According to the SAFe DevOps Practitioner 6.0 study guide and handbook, the Release activity is triggered by a business decision to go live. This means that the Solution is ready to be delivered to end users and customers, based on the validation and testing done in the previous activities. The handbook states that "The Release activity is triggered by a business decision to go live."1 Therefore, this activity involves releasing value to customers on demand, while also measuring and learning from the feedback.

According to the SAFe DevOps Practitioner 6.0 study guide1, hypothesis evaluation is important when analyzing data from monitoring systems in the Release on Demand aspect because it helps link objective production data to the hypothesis being tested. Hypothesis evaluation is the process of measuring and comparing the actual outcomes of a hypothesis with the expected outcomes based on customer feedback and business value. Hypothesis evaluation helps DevOps teams to validate or invalidate their hypotheses, learn from their mistakes, and improve their solutions. By linking objective production data to the hypothesis being tested, DevOps teams can see how well their solutions are delivering value to customers and achieving their goals.

gemba walks are an important competency in support of the Collaborate and Research activity of the DevOps Health Radar. Collaborate and Research is the process of creating alignment on what needs to be built, synthesizing Solution ideas into ART Backlog Features, and utilizing WSJF to prioritize a DevOps backlog. Gemba walks are a technique where the product team observes how stakeholders execute the specific activities in their operational value streams to identify opportunities for relentless improvement. Gemba walks help the product team understand the customer needs, market problems, and solution requirements from the perspective of those who deliver value to customers. Therefore, gemba walks are essential for collaborating and researching with stakeholders and validating or invalidating hypotheses.

Gated commits are a key technical practice that enables trunk-based development. Gated commits are a mechanism that ensures that only code that passes certain quality checks and tests can be committed to the main trunk of the shared codebase. Gated commits prevent broken changes from affecting other developers or the Continuous Delivery Pipeline. Gated commits typically involve the following steps:

• A developer writes code and runs local tests on their own machine or branch.
• The developer pushes the code to a remote repository, where a pre-commit hook triggers a build and test process on a separate server.
• The build and test process verifies that the code meets the quality standards and does not introduce any errors or conflicts with the existing code on the trunk.
• If the build and test process succeeds, the code is automatically merged into the trunk and becomes available for other developers and downstream activities.
• If the build and test process fails, the code is rejected and the developer is notified of the issues that need to be fixed before retrying the commit.

Gated commits support trunk-based development by ensuring that the trunk is always in a releasable state, which means that at least once a day, developers must integrate their changes to the trunk. This is accomplished through short-lived feature branches related to project tasks. Gated commits reduce the complexity and conflicts of merging long-lived branches, improve the quality and consistency of the code by enforcing frequent testing and validation, accelerate the delivery and deployment of new functionality by minimizing the transaction cost and risk, and foster a culture of collaboration and transparency among developers

According to the SAFe DevOps Practitioner 6.0 study guide1, one of the benefits of DevOps is better alignment between strategy and execution. DevOps is a mindset, culture, and set of technical practices that supports the integration, automation, and collaboration needed to effectively develop and operate a solution. DevOps helps break down organizational silos and develop a Continuous Delivery Pipeline (CDP) — a high-performance innovation engine capable of delivering market-leading solutions at the speed of business. By aligning strategy and execution, DevOps enables teams to deliver value to customers faster and more reliably, as well as to adapt to changing market conditions and customer needs. Therefore, better alignment between strategy and execution is one of the benefits of DevOps.

The purpose of a minimum viable product is to validate the hypothