SAFe certification: launch your Scaled Agile Framework career

What is SAFe certification?

Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) certifications are becoming valuable in larger organizations looking for efficient project delivery, reduced time-to-market, and ways to provide better stakeholder value. These certifications provide a valid, reliable means of assessing skills, knowledge, and mindset of those seeking career advancement working with the framework.

Earning a SAFe certification demonstrates you possess the skills and knowledge needed to help your organization manage projects with a higher degree of agility. Numerous SAFe certifications are on offer, grouped at the foundational, intermediate, and advanced levels. Each is targeted for a specific role.

SAFe certification training

Deciding on the right path and certifications rests on knowing what your organization needs, its maturity with SAFe, identifying gaps, and understanding your role. Then you’ll need to meet the prerequisites for the certification(s) you choose.

Once you’ve identified the SAFe training and certification providers that meet your goals, you’ll need to review the materials, study guides, and take any available practice tests. SAFe training and certification are available online or through in-person training through these and other education providers:

Advised Skills: Advised Skills is a consultancy and training services provider focused on Lean-agile transformation, agile strategy audit and implementation, and agile program/portfolio management. Their team is composed of highly experienced consultants and trainers.

Agilest: Agilest provides SAFe certification training for larger teams to keep pace with the demand of various industries, and to enable career advancement.

Scaled Agile: Scaled Agile is a key provider of agile training, courses, and certification, including SAFe. Scaled Agile also has a SAFe business agility podcast that provides the latest news, experiences, and answers to questions about SAFe.

SAFe certifications

There are currently 13 SAFe certifications on offer: six foundational, four intermediate, and three advanced. Some work best for engineers and architects, and others for coaches, trainers, or those in more senior roles.

Foundational:

• SAFe Agile Product Manager
• SAFe Agilist
• SAFe Scrum Master
• SAFe DevOps Practitioner
• SAFe Government Practitioner
• SAFe Product Owner/Product Manager (POPM)

Intermediate:

• SAFe Agile Software Engineer
• SAFe Architect
• SAFe Lean Portfolio Manager
• SAFe Practitioner

Advanced:

• SAFe Advanced Scrum Master
• SAFe Practice Consultant
• SAFe Release Train Engineer

SAFe Agile Product Manager

The SAFe Agile Product Manager certification is best suited to those in roles such as agile coach, consultant, agile trainer, or product manager, with a focus on design thinking with Lean values and principles. The 60-question exam requires familiarity with agile principles and practices and is geared toward testing candidates’ ability to:

• Create innovation in the value stream.
• Use design thinking to achieve desirable, feasible, and sustainable products.
• Use product strategy to set clarity and direction for the agile release trains (ART).
• Develop and evolve short-term roadmaps that result in long-term value.

Candidates must have attended at least one SAFe certification training session, have a background in product or solution management, and have experience as a product manager, product marketer, product owner, business owner, or in bringing products to market.

SAFe Agilist

The SAFe Agilist certification works best for a program or project manager, Scrum master, team lead, release train engineer, change agent, or others who are part of a Lean transformation. The 45-question exam tests candidates’ ability to realize the benefits of SAFe, including:

• How to establish team and technical agility and organize around value flow.
• How to align massive organizations around clear, common objectives.
• How to participate successfully in critical SAFe events, such as PI Planning.
• How to adopt a customer-centric mindset.

Candidates need five-plus years of experience in software development, testing, business analysis, or product or project management, as well as experience in Scrum.

SAFe Scrum Master

The SAFe Scrum Master certification is suitable for program or project managers, Scrum masters, team leads, release train engineers, architects, engineers, developers, directors, quality managers, and other roles integrating Scrum practices into an organization. The 45-question exam tests candidates’ ability to:

• Facilitate Scrum events.
• Support PI execution.
• Coach teams to improve constantly.
• Implement DevOps for continuous flow and delivery.

SAFe DevOps Practitioner

The SAFe DevOps Practitioner certification is best suited for a Scrum master, team lead, release train engineer, business analyst, SAFe program consultant, architect engineer, developer, or similar roles responsible for improving the flow of value through the delivery pipeline. The 45-question exam tests candidates’ ability to:

• Incorporate continuous testing and security into the delivery pipeline.
• Integrate exploration, integration, and deployment, and release value to end users on demand.
• Design and implement an actionable DevOps transformation plan tailored to your organization.
• Evaluate and improve your current state using tools like the DevOps Health Radar and Transformation Canvas.

Candidates should have experience working in a development and/or operations environment before pursuing the SAFe DevOps Practitioner certification.

SAFe Government Practitioner

The SAFe Government Practitioner certification is aimed at business analysts, agile coaches, SAFe program consultants, or practice leads looking to use SAFe principles and practices to execute and release value through ARTs inside a government agency. The 45-question exam tests candidates’ ability to:

• Apply Lean, agile, and DevOps principles and practices in traditional government organizations and cultures.
• Adapt technology strategy, budgeting and forecasting, acquisition, compliance, and governance practices to flow-based practices using emerging government guidelines.
• Organize government programs into ARTs and execute in program increments (PIs), even in remote environments with distributed teams.
• Build an action plan to begin or accelerate a SAFe implementation in your program or agency.

Candidates need to understand the Agile Manifesto, SAFe House of Lean, and SAFe principles, as well as the full lifecycle of government technology programs.

SAFe Product Owner/Product Manager (POPM)

The SAFe Product Owner/Product Manager (POPM) certification is best suited for program or project managers, Scrum masters, release train engineers, business analysts, development managers, CTOs, and others who are SAFe professionals working with customers and development organizations. The 45-question exam tests candidates’ ability to:

• Perform the role of a PO and a PM on a daily basis.
• Put the customer at the center of your design, build, and test process.
• Prepare for and lead PI planning.
• Decompose epics to features, and features to stories.
• Collaborate with agile teams to forecast work.

Candidates should be experienced in Agile and Lean.

SAFe Agile Software Engineer

The SAFe Agile Software Engineer certification works best for a Scrum master, agile coach, software developer, software engineer, or senior manager applying test-first principles to create alignment between tests and requirements, and optimizing the flow of value. The 60-question exam is geared toward testing a candidates’ ability to:

• Apply the test-first principle to align tests and requirements.
• Detail, model, design, implement, verify, and validate stories in a SAFe continuous delivery pipeline.
• Understand practices such as abstraction, encapsulation, and SOLID that build quality into code and design.
• Understand foundational Lean, agile, and DevOps principles and practices.
• Use the test infrastructure for automated testing.
• Design from context for testability.

Candidates should grasp SAFe for teams and have a background in engineering, development, managing development, or quality assurance.

SAFe Architect

The SAFe Architect certification is aimed at Scrum masters, agile coaches, architects, agile trainers, solution architects, or system architects looking to become effective leaders and change agents. The 45-question exam tests candidates’ ability to:

• Develop and communicate the architectural vision.
• Develop solution vision, intent, and roadmaps.
• Prepare and deliver software effectively and continuously.
• Lead and coach architects and team members during Program Increment (PI) planning and execution.

SAFe Lean Portfolio Manager

The SAFe Lean Portfolio Manager certification is best suited for a program or project manager, release train engineer, business owner, solution manager, agile coach, or other senior roles assisting with understanding strategy and investment funding, how to apply agile portfolio operations and Lean governance, and how to build a plan for implementing Lean portfolio management. The 45-question exam tests candidates’ ability to:

• Connect the portfolio to the enterprise.
• Maintain portfolio vision and roadmap.
• Establish Lean budgets and guardrails.
• Create portfolio flow.

Candidates should be familiar with agile concepts and principles, value streams, and portfolio management funding models, and be experienced working with SAFe.

SAFe Practitioner

The SAFe Practitioner certification is for program or project managers, Scrum masters, team leads, release train engineers, programmers, or other roles responsible for using Scrum, Kanban, and XP in a SAFe environment. The 45-question exam covers candidates’ ability to:

• Understand your role on the team and your team’s role on the ART.
• Apply SAFe principles to scale Lean-agile delivery.
• Plan and execute iterations and PIs.
• Continuously improve the ART.

Candidates must be familiar with Scrum, Kanban, and extreme programming (XP), as well as agile concepts and principles, and have working knowledge of software or hardware development processes.

SAFe Advanced Scrum Master

The SAFe Advanced Scrum Master certification is suited for program or project managers, Scrum masters, release train engineers, business analysts, agile coaches, or SAFe program consultants, among others responsible for improving team results through the facilitation of cross-team interactions and relentless improvement. The 60-question exam tests candidates’ ability to:

• Apply SAFe principles to facilitate, enable, and coach in a multi-team environment.
• Adopt scalable engineering practices, Kanban, DevOps, and agile architecture to optimize flow.
• Advance your facilitation skills for ART and team event planning, execution, and delivering end-to-end value.
• Build communities of practice to support high-performing teams and ART efficiency.
• Lead distributed teams effectively in remote environments.

SAFe Practice Consultant

The SAFe Practice Consultant certification is best suited for program or project managers, Scrum masters, release train engineers, business analysts, agile coaches, development managers, or professional services consultants, among others leading at every level of an organization through a Lean agile transformation at scale. The 60-question exam is aimed at vetting candidates’ abilities to:

• Coach a SAFe transformation.
• Launch ARTs.
• Organize around value streams.
• Build solutions with agile product delivery.
• Empower a Lean portfolio.
• Understand each role within a SAFe implementation.

SAFe Release Train Engineer

The SAFe Release Train Engineer certification works for program or project managers, agile coaches, SAFe program consultants, IT managers, solution train engineers, or program managers responsible for driving end-to-end delivery of value in a single program or value stream in a Lean-agile enterprise. The 60-question exam vets candidates’ ability to:

• Lead ARTs and large solutions in a SAFe organization.
• Apply Lean-agile knowledge and tools to release value.
• Foster relentless improvement.
• Build a high-performing ART by becoming a servant leader and coach.

Candidates should be versed in cross-team communication, SAFe principles and facilitation, and team dynamics. They should be able to also launch or participate in ARTs and PIs, manage stakeholders, and have at least three months of real-world, hands-on RTE experience. 

More on SAFe:

• SAFe vs LeSS vs DaD vs LeadingAgile: Comparing scaling agile frameworks
• Fine tuning SAFe with architecture
• Slimming down to Essential SAFe