I’m overwhelmed with the amount of content change and detailing to each topic in SAFe 6.0 release. It took some time for me to digest and understand the reason behind the changes in each area. 

I’ll start with a huge KUDOS to everyone involved in SAFe 6.0 release. 

Changes to Business Agility:

Business Agility Value Stream (BAVS) on the top of the big picture is definitely a MUST HAVE in any organization to thrive in the fast paced digital age. Bringing SAFe Lean startup strategy into Business Agility Value Stream (BAVS) is simply brilliant. 

Though I’m not a big fan of House of Lean, I’m going to miss defining “value in the shortest sustainable lead-time” using McDonalds example. Replacing House of lean with Lean 5 principles goes very well with Agile values. Both Lean principles and Agile values complement each other.

I have the habit of remembering SAFe core values as heart BEAT (Built-in quality, program Execution, Alignment and Transparency). By changing this to alignment, transparency, respect for people, and relentless improvement, now I have to look for an acronym to remember. Any thoughts?

SAFe Principle #6 - Make value flow without interruptions - This changes reminds me Scaled Agile introducing #10 in SAFe 5.0 which was very well received in the industry.

Well, when I read SAFe Principle #6 changes for the first time, I knew something big gonna come based on principle #6. 

Spoiler Alert - This lays a good foundation for Eight flow accelerators which I’ll cover in detail later.

SAFe Program Consultants  SAFe Practice Consultants (SPCs) - I understand the logic behind this change, but personally, I feel, it will take some time for the market to get used to it.

More clarity to Roles and Responsibilities

Clearer and more explicit responsibilities for each SAFe role are the need of the hour. The updated responsibilities of each SAFe roles are descriptive and I can see how much effort have gone into this. My personal favorite - Scrum Master/Team Coach.

Accelerating Value Flow 

Eight flow accelerators that can make value flow faster without interruption. This is tightly coupled with updated Principle #6. 

These flow accelerators of value are relevant to all Framework levels - Team Flow, ART Flow, Solution Train Flow, and Portfolio Flow. 

AI, Big Data, and Cloud

To be honest, I expected Cloud in SAFe 5.0. 

“Better late than never” - I’m glad to see Scaled Agile included AI, Big Data and Cloud in SAFe 6.0. I’m eagerly waiting to hear lots and lots of customer stories by the end of this year from these areas. Being techie by trade, I welcome SAFe 6.0 addressing  Big Data concern, adding AI to the spanning palette and connecting Cloud to DevOps. 

There are many more changes in SAFe6.0. I tried to cover only the ones that are at the top of my list. Anything that I missed which are at the top of your list? Do share it in the comments!

Overall, SAFe 6.0 is a huge boost and updated to thrive in the fast paced digital age.