Applied SAFe Product Variations

Applied SAFe® Product Variations

Applied SAFe® is available in several product variations. Before we describe the differences, here are some features which all Applied SAFe products variations have in common:

‘Ready to start with‘ and in sync with the forthcoming versions of the Scaled Agile Framework.
To make your life as easy as possible we provide Applied SAFe® as a managed cloud service but you can also execute it on your private cloud.
Applied SAFe® includes the SAFe® licenses which grant you to use all content in your trainings or project work; only training materials need to be licensed separately. Supplementary trainings can be added according to your individual needs either provided by us or any of our global partners.
Extend or alter Applied SAFe® with your own needs and features, while still being able to upgrade to newer versions of Applied SAFe®. This option includes all used pictures and models in its original form.
Establish relentless improvement by using the built-in and seamlessly integrated knowledge management processes and system.
Applied SAFe is a comprehensive process model with roles, activities, processes, guidelines, metrics, milestones and phases needed to bring such a framework to life. Each version is officially approved by the Scaled Agile Inc, the inventor and the content authority for the Scaled Agile Framework®.
Applied SAFe includes mechanisms for user administration and/or integration with user management systems like LDAP.
Run metrics; for example, process improvement metrics on each level of Applied SAFe. You can enhance metrics to work with your specific ALM-Tools and build up your company specific metric dashboard.
PEDCO delivers support and coaching for your teams to easily adapt Applied SAFe® to their individual needs. PEDCO and our global partners will train, coach and support you in learning how to get started, enhance and use Applied SAFe® as a process model.
As a customer, you can always decide if you want to stay on your own version or the newest version of Applied SAFe. This allows you to easily follow the latest development in the industry.

PEDCO AG is a proud collaboration partner of Scaled Agile, Inc.

SAFe® and Scaled Agile Framework® are registered trademarks of Scaled Agile, Inc.

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It is exciting to see PEDCO’s Applied SAFe® come to life as a sophisticated, enterprise-ready solution for organizations wanting to adapt SAFe to their context and accelerate better business outcomes. We are extremely pleased to be partnering with the outstanding innovators at PEDCO on this important contribution to the SAFe community. The potential to help ease the way for fully comprehensive SAFe adoption is enormous.

Michael Stump, Managing Director EMEA and SAFe Fellow, Scaled Agile Inc.

This collaboration demonstrates our commitment to exploring new entry points and approaches to adopting the Scaled Agile Framework®, We are pleased to be working with such outstanding innovators as PEDCO’s Peter Pedross and his team. The potential to help ease the way for fully comprehensive SAFe adoption is enormous.

Dean Leffingwell, Chief Methodologist and creator of the Scaled Agile Framework, Scaled Agile Inc.

The user feedback on Applied SAFe® is inspiring and acknowledges that our approach for process engineering and its lean-agile application combined with regulatory compliance is of great value. Our cloud-based SAFe® implementation as an executable process model on Stages is percived as an enabler for modern systems engineering and R&D organisations globally.

Stefan Küffer, Principal Process Engineer, PEDCO - Managed Process Services

“We truly understand the challenges faced by our clients when implementing SAFe, particularly for those operating in regulated industries. By working in partnership, PEDCO and cPrime are uniquely positioned to provide customized and comprehensive enterprise-ready solutions for organizations wanting to adapt SAFe to their context. With PEDCO’s Applied SAFe, the potential to smooth the path to a full SAFe adoption that ultimately translates to high business value and customer delight is substantial.”

Eyal Abukasis, Chief Operations Officer, cPrime

Applied SAFe® is available in several variations as described below. These variations build on each other. It’s possible to start small with Essential and grow into an Enterprise-wide implementation.

Essential

Start small and cost-effective with the Essential package that includes only the indispensable elements of SAFe®

With the rising success of the Scaled Agile Framework® and its usage, a lot of new companies are starting their journey into SAFe®. This license level represents the indispensable elements of SAFe®. If you implement these, you are on the right track for your first essential business benefits. After that, you can go further into the rest of the practices and constructs – whether at the Team, Program, Large Solution, or Portfolio level. This license level comprises of the SAFe® Essential content and the PEDCO Knowledge Management process. It is pre-tailored and only available as a single instance.

Applied SAFe® Essential allows you to start with a small and cost-effective package. This has the advantage that a company, or a department within a larger enterprise, can start with the minimum requirement for doing SAFe®.

The benefit is that you can gather first experiences with the application of SAFe® and harmonize teams towards a common approach. This allows you to easily migrate to other levels like Managed or Enterprise at a later stage, including your own extensions, which will be upward compatible.

Purpose: For clients wishing to explore and train the Scaled Agile Framework up to Program level. It serves as an entry package for organizations that start their first Agile Release Trains with no need to further scale up to portfolio level.

Benefits:

Speed-up your learning curve and concentrate only on the essential elements of SAFe®.
Gather first experiences with the application of SAFe®.
Harmonize teams towards a common approach.
Easily migrate to other license levels like Managed or Enterprise at a later stage, including your own extensions.
The entry page can be customized with your company logo and some additional individual content, this is a free service included in the Essential license.
SAFe® updates are released for no additional costs, you decide by when they are deployed.

Foundation

Comprehensive process instance for each SAFe® level with activities, roles, work products, practices, templates

Applied SAFe® Foundation license allows you to browse a ‘reasonable‘ configuration of Applied SAFe®. It is a reasonable [Full, Portfolio, Large Solution, Essential] configuration including all additional processes from PEDCO (Organizational Deployment, Governance, Product Management, Formal Risk Management, Organizational Training, Process Management)

Purpose: This is for clients wishing to explore how the Scaled Agile Framework® can be integrated and trained on each SAFe® level. Use this license for an easy and cost effective launch of scaled agility in your company or for a defined product line or development organization. This out-of-the-box configuration includes all relevant SAFe® content and additional PEDCO processes and avoids complex elements that are only used in specific situations. First-time users feel much more comfortable which boosts your agile change initiative and saves effort. A later extension on a higher Applied SAFe® license level is always possible.

Benefits:

Applied SAFe® Foundation comes with a ‘reasonable‘, pre-configured setup of Applied SAFe® for instant use. This out-of-the-box configuration includes all relevant SAFe® content including templates and avoids complex elements that are only used in specific situations.
You decide which SAFe® level you want to work in. Depending on the chosen setup Applied SAFe® includes the relevant elements which again makes the SAFe® adoption much easier and increases acceptance.
Dependent of the chosen setup, the Large Solution and Program level are correctly configured regarding the application of Solution and Release Management, Roadmaps, Milestones, Visions, and frequent Increment integration.
The entry page can be customized with your company logo and some additional individual content, this is a free service included in the Foundation license.
SAFe® updates are released for no additional costs, you decide by when they are deployed.

Managed

Create customized Applied SAFe® instances of Portfolio, Large Solution, Program and Team level using the automated and manual Tailoring Capabilities

The Applied SAFe® Managed license comprises of the full content of Applied SAFe® and offers individual customization based on assisted tailoring on each level. Applied SAFe® Managed allows you to instantiate and customize as many times as needed and run them as different coexistent and concurrent organization specific process instances. Each Applied SAFe® level: Enterprise, Portfolio, Large Solution, Program, and Team, comprises of the complete SAFe® content extended by Level-5 process capabilities from PEDCO as well as a wide range of automated and manual tailoring capabilities.

Extensions allow you to add your own process elements or adjust Applied SAFe® content, it includes the relevant concepts and models to support best-in-class process design capabilities. This allows compliance mappings to existing reference models like ISO 9001, CMMI, IEC 62304.

Purpose: This is for organizations, wishing to instantiate individually for many product lines or development organizations. As well as customize the SAFe® usage based on pre-built tailoring options to increase organization efficiency and eliminate waste. This easy to use customization option can be applied without a process engineering team.

Benefits:

Applied SAFe® Managed offers pre-built tailoring options for easy usage without being dependent on a process engineering team.
Full flexibility to customize and instantiate each SAFe® level as often as you need to satisfy the different needs of your product lines or development organizations.
Each instance entry page can be customized with individual product or organization logos and additional individual content.
Portfolio tailoring allows to include/exclude coordination activities for a complex system of system development e.g. Central Release Management, Multiple Solution Alignment, Deployment Coordination (DevOps), Customer Roadshows.
Value Stream and Program tailoring allow e.g. to include/exclude the Epic Kanban part or to adjust Solution and Release Management, Roadmaps, Milestones, Visions including frequent Increment integration dependent of the chosen setup.
Teams can choose between ScrumXP and Kanban or a hybrid of both including the needed metrics and tools.
Tailoring on each Applied SAFe® level instance allows to include/exclude PEDCO’s built-in knowledge improvement mechanism, which is seamlessly integrated with the activities of the processes.
Option on demand: Compliance to existing reference models (e.g. CMMI, Automotive SPICE, AS9100, ISO 9001, ISO 13485, ISO 26262, IEC 62304) can be mapped to processes.

Enterprise

Use Applied SAFe® with individual work product file and state management on each process instance and sophisticated review mechanisms

The Applied SAFe® Enterprise license provides all the capabilities in the other levels, plus state management of Work Products with integrated and sophisticated review mechanisms. For organizations, managing Work Products within Applied SAFe® via the integrated or an external CMS. Individual reference model extensions and life cycle management allow you to perform quality reviews within Applied SAFe®.

Purpose: This is the version for companies willing to invest and empower their own process engineering team by letting them make use of all capabilities of the underlying tool ‘Stages’ from Method Park. Work product state management and metrics provide the mechanism to steer and control any development activity on each SAFe® level to achieve product and process compliance.

Benefits:

Work product state management on each SAFe® instance allows the portfolio, large solution, program or team members to manage their project results professional and in compliance with given reference models and policies.
Review or assessment activities of quality management, architecture or any other reviewing discipline can be organized efficiently including easy-to-use reporting functions.
Your own process engineering team has full access to manage the content with the underlying tool ‘Stages’ from Method Park. Optionally, PEDCO also offers in-sourcing of this service in case this responsibility is not defined in your core functions.
PEDCO delivers support and coaching for your teams to easily adapt Applied SAFe® to their individual needs.
No constraints to integrate any domain-specific reference models or internal guidelines and policies which can be mapped to your available process assets.
Enhance the existing metric model with your own metrics and execute them in the dashboard.
Tailoring on each Applied SAFe® level instance allows to include/exclude PEDCO’s built-in knowledge improvement mechanism, which is seamlessly integrated with the activities of the processes.