build the Architectural
Runway.

A Program Increment (PI) is a timebox during which an Agile Release Train (ART)
delivers incremental value in the form of working, tested software and systems. PIs are
typically 8 – 12 weeks long. The most common pattern for a PI is four development
Iterations, followed by one Innovation and Planning (IP) Iteration.

Program Increment (PI) Planning is a cadence-based, face-to-face event that serves as
the heartbeat of the Agile Release Train (ART), aligning all the teams on the ART to a
shared mission and Vision.

The Program and Solution Kanban systems are a method to visualize and manage the
flow of Features and Capabilities from ideation to analysis, implementation, and
release through the Continuous Delivery Pipeline.

The Release Train Engineer (RTE) is a servant leader and coach for the Agile Release
Train (ART). The RTE’s major responsibilities are to facilitate the ART events and
processes and assist the teams in delivering value. RTEs communicate with
stakeholders, escalate impediments, help manage risk, and drive relentless
improvement.

Release on Demand is the process that deploys new functionality into production and
releases it immediately or incrementally to customers based on demand.

The Roadmap is a schedule of events and Milestones that communicate planned
Solution deliverables over a planning horizon.

The SAFe Implementation Roadmap consists of an overview graphic and a 12-article
series that describes a strategy and an ordered set of activities that have proven to be
effective in successfully implementing SAFe.

Certified SAFe® Program Consultants (SPCs) are change agents who combine their
technical knowledge of SAFe with an intrinsic motivation to improve the company’s
software and systems development processes. They play a critical role in successfully
implementing SAFe. SPCs come from numerous internal or external roles, including
business and technology leaders, portfolio/program/project managers, process leads,
architects, analysts, and consultants.

SAFe for Government is a set of success patterns that help public sector organizations
implement Lean-Agile practices in a government context.

SAFe® for Lean Enterprises is a knowledge base of proven, integrated principles,
practices, and competencies for achieving business agility by implementing Lean, Agile,
and DevOps at scale.

Scrum Masters are servant leaders and coaches for an Agile Team. They help educate
the team in Scrum, Extreme Programming (XP), Kanban, and SAFe, ensuring that the
agreed Agile process is being followed. They also help remove impediments and foster
an environment for high-performing team dynamics, continuous flow, and relentless
improvement.

ScrumXP is a lightweight process to deliver value for cross-functional, self-organized
teams within SAFe. It combines the power of Scrum project management practices with
Extreme Programming (XP) practices.

Set-Based Design (SBD) is a practice that keeps requirements and design options
flexible for as long as possible during the development process. Instead of choosing a
single point solution upfront, SBD identifies and simultaneously explores multiple
options, eliminating poorer choices over time. It enhances flexibility in the design
process by committing to technical solutions only after validating assumptions, which
produces better economic results.

Shared Services represents the specialty roles, people, and services required for the
success of an Agile Release Train (ART) or Solution Train, but that cannot be dedicated
full-time.

Each Value Stream produces one or more Solutions, which are products, services, or
systems delivered to the customer, whether internal or external to the Enterprise.

Solution Architect/Engineering is responsible for defining and communicating a shared
technical and architectural vision across a Solution Train to help ensure the system or
Solution under development is fit for its intended purpose.

The Solution Backlog is the holding area for upcoming Capabilities and Enablers, each
of which can span multiple ARTs and is intended to advance the Solution and build its
architectural runway.

Solution Context identifies critical aspects of the operational environment for a Solution.
It provides an essential understanding of requirements, usage, installation, operation,
and support of the solution itself. Solution context heavily influences opportunities and
constraints for releasing on demand.

The Solution Demo is where the results of development efforts from the Solution Train
are integrated, evaluated, and made visible to Customers and other stakeholders.

Solution Intent is the repository for storing, managing, and communicating the
knowledge of current and intended Solution behavior. Where required, this includes
both fixed and variable specifications and designs; reference to applicable standards,
system models, and functional and nonfunctional tests; and traceability.

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 is the organizational construct used to build large and complex
Solutions that require the coordination of multiple Agile Release Trains (ARTs), as well
as the contributions of Suppliers. It aligns ARTs with a shared business and technology
mission using the solution Vision, Backlog, and Roadmap, and an aligned Program
Increment (PI).

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.

The Spanning Palette contains various roles and artifacts that may apply to a specific
team, program, large solution, or portfolio context.

Stories are short descriptions of a small piece of desired functionality, written in the
user’s language. Agile Teams implement small, vertical slices of system functionality
and are sized so they can be completed in a single Iteration.

Strategic Themes are differentiating business objectives that connect a portfolio to the
strategy of the Enterprise. They influence portfolio strategy and provide business
context for portfolio decision-making.

A Supplier is an internal or external organization that develops and delivers
components, subsystems, or services that help Solution Trains and Agile Release
Trains provide Solutions to their Customers.

System Architect/Engineering is responsible for defining and communicating a shared
technical and architectural vision for an Agile Release Train (ART) to help ensure the
system or Solution under development is fit for its intended purpose.

The System Demo is a significant event that provides an integrated view of new
Features for the most recent Iteration delivered by all the teams in the Agile Release
Train (ART). Each demo gives ART stakeholders an objective measure of progress
during a Program Increment (PI).

The System Team is a specialized Agile Team that assists in building and supporting
the Agile development environment, typically including development and maintenance
of the toolchain that supports the Continuous Delivery Pipeline. The System Team may
also support the integration of assets from Agile teams, perform end-to-end Solution
testing where necessary, and assists with deployment and Release on Demand.

The Team and Technical Agility competency describes the critical skills and Lean-Agile principles and practices that high-performing Agile teams and Teams of Agile teams use to create high-quality solutions for their customers.

The Team Backlog contains user and enabler Stories that originate from the Program
Backlog, as well as stories that arise locally from the team’s local context. It may include
other work items as well, representing all the things a team needs to do to advance their
portion of the system.

Team Kanban is a method that helps teams facilitate the flow of value by visualizing
workflow, establishing Work In Process (WIP) limits, measuring throughput, and
continuously improving their process.

Value Stream Coordination defines how to manage dependencies and exploit the
opportunities that exist only in the interconnections between 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.

Value Stream Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are the quantifiable measures used to evaluate how a value stream is performing against its forecasted business outcomes.

The Vision is a description of the future state of the Solution under development. It
reflects customer and stakeholder needs, as well as the Feature and Capabilities
proposed to meet those needs.

Weighted Shortest Job First (WSJF) is a prioritization model used to sequence jobs
(eg., Features, Capabilities, and Epics) to produce maximum economic benefit. In
SAFe, WSJF is estimated as the Cost of Delay (CoD) divided by job size.