SAFe-Agilist Establishing Team and Technical Agility Practice Question
An Agile Team wants to improve its technical agility by adopting SAFe's built-in quality practices. Which two practices should the team implement to ensure that quality is built into the product rather than inspected at the end? (Choose two.)
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is assuming that dedicated QA teams or end-of-iteration manual testing ensure quality, when SAFe emphasizes preventing defects through automation and collaboration.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Adopt pair programming or peer code reviews to catch defects early.
The two practices that build quality in are test automation (unit, component, integration) and collaborative practices like pair programming or peer code reviews. These practices prevent defects early, provide fast feedback, and reduce reliance on late-stage inspection. They are foundational to SAFe's built-in quality and enable teams to deliver potentially shippable increments every Iteration.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Adopt pair programming or peer code reviews to catch defects early.
Why this is correct
Pair programming and peer code reviews are collaborative practices that catch defects early and spread knowledge across the team. They are key built-in quality practices in SAFe because they prevent defects from entering the codebase and improve overall code quality. By integrating these practices into daily work, the team enhances technical agility and reduces the need for downstream inspection.
- ✗
Perform exploratory testing only after the feature is complete and before the Iteration review.
Why it's wrong here
Exploratory testing is valuable but should not be the sole or primary quality practice. Performing it only after the feature is complete delays feedback and does not build quality in. SAFe recommends combining exploratory testing with automated tests and continuous integration. Relying solely on late exploratory testing increases the risk of defects and does not support technical agility.
- ✗
Dedicate a separate quality assurance team to test all features before release.
Why it's wrong here
A separate quality assurance team creates a handoff and a bottleneck, which is contrary to built-in quality. SAFe promotes shifting quality left, where the team owns quality and tests are automated and run continuously. Relying on a separate QA team leads to late defect detection, increased cycle time, and reduced team ownership of quality.
- ✗
Conduct a comprehensive manual regression test at the end of each Iteration.
Why it's wrong here
Manual regression testing at the end of an Iteration is an inspection-based approach that delays feedback and does not build quality in. SAFe emphasizes automated testing and continuous integration to catch defects early. Relying on manual regression testing is costly, error-prone, and contradicts the principle of built-in quality, which aims to prevent defects rather than detect them late.
- ✓
Implement test automation with a focus on unit, component, and integration tests.
Why this is correct
Test automation, especially at the unit, component, and integration levels, is a core built-in quality practice in SAFe. It provides fast feedback, enables continuous integration, and ensures defects are caught early. By automating tests, the team can maintain a high-quality codebase and reduce reliance on manual testing, directly supporting technical agility and the ability to deliver value continuously.
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Scaled Agile exam blueprint
This SAFe-Agilist practice question is part of Courseiva's free Scaled Agile certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the SAFe-Agilist exam.