SAFe Agilist Mock Interview

Practice 30 SAFe Agilist interview questions covering PI Planning, ARTs, and Lean-Agile transformation.

Question 29 of 30

What is the difference between 'Full SAFe' and 'Essential SAFe'?

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Karrie Day is a certified career coach and strategist with a passion for helping her clients define and reach their professional goals. She offers career advancement services such as brand development, resume writing and critiques, job search strategies,

Organizations typically begin with an Essential SAFe implementation and proceed to Full SAFe if the size and practices of their organization seek a greater level of business agility in addition to a more integrated and lean agile development process. Interviewers ask this question to assess a SAFe agilist's familiarity with the differences in these two models as they are often applied to any role a SAFe agilist will pay within a new company.

Karrie Day

Remember to include the purpose of the two models in your response. Full SAFe competencies are business-oriented whereas Essential SAFe focuses on product development best practices.

Karrie Day

"There are four levels of SAFe. Essential SAFe is the first, and Full SAFe is the last. Essential SAFe focuses on four main competencies of SAFe, and the creation of the Agile Release Train. It is a basic model that introduces SAFe to an organization and brings their agile teams together to insert quality into a more streamlined process.

Full SAFe is the most extensive form of SAFe and it is typically adopted over time by large enterprises. It is representative of all of the seven competencies and includes portfolio management and lean budgeting practices. It aligns Agile Release Trains within Value Streams and enables higher-level business functions."

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30SAFe Agilist Interview Questions & Answers

General

1.What is SAFe, and why was it created?

General

2.What is meant by the SAFe principle of 'Apply Systems Thinking'?

General

3.What is meant by the SAFe principle of 'Decentralize Decision Making'?

Situational

4.Imagine that you are asked to convince the executives of your company to invest in the adoption of SAFe. What are the key points they need to consider?

General

5.What is an Agile Release Train (ART)?

General

6.What are the critical roles within an Agile Release Train?

Discovery

7.What experience do you have working with Kanban boards?

General

8.What is the 'Weighted Shortest Job First' concept?

Operational

9.How is Cost of Delay calculated in SAFe?

Situational

10.Please describe how you would facilitate the process of estimating the size of a user story in SAFe.

General

11.What are the main responsibilities of a product manager and product owner in SAFe?

General

12.What are the main responsibilities of a SAFe Release Train Engineer?

General

13.What is a lean guardrail and how does it add value to the SAFe budgetary process?

Discovery

14.Describe an Agile Release Train you were a member of. What was your role, and how did it fit within the whole?

Discovery

15.What process management tools do you have experience using in a SAFe environment?

General

16.What are the elements of a successful user story within a product backlog?

General

17.What is a Program Increment and how is it applied in a SAFE environment?

Discovery

18.In your opinion, what are some of the biggest challenges to implementing SAFe within an enterprise?

Discovery

19.Describe your experience working on SAFe government initiatives.

General

20.What is a Portfolio within SAFe and what roles manage it?

Discovery

21.What experience do you have incorporating user experience best practices into the features your team(s) develop?

General

22.What are the core values of SAFe?

General

23.What are the four levels of SAFe an organization can implement and how are they measured?

General

24.What is the purpose and value of an iteration review meeting in SAFe?

General

25.What is an enabler story?

General

26.How does the concept of Release on Demand work in SAFe?

Discovery

27.What types of leadership work best for a Release Train Engineer?

General

28.What is reviewed during an Inspect and Adapt meeting?

General

29.What is the difference between 'Full SAFe' and 'Essential SAFe'?

General

SAFe Agilist Mock Interview

What is the difference between 'Full SAFe' and 'Essential SAFe'?

30SAFe Agilist Interview Questions & Answers

1.What is SAFe, and why was it created?

2.What is meant by the SAFe principle of 'Apply Systems Thinking'?

3.What is meant by the SAFe principle of 'Decentralize Decision Making'?

4.Imagine that you are asked to convince the executives of your company to invest in the adoption of SAFe. What are the key points they need to consider?

5.What is an Agile Release Train (ART)?

6.What are the critical roles within an Agile Release Train?

7.What experience do you have working with Kanban boards?

8.What is the 'Weighted Shortest Job First' concept?

9.How is Cost of Delay calculated in SAFe?

10.Please describe how you would facilitate the process of estimating the size of a user story in SAFe.

11.What are the main responsibilities of a product manager and product owner in SAFe?

12.What are the main responsibilities of a SAFe Release Train Engineer?

13.What is a lean guardrail and how does it add value to the SAFe budgetary process?

14.Describe an Agile Release Train you were a member of. What was your role, and how did it fit within the whole?

15.What process management tools do you have experience using in a SAFe environment?

16.What are the elements of a successful user story within a product backlog?

17.What is a Program Increment and how is it applied in a SAFE environment?

18.In your opinion, what are some of the biggest challenges to implementing SAFe within an enterprise?

19.Describe your experience working on SAFe government initiatives.

20.What is a Portfolio within SAFe and what roles manage it?

21.What experience do you have incorporating user experience best practices into the features your team(s) develop?

22.What are the core values of SAFe?

23.What are the four levels of SAFe an organization can implement and how are they measured?

24.What is the purpose and value of an iteration review meeting in SAFe?

25.What is an enabler story?

26.How does the concept of Release on Demand work in SAFe?

27.What types of leadership work best for a Release Train Engineer?

28.What is reviewed during an Inspect and Adapt meeting?

29.What is the difference between 'Full SAFe' and 'Essential SAFe'?

30.What are the four components of the 'Continuous Delivery Pipeline'?