Comparing Scrum and SAFe: Which One is Right for Your Organization? – Testkings

The world of project management and software development has evolved over the past few decades, and the Agile methodology has become a dominant force in how teams approach projects. Two of the most well-known frameworks derived from Agile principles are Scrum and the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe®). These two frameworks are widely used in organizations of various sizes, from small startups to large enterprises.

While both Scrum and SAFe® are based on Agile principles, they serve different purposes and are intended for different environments. Scrum is a framework primarily designed for small, cross-functional teams to manage and complete work iteratively. On the other hand, SAFe® is an enterprise-level Agile framework that helps large organizations implement Agile practices across multiple teams and departments.

The primary distinction between Scrum and SAFe® lies in their scope and scale. Scrum is best suited for smaller teams working on specific projects, whereas SAFe® is designed to scale Agile practices across large, complex organizations. In this guide, we will explore the differences between Scrum and SAFe®, discussing their frameworks, roles, processes, benefits, and challenges.

Understanding the Scrum Framework

Scrum is one of the most widely used Agile frameworks, particularly in software development. It provides a structured approach for teams to work collaboratively on a project and deliver incremental value through iterations known as sprints. Scrum encourages flexibility, transparency, and continuous improvement, making it ideal for teams working in fast-paced, changing environments.

Key Roles in Scrum

Scrum relies on three key roles to ensure the success of the framework:

Product Owner: The Product Owner is responsible for defining the product backlog, which consists of all the tasks, features, and requirements needed to complete the project. The Product Owner works closely with stakeholders and ensures that the development team is focused on delivering the highest-priority items that will bring the most value to the business.
Scrum Master: The Scrum Master acts as a facilitator and coach for the team. They ensure that Scrum principles are followed, remove any obstacles that may be hindering progress, and foster a collaborative and efficient working environment. The Scrum Master also helps the team improve their processes by encouraging continuous improvement through retrospectives.
Development Team: The Development Team is composed of cross-functional professionals who work together to deliver the product increment during each sprint. The team is responsible for self-organizing, collaborating, and completing the work as defined in the product backlog. Members of the Development Team may have different skill sets, such as developers, testers, designers, or business analysts.

Scrum Process Flow

Scrum is an iterative process that breaks down projects into small, manageable chunks of work known as sprints. Each sprint typically lasts between two to four weeks, with the goal of delivering a potentially shippable product increment at the end of each sprint. Here is a general overview of the Scrum process:

Sprint Planning: At the beginning of each sprint, the team holds a Sprint Planning meeting where the Product Owner presents the highest-priority items from the product backlog. The team discusses the tasks and breaks them down into smaller, manageable work items. The team commits to delivering a specific set of tasks by the end of the sprint.
Daily Scrum: The Daily Scrum, also known as the Daily Standup, is a short meeting (usually 15 minutes) held every day during the sprint. During this meeting, each team member answers three key questions: What did I accomplish yesterday? What will I work on today? Are there any blockers or obstacles?
Sprint Review: At the end of the sprint, the team holds a Sprint Review meeting to demonstrate the completed work to the Product Owner and other stakeholders. This provides an opportunity for feedback and ensures that the product is meeting the needs of the business.
Sprint Retrospective: After the Sprint Review, the team holds a Sprint Retrospective meeting to reflect on the sprint and identify areas for improvement. The team discusses what went well, what could be improved, and what actions they can take to enhance their performance in the next sprint.

Benefits of Scrum

Scrum offers several benefits that make it a popular choice for teams working in dynamic and fast-paced environments:

Transparency: Scrum emphasizes transparency, ensuring that everyone involved in the project has visibility into the progress and any potential issues.
Flexibility: Scrum’s iterative approach allows teams to adapt to changing requirements and priorities, making it ideal for projects where the final product may not be clearly defined from the outset.
Improved Collaboration: Scrum fosters communication and collaboration between team members and stakeholders, ensuring that everyone is aligned and working towards the same goals.
Continuous Improvement: The Sprint Retrospective allows teams to reflect on their processes and make adjustments, leading to continuous improvement over time.

