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SAFe Metrics

30/04/2025

🔹 1. Outcomes Metrics

These measure whether the organization is achieving its intended business and customer results.

  • Customer Satisfaction: This is often measured using Net Promoter Score (NPS) or customer surveys.
    Example: After launching a new mobile app feature, the NPS increases from 60 to 75, indicating improved customer loyalty.

  • Employee Engagement: Gauges how motivated and satisfied teams are, using tools like the SAFe Team and ART Health Radar.
    Example: A quarterly team survey shows a 20% improvement in team morale and purpose after a team-building initiative.

  • Time to Market: Measures how quickly you can deliver value from idea to deployment.
    Example: A feature that previously took 12 weeks to go live now takes only 8 weeks after optimizing development and release pipelines.

  • Business Value Achievement: Tracks how much of the committed business value was delivered during a Program Increment (PI).
    Example: Out of 100 total business value points assigned during PI planning, 90 were delivered by the end of the PI.

  • Innovation Accounting: Assesses the outcome of Lean Startup experiments, MVPs, and EPICs.
    Example: Out of 4 MVPs tested during the PI, 2 were validated and moved to full product development, while 2 were pivoted based on customer feedback.

🔹 2. Flow Metrics

These metrics track how efficiently work flows through the system, helping to identify bottlenecks or delays.

  • Flow Velocity: The number of work items (e.g., features or stories) completed over time.
    Example: A team consistently completes 20 stories per iteration, showing stable throughput.

  • Flow Time: The total time it takes for a work item to move from start to finish.
    Example: A user story takes an average of 18 days from the time it is picked up to when it's deployed.

  • Flow Efficiency: The ratio of actual work time to total elapsed time.
    Example: A feature spends only 6 of 20 total days in active development, resulting in 30% flow efficiency. This suggests there's significant waiting or idle time.

  • Flow Load: The total number of items currently in progress.
    Example: A team has 15 stories in progress—far beyond their WIP limits—causing delays and context switching.

  • Flow Distribution: Shows how work is divided between features, defects, tech debt, etc.
    Example: During a PI, 60% of work is spent on new features, 25% on reducing technical debt, and 15% on fixing bugs.

  • Flow Predictability: Measures consistency in delivering committed work.
    Example: Over the last 4 PIs, a team consistently delivers about 90% of what they planned, indicating reliable predictability.

🔹 3. Competency Metrics

These are self-assessments that measure how mature an organization is across the seven core SAFe competencies.

  • Team and Technical Agility: Looks at how well teams adopt Agile practices and deliver quality work.
    Example: Teams rate themselves 4.2 out of 5 in adopting TDD, CI/CD, and Agile ceremonies.

  • Agile Product Delivery: Focuses on customer-centric delivery and DevOps practices.
    Example: Product teams rate themselves 3.5 out of 5, noting the need to improve continuous deployment capabilities.

  • Enterprise Solution Delivery: Addresses capabilities for building large, complex solutions.
    Example: A solution train reports progress on implementing cross-ART coordination and shared architectural runway.

  • Lean Portfolio Management: Assesses alignment between strategy, funding, and execution.
    Example: Leadership gives a 4.0/5 rating to their ability to prioritize and fund initiatives based on value streams.

  • Organizational Agility: Measures how quickly the enterprise can adapt to change.
    Example: Teams identify the need for faster decision-making and leaner governance processes.

  • Continuous Learning Culture: Evaluates support for innovation, reflection, and upskilling.
    Example: Teams report they have little time for innovation sprints, scoring this competency 3.2/5.

  • Lean-Agile Leadership: Examines leadership behavior and support for the Agile mindset.
    Example: Leaders are actively coaching and removing impediments, scoring themselves 4.5/5.

These metrics are often reviewed during Inspect & Adapt workshops and PI Planning to guide continuous improvement.

