What are the different roles in SAFe agile?

The Scaled Agile Framework®, or SAFe®, has roles that are usually associated with different levels: Team, Programme, Solution and Portfolio.

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Key SAFe roles at Team level

The key SAFe roles and main responsibilities at team level are:

• Agile Team – responsible for delivery and quality of the work undertaken.
• Scrum Master – responsible for ensuring the team works well and follows the processes.
• Product Owner – responsible for prioritising stories and ensuring they are well described and understood.

Key SAFe roles at Programme level

The key SAFe roles and main responsibilities at programme level are:

• Product Manager – responsible for prioritising features and ensuring they are well described and understood.
• Release Train Engineer – responsible for ensuring the agile release train (the team of agile teams) work well together and follow the processes.
• Customer – consumes the output from the agile release train. Could be external customers or people within the organisation. The customers are the people who will have the final view on whether the output was valuable.
• Business Owner – key stakeholders who are ultimately responsible for the business outcome.
• System Architect/Engineer – responsible for designing and sharing the architectural vision across the agile release train, which means the work delivered will be fit for purpose.

Key SAFe roles at Solution level

The key SAFe roles and responsibilities at the solution level are:

• Solution Manager – responsible for prioritising capabilities and ensuring they are well defined and understood.
• Solution Architect/Engineer – responsible for designing and sharing the architectural vision across multiple agile release trains, which means the solutions delivered will be fit for purpose.
• Solution Train Engineer – responsible for facilitating and guiding the work done by all of the agile release trains delivering the solution.

Key SAFe roles at Portfolio level

The key SAFe roles at portfolio level are:

• Epic Owners – responsible for defining an epic, articulating its benefits and facilitating its implementation.
• Enterprise Architect – drives architectural initiatives for the portfolio.

Other key roles include:

• SAFe Programme Consultant (SPC) – use their technical knowledge of SAFe to advance the organisation’s systems, and processes for developing systems. They are key to successfully implementing SAFe and often come from an internal centre of excellence or from an external consultancy. Agility in Mind has qualified SPCs as members of its consulting team.
• Definitions of all the SAFe roles are included in the SAFe glossary https://www.scaledagileframework.com/glossary/

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