SAFe® 4.0 Distilled: Applying the Scaled Agile Framework® for Lean Software and Systems Engineering, First Edition

11. Defining Large and Complex Solutions

It isn’t that they can’t see the solution. It is that they can’t see the problem.

—Gilbert K. Chesterton

Overview

The Solution

Solution Intent

Fixed and Variable Solution Intent

Developing Solution Intent

Documenting Solution Intent

Solution Context

Summary

Overview

Building large-scale and complex systems is one of the most difficult and challenging endeavors today. In addition, many such large systems have an unacceptably high cost of failure. This has created a barrier to Agile adoption, as the need for a more rigorous definition and validation of solution behavior may appear to conflict with the Agile Manifesto’s value of “working software over comprehensive documentation.”¹ Clearly, builders of systems ...