Challenges with Scrum

While Scrum offers many benefits, it also has its challenges:

Limited Scalability: Scrum is best suited for small, cross-functional teams. Scaling Scrum to larger projects or multiple teams can be challenging without additional frameworks or methodologies.
Team Commitment: Scrum requires a high level of commitment and discipline from the team members. Without full buy-in from all team members, the framework may not be as effective.
Initial Learning Curve: Teams new to Scrum may experience a learning curve, especially when it comes to adapting to the roles, ceremonies, and artifacts.

Understanding the SAFe® Framework

While Scrum is a great framework for small, cross-functional teams, larger organizations with multiple teams may find it difficult to scale the Scrum approach to meet the complexity of their business needs. This is where the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe®) comes into play. SAFe® is a comprehensive, enterprise-level Agile framework that provides a structured approach to implementing Agile at scale across large organizations. It adapts Scrum and other Agile principles to help organizations achieve alignment, collaboration, and delivery across teams.

Key Roles in SAFe®

The SAFe® framework introduces several roles that build upon those in Scrum, but are more tailored to enterprise-scale Agile development. These roles support multiple teams and coordinate the delivery of large, complex projects.

Release Train Engineer (RTE): The RTE is similar to the Scrum Master but operates at a higher level. The RTE is responsible for managing the Agile Release Train (ART), which is a group of multiple Scrum teams working together to deliver larger solutions. The RTE ensures the ART runs smoothly, helps remove roadblocks, and facilitates coordination between teams.
Product Manager: The Product Manager in SAFe® is similar to the Product Owner in Scrum, but their focus is on managing the product at the program level. They are responsible for defining the features and guiding the development of the product through multiple ARTs. The Product Manager works with various stakeholders to ensure the product aligns with business objectives.
System Architect/Engineer: The System Architect is responsible for the overall technical architecture of the product or system. They work across teams to ensure that the technology and system design are aligned with the enterprise-level goals.
Team Roles (Scrum Master, Product Owner, Development Team): At the team level, SAFe® retains the traditional Scrum roles (Scrum Master, Product Owner, and Development Team). However, in the context of SAFe®, these roles are integrated into the larger ART structure, ensuring alignment with program-level goals.

SAFe® Process Flow

SAFe® takes a layered approach to Agile implementation, ensuring that Agile principles are applied at the team, program, and portfolio levels. Here is a general overview of the SAFe® process:

Portfolio Level: At the portfolio level, SAFe® helps define the strategic direction of the organization by managing various value streams. Portfolio management ensures that the right initiatives and investments are aligned with the organization’s business goals and objectives.
Program Level: The program level in SAFe® is managed through Agile Release Trains (ARTs). Each ART is a group of Agile teams (typically 5-12 teams) that work together to deliver large, complex solutions. The ART operates on a cadence, typically a Program Increment (PI), which lasts 8-12 weeks. During this time, the teams work collaboratively to deliver features and capabilities.
Team Level: At the team level, SAFe® uses Scrum to manage the work of individual teams within the ART. Scrum teams follow the Scrum process, working within the structure and cadence of the ART to ensure alignment and efficient delivery of value.
PI Planning: One of the key components of SAFe® is Program Increment (PI) Planning. During PI Planning, all the teams within the ART come together to plan the work for the upcoming Program Increment. This helps ensure alignment across teams, identify dependencies, and create a shared understanding of the goals for the PI.

