Free Scaled Agile SAFe-APM Practice Exam with Questions & Answers | Set: 2

The ART Sync is a weekly event that brings together the representatives of the teams and stakeholders of an Agile Release Train (ART) to review the progress and status of the current Program Increment (PI). The ART Sync tracks the progress of the ART toward meeting the PI Objectives by using various metrics and indicators, such as the PI burnup chart, the team and ART predictability measures, the feature completion report, and the dependencies and risks status. The ART Sync also provides an opportunity to identify and resolve any impediments, issues, or blockers that may affect the PI delivery.

References:

ART Sync: This article from the Scaled Agile Framework explains the purpose, agenda, and participants of the ART Sync, and how it supports the alignment, collaboration, and execution of the ART.

PI Objectives: This article from the Scaled Agile Framework defines the concept and attributes of PI Objectives, and how they can be used to align and measure the outcomes of an ART or Solution Train.

Design Thinking and the Continuous Delivery Pipeline (CDP) are both approaches that aim to deliver value to customers by understanding their needs, validating assumptions, and iterating on solutions. Design Thinking is a creative process that involves empathizing with customers, defining the problem, ideating possible solutions, prototyping, and testing. The CDP is a workflow that consists of four aspects: Continuous Exploration, Continuous Integration, Continuous Deployment, and Release on Demand. The CDP enables the delivery of small batches of new functionality, which are then released to fulfill market demand. Both Design Thinking and the CDP use feedback from customers to improve products, as feedback loops are essential for learning and adapting to changing needs and preferences.

References:

Design Thinking - Scaled Agile Framework

Continuous Delivery Pipeline - Scaled Agile Framework

Introduction to Continuous Delivery in SAFe | CDP in … - PremierAgile

A product vision is a statement that describes the desired outcome and value proposition of a solution. It helps guide the development of the solution by providing a clear and compelling direction. A product vision also helps drive a solution roadmap, which shows the planned features and milestones for the solution over a timeline. A product vision is part of the solution intent, which is the repository of the current and intended solution behavior and design.

References:

Solution Intent

Solution Vision

Roadmap

Solution Management

The horizon model is a framework that helps organizations balance their investments across different time horizons and types of innovation. According to the Scaled Agile Framework, there are four horizons: Horizon 0, Horizon 1, Horizon 2, and Horizon 31. Horizon 1 describes the desired state as stable solutions that deliver high value with minimal new investment. These are the core products or services that generate most of the current revenue and profit, and have a loyal customer base. Horizon 1 solutions require continuous improvement and optimization, but not significant new investment or disruption. Horizon 1 can be further divided into two sub-horizons: Investing and Extracting2.

References:

Horizon Planning: This article from the Scaled Agile Framework explains the concept and purpose of horizon planning, and describes the four horizons and their characteristics, challenges, and best practices.

SAFe®’s investment horizon model — A synopsis: This article from Medium provides a summary of the SAFe investment horizon model, and illustrates how it can help organizations allocate their resources and manage their portfolio.

Personas are fictional characters that represent the ideal customers or users of a product or service. They help product teams understand and empathize with the needs, goals, and preferences of their target segments. Personas can help define the features and benefit hypothesis of a product’s strategic intent, which is the assumption that a certain set of features will deliver a specific benefit to the customers or users. By using personas, product teams can validate their feature and benefit hypothesis with real user feedback, and prioritize the features that deliver the most value and satisfaction to their personas.

References:

Personas: This article from the Scaled Agile Framework explains the concept and purpose of personas, and how they can be used in a SAFe context to support customer-centricity, design thinking, and lean UX.

Strategic Intent: This article from the Scaled Agile Framework defines the concept and components of strategic intent, and how it guides the portfolio vision, lean budget guardrails, and portfolio backlog.

Feature and Benefit Hypothesis: This article from the Scaled Agile Framework describes the concept and process of feature and benefit hypothesis, and how it helps product teams test and validate their assumptions about customer value.

Investment horizon 3 is the longest-term horizon that focuses on exploring and developing breakthrough innovations that can create new markets and revenue streams for the business. It is important for every business to allocate funding to investment horizon 3, because it enables the business to anticipate and respond to the changing customer needs, technological trends, and competitive threats, and to secure its future growth and survival. Investment horizon 3 requires a high level of creativity, experimentation, and risk tolerance, but it can also generate a high level of return and differentiation.

References:

Horizon Planning: This article from the Scaled Agile Framework explains the concept and purpose of horizon planning, and describes the four horizons and their characteristics, challenges, and best practices.

SAFe®’s investment horizon model — A synopsis: This article from Medium provides a summary of the SAFe investment horizon model, and illustrates how it can help organizations allocate their resources and manage their portfolio.

Enduring Ideas: The three horizons of growth | McKinsey: This article from McKinsey presents the original framework of the three horizons of growth, and discusses how it can help businesses balance their current and future opportunities and challenges.

Design Thinking is a creative process that involves empathizing with customers, defining the problem, ideating possible solutions, prototyping, and testing. Design Thinking can help API design and development by ensuring that the APIs are user-centric, meet the needs and expectations of the customers, and deliver value to the business. Design Thinking can also help API design and development by fostering collaboration, experimentation, and feedback among the stakeholders, such as product managers, developers, and customers.

References:

Design Thinking - Scaled Agile Framework

How to Design an API – Application Programming Interface Best Practices

Best Practices in API Design - Swagger

The chasm is the gap in the technology adoption lifecycle between the early adopters and the early majority. The early adopters are visionaries who are open to trying new technologies, whereas the early majority are pragmatists who are more cautious and skeptical. The chasm occurs due to the different expectations and requirements of these two groups. A product that appeals to the early adopters may not appeal to the early majority, who value reliability, compatibility, and convenience over novelty and differentiation. Therefore, a product needs to cross the chasm by finding a niche market, establishing a clear value proposition, and creating a strong word-of-mouth.

References:

Crossing the Chasm & Scale Your SaaS: This article from Userpilot provides a practical guide on how to cross the chasm and scale a SaaS product, with examples and tips on finding product-market fit, defining a beachhead market, and creating a whole product.

Crossing the Chasm in the Technology Adoption Life Cycle: This article from Business to You explains the concept and purpose of the technology adoption lifecycle and the chasm, and how they can help marketers understand and target different customer segments.