Delay is the enemy of progress

—Widely attributed to Eliot Spitzer, American politician and attorney

Solution Train Flow

Definition: Solution Train Flow describes a state where a Solution Train delivers a continuous flow of valuable capabilities to the customer.

The SAFe Enterprise Solution Delivery competency guides how ARTs can work together with an aligned mission to build some of the world’s largest and most critical systems. This competency has proven effective in improving business outcomes for SAFe Enterprises building these systems.

But solution delivery at scale is complex and requires unprecedented cooperation between release trains, suppliers, customers, and stakeholders. The world relies on these substantial systems, and every delay is a lost opportunity to help those depending on them. This article describes how to provide a continuous flow of value delivery, even when building the world’s largest and most complex systems.

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Note: About the Flow Article Series
SAFe is a flow-based system. As such, any interruptions to flow must be identified and addressed systematically to enable continuous value delivery. While flow-based guidance is embedded throughout SAFe, a special collection of eight articles directly addresses impediments to flow. These are Value Stream Management, Principle #6- Make value flow without interruptions, Team Flow, ART Flow, Solution Train Flow, Portfolio Flow, the extended Guidance articles Accelerating Flow with SAFe, and Coaching Flow.

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Details

SAFe defines a set of eight flow accelerators that can address, optimize, and debug issues to achieve continuous flow at any level of the Framework. This article describes how Solution Trains can apply these eight accelerators to improve the flow of value for large and complex systems. Each accelerator is described in the sections below.