https://romanoroth.com/en/tags/safe/Recent content in SAFe on Romano RothHugo -- gohugo.ioenRomano RothSun, 07 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/agility-in-action-mindset-processes-and-real-results/Sun, 07 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/agility-in-action-mindset-processes-and-real-results/<p>How much agility can software development really handle, and where does agility tip into chaos? In this episode of the &ldquo;Modern Work 2 Go&rdquo; podcast (in German), I speak with Florian Schneider about exactly these questions. We dive deep into a concrete real-world example: an agile transformation at a Swiss bank that I accompanied over eight years. The conversation covers the shift from waterfall to agility, scaling with SAFe, building value streams, and why continuous improvement is the central pillar of every transformation.</p>https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/safe-leadership-forum-empowering-safe-with-platform-engineering/Wed, 25 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/safe-leadership-forum-empowering-safe-with-platform-engineering/<p>What are the railroad tracks of your SAFe agile release trains? How are they built, and why do they matter so much? In this talk at the SAFe Leadership Forum, I explore how platform engineering creates the foundation that enables agile teams to continuously deliver value for fast flow.</p>https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/what-is-an-epic/Fri, 15 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/what-is-an-epic/<p>How do you make sure your organization is not overloaded with too many projects, too many ideas, and too little focus? And how do you ensure you are building the right thing? This is exactly what epics are for. In this video, I walk through the concept of epics, show you a concrete example, and explain why epics are far more effective than traditional projects.</p>https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/devops-health-radar-tour/Wed, 15 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/devops-health-radar-tour/<p>Over the past few years I have published a deep-dive on every single activity in the SAFe DevOps Health Radar. This post is the round-the-radar tour: a single page that walks you through all four aspects and all sixteen stages, with the original video for each and a link to the full article. Use it as a map — to find your starting point, to share with your team, or to assess where you are today and where you want to go next.</p>https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/what-is-release-on-demand/Wed, 11 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/what-is-release-on-demand/<p>Release on Demand is the final step in the SAFe for DevOps continuous delivery pipeline, and it is the step that ties everything together. In this video, I walk through how Release on Demand works, why separating deployment from release is so powerful, and how the whole pipeline enables organizations to build the right thing right.</p>https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/lean-portfolio-management-at-zuehlke/Wed, 20 Apr 2022 11:34:31 +0000https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/lean-portfolio-management-at-zuehlke/<p>As a leading innovation company with 1600 employees in Germany, United Kingdom, Austria, Serbia, Bulgaria, Singapore, Hong Kong, Portugal, Switzerland and Vietnam, Zühlke has always some ongoing and planned strategic initiatives.</p>https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/participatory-budgeting-next-level-financing/Mon, 28 Mar 2022 16:22:25 +0000https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/participatory-budgeting-next-level-financing/<p><figure><img class="my-0 rounded-md" loading="lazy" decoding="async" fetchpriority="auto" alt="" width="1200" height="800" src="https://romanoroth.com/images/blog/participatory-budgeting-next-level-financing-inline-1_hu_f6b18a4ba54609b9.jpg" srcset="https://romanoroth.com/images/blog/participatory-budgeting-next-level-financing-inline-1_hu_f6b18a4ba54609b9.jpg 800w, https://romanoroth.com/images/blog/participatory-budgeting-next-level-financing-inline-1.jpg 1280w" sizes="(min-width: 768px) 50vw, 65vw" data-zoom-src="https://romanoroth.com/images/blog/participatory-budgeting-next-level-financing-inline-1.jpg"></figure> </p> <p>One size fits all? Nothing of the sort! Participatory budgeting calls for a tailored solution, one that can constantly evolve and adapt to the given situation. In this article, we describe how we do it at Zühlke.</p>https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/what-is-safe-for-devops-course/Sat, 12 Mar 2022 17:58:51 +0000https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/what-is-safe-for-devops-course/<p><figure><img class="my-0 rounded-md" loading="lazy" decoding="async" fetchpriority="auto" alt="" width="1280" height="720" src="https://romanoroth.com/images/blog/what-is-safe-for-devops-course-inline-1_hu_846fdb74335fb2db.png" srcset="https://romanoroth.com/images/blog/what-is-safe-for-devops-course-inline-1_hu_846fdb74335fb2db.png 800w, https://romanoroth.com/images/blog/what-is-safe-for-devops-course-inline-1.png 1280w" sizes="(min-width: 768px) 50vw, 65vw" data-zoom-src="https://romanoroth.com/images/blog/what-is-safe-for-devops-course-inline-1.png"></figure> </p> <p>The SAFe® for DevOps training is an assessment or a workshop that is ideally suited for teams. Why? Because the focus is on driving the value stream of these teams. Addressing questions, challenges, and any potential obstacles  -  we can work on the training to provide value to them. We will give them the theory input of what exactly DevOps is.</p>https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/what-is-learn-safe-devops-health-radar/Mon, 07 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/what-is-learn-safe-devops-health-radar/<p>Learn is the last step of the SAFe for DevOps Health Radar, and in many ways it is the most important one. This is where we make the hard decisions about where to invest, where to stop, and how to continuously improve everything we do. In this video, I walk through what the Learn step involves and why it is the key to building the right thing right.</p>https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/what-is-measure-safe-devops-health-radar/Sun, 27 Feb 2022 09:49:53 +0000https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/what-is-measure-safe-devops-health-radar/<p>Measure is the step of the SAFe for DevOps Health Radar where everything comes together. After deploying to production and stabilizing, we now collect qualitative and quantitative information about our epics and features. The goal is to validate our hypotheses and make informed strategic decisions. In this video, I walk through what the Measure step involves and why it is essential for building the right thing.</p>https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/what-is-stabilize-safe-devops-health-radar/Thu, 17 Feb 2022 21:52:50 +0000https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/what-is-stabilize-safe-devops-health-radar/<p>After we release a new feature to our users, we need to make sure everything runs smoothly. Stabilize is the SAFe DevOps Health Radar activity that focuses on maintaining a high level of business continuity so we can continuously deliver value to our customers. In this video, I walk through what Stabilize involves and why it is essential for a stable, resilient production environment.</p>https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/what-is-release-safe-devops-health-radar/Wed, 09 Feb 2022 19:51:34 +0000https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/what-is-release-safe-devops-health-radar/<p>Release is one of the final steps in the SAFe for DevOps Health Radar. At this point, the new functionality is already deployed to production and verified. Now it is time to make the new functionality available to a small group of users or to all users. In this video, I walk through what the Release step involves and why it is a crucial business decision.</p>https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/participatory-budgeting-v2-next-level-financing/Fri, 04 Feb 2022 06:42:10 +0000https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/participatory-budgeting-v2-next-level-financing/<p>Together with my colleague Nadine, I presented an updated version of our participatory budgeting approach. We had already shared the first version at a previous event, but since then we made significant changes that we wanted to share. A quick disclaimer: we did not invent participatory budgeting. We built on the materials from the SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework), so you will find the copyright on the relevant slides. If you want to introduce participatory budgeting in your own organization, we are happy to share our experience and always reference the original SAFe materials.</p>https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/what-is-continuous-deployment-safe-devops-health-radar/Sun, 23 Jan 2022 09:49:57 +0000https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/what-is-continuous-deployment-safe-devops-health-radar/<p>In this article, I explain what Continuous Deployment is within the SAFe® DevOps Health Radar and why it is essential for delivering value quickly and safely. Please note that everything discussed here is under the license of Scaled Agile, and that the Scaled Agile Framework is a framework to be used as a toolbox. Take out of this toolbox what fits your needs and what solves your problems.</p>https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/what-is-respond-safe-devops-health-radar/Sun, 09 Jan 2022 20:17:55 +0000https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/what-is-respond-safe-devops-health-radar/<p>How do you proactively detect and fix production issues before they cause a business disruption? Respond is the SAFe DevOps Health Radar activity that answers exactly this question. In this video, I walk through what Respond involves and why it is essential for maintaining a stable production environment.</p>https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/what-is-monitor-safe-devops-health-radar/Tue, 14 Dec 2021 18:21:51 +0000https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/what-is-monitor-safe-devops-health-radar/<p>Once our features are deployed and verified in production, we need to keep a close eye on how they perform. Monitor is the SAFe DevOps Health Radar activity that focuses on tracking system performance, end-user behavior, incidents, and business value. In this video, I walk through what monitoring involves and why it is essential for making the right decisions about your features.</p>https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/what-is-the-safe-devops-health-radar/Sun, 12 Dec 2021 17:54:55 +0000https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/what-is-the-safe-devops-health-radar/<p><figure><img class="my-0 rounded-md" loading="lazy" decoding="async" fetchpriority="auto" alt="" width="1050" height="590" src="https://romanoroth.com/images/blog/what-is-the-safe-devops-health-radar-inline-1_hu_185a56580d6fa094.png" srcset="https://romanoroth.com/images/blog/what-is-the-safe-devops-health-radar-inline-1_hu_185a56580d6fa094.png 800w, https://romanoroth.com/images/blog/what-is-the-safe-devops-health-radar-inline-1.png 1280w" sizes="(min-width: 768px) 50vw, 65vw" data-zoom-src="https://romanoroth.com/images/blog/what-is-the-safe-devops-health-radar-inline-1.png"></figure> </p> <p>In this article, we will explore what exactly SAFe® DevOps is for health radar and what can you use it for.</p>https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/what-is-verify-safe-devops-health-radar/Mon, 06 Dec 2021 20:02:30 +0000https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/what-is-verify-safe-devops-health-radar/<p>Verify is a critical step in the SAFe for DevOps Health Radar. After deploying our package into the production environment, we need to confirm that the new functionality works correctly and does not negatively affect the integrity or robustness of the existing system. Only after this verification is complete can we confidently release the new features to end-users. In this video, I walk through what the Verify step involves and how it fits into the overall continuous delivery pipeline.</p>https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/lean-portfolio-management-zuehlke-kanban-okrs/Tue, 30 Nov 2021 06:29:52 +0000https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/lean-portfolio-management-zuehlke-kanban-okrs/<p>Many organizations still rely on annual planning cycles with large upfront budgets, waterfall-style gate reviews, and business cases that are written solely to secure funding. The result is often a massive overload of initiatives, poor quality, delayed projects, and a fundamental disconnect between output and actual business impact. In this talk, my colleague and I share how we introduced Lean Portfolio Management at Zühlke Engineering, what we achieved in our first MVP after six months, and where we plan to go next.</p>https://romanoroth.com/en/speaking/lean-portfolio-management-with-kanban-and-okrs/Mon, 29 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://romanoroth.com/en/speaking/lean-portfolio-management-with-kanban-and-okrs/<p>How can strategy be translated into execution in a transparent, lean, and scalable way?</p> <h2 class="relative group">What This Talk Covers <div id="what-this-talk-covers" class="anchor"></div> <span class="absolute top-0 w-6 transition-opacity opacity-0 -start-6 not-prose group-hover:opacity-100 select-none"> <a class="text-primary-300 dark:text-neutral-700 !no-underline" href="#what-this-talk-covers" aria-label="Anchor">#</a> </span> </h2> <p>In this session, we share how Zühlke introduced Lean Portfolio Management (LPM) based on SAFe and adapted it to the organizational context. We show how we built an MVP for LPM by combining a portfolio kanban, transparent epic and roadmap management, and group-wide OKRs to improve strategic alignment and decision-making.</p>https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/what-is-deploy-safe-devops-health-radar/Sun, 21 Nov 2021 20:46:47 +0000https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/what-is-deploy-safe-devops-health-radar/<p>Deploy is a critical step in the SAFe for DevOps Health Radar. After we have built a deployable package and tested it in a staging environment, we now want to continuously deploy our changes into the production environment. The goal is to deploy with high frequency and low risk. In this video, I explain how we achieve this and what practices enable continuous deployment.</p>https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/participatory-budgeting-21st-century-english-talk/Sun, 17 Oct 2021 10:00:00 +0000https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/participatory-budgeting-21st-century-english-talk/<p>This is the English-language version of our talk on participatory budgeting at Zühlke. Nadine Broghammer and I describe how we coached a portfolio team through a participatory budgeting (PB) event based on SAFe, and how the value stream leads collectively allocated the budget for the second half of the year. A separate post covers <a href="https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/participatory-budgeting-financing-in-the-21st-century/" >the German version of the same talk</a>.</p>https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/what-is-stage-safe-devops-health-radar/Sun, 26 Sep 2021 08:28:51 +0000https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/what-is-stage-safe-devops-health-radar/<p>Stage is the step in the SAFe for DevOps Health Radar where we perform the final validation before going to production. In the staging environment, we run user acceptance tests, conduct system demos for our stakeholders, and verify that everything is truly production-ready. In this video, I walk through what the Stage step involves and why it is essential for a reliable delivery pipeline.</p>https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/what-is-test-end-to-end-safe-devops-health-radar/Sun, 19 Sep 2021 18:26:16 +0000https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/what-is-test-end-to-end-safe-devops-health-radar/<p>In this article, I explain what Test End to End means within the SAFe® DevOps Health Radar and why it is essential for delivering high-quality software. Please note that everything discussed here is under the license of Scaled Agile, and that the Scaled Agile Framework is a framework to be used as a toolbox. Take out what fits your needs or what solves your problem.</p>https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/what-is-build-safe-devops-health-radar/Sun, 12 Sep 2021 20:59:21 +0000https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/what-is-build-safe-devops-health-radar/<p>Build is the step in the SAFe for DevOps Health Radar where committed code is continuously integrated, tested, and turned into a deployable artifact with built-in quality. In this video, I walk through what the Build step involves, why continuous integration matters, and how techniques like gated commits and static security analysis help you maintain quality at speed.</p>https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/what-is-develop-safe-devops-health-radar/Sun, 05 Sep 2021 19:53:31 +0000https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/what-is-develop-safe-devops-health-radar/<p>In the SAFe DevOps Health Radar, Develop is where we take the features from continuous exploration and turn them into working code. We split features into user stories, implement them with a strong focus on built-in quality, and commit everything to version control. In this video, I walk through the Develop step and explain why quality practices like TDD and BDD are so important.</p>https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/what-is-continuous-exploration-safe-devops-health-radar/Mon, 30 Aug 2021 18:29:46 +0000https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/what-is-continuous-exploration-safe-devops-health-radar/<p>In this article, I explain what Continuous Exploration is within the SAFe DevOps Health Radar and why it is essential for building the right thing in the right way. Please note that everything discussed here is under the license of Scaled Agile, and that the Scaled Agile Framework is a framework to be used as a toolbox. Take out of this toolbox what fits your needs and what solves your problems.</p>https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/what-is-synthesize-safe-devops-health-radar/Sun, 22 Aug 2021 16:17:07 +0000https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/what-is-synthesize-safe-devops-health-radar/<p>In this video, I explain what Synthesize is and how it works within the SAFe DevOps Health Radar. Synthesize is the fourth and final step of Continuous Exploration, where we combine the outputs of Hypothesize, Collaborate and Research, and Architect into a prioritized backlog with a clear vision and roadmap.</p>https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/what-is-architect-safe-devops-health-radar/Sun, 15 Aug 2021 22:00:03 +0000https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/what-is-architect-safe-devops-health-radar/<p>Architect is the third step in the SAFe DevOps Health Radar, part of Continuous Exploration. In this video, I explain how we define the minimal architecture needed to prove a hypothesis and enable continuous delivery of value to customers.</p>https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/what-is-collaborate-and-research-safe-devops-health-radar/Sun, 08 Aug 2021 17:42:55 +0000https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/what-is-collaborate-and-research-safe-devops-health-radar/<p>Collaborate &amp; Research is the second step in the SAFe DevOps Health Radar. In this video, I explain how teams collaborate internally and conduct market research to define a minimal feature set that validates the hypothesis from the previous step.</p>https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/what-is-hypothesize-safe-devops-health-radar/Mon, 02 Aug 2021 12:00:33 +0000https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/what-is-hypothesize-safe-devops-health-radar/<p>In this video, I take a deep dive into Hypothesize, the first process step of the SAFe DevOps Health Radar and the continuous delivery pipeline. The core question is simple: how do you know you are building the right thing?</p>https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/participatory-budgeting-financing-in-the-21st-century/Wed, 09 Jun 2021 10:58:01 +0000https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/participatory-budgeting-financing-in-the-21st-century/<p>In this meetup talk, Nadine Broghammer and I share our experience coaching a portfolio team on participatory budgeting based on the SAFe framework. We explain the problem with traditional top-down budget allocation and show how participatory budgeting creates transparency, fosters entrepreneurial thinking, and leads to better investment decisions.</p>https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/what-is-safe-for-devops/Sun, 06 Jun 2021 18:56:06 +0000https://romanoroth.com/en/blogs/what-is-safe-for-devops/<p>In this video, I explain what the SAFe for DevOps training is all about. Unlike traditional classroom courses, this training is a hands-on workshop where real teams work on their own value streams and leave with a concrete, prioritized action plan.</p>