What is the role of the enterprise architect in SAFe?
The role of enterprise architects in SAFe embody people who have a broad knowledge and understanding of the portfolio of solutions that exist throughout the organization.
That is, a broad knowledge and understanding of all the solutions, across all the Agile Release Trains, that are being delivered to customers via the various value streams.
They also understand how each of these solutions interact with one another as they flow through each of the value streams.
So, they play an active role in leveraging that broad knowledge and understanding to guide the portfolio management teams, and where necessary, other architects and solution trains within the SAFe environment.
The enterprise architect would be able to answer the following questions.
- What is the solution needs and requirements?
- What is the capacity allocation that we may need for each solution?
- What is the funding allocation that we may need for each solution?
- How does that translate for each of the Agile Release Trains?
And so forth.
The enterprise architect has broad knowledge and understanding, but they don’t have a deep and narrow understanding of each solution or agile release train. They don’t need to, there are solution architects and system architects who go narrow and deep, so they would simply interact and engage with those architects if necessary rather than try to master every element of the solution architecture.
They are more focused on how the various elements interact and connect than they are focused on the nitty gritty, granular details surrounding each solution or agile release train.
Service to the organization and customer.
The enterprise architect does not sit in an ivory tower and dictate instructions to those beneath them in the organization. They work closely with the solution architects, system architects, and other enterprise architects to provide guidance, support, and assistance where needed.
It is very much a hands-on role, and they are very much an integral part of the teams that help ensure that value flows consistently and continuously to customers throughout the value streams.
They don’t work in isolation, they partner with others to ensure smooth, seamless value delivery.
About Value Glide
Value Glide are a SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) consultancy, coaching practice, and training specialist who work with organizations to align business objectives with customer needs and wants.
As deeply experienced agile coaches and practitioners, our team are invested in continuous learning through each client engagement and use the data and evidence we gather from each implementation to inform our training, coaching, and consulting services.
In a nutshell, empirical process control or empiricism.
If you are thinking of adopting agile within your organization and have identified SAFe as a great agile framework to adopt, implement and improve your business agility, visit our SAFe Quickstart ART Launch program page or view our SAFe Consulting Services page.
If you have identified a need for an agile coach and SAFe coach to help your organization adopt and implement SAFe, visit our SAFe Coaching Services page.
If you want to know more about SAFe and how to lead SAFe, visit our SAFE Training page for a host of options, from Leading SAFe to a SAFe Release Train Engineer course.
#SAFe #scaledagileframework #scalingagile #agile #agileframework #agilecoach
