SAFe's first principle

Take an economic view

Realizing the goal of Lean—which means achieving the shortest sustainable lead time with the best quality and value—requires understanding the economics of a mission.

SAFe's second principle

Apply systems thinking

The four foundational bodies of knowledge that inform SAFe are systems thinking, Agile development, Lean product development, and DevOps. Systems thinking takes a holistic approach to solution development, incorporating all aspects of a system and its environment into the design, development, deployment, and maintenance of the system itself.

SAFe's third principle

Assume variability; preserve options

To assure forward progress, system developers are inclined to reduce variability as quickly as possible.

SAFe's fourth principle

Build incrementally with fast, integrated learning cycles

This principle justifies the agile plan-do-check-adjust cycle.

SAFe's fifth principle

Base milestones on objective evaluation of working systems

Throughout development, the system is built in increments, each of which is an integration point that demonstrates some evidence of the feasibility of the solution in process.

SAFe's sixth principle

Visualize and limit WIP, reduce batch sizes, and manage queue lengths

This principle justifies basic agile practices.

• Automation reduces the transaction cost.
• Smaller batches reduces the holding cost.
• Little's law:   The long-term average number L of customers in a stationary system is equal to the long-term average effective arrival rate λ multiplied by the average time W that a customer spends in the system.

SAFe's seventh principle

Apply cadence, synchronize with cross-domain planning

Taken together, cadence and synchronization help development teams proceed confidently despite the inherent uncertainty.

SAFe's eight principle

Unlock the intrinsic motivation of knowledge workers

The underlying questoin: How can any manager seriously attempt to oversee or even coordinate the technical activities of people who are infinitely more capable than they are of defining the tasks necessary to accomplish their mission? 

SAFe's ninth principle

Decentralize decision-making

• Centralize Strategic Decisions
• Decentralize Everything Else

SAFe's tenth principle

Organize around value

Business agility demands that enterprises organize around value to deliver more quickly. And when market and customer demands change, as they inevitably will, the enterprise must adapt quickly and seamlessly to reorganize around that new value flow.