SAFe® for Architects with ARCH Certification

Architect Role

SAFe Architect

A technical leader who guides architecture to enable continuous value flow. In SAFe, architects form a trio of leaders with Product Management and the Release Train Engineer to guide Agile Release Trains.

System Architect

Defines and communicates the architecture for an Agile Release Train, guiding the technical design of the solution the ART builds.

Solution Architect

Defines the architecture across multiple ARTs building a large solution, ensuring components integrate into a coherent whole.

Enterprise Architect

Drives technology strategy and standards across the portfolio, fostering the reuse and evolution of architecture to support current and future business needs.

The Trio of Leaders

System Architect, Product Management, and the Release Train Engineer, who collaboratively lead an ART to align business value, execution, and architecture.

Lean-Agile Architecture

Lean-Agile Architecture

An approach that balances intentional architecture with emergent design, evolving the architecture incrementally to support current needs and near-term business value.

Intentional Architecture

A set of purposeful, planned architectural guidelines that enhance solution design, performance, and usability and guide inter-team design and implementation.

Emergent Design

Allowing architecture to evolve as the system is built and learning occurs, so design decisions are made with the best available knowledge, just in time.

Balancing Intentional & Emergent

Architects continuously balance planned architectural runway with emergent design to avoid both over-engineering and unmanaged complexity.

Architectural Runway

The existing code, components, and technical infrastructure needed to implement near-term features without excessive redesign and delay; architects build and maintain it.

Enabler

Work that supports future functionality — exploration, architecture, infrastructure, or compliance — used to extend the architectural runway and reduce risk.

Architecture & Value

Aligning Architecture with Business Value

Ensuring architectural decisions and investments directly support business objectives and value flow, rather than pursuing technical elegance for its own sake.

Architecting for Continuous Value Flow

Designing systems and architecture so value can flow continuously through the delivery pipeline with minimal delay and rework.

Economic View in Architecture

Framing architectural decisions in an economic context — weighing cost of delay, risk, and value — to make trade-offs that maximize business benefit.

Solution Intent

Solution Vision

A description of the future state of the solution — its capabilities, benefits, and qualities — that architects develop and communicate to align stakeholders and teams.

Solution Intent

The single source of truth for what is being built and why, capturing current and future fixed and variable specifications, designs, and decisions.

Fixed vs. Variable Solution Intent

Fixed intent captures requirements and designs that are known and must hold; variable intent preserves options and evolves as the team learns, supporting set-based design.

Roadmaps

Plans that show how the solution and its architecture will evolve over time across PIs, helping align architecture with business priorities and releases.

Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE)

Using models rather than documents to capture and communicate solution intent, improving precision, reuse, and collaboration on complex solutions.

Architecture & DevOps

Architecting for DevOps

Designing architecture that supports the continuous delivery pipeline — enabling automation, testability, and frequent, low-risk deployment.

Architecting for Release on Demand

Structuring systems (e.g., loose coupling, feature toggles) so features can be released to users on demand, decoupled from deployment and the development cadence.

Continuous Delivery Pipeline

The flow of Continuous Exploration, Integration, Deployment, and Release on Demand that architecture must enable for fast, reliable value delivery.

Design for Quality Attributes

Architecting for nonfunctional requirements — performance, security, reliability, scalability — that determine whether the solution meets its qualities.

PI Planning

Preparing Architecture for PI Planning

Readying the architectural vision, enablers, and runway before PI Planning so teams can plan effectively and address technical dependencies.

Architectural Vision at PI Planning

The architect presents the architectural vision and priorities so teams understand the technical direction and enablers for the upcoming PI.

Coordinating Architecture Across Teams

Guiding and aligning architectural decisions across teams throughout PI Planning to manage dependencies and ensure a coherent solution.

Supporting Continuous Delivery in PI Execution

During PI execution, the architect supports teams to implement the architecture, resolve technical issues, and keep value flowing.

Leading Change

Architect as Coach

Architects lead and coach other architects and team members during PI Planning and execution, growing technical capability across the ART.

Supporting New Strategic Themes & Value Streams

Evolving architecture to enable new strategic themes and value streams as business priorities change, keeping the architecture aligned with strategy.

Leading During Lean-Agile Transformation

Architects help drive the transformation by modeling Lean-Agile behaviors, decentralizing technical decisions, and aligning architecture to flow and value.

Collaborating with Business & IT Perspectives

Architects relate the architecture to both business and IT perspectives, collaborating with product and delivery leaders as partners in decision-making.

Decentralized Technical Decisions

Pushing appropriate technical decisions to teams while retaining architectural guardrails, enabling fast flow without losing coherence.