# SAFe

- Show: [The Pragmatic Embedded Podcast](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-pragmatic-embedded-podcast)
- Published: 2024-12-11
- Length: 42m
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-pragmatic-embedded-podcast/2024-12-11-safe
- Listen: https://agileembeddedpodcast.com/episodes/safe-ZYT6nEYl

## Summary

Jeff Gable and Luca D'Agostino discuss the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), a methodology for applying agile principles to large enterprises with thousands of employees, such as automotive and aerospace companies. Luca, a Safe Practice Consultant, explains SAFe's structure of release trains and solution trains, while critiquing its heavy bureaucracy, commercialization, and tendency to create a 'black hole' that absorbs other methodologies without providing sufficient practical guidance. They highlight common implementation failures, particularly the difficulty of changing organizational culture and budgeting models, and suggest that successful adoption requires treating SAFe as a starting point to be heavily customized rather than a rigid dogma.

## Chapters

- [0:00](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-pragmatic-embedded-podcast/2024-12-11-safe#t=0) Introduction: Jeff Gable and Luca D'Agostino on SAFe
- [1:10](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-pragmatic-embedded-podcast/2024-12-11-safe#t=70) Luca D'Agostino explains the origin and structure of SAFe
- [4:08](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-pragmatic-embedded-podcast/2024-12-11-safe#t=248) SAFe hierarchy: Release trains, solution trains, and portfolio
- [9:10](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-pragmatic-embedded-podcast/2024-12-11-safe#t=550) Managing dependencies in automotive and aerospace contexts
- [14:31](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-pragmatic-embedded-podcast/2024-12-11-safe#t=871) Program Increments (PI) cadence and integration challenges
- [18:39](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-pragmatic-embedded-podcast/2024-12-11-safe#t=1119) Critique of SAFe as a 'black hole' and role confusion
- [21:36](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-pragmatic-embedded-podcast/2024-12-11-safe#t=1296) Implementation failures: Culture, budgeting, and management buy-in
- [32:33](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-pragmatic-embedded-podcast/2024-12-11-safe#t=1953) Common criticisms and the 'Swiss Army nuclear bomb' analogy
- [36:55](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-pragmatic-embedded-podcast/2024-12-11-safe#t=2215) Alternatives: Flight Levels and the importance of customization

## Topics

- [Leadership, teams & culture](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/leadership-and-culture)
- [Scaling production](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/scaling-production)
- [Careers & education](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/engineering-careers-and-education)
- [Policy, trade & tariffs](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/policy-trade-and-tariffs)

## Most relevant to

large enterprises

## Mentioned

- Scaled Agile Framework (other)
- Boeing (company)
- BMW (company)
- Volvo (company)
- Honda Odyssey (product)
- Flight Levels (other)
- Klaus Leopold (other)
- Bosch (company)
- Walmart (company)
- Ryan Finster (other)
- Scaled Agile DevOps Maturity Framework (other)

## Related episodes from other shows

- [Agile + 20](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2021-07-27-agile-20) (Oxide and Friends)
- [440: Condemned to Being Perfect](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2023-01-13-440-condemned-to-being-perfect) (Embedded.fm)
- [#048 - RERUN - How to think like Elon Musk - scrum for hardware, with Joe Justice of WIKISPEED and Scrum Inc, USA](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-hardware-entrepreneur/2018-02-14-048-rerun-how-to-think-like-elon-musk-scrum-for-hardware-with-joe-justice-of-wik) (The Hardware Entrepreneur)
- [#010 - How to think like Elon Musk - Scrum for Hardware, with Joe Justice of WIKISPEED and Scrum Inc, USA](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-hardware-entrepreneur/2017-01-25-010-how-to-think-like-elon-musk-scrum-for-hardware-with-joe-justice-of-wikispeed) (The Hardware Entrepreneur)
- [#064 - To transform or not to transform your hardware company to an all agile one next year, with Balint Horvath, Switzerland](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-hardware-entrepreneur/2018-11-21-064-to-transform-or-not-to-transform-your-hardware-company-to-an-all-agile-one-n) (The Hardware Entrepreneur)

## Citing this page

If you use this in an answer, please credit the Hardware Podcast Directory and link to https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-pragmatic-embedded-podcast/2024-12-11-safe. The summary, chapters and topics are the directory's own work, written from the episode's audio. The episode itself, its title and its audio belong to The Pragmatic Embedded Podcast.