SAFe® ART Quickstart

Foundations

ART Quickstart

An intensive approach that trains an Agile Release Train and runs its first PI Planning within a few days to launch quickly.

Agile Release Train (ART)

A long-lived team of teams (50–125 people) that delivers value on a Program Increment cadence.

Why Quickstart

A concentrated launch builds alignment, energy, and momentum fast, jump-starting the train's delivery.

Program Increment (PI)

A timebox (8–12 weeks) during which the ART delivers value and which sets the planning cadence.

Structure

Training Days

The quickstart begins by training teams and roles in SAFe so everyone shares a common approach.

Role Training

Preparing key roles — RTE, Product Management, Scrum Masters, Product Owners — for their responsibilities.

Team Formation

Organizing people into cross-functional Agile teams aligned to value.

Live PI Planning

Running the ART's first real PI Planning event as part of the quickstart.

Preparation

Readiness

Ensuring organizational, content, and logistics readiness before the quickstart.

ART Backlog

A prepared, prioritized set of features and vision so teams have meaningful content to plan.

Vision and Roadmap

Clear direction that gives teams context for their planning.

Value Stream Alignment

Confirming the ART is organized around a development value stream.

PI Planning

Business Context and Vision

Opening briefings that give teams the business and product context to plan.

Team Breakouts

Teams plan their iterations, identify dependencies, and draft PI objectives.

Program Board

A visualization of features, milestones, and cross-team dependencies produced during planning.

PI Objectives

Business and technical goals teams commit to, with business value assigned by Business Owners.

ROAM Risks

Classifying risks as Resolved, Owned, Accepted, or Mitigated so each is handled.

Confidence Vote

A vote expressing teams' confidence in meeting the plan before commitment.

After

Executing the First PI

Running iterations, ART sync, and system demos to deliver value after the quickstart.

Coaching the ART

Supporting teams and roles through the first PIs to build capability.

Inspect & Adapt

The end-of-PI event to demo, measure, and identify improvements.

Building Momentum

Using the fast launch to sustain energy and continuous improvement on the train.