Welcome to a transformative exploration of the crucial intersection between metrics and growth within the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)
Measure and Grow
Business Agility sets new performance standards for organizations, requiring fast and effective responses to emerging business opportunities. However, there needs to be a way to measure the current state and identify areas of improvement. Measure and Grow is an approach organizations use to evaluate progress towards their goals and determine areas of improvements.
The first and most important thing we need to begin is with understanding what to measure. The main goal of business agility is to identify business opportunities and come up with solutions. The figure below represents the Business Agility Value Stream which visualizes the steps needed to achieve the first goal. Outcomes, Flow and Competency are the three SAFe domains which help provide a comprehensive yet simple model for measuring progress towards the business goal.
One point to remember is that these measurement domains are applicable at every level of the organization. The following image helps one realize how these measurement domains can be used to measure performance within a SAFe portfolio, a Solution Train, an ART and even a single Agile team.
The three domains are defined as follows and we will be deep diving into how these domains are measured in SAFe.
- Outcomes: Do our solutions meet the needs of our customer and the business?
- Flow: How efficient is the organization in delivering value to our customer?
- Competency: How proficient is the organization in the practices that enable business agility?
How Outcomes are measured
Flow measures are used to determine how effective an organization is at delivering value.
Outcomes are measured to determine whether a organization’s development efforts produced the desired business outcomes.
KPIs and OKRs?
A SAFe Portfolio measures outcomes using Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Strategic Themes. Each KPI is a specific and quantifiable measure of business results for the value streams within that portfolio. Outcome metrics of this kind are typically context-specific and depend heavily on the organization, business model, and the nature of solutions delivered to the customer. The below figure shows few examples of KPI for value streams.
While KPIs represent ongoing metrics, the strategic themes formulated as OKRs define the specific outcomes that the portfolio is working towards. The below figure shows the key results associated with these objectives.
Within a large portfolio, it can be useful to create specific OKRs for each value stream that align with the portfolio strategic themes. And further, for large value streams that contain multiple ARTs, this process can be repeated to create a set of OKRs that define the goals for each specific ART.
Another important outcome metric withing a SAFe portfolio is employee engagement. It measures the amount to which individuals feel motivated and actively engaged in supporting the achievement of the organization’s goals and values. Higher levels of employee engagement result in higher productivity, efficiency, and innovation levels. Consequently, lower levels of employee engagement can lead to poor motivation, lower-quality work, and higher staff turnover. Some methods for measuring employee engagements include an annual survey and using eNPS (employee Net Promoter Score).
Another measurable metric is localized metric such as Iteration goals and PI objectives. These are used by teams and trains to measure whether they are achieving their outcomes.
How Flow is Measured
Flow measures are used to determine how effective an organization is at delivering value. Different aspects of the Flow can be measured by using the five metrics defined and created by Mik Kersten As SAFe is a flow-based system, each metric is directly applicable. In addition, SAFe defines Flow Predictability to measure how Teams, ARTs, and Solution Trains deliver business value against their planned objectives.
Flow Distribution
What does it measure? Flow distribution measures the amount of each type of work in the system over time. This could include the balance of new business Features (or Stories, Capabilities, or Epics) relative to Enabler work, as well as the work to resolve defects and mitigate risks.
How is this measured? One simple comparison is to count the number of each type of work item at any point in time. A more accurate measure might consider the size of each work item. Agile Teams may measure flow distribution per iteration, but PI boundaries are commonly used to calculate this at the ART level and above, as shown in the below figure.
Why is this important? To balance both current and future velocity, it is important to be able to track the amount of work of each type that is moving through the system. Too much focus on new business features will leave little capacity for architecture/infrastructure work that addresses various forms of technical debt and enables future value.
Flow Velocity
What does it measure? Flow velocity measures the number of backlog items (stories, features, capabilities, epics) completed in a given timeframe, also known as the system’s throughput.
How is this measured? The simplest measure of velocity is to count the number of work items completed over a time period such as an iteration or PI. However, as all work items are not all the same size, a more common measure is the total number of completed story points for work items of a type over the timeframe.
Why is this important? Higher velocity implies a higher output and is a good indicator that process improvements are being applied to identify and remove delays from the system.
Flow Time
What does it measure? Flow time measures the total time elapsed for all the steps in a workflow and is, therefore, a measure of the efficiency of the entire system.
How is this measured? Flow time is typically measured by the average length of time it takes to complete a particular type of work item (stories, features, capabilities, epics). A histogram is a useful visualization of flow time.
Why is this important? Flow time ensures that organizations and teams focus on what is essential – delivering value to the business and customer in the shortest possible time.
Flow Load
What does it measure? Flow load indicates how many items are currently in the system. Keeping a healthy, limited number of active items is critical to enabling a fast flow of items through the system (SAFe Principle #6).
How is it measured? A Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFD) is one common tool used to effectively visualize flow load over time.
Why is this important? Increasing flow load is often a leading indicator of excess work in process. All other things being equal, the likely result will be an increase in future flow times as queues start to build up in the system.
Flow Efficiency
What does it measure? Flow efficiency measures how much of the overall flow time is spent in value-added work activities vs. waiting between steps.
How is it measured? To correctly measure flow efficiency, the teams, trains, and value streams must clearly understand what the flow is in their case and what steps it passes through. This understanding is achieved with the help of Value Stream Mapping – a process of identifying workflow steps and delays in a system. Once the steps have been mapped, flow efficiency is calculated by dividing the total active time by the flow time and is expressed as a percentage.
Why is this important? In a typical system that has not yet been optimized, flow efficiency can be extremely low, often in single digits. A low flow efficiency highlights a lot of waste in the system, along with bottlenecks and delays that should be addressed. Conversely, the higher the flow efficiency, the better the system can deliver value quickly.
Flow Predictability
What does it measure? Flow predictability measures how well teams, ARTs, and Solution Trains can plan and meet their PI objectives.
How is it measured? Flow Predictability is measured via the ART Predictability Measure, Figure 11. This measure calculates the ratio of planned business value achieved to actual business value delivered in a PI.
Why is this important? Low or erratic predictability makes delivery commitments unrealistic and often highlights underlying problems in technology, planning, or organization performance that need addressing.
How Flow is Measured
Achieving business agility requires significant understanding and implementation of the core competencies of SAFe. Measuring the level of organizational competency is accomplished via two separate assessment mechanisms designed for significantly different audiences and different purposes.
- Business Agility Assessment
The SAFe Business Agility Assessment is designed for the business and portfolio stakeholders to assess their overall progress on the ultimate goal of true business agility.
- SAFe core competency Assessment
The SAFe Core Competency Assessments help teams and trains improve on the technical and business practices they need to help the portfolio achieve that larger goal. There is one for each of the seven core competencies.
Each assessment follows a standard process pattern of running the assessment, analyzing the results, taking action, and celebrating successes.
In addition to these assessments, the SAFe DevOps Health Radar is an assessment that helps in optimizing value stream performance. The Health Radar is used to measure baseline maturity at any point in a DevOps transformation and guide fast, incremental progress thereafter.
Success factors for Measuring
The following success factors will help guide the enterprise to more effective measurements and more importantly, better business results.
- Use measurement in conjunction with other discovery tools
- Apply metrics where they support improved decision-making
- Understand the effects of metics on behavior
- Interpret metrics carefully
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Aman Luthra 
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