‘SAFe Distilled’ by Richard Knaster & Dean Leffingwell

Applying the Scaled Agile Framework ® for lean enterprises

Who should read this book?

Agile coaches who intend to operate in a context that uses SAFe.

Why you should read this book (or not)?

I don’t recommend this book for 2 reasons:

• The style is rather academic (dull, boring) &
• For this type of content, you can easily navigate the website – which is an outstanding resource.

I think the book does a great job in linking concepts together across disciplines (Lean Start-up, Lean, system thinking, Kotter Change, etc). And it is a good reference for SAFe.

There are a couple of things I missed:

• The claims about the business benefits in the book are not supported with clear evidence.
• In general, there is no reference to scientific research or other evidence.
• Often vague and not hands-on – so hard to apply.

Interesting extracts

If you want to get a flavour, you can visit the website. The style is almost identical. E.g. PI Planning.