SAFe-Agilist Practice Test 2 — 10 Questions

Question 1

A Portfolio Manager notices that the current investment mix is heavily skewed toward maintenance activities, leaving little room for innovation. Which action should the Portfolio Manager take to better align the portfolio with the strategy?

Choose an answer to begin — your selection is scored in the full session.

Accepted Answer

Rebalance the portfolio budget by adjusting investment horizons for value streams.. To align investment with strategy, the Portfolio Manager must utilize the Portfolio Canvas and Strategic Themes to rebalance the allocation of budget across Value Streams. This approach ensures that capital is directed toward initiatives that provide long-term competitive advantage rather than just sustaining legacy systems. By adjusting the investment horizons in the portfolio budget, the organization can shift focus from tactical maintenance to delivering strategic, high-value outcomes.

Answer

Increase the capacity allocation for maintenance to ensure legacy system stability.

Answer

Implement a forced ranking of all maintenance tasks by technical debt priority.

Answer

Outsource all maintenance activities to reduce the internal cost center burden.

Question 2

In the context of SAFe, what does 'Shift Left' mean in relation to testing and quality?

Accepted Answer

Integrating testing earlier in the development lifecycle.. Shifting left means moving testing and quality activities earlier in the development process, ideally starting as soon as coding begins or even during the design phase. This approach ensures that defects are found and fixed immediately when they are cheapest to resolve. It prevents the accumulation of technical debt and long 'testing' phases at the end of a cycle, which are major obstacles to maintaining a continuous and predictable flow of value.

Answer

Moving testing to the very end of the PI.

Answer

Reducing the amount of automated testing.

Answer

Only testing the most critical features.

Question 3

A newly formed Agile Team is struggling to define their 'Built-in Quality' standards. What is the most effective way for them to establish these practices?

Accepted Answer

Create a shared Definition of Done (DoD) that includes specific quality criteria and automation requirements.. Built-in quality is foundational to SAFe, ensuring the system is robust and scalable. By defining a common Definition of Done (DoD) that includes automated testing and architectural standards, teams ensure consistency. This matters because quality cannot be inspected into a product at the end; it must be an inherent part of the development process to ensure rapid, sustainable delivery of value.

Answer

Allow each developer to decide their own quality standards based on personal preference.

Answer

Wait for the System Architect to provide a comprehensive list of quality requirements.

Answer

Prioritize speed of delivery over quality to meet the upcoming PI objectives.

Question 4

Refer to the exhibit. The team is blocked on a task, and developers have nothing to pull. According to Lean-Agile flow principles, what should the developers do?

Accepted Answer

Swarm to resolve the blocker or assist in other stages.. In a pull-based system, idle capacity should be used to alleviate bottlenecks elsewhere in the system. If developers are blocked on their primary task, they should swarm to help unblock the current impediment or assist in another stage of the value stream, such as testing or analysis. This cross-functional support ensures that the overall flow of value continues despite individual blockers.

Answer

Start a new task from the backlog to stay busy.

Answer

Wait for the manager to assign new work.

Answer

Report the blocker to the PM and return to the office.

Question 5

Which action best reflects the application of 'Principle 8: Unlock the intrinsic motivation of knowledge workers'?

Accepted Answer

Providing clear goals and the freedom to decide how to achieve them.. Providing autonomy and purpose is central to motivating knowledge workers. In SAFe, this means letting teams decide how to perform their work rather than dictating the process. This matters because knowledge work is creative and complex; when people feel they have control over their work and understand the larger mission, their engagement and productivity increase significantly compared to environments where they are treated like assembly line workers.

Answer

Using a strict 'command and control' management style to ensure compliance.

Answer

Offering competitive financial bonuses based on individual performance.

Answer

Assigning specific tasks daily to ensure high utilization.

Question 6

Which TWO of the following are essential elements of the 'Leading the Change' step in the SAFe Implementation Roadmap?

Accepted Answer

Identifying and training Lean-Agile change agents.. The 'Leading the Change' phase focuses on preparing the organization for transformation. It involves identifying change agents and ensuring leadership is aligned. By establishing a guiding coalition and educating leaders, the organization creates a robust foundation. This phase is critical because transformation is not just a process change but a fundamental shift in behavior, mindset, and organizational culture that requires committed and knowledgeable executive sponsorship.

Answer

Training all developers on Scrum methodology.

Answer

Appointing a single Chief Transformation Officer to dictate all process changes.

Answer

Replacing all existing middle management with Agile coaches.

Question 7

A Release Train Engineer notices that a feature has been in the program backlog for 12 weeks but only 3 weeks of actual work was performed on it. The rest of the time it sat in various queues. Which SAFe flow metric best highlights this issue?

Accepted Answer

Flow efficiency. Flow efficiency is the SAFe metric that compares active work time to total lead time. With only 3 weeks of active work out of 12 weeks total, the flow efficiency is 25 percent, revealing that most of the delay is due to waiting in queues. This metric helps teams target queue reduction and improve overall flow.

Answer

Flow load

Answer

Flow velocity

Answer

Flow distribution

Question 8

What is the primary objective of 'System Thinking' in SAFe flow?

Accepted Answer

To view the entire value stream as a single, interconnected system.. System thinking encourages practitioners to look at the entire value stream rather than focusing on the performance of individual teams or departments. By recognizing that the organization is an interconnected system, leaders can identify systemic constraints. This perspective is vital for ensuring that changes made to improve flow do not inadvertently cause problems elsewhere, leading to a more efficient and balanced overall delivery process.

Answer

To increase the efficiency of every individual department.

Answer

To automate as many manual steps as possible.

Answer

To standardize the tools used by every team on the ART.

Question 9

An Agile Team is preparing for its first Program Increment and wants to build the Team and Technical Agility competency. The Scrum Master is facilitating a working session on which attributes the team must develop. Which two attributes are core to this competency? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

The team organizes around the flow of value and applies cross-functional skills so it can deliver end-to-end without handoffs.. Team and Technical Agility rests on cross-functional teams organized around value flow and on a shared Definition of Done that embeds Built-in Quality practices. These two attributes let teams deliver working, tested Increments without handoffs and keep quality designed into the product. Long roadmaps, individual velocity metrics, and externalized quality assurance all work against the competency's intent.

Answer

The team tracks individual velocity and uses it as the primary input for performance reviews and compensation decisions.

Answer

The team delegates all testing and quality decisions to a separate quality assurance department to preserve developer focus.

Answer

The team maintains a detailed three-year technology roadmap that the System Architect approves before each Iteration.

Question 10

A large enterprise is struggling to implement SAFe because leadership insists on project-based funding, which conflicts with the value-stream-oriented approach. How should the organization adapt to resolve this structural tension?

Accepted Answer

Transition to funding value streams to allow for dynamic resource allocation and flow.. Shifting from project-based to value-stream-based funding is a fundamental transformation in SAFe. By funding value streams, leadership empowers the ART to remain flexible and prioritize work based on flow and business value rather than rigid, pre-defined project scopes. This transition allows for faster adaptation to changing needs, as funds are allocated to the stream continuously, supporting ongoing innovation and long-term investment in products rather than short-term task delivery.

Answer

Keep project funding but split projects into smaller, faster-delivery cycles.

Answer

Adopt a matrix management structure to maintain strict control over team members.

Answer

Outsource the development teams to reduce the impact of budget variability.