In an increasingly complex and rapidly changing business landscape, enterprises must be able to adapt quickly and deliver value in short timeframes to stay competitive.

This necessitates adopting agile principles and frameworks like the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) to coordinate work across large numbers of teams.

The SAFe Agile certification is growing in popularity as a way to develop competencies to lead enterprise-scale agile transformations. But what exactly does a SAFe Agilist do? Let us get into details.

Who is a SAFe Agilist?

A SAFe Agilist is someone certified in implementing the Scaled Agile Framework methodology to scale lean and agile practices across an entire organization. SAFe provides guidance, roles, artifacts, and processes that enable enterprises to take solutions from ideation to deployment quickly using hundreds or thousands of agile team members.

To become certified, individuals must pass the SAFe Agilist exam which tests expertise across the various aspects of the framework – values, principles, practices, program roles, activities, and artifacts. Passing this signifies extensive knowledge and skills in facilitating and coaching SAFe implementations in enterprise environments.

Certified SAFe Agilists possess a solid grasp of core SAFe principles and practices including:

Cultivating Lean-Agile Leadership – They understand how to foster a lean-agile mindset by helping leaders adopt new behaviors and ways of managing. This lays the foundation for transforming organizational culture.
Organizing Solutions into Agile Release Trains – They know how to organize large numbers of people into long-lived, cross-functional Agile Release Trains that collectively plan, build, test, and deploy value in Program Increments.
Coordinating Multiple Trains – They can facilitate coordination between multiple Agile Release Trains as well as with external suppliers to build large, complex solutions.
Leading Execution – They have expertise in leading the execution of Program Increments by guiding teams through PI Planning, pre- and post-PI meetings, and Inspect & Adapt workshops.
Applying Systems Thinking – They understand how to apply systems thinking to unify development, testing, and operations to deliver value flow across large value streams.
Enabling Alignment and Collaboration – They can foster alignment, visibility, and collaboration between potentially hundreds of practitioners organized into ARTs using SAFe cadences, artifacts, and workflow.
Continuous Improvement – They know how to continuously improve productivity, time-to-market, quality, culture, and flow of value by applying measurements and SAFe rituals.

SAFe Agilists take on important guiding roles in SAFe implementations such as Solution Train Engineer, System Architect, or Product Manager.

As Solution Train Engineers, they lead the implementation of SAFe across multiple Agile Release Trains and suppliers required to build large solutions.

As System Architects, they architect the system and solution-level architecture to support the coordinated efforts of multiple teams.

As Product Managers, they manage and deliver Program Increment objectives for one value stream.

In all these roles, SAFe Agilists facilitate adoption by coaching teams and leaders on SAFe. They promote alignment, visibility, and agility across many teams.

Their responsibilities include:
– Working with executives and leaders to instill lean-agile mindsets and culture
– Providing training on SAFe principles and practices to teams
– Facilitating program planning, execution, and delivery across multiple ARTs
– Coaching teams and leadership on adopting SAFe roles, artifacts, and processes
– Supporting continuous improvement of workflows, systems, and practices
– Fostering collaboration, transparency, and alignment across ARTs and suppliers
– Providing metrics and reporting on SAFe implementation progress and outcomes

In an environment of rapid change and digital disruption, leveraging SAFe is key for enterprises to build business agility.

By applying systems thinking and lean-agile practices across the organization, SAFe Agilists empower companies to rapidly respond to shifting market needs and opportunities.

They enable faster time-to-market by coordinating the work of hundreds of practitioners to build large, complex solutions in a productive and sustainable way.

With their expertise in enterprise agile execution, SAFe Agilists play a critical role in leading successful transformations that allow organizations to deliver value and stay competitive.

Interested in becoming a SAFe Agilist? Attend our 2 days training course for Leading SAFe and become a certified SAFe Agilist.