SAfe overview
Blog

How our QA team scaled Agile: SAFe overview

Read how our QA team had to replace Scrum principles with those of SAFe and how we managed to achieve win-win results.
17 March 2017
Agile
Quality assurance
The article by Vitaly Prus
Head of testing department at a1qa

Read how our QA team had to replace Scrum principles with those of SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) upon the customer’s requests and how we managed to achieve win-win results.

The a1qa acquaintance with SAFe started two years ago. A customer, who has been cooperating with us in QA outsourcing for more than 4 years, confronted us with the fact: “As of today, we start working with SAFe, guys.”

However, we had no other options but to obey. We learned the basics, read numerous hands-on articles and started tuning our processes. Looking ahead, we must admit that we did it quite successfully.

To date, we’ve been working with SAFe for almost two years. And our experience is what we want to share. Hopefully, we’ll foretell some of the difficulties that your QA team may come across.

Let’s start with some basics.

When apply SAFe?

Google displayed us the following big picture:

Agile: SAFe methodology

The core thesis about SAFe is that it contains a number of rules and regulations to ensure smooth agile scaling in a large number of development teams.

  • Are there multiple software products developed and roles in the project?
  • Do you need dozens of approvals to put in place any new suggestion?
  • Are there many development teams who are eager to apply the lean-agile approach?

If the answers are “yes” than SAFe is what can be of help.

What are the levels in SAFe?

SAFe basic structure contains three or four levels depending on the specific needs of the company. They are portfolio, program and team levels. The 4.0 SAFe that has arrived this January has introduced the fourth optional level, called the Value Stream that should be applied in companies with over 120 people working on heavy software systems. In teams of 50-125 people (as it was in our case) the three-level structure is more convenient.

To gain a better understanding of every level, let’s take an example of the project and focus on its levels. It’s important to note that the levels will be analyzed from the QA team’s point of view, not the business one.

Let’s imagine that we have to enhance the e-commerce application aimed at selling books. The current functionality of the app is very simple: the customer uses the search bar to find the book he or she needs and orders it. When the book arrives at the warehouse, manager notifies the customer and he/she collects it from the warehouse. Apparently, the app is too simple to be competitive on the market. We need to strengthen it adding some more features that will make it more attractive.

The portfolio level is the highest level of concern in SAFe. The responsibility of the portfolio level is to discover major initiatives (business epics) that would reflect business priorities. Epics can be functional and architectural by nature.

As for our website, the functional epics shall be the following:

  1. Organize delivery across the country with the opportunity to follow order processing in a user’s account.
  2. Develop an online communication platform for books amateurs.

Architecture epics should be the following:

  1. Integration with GIS (geographic information system).
  2. System migration to the cloud.
Example of SAFe number one

So far it’s pretty easy, we hope. Now we are going down to the program level.

Program level is where business epics are split into features and development team and other resources work on the implementation of the features. A feature is a part of the product that should give some flow of value to the customer or to business.

Let’s split one of the epics on the team’s level. Online communication platform epic can be subdivided into the following features: user’s account, forum, and private messages.

Example of SAFe number two

On the team level, every feature shall be reformulated into clear and short user stories that can be estimated and implemented within a sprint.

For instance, private messages feature can be broken down into the following user stories: send messages and get messages and save chat history options. Architecture epics have to be broken down as well.

Example of SAFe number three

In such a manner, with every next level, the tasks get smaller in size and their boarder lines are specified. Estimation also gets more accurate.

In the next article, you’ll learn the workflow specifics on each of the SAFe levels.

More Posts

why-do-bugs-get-missed
17 April 2023,
by a1qa
4 min read
Why do bugs get missed? Learn the problems and tips to avoid them
Still, finding overlooked bugs after the app goes live? Let’s find out why this happens and how to fix it.
Quality assurance
Test automation
a1qa-articles
31 January 2023,
by a1qa
5 min read
Best of 2022 by executives: 8 most visited a1qa blog posts
Let’s look back and revisit the most visited a1qa articles of 2022!
Quality assurance
Test automation
qa-trends
12 January 2023,
by a1qa
4 min read
The future of software testing: top 4 impactful trends that will dominate in 2023
Consider the major industry trends for the upcoming year to know how to improve current QA strategies and stay ahead of the curve.
QA trends
Quality assurance
Test automation
test-automation
7 December 2022,
by Dileep Marway
3 min read
Release at pace with test automation: What, why, and how to measure success?
An automation-first approach is key to enhancing testing capabilities and increasing overall operational efficiency. However, I would suggest justifying its implementation, so that it can deliver the promised value.
Quality assurance
Test automation
what-is-a-culture-of-happiness
2 December 2022,
by Dileep Marway
3 min read
What is a сulture of happiness for a QA company?
Great culture drives employee engagement and satisfaction, contributes to an impressive work output, and improves organisational performance. But how do we build a culture of happiness? In this blog, I will share more on the answer to this.
Quality assurance
agile-qa
30 November 2022,
by Dileep Marway
3 min read
Agile QA – what is needed for greater flexibility and speed?
What should your QA team focus on to become truly agile, enable quality at speed, and contribute to lasting performance improvement? In addition to introducing test automation, I suggest considering shared responsibility for software soundness.
Agile
Quality assurance
interview-with-dileep
28 November 2022,
by a1qa
9 min read
Interview with Dileep Marway on a series of articles “Agility and speed: Supercharging your business strategies with QA”
We cooperated with the VP of Engineering and Quality at SHL to present you with a series of his blog posts on: culture of happiness, test automation, and Agile-driven QA. Happy reading!
Agile
Quality assurance
Software lifecycle QA
Test automation
optimizing-budget-with-qa
31 October 2022,
by a1qa
4 min read
Optimizing telecom budgets with QA outsourcing: everything you need to know. Part 2 
Welcome to Part 2 of our blog on QA outsourcing and optimizing telecom budget with it. Let’s delve deeper into the topic!
QA trends
Quality assurance
optimizing-budget-with-qa
27 October 2022,
by a1qa
4 min read
Optimizing telecom budgets with QA outsourcing: everything you need to know. Part 1
Learn how to optimize telecom’s quality assurance expenses by relying on a trusted QA partner.
QA trends
Quality assurance

Get in touch

Please fill in the required field.
Email address seems invalid.
Please fill in the required field.
We use cookies on our website to improve its functionality and to enhance your user experience. We also use cookies for analytics. If you continue to browse this website, we will assume you agree that we can place cookies on your device. For more details, please read our Privacy and Cookies Policy.