Leading SAFe®
Thriving in the digital age with Business Agility with Certified SAFe® Agilist
During this two-day course, attendees learn the importance of mastering Business Agility in order to thrive in the digital age and gain insights they can use to lead a Lean-Agile enterprise by leveraging the Scaled Agile Framework® (SAFe®).
The course begins by exploring the SAFe principles, derived from Lean product development, Agile development, DevOps and systems thinking. Following this, the attendees will discuss how to establish Team and Technical Agility and organize around the flow of value. The course then focuses on the importance of adopting a customer-centric mindset and applying Design Thinking as part of the Agile Product Delivery core competency, and provides an opportunity to experience a PI Planning event.
Attendees also gain insights and recommendations for building a Continuous Delivery Pipeline and instilling a DevOps culture. Finally, the attendees will gain an understanding of Lean Portfolio Management and the steps needed for implementing this function in their Enterprise.
Attending the class prepares individuals to take the exam and become a certified SAFe® Agilist (SA).
Learnig goals
- Lead the transformation to Business Agility with SAFe
- Become a Lean-Agile Leader
- Understand customer needs with Design Thinking
- Enable Agile Product Delivery
- Implement Lean Portfolio Management
What you get?
Becoming a Certified SAFe® Agilist requires an exceptional range of skills and is a career path for many servant leaders. Certification includes:
Certified SAFe® Agilist PDF certificate
Certified SAFe® Agilist digital badge to promote your accomplishment online
One-year membership to the SAFe Community Platform, which includes access to the SA Community of Practice
Access to Meetup groups and events that connect you with other SAFe certified professionals
A variety of learning resources to support you during your SAFe journey
Prerequisites
All are welcome to attend the course, regardless of experience. However, the following prerequisites are highly recommended:
- 5+ years’ experience in software development, testing, business analysis, product, or project management
- Experience in Scrum
Course Overview
In this two day class* students learn to apply Professional Scrum. They experience new, agile ways of working that enable teams to deliver more value, satisfy stakeholders and work better together. Students work together as a team in a series of Sprints to solve complex problems, facing similar challenges that they face outside of class and learning how to use Scrum to address them. These Sprints enable students to see the practical application of Scrum and to understand the value of an Agile mindset. Additionally, these Sprints expose common missteps and misunderstandings often seen while using Scrum, allowing students to develop an awareness of the associated symptoms and how to correct them. Students not only learn Scrum; they learn how to use Scrum well.
This class is taught both publicly and privately. In a public setting individual students, or multiple colleagues from the same company, will join other students and benefit from diverse experiences. Organizations can also contact Professional Scrum Trainers to hold a private class just for their organization.
View the different Focus Areas covered within this class and others.
* When offered in-person, this course is generally delivered over two consecutive days. When offered as a Live Virtual Class, the course may be broken up into more, shorter days.
Course Learning Objectives
- Learn about Agility and how Scrum differs from traditional plan-driven work models
- Develop an Agile mindset by focusing on professionalism, experimentation, and outcomes
- Learn (or relearn) the fundamentals of Scrum and how to apply them correctly
- Develop an understanding of what it is like to use Scrum and if it is right for your team
- Learn how to be a great Scrum Team member, or how to support a great Scrum Team
- Leave the class with ways to identify common pitfalls and how to avoid them
- Students use a set of proven practices throughout the class that can be used to enhance their application of Scrum
- Leave with tools that help Identify first steps in applying Professional Scrum with your team
Course Learning Objectives
2 Days
Level
Foundation
Who should attend?
The Applying Professional Scrum course is the perfect introduction, reboot or refresher to Scrum. It is excellent training for organizations, teams, and individuals wanting to experience the benefits of Scrum, or for those interested in continuing their learning with more advanced training.
- Professionals who are part of a team that currently uses Scrum, but desire a refresher so that they get the most out of their use of Scrum.
- Professionals who are joining a team that currently uses Scrum.
- Professionals that don’t use Scrum directly but want to learn how to work with colleagues that do use Scrum.
- Professionals that are investigating to see if Scrum makes sense for them and their colleagues.
- Professionals that are part of an organization that intends to use Scrum in the near future.
- Teams who are learning to use Scrum together in their organizations
The course also provides the foundational Scrum knowledge needed for those wishing to continue their education with role-focused (Scrum Master, Product Owner, Developer, Leader) training classes. APS is not recommended for advanced Scrum professionals.
This course is designed to be domain-agnostic; it conveys the use of Scrum in any domain or industry with complex problems to solve. Trainers typically have experience in multiple industries and may be able to tailor the course to the needs of your team. Students and teams building software products may want to consider our domain-specific course: Applying Professional Scrum for Software Development.
Learners taking this course are:
- CEO
- Program or Project Manager
- Scrum Master
- Team Lead
- Release Train Engineer
- Business Analyst
- Agile Coach
- CIO
- Portfolio Manager
- Consultant
- Engineer
- Product Manager
- Product Owner
- Program Manager
- Change Agent
- Solution or Systems Architect
Exam information
Requirements
The first step toward becoming a Certified SAFe professional is to attend the Leading SAFe® course. This is a requirement, because attending the course provides access to all the study materials and the exam. Note that attending the course does not guarantee passing the exam.
Details
- Exam name – SAFe® 5 Agilist Exam
- Exam format – Multiple choice
- Exam delivery – Web-based (single-browser), closed book, no outside assistance, timed
- Exam access – Candidates can access the exam within the SAFe Community Platform upon completion of the Leading SAFe® course
- Exam duration – Once the exam begins, candidates have 90 minutes (1.5 hours) to complete the exam
- Number of questions: 45
- Passing score – 35 out of 45 (77%)
- Language – English
- Exam cost – First exam attempt is included as part of the course registration fee if the exam is taken within 30 days of course completion. Each retake attempt costs $50.
- Retake policy – Second attempt on exam (first retake) can be done immediately after first attempt. Third attempt requires a 10-day wait. Fourth attempt requires a 30-day wait.
Materials
The exam is designed to measure knowledge and skill related to the job role. We highly recommend candidates use a variety of resources to prepare for this exam including:
- Course materials – The course materials are an essential artifact from the course and can be downloaded from the SAFe Community Platform. These materials can be used to refer back to the content that was presented during the class.
- Study guide – This comprehensive guide details the job role and all resources related to the exam, including a detailed reading list. Access is available through the Learning Plan in the SAFe Community Platform upon course completion.
- Practice test – The practice test is designed to be predictive of success on the certification exam,* and it has the same number of questions, level of difficulty, and time duration. It is part of the Learning Plan in the SAFe Community Platform and can be taken an unlimited number of times at no cost. *This is not the actual exam, and passing it does not guarantee success on the certification exam.
- Sample Questions – A web-enabled, flashcard style version of the sample questions can be found online and in the study guide.
Professional Scrum Certification
All participants completing the Applying Professional Scrum course will receive a password to attempt the Professional Scrum Master I (PSM I) assessment. The industry-recognized PSM I certification requires a minimum passing score of 85%. APS class participants who attempt the PSM I assessment within 14 days of receiving their free password and do not score at least 85% will be granted a 2nd attempt at no additional cost.
You are also entitled to a discount on the PSM II assessment once passing PSM I.
PMI PDU Credits
Students of Scrum.org courses are able to claim Project Management Institute (PMI) PDU credit: 14 PDUs after attending a two-day Applying Professional Scrum (APS) course. Please note that PMI PDUs are earned for course attendance and not for passing a Scrum.org assessment. Students can claim PDUs under PMI’s „Education courses provided by other third party providers” category. You can claim your PDUs online at https://ccrs.pmi.org. Find instructions here.
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