On 10/6/2020, I took the Scaled Agile Framework 5 (SAFe 5) (Scaled Agilist – Leading SAFe) exam and passed! I want to thank my company SAIC for sponsoring me for this exam as it can be difficult and pricey to obtain. (This varies based on experience.) While I’m sure you are here to read about the exam and tips I have on it, I think it’s also important to go into what SAFe is and why you would want this certification.
What is SAFe?
SAFe is pretty much what it sounds like when you know the acronym. It’s a framework based on Agile principles that are supposed to “scale” depending on the size of the business. The company based in Boulder, Co has four levels of scale that work for either Enterprises or Government.
If you clicked the link I had above for SAFe, you probably see their large diagram. This diagram is essentially the framework, but without going through the class, experiencing the framework, and taking the exam, you are probably scratching your head wondering what you are looking at.
Well, I’d recommend to watch their video (3 minutes) and read their description for a quick overview as they do a great job of explaining it.
In addition to learning what SAFe is, you’re probably going to wonder what exam you need to take. There are a ton of SAFe certifications and finding the right one for you may be difficult. Surprise surprise, SAFe also has a page on how to figure this out too! In general, I think Leading SAFe, SAFe for Government (go to this one as an entry if you are working in Government) SAFe for Teams, and SAFe DevOps are the four best for someone who is getting into SAFe but is not necessarily leading it. Past that, you are probably more than a novice at Agile or Project Management and can likely read the descriptions to understand what best meets your needs.
I’ve done some additional reading on SAFe and it’s efficacy, there seems to be a myriad of opinions on it. I won’t offer mine and I’m not going to dive deep into this, as it’s honestly not my area of expertise. I would consider myself a database expert who has experience and knowledge of multiple business frameworks rather than the reverse.
Why would I want this certification?
This is a very interesting certification because the only way you can be certified is if you take their class. The class can be hosted by pretty much anyone who meets the minimum requirements, so there are a lot of classes out there. These classes vary by where you go to find them and who hosts them. I’d first reach out to your company to see if they have anyone who can host the training for you. Of course, you can always use the SAFe site to find training.
Because someone has to take a class as a pre-requisite to taking the exam, you know whoever passed the exam had to participate in it. This is an interesting take for certifications because a common problem with certifications is that it can be just knowledge remembered without practice (paper DBA’s), people can cheat exams, and people can forget what they learned. In these classes however, you have to participate in fake SAFe events. As someone who has participated in real SAFe events, I thought my class did a good job of replicating the experience, albeit less chaotic.
I would highly recommend having a classroom of ~12 people at least as this will enhance the experience. When we hold Program Increment (PI) events at my job, we have hundreds of people in an area participate. (Now it’s done online for obvious reasons which is an interesting shift.) The more people who can participate, the better your experience to a real-life implementation of this framework.
Really to me, the class is the guts of the certification. Once someone has the badge, you know at the very least they had to participate in the classes and probably have a good foundation of the basics of SAFe. To me, this is valuable if you are an employer who practices SAFe and want to hire people who can hit the ground running. I don’t think it’s that difficult to learn enough to begin participating in SAFe though, so hiring someone not certified would not be a deal-breaker to me. (Just a cherry on top if they have the certificate.)
If you are targeting a job in a company that uses in SAFe or already work somewhere using SAFe, I’d look at getting this certification.
What was the overall experience like?
The course I took was over four days at four hours per session. Depending on your exam, it could be longer. It is also possible you have two eight hour sessions instead.
I went through the preliminary course material prior to the class starting. Once you are registered, you are sent a link where you can login and can access your course material (pdf books), pre-course training, and material used in SAFe once implemented.
When we were in class, it was mostly lecture style, but after ~20 minutes, there would usually be events or participation exercises. There were knowledge checks along the way in the class and we were able to ask questions or even dive into real world scenarios. My class was pretty small, there were only four of us altogether. This is where the mark was missed, it would have been much better to have more people in the class for the participation exercises.
After class, I would study my notes and materials to try to embed what I learned. About a week after the class was finished, I took the exam. I would say I spent an additional 30 hours outside of the class (including the time spent prepping before the class started) reading, watching videos, and studying the practice exam. The material provided actually has a study guide for you to go through in addition, which was really nice to have.
I said it before and I’ll say it again, I’m a database expert, not a Scrum Master. This made the test particularly difficult for me. I have taken unofficial Agile classes and project management courses, but nothing official. So if you have experience with this, you may not have to study as hard as I did.
I fell into the typical trap where after three attempts at the practice exam, I began to memorize the answers. The practice exam did roll up my results to tell me what sections I needed to study for after taking it. The study guide had good references to these sections to help me understand why I missed the questions.
What I did not like is that I couldn’t see what question is associated to X section. It was pretty easy to guess, but it would have been nice to know % wise which sections I was doing worse on than others. The practice exam also does not retain the answers you chose, so you will have to screenshot them if you want to recall which ones you did not pass. Snagit has a cool feature where it auto scrolls and compiles a single screenshot for you. This worked for me well once, the second time it failed and I lost my results.
The exam felt more difficult than the practice exam, I still finished with more than enough time. The format of the practice test matches the actual test as does the % questions from each section. I can’t comment on the actual content and if it matches or not, but I can say the practice exam did a good job of telling me which sections I was insufficiently educated in.
Overall, it was a positive experience and I definitely felt like it improved my understanding of SAFe. If your organization participates in or if a company you want to be employed at uses SAFe, I’d recommend this certification. As always, this is not the end of the journey but another footstep towards continual improvement. If you have questions or comments, feel free to ask. I will likely start a FAQ section like the CDMP exam post if there is enough feedback.