Multiple-choice questions (MCQs) based on SAFe  Metrics

1. Which of the following is a Flow Metric in SAFe 6.0?

A. Net Promoter Score (NPS)
B. Flow Time
C. Business Value Achieved
D. Team Engagement Score

✅ Correct Answer: B. Flow Time

Explanation:
Flow Time measures the total time taken for a work item to move from start to finish. It's one of the six Flow Metrics in SAFe. NPS and Team Engagement are Outcome Metrics, while Business Value Achieved is a PI outcome.

2. What does the "Business Value Achieved" metric in SAFe help organizations measure?

A. The number of features delivered
B. The revenue generated in a PI
C. The degree to which PI objectives were met
D. The time it took to complete an epic

✅ Correct Answer: C. The degree to which PI objectives were met

Explanation:
Business Value Achieved shows how much of the planned PI Objectives were delivered. It's scored by Business Owners and helps assess the effectiveness of planning and execution during a PI.

3. A team has many work items in progress, but few are getting completed. Which flow metric is likely too high?

A. Flow Load
B. Flow Efficiency
C. Flow Velocity
D. Time to Market

✅ Correct Answer: A. Flow Load

Explanation:
Flow Load refers to the number of work items currently in progress. If it's too high, the team is overloaded, leading to lower throughput and increased delays.

4. Which of the following is used to assess SAFe implementation maturity across the organization?

A. Cumulative Flow Diagram
B. Agile Release Train
C. Business Agility Assessment
D. Sprint Retrospective

✅ Correct Answer: C. Business Agility Assessment

Explanation:
The Business Agility Assessment is a self-evaluation tool in SAFe that measures maturity across the seven core competencies like Team Agility, Agile Product Delivery, and Lean Portfolio Management.

5. What is the purpose of Flow Distribution in SAFe metrics?

A. To determine how many story points a team delivers per sprint
B. To evaluate the ratio of features, bugs, and enablers being worked on
C. To identify how fast teams deliver value
D. To measure customer satisfaction over time

✅ Correct Answer: B. To evaluate the ratio of features, bugs, and enablers being worked on

Explanation:
Flow Distribution tracks the mix of different types of work items (e.g., features, defects, technical debt), helping organizations ensure balance and alignment with strategic goals.

6. If a team consistently completes nearly all planned work each PI, which metric reflects this?

A. Flow Velocity
B. Flow Time
C. Flow Predictability
D. Flow Efficiency

✅ Correct Answer: C. Flow Predictability

Explanation:
Flow Predictability shows how reliably a team or ART delivers what they commit to during PI planning. High predictability reflects mature planning and delivery capabilities.

7. Which metric would best indicate that a team is spending too much time waiting instead of actively working?

A. Flow Load
B. Flow Velocity
C. Flow Efficiency
D. Time to Market

✅ Correct Answer: C. Flow Efficiency

Explanation:
Flow Efficiency measures the ratio of active work time to total time. A low Flow Efficiency indicates that a lot of time is spent waiting, often due to bottlenecks or handoffs.

8. In SAFe 6.0, which metric is specifically tied to customer loyalty and feedback?

A. Flow Time
B. Business Value Achieved
C. Net Promoter Score (NPS)
D. PI Burnup Chart

✅ Correct Answer: C. Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Explanation:
NPS is a common metric for measuring customer satisfaction and loyalty, asking customers how likely they are to recommend the product or service.

9. A team completes 20 stories per iteration. Which metric does this best represent?

A. Flow Time
B. Flow Velocity
C. Flow Distribution
D. Team Engagement

✅ Correct Answer: B. Flow Velocity

Explanation:
Flow Velocity is the number of work items completed over a specific time frame. Completing 20 stories per iteration is a direct indicator of velocity.

10. What is the primary use of the SAFe Team and Technical Agility Competency?

A. To monitor customer feedback
B. To evaluate solution complexity
C. To assess team Agile practices and code quality
D. To measure WIP limits

✅ Correct Answer: C. To assess team Agile practices and code quality

Explanation:
The Team and Technical Agility competency measures how well Agile teams apply Lean-Agile principles, collaborate, and build high-quality technical solutions.

11. Flow Metrics are most relevant at what level of SAFe?

A. Only at the Portfolio level
B. Only at the Team level
C. At Team, ART, and Solution levels
D. Only at the Program level

✅ Correct Answer: C. At Team, ART, and Solution levels

Explanation:
Flow Metrics are applicable across all levels where value is delivered—from individual teams to ARTs (Agile Release Trains) and large solutions. They provide visibility into the flow of work.

12. Which metric helps ensure that teams are not focusing solely on features while ignoring technical debt or bugs?

A. Flow Load
B. Flow Efficiency
C. Flow Distribution
D. Business Value Score

✅ Correct Answer: C. Flow Distribution

Explanation:
Flow Distribution shows the balance of work types being handled (features, defects, tech debt, enablers), ensuring a healthy mix and strategic focus.

13. During Inspect & Adapt, which metric is typically reviewed to evaluate delivery performance?

A. Flow Predictability
B. Employee Engagement
C. Time to Market
D. Innovation Accounting

✅ Correct Answer: A. Flow Predictability

Explanation:
Inspect & Adapt workshops often review Flow Predictability, especially across teams and ARTs, to understand how well planned work matched actual delivery.

14. Which metric helps track the success or failure of MVPs and Lean Startup experiments in SAFe?

A. Flow Velocity
B. Flow Time
C. Innovation Accounting
D. Team Agility Score

✅ Correct Answer: C. Innovation Accounting

Explanation:
Innovation Accounting tracks learning progress, outcomes of MVPs, and whether experiments result in pivots or validated solutions, supporting Lean Startup practices in SAFe.

15. What does a consistently high Flow Load typically indicate?

A. The team has excellent capacity
B. The team has too many items in progress, which may cause delays
C. The team is focused on too few priorities
D. The business value delivered is very high

✅ Correct Answer: B. The team has too many items in progress, which may cause delays

Explanation:
A high Flow Load means many work items are active, which can overwhelm the team, reduce focus, and create bottlenecks, negatively impacting delivery flow.

16. Which of the following would be an example of an Outcome Metric in SAFe?

A. Flow Distribution
B. Net Promoter Score (NPS)
C. Flow Efficiency
D. PI Burnup Chart

✅ Correct Answer: B. Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Explanation:
NPS is an Outcome Metric, measuring the end result of delivering value from the customer's perspective. Flow metrics and burnup charts relate more to delivery process tracking.

17. A team is measuring how consistent their delivery is across PIs. Which metric are they using?

A. Flow Efficiency
B. Flow Predictability
C. Time to Market
D. Innovation Accounting

✅ Correct Answer: B. Flow Predictability

Explanation:
Flow Predictability evaluates how reliably a team or ART delivers on its planned work. It's key for understanding consistency in performance across Program Increments.

18. What type of metric is used to assess how well leaders model Lean-Agile values and support transformation?

A. Flow Metric
B. Business Outcome Metric
C. Competency Metric
D. Productivity Metric

✅ Correct Answer: C. Competency Metric

Explanation:
Lean-Agile Leadership is one of the seven SAFe Core Competencies, assessed using Competency Metrics, such as leadership self-assessments and team feedback.

19. Which metric provides insights into how much of the time a work item spends actually being worked on versus waiting?

A. Flow Load
B. Flow Time
C. Flow Efficiency
D. Feature Throughput

✅ Correct Answer: C. Flow Efficiency

Explanation:
Flow Efficiency is calculated as the ratio of actual working time to total time. It identifies inefficiencies such as long queues or handoffs.

20. What is the primary goal of using Flow Metrics in SAFe?

A. To evaluate employee productivity
B. To track company revenue
C. To optimize the flow of value through the system
D. To score team happiness

✅ Correct Answer: C. To optimize the flow of value through the system

Explanation:
The purpose of Flow Metrics is to help organizations visualize, measure, and improve the delivery pipeline and optimize the end-to-end flow of value.

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