Benefits of SAFe®

SAFe® offers several advantages, particularly for large organizations that need to scale Agile across multiple teams and departments:

Enterprise-Level Scalability: SAFe® provides a structured approach to scaling Agile practices beyond individual teams, allowing organizations to align and coordinate large-scale efforts across multiple teams and departments.
Improved Collaboration and Communication: By bringing together all stakeholders (business, technical, and management) through regular PI Planning and synchronization meetings, SAFe® fosters better communication and collaboration across teams and departments.
Faster Time-to-Market: SAFe® enables faster delivery of value by aligning teams around a common set of objectives, breaking down silos, and focusing on incremental delivery through Agile Release Trains.
Clearer Alignment with Business Objectives: SAFe® ensures that Agile teams are aligned with the overall business strategy. The portfolio and program levels of SAFe® help connect the work of teams to strategic business goals, ensuring that the right initiatives are prioritized.
Increased Transparency: SAFe® promotes transparency at all levels of the organization. Teams and management have visibility into progress, dependencies, risks, and issues, allowing for informed decision-making and course corrections when needed.

Challenges with SAFe®

Despite its advantages, SAFe® also has some challenges, particularly in organizations new to Agile practices:

Complexity: SAFe® is a comprehensive framework that introduces multiple layers of roles, ceremonies, and processes. For organizations new to Agile, implementing SAFe® can be complex and require significant upfront effort.
Rigidity: While SAFe® provides a structured approach to scaling Agile, it can sometimes feel too prescriptive for organizations that value the flexibility of frameworks like Scrum. Adapting SAFe® to suit the unique needs of a business may require additional customization.
Resistance to Change: As with any major transformation, adopting SAFe® can face resistance from employees who are used to traditional waterfall or siloed working methods. Successful implementation requires strong leadership and a commitment to continuous improvement.
Requires Significant Investment: Implementing SAFe® at scale requires time, resources, and training. Organizations need to invest in training for their teams, hire or promote skilled SAFe® professionals, and ensure that the entire organization is aligned with the framework’s goals.

Key Differences Between Scrum and SAFe®

While both Scrum and SAFe® are rooted in Agile principles, their scope, application, and implementation differ significantly. In this section, we will delve into the key differences between Scrum and SAFe®, focusing on their frameworks, scalability, roles, processes, and implementation. Understanding these differences will help you decide which framework is best suited for your organization or team.

1. Scope and Scale

The most significant difference between Scrum and SAFe® lies in their scope and scale. Scrum is designed for small, cross-functional teams working on specific projects, making it best suited for smaller organizations or teams within a larger company. Scrum focuses on a single team working in an iterative manner to deliver a product incrementally. It is an excellent framework for environments that need flexibility and the ability to adjust quickly to changing requirements.

SAFe®, on the other hand, is an enterprise-level Agile framework designed to scale Scrum practices across multiple teams, departments, and levels of an organization. It provides a structured approach to implement Agile at scale, aligning business, management, and technical teams around common objectives. SAFe® is particularly useful for larger organizations that require coordination between multiple teams working on complex products or systems.

In short, Scrum is best for smaller teams working on individual projects, while SAFe® is a comprehensive solution for scaling Agile practices across large enterprises with numerous teams and stakeholders.

2. Team Size and Structure

Scrum operates with smaller teams, usually consisting of 5-9 members. Each team is cross-functional, meaning it includes all the necessary skills to complete the tasks within a sprint (e.g., developers, testers, and business analysts). The Scrum team is self-organizing, meaning that team members determine how best to accomplish the tasks assigned during the sprint. This small team structure allows for rapid decision-making and close collaboration.

In contrast, SAFe® works with multiple teams organized into Agile Release Trains (ARTs). Each ART typically consists of 50-125 people working together on a large project or product. ARTs are coordinated across different levels of the organization, and each team within the ART follows Scrum practices at the team level. The ART, led by a Release Train Engineer (RTE), operates with a cadence that aligns with the larger organizational goals. Teams within the ART collaborate to deliver large-scale solutions, ensuring that the development process remains aligned with business objectives.

Thus, while Scrum focuses on small, self-organizing teams, SAFe® is designed to scale Agile practices across multiple teams within an organization, with an emphasis on coordination and alignment.

3. Framework Structure

Scrum is a relatively simple and lightweight framework with three roles (Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Development Team), three ceremonies (Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review, and Sprint Retrospective), and three key artifacts (Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog, and Increment). Scrum’s framework is focused on empowering teams to deliver high-value products incrementally through short, iterative cycles (sprints).

SAFe®, on the other hand, is a much more structured and hierarchical framework. It introduces multiple layers to manage larger teams and programs. The SAFe® framework has three primary levels:

Team Level: This level uses Scrum practices to manage individual teams within the ART.
Program Level: At this level, the ARTs work together to deliver larger, cross-team solutions. The Program Level ensures that the ARTs are aligned with business objectives and facilitates coordination among teams.
Portfolio Level: The Portfolio Level is responsible for managing the strategic alignment of initiatives and overseeing the investment in various value streams.

SAFe® also includes additional roles such as Product Manager, System Architect, and Release Train Engineer, which help coordinate efforts across teams and ensure alignment with the organization’s goals.

While Scrum provides a straightforward framework with a focus on team-level delivery, SAFe® adds complexity by introducing multiple layers of coordination, governance, and strategic alignment to manage large-scale Agile initiatives across an enterprise.

4. Implementation Approach

Scrum is designed for quick implementation in small teams. It is often easy for an organization to adopt Scrum for a single team, as the framework requires minimal overhead and can be implemented relatively quickly. Scrum’s simplicity allows teams to begin working in an Agile manner with minimal disruption, and its emphasis on short sprints provides quick feedback that helps refine the process.

However, when scaling Scrum to multiple teams or larger organizations, challenges arise. Scrum lacks formalized mechanisms for managing dependencies between teams, aligning teams with business objectives, and coordinating large-scale projects. As a result, organizations looking to scale Scrum often struggle with these issues.

SAFe® addresses these scaling challenges by offering a comprehensive approach to enterprise-level Agile implementation. Its implementation requires a more structured approach, including PI Planning, regular ART synchronization meetings, and alignment across teams, programs, and portfolios. While SAFe® can be more challenging and time-consuming to implement, it provides a roadmap for scaling Agile practices across an entire organization and addressing the complexities that come with larger projects and multiple teams.

5. Alignment with Business Strategy

In Scrum, the alignment with business goals is primarily the responsibility of the Product Owner, who ensures that the work completed during each sprint is aligned with customer needs and business priorities. The Product Owner manages the product backlog, which serves as the list of tasks to be completed by the team. However, Scrum does not provide a formalized mechanism for ensuring that the work of multiple teams is aligned with the broader organizational strategy.

SAFe® addresses this issue by introducing a portfolio-level management approach. At the portfolio level, SAFe® ensures that business objectives and strategy are aligned with the work being done at the program and team levels. This alignment is achieved through initiatives like Lean Portfolio Management, which helps organizations prioritize their efforts and ensure that resources are allocated efficiently.

SAFe® also uses the concept of Value Streams, which are the sequence of activities that organizations use to deliver value to customers. By organizing teams and work around value streams, SAFe® helps ensure that all efforts are focused on delivering customer value and supporting business goals. This level of strategic alignment is not present in Scrum, which focuses on delivering value within a single team or project.

6. Flexibility vs Structure

One of the primary benefits of Scrum is its flexibility. Scrum is a lightweight framework that gives teams the freedom to decide how to organize their work and achieve their goals. Scrum encourages self-organization and collaboration, allowing teams to adapt to changing requirements and customer feedback. The Scrum process emphasizes continuous improvement through retrospectives, making it highly adaptable to different team dynamics and environments.

In contrast, SAFe® is much more structured and prescriptive. It provides a detailed roadmap for scaling Agile practices across an enterprise, with defined roles, ceremonies, and processes. SAFe® introduces multiple layers of coordination and governance, making it more rigid than Scrum. While this structure is beneficial for larger organizations that need clear alignment and oversight, it can be less flexible and harder to adapt for smaller teams or organizations that value autonomy and adaptability.

7. Time-to-Market and Delivery Speed

Scrum focuses on delivering value quickly through short sprints, usually lasting 2-4 weeks. This allows teams to quickly iterate on their work, receive feedback, and make improvements. Scrum’s emphasis on continuous delivery helps reduce the time-to-market, making it ideal for projects that require rapid development cycles and flexibility.

SAFe®, with its multiple levels and structured approach, typically requires more planning and coordination, which can result in a slightly longer time-to-market. However, SAFe® also aims to improve the overall delivery speed at the enterprise level by ensuring that all teams are aligned and working toward the same goals. The introduction of Agile Release Trains (ARTs) allows teams to work collaboratively across departments, ensuring that larger solutions are delivered more efficiently.

8. Which Framework is Right for Your Organization?

The decision to use Scrum or SAFe® largely depends on the size, complexity, and needs of your organization. If you have a small to medium-sized team working on a single project, Scrum is likely the better choice due to its simplicity, flexibility, and focus on team-level delivery. Scrum is also ideal for organizations that are just beginning to adopt Agile practices and want to start small before scaling.

On the other hand, if you are part of a large organization with multiple teams working on complex, interdependent projects, SAFe® may be the better choice. SAFe® provides a structured framework for scaling Agile practices across an enterprise, ensuring alignment between teams, programs, and portfolios. SAFe® is particularly useful for organizations that need to coordinate efforts across multiple departments, manage large-scale projects, and deliver value at scale.

Choosing the Right Framework for Your Organization

In this guide, we have explored the key differences between Scrum and SAFe® and discussed their applications, roles, processes, and benefits. Both frameworks are rooted in Agile principles, but they serve distinct purposes and are best suited to different organizational needs. To conclude, let’s review the core takeaways and offer guidance on how to choose between Scrum and SAFe® based on your organization’s goals, size, and complexity.

Summary of Scrum

Scrum is an Agile framework primarily designed for small, cross-functional teams. It emphasizes collaboration, flexibility, and continuous improvement through iterative cycles known as sprints. Scrum is ideal for teams working on specific projects or products where requirements may evolve over time. It provides a structured yet flexible approach that allows teams to deliver high-value increments in short timeframes.

Key characteristics of Scrum include:

Simplicity and Flexibility: Scrum is easy to implement and provides teams with autonomy and flexibility to organize their work.
Focus on Team Collaboration: Scrum fosters self-organizing teams that work collaboratively to achieve their goals.
Rapid Delivery and Adaptation: Scrum’s iterative process allows teams to deliver quickly and adjust based on feedback.
Ideal for Small to Medium Teams: Scrum works best for small, cross-functional teams with a shared focus on delivering a product increment.

However, Scrum is not designed to scale to larger organizations or multiple teams working on complex projects. Its simplicity can become a limitation as the need for coordination and alignment between teams grows.

Summary of SAFe®

SAFe® is an enterprise-level Agile framework designed to scale Agile practices across large organizations. It builds on Scrum and other Agile principles but introduces multiple layers of coordination and governance to manage complex, cross-team initiatives. SAFe® provides a structured approach to ensure alignment between teams, programs, and portfolios, making it ideal for organizations that need to deliver large-scale solutions while maintaining Agile principles.

Key characteristics of SAFe® include:

Enterprise-Level Scalability: SAFe® is designed to scale Agile practices beyond individual teams, aligning entire organizations around common goals.
Clear Roles and Governance: SAFe® introduces additional roles and layers of coordination to ensure alignment and manage dependencies across multiple teams.
Strategic Alignment with Business Goals: SAFe® emphasizes alignment with business objectives, ensuring that all work is connected to delivering value to customers.
Program and Portfolio Management: SAFe® provides a structured approach to managing programs and portfolios, making it ideal for large-scale projects and enterprises.

While SAFe® is highly effective for large organizations, its complexity and structure may be overkill for smaller teams or organizations that do not require enterprise-level coordination. The framework can be rigid and may require significant investment in training and resources.

Key Differences Recap

To help you make a more informed decision, here is a quick comparison of Scrum and SAFe®:

Scope and Scale: Scrum is designed for small teams working on specific projects, while SAFe® is built for large organizations with multiple teams working on complex, interdependent projects.
Roles and Structure: Scrum has a simple, lightweight structure with three key roles (Product Owner, Scrum Master, Development Team), while SAFe® introduces multiple roles and organizational levels (Portfolio, Program, Team) to scale Agile practices across the enterprise.
Implementation: Scrum can be quickly implemented at the team level, making it ideal for small teams or organizations new to Agile. SAFe® requires a more structured approach and is better suited for organizations with existing Agile practices that need to scale.
Flexibility vs. Structure: Scrum offers greater flexibility and autonomy for teams, while SAFe® provides a more structured, prescriptive framework for managing large-scale Agile initiatives.
Alignment with Business Goals: SAFe® places a strong emphasis on aligning Agile work with strategic business goals, while Scrum focuses more on the team-level execution of work.

How to Choose the Right Framework

When deciding between Scrum and SAFe®, the key factors to consider are the size of your organization, the complexity of your projects, and your organization’s maturity with Agile practices. Here are some guidelines to help you choose the right framework:

Scrum is best for:
- Small to medium-sized teams (typically 5-9 members).
- Projects where the scope is well-defined, but requirements may change based on customer feedback.
- Teams that require flexibility, autonomy, and a lightweight Agile framework.
- Organizations looking for a simple, effective way to introduce Agile without heavy overhead.
SAFe® is best for:
- Large organizations with multiple teams working on complex projects.
- Enterprises that need to scale Agile practices across different levels of the organization (team, program, portfolio).
- Companies with a strong focus on aligning Agile work with business strategy and ensuring cross-team coordination.
- Organizations looking to deliver large-scale solutions, requiring both technical and business collaboration at every level.

Considerations for Scaling Scrum

If you are currently using Scrum and want to scale it to more extensive projects or teams, consider looking into frameworks that support Scrum at scale, such as LeSS (Large Scale Scrum) or Scrum@Scale. These frameworks allow you to extend Scrum’s principles to multiple teams while maintaining a lightweight structure.

The Right Framework for Your Organization

Both Scrum and SAFe® offer valuable Agile methodologies, but they cater to different needs. Scrum is a lightweight framework that excels in smaller teams or projects with a focus on delivering high-value products quickly. Its flexibility and iterative process make it ideal for teams looking to adapt to changing requirements and customer feedback.

On the other hand, SAFe® is designed to address the challenges faced by large organizations that need to scale Agile practices across multiple teams. It provides a structured approach to managing complex projects and aligning teams with strategic business objectives. While it requires more upfront effort and investment, SAFe® can help enterprises deliver large-scale solutions more efficiently and with greater alignment to business goals.

Ultimately, the choice between Scrum and SAFe® depends on the size, complexity, and goals of your organization. By understanding the differences between these two frameworks, you can make a more informed decision about which one best meets your needs and enables you to achieve Agile success at scale.

Final Thoughts

Both Scrum and SAFe® are popular Agile frameworks, but their differences in scope, scale, and structure make them suitable for different types of organizations and projects. Scrum excels in smaller, cross-functional teams where quick iterations and adaptability are key. It provides a lightweight, flexible framework that allows teams to quickly respond to changes and deliver value incrementally.

On the other hand, SAFe® is tailored for large organizations that need to scale Agile practices across multiple teams and departments. With its more structured approach, SAFe® helps align teams with business objectives, manage interdependencies, and ensure strategic alignment at all levels of the organization. This makes it ideal for complex, enterprise-level projects requiring coordinated efforts from various stakeholders.

The decision to choose between Scrum and SAFe® should depend on the size of your organization, the complexity of your projects, and the level of Agile maturity your teams possess. Scrum is an excellent starting point for smaller organizations or teams new to Agile, while SAFe® provides the necessary framework to scale Agile across large enterprises.

In either case, both Scrum and SAFe® emphasize continuous improvement, collaboration, and delivering value to customers. By understanding the unique strengths and challenges of each framework, organizations can select the one that best aligns with their goals, fostering greater efficiency, innovation, and success in their Agile transformation journey.