SA SAFe Agilist Transformation and Leadership 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which SAFe principle directly supports the transformation practice of decentralizing decision-making?
- Principle #1: Take an economic view
- Principle #9: Decentralize decision-making (Correct answer)
- Principle #5: Base milestones on objective evaluation of working systems
- Principle #3: Assume variability; preserve options
Correct answer: Principle #9: Decentralize decision-making
SAFe Principle #9 explicitly advocates pushing decisions to the lowest competent level to increase speed and reduce delays.
Question 2: What is the purpose of a 'transformation backlog' in a SAFe adoption?
- Storing unfinished sprint work from Agile teams
- Capturing and prioritizing the work required to implement SAFe across the organization (Correct answer)
- Tracking bugs found during System Demos
- Recording PI Objectives that were not met
Correct answer: Capturing and prioritizing the work required to implement SAFe across the organization
The transformation backlog holds the prioritized list of improvement and implementation actions needed to advance the SAFe adoption.
Question 3: In SAFe, which event is most critical for aligning leadership on transformation progress?
- Daily Stand-up
- Iteration Retrospective
- Inspect and Adapt (I&A) Workshop (Correct answer)
- Backlog Refinement
Correct answer: Inspect and Adapt (I&A) Workshop
The Inspect and Adapt (I&A) Workshop is a structured event where teams and leaders reflect on performance and identify improvement actions.
Question 4: A company has started SAFe but middle managers are not embracing the change. What is the BEST approach?
- Bypass middle managers and work directly with teams
- Provide Lean-Agile training and coaching to middle managers (Correct answer)
- Remove middle managers from the organization structure
- Delay transformation until all managers are aligned
Correct answer: Provide Lean-Agile training and coaching to middle managers
Middle managers are critical change agents; providing them with training and coaching helps them understand their new roles in a Lean-Agile enterprise.
Question 5: What does the SAFe 'Implementation Roadmap' step 'Train Lean-Agile change agents' specifically aim to accomplish?
- Certifying all employees in SAFe within 90 days
- Building an internal coaching capability to sustain the transformation (Correct answer)
- Outsourcing Agile coaching to an external firm permanently
- Training only the executive leadership team
Correct answer: Building an internal coaching capability to sustain the transformation
Training change agents builds internal capability so the organization can sustain and evolve the transformation without ongoing external dependency.
Question 6: Which of the following BEST describes psychological safety in the context of SAFe leadership?
- Ensuring no team member ever fails a sprint goal
- Creating an environment where people feel safe to speak up, experiment, and fail safely (Correct answer)
- Providing physical safety protocols in the workplace
- Shielding teams from all external stakeholder feedback
Correct answer: Creating an environment where people feel safe to speak up, experiment, and fail safely
Psychological safety enables teams to take risks, voice concerns, and learn from failures — all essential to continuous improvement in SAFe.
Question 7: When launching the first ART, what does SAFe recommend regarding the scope of the initial deployment?
- Deploy SAFe to the entire enterprise simultaneously
- Start with the most problematic value stream to prove ROI
- Launch a single ART as a pilot to learn and demonstrate value (Correct answer)
- Wait until all teams have completed SAFe training before launching
Correct answer: Launch a single ART as a pilot to learn and demonstrate value
SAFe recommends launching a single pilot ART to gain experience, demonstrate results, and refine the approach before broader rollout.
SA SAFe Agilist Transformation and Leadership 3
Which SAFe principle directly supports the transformation practice of decentralizing decision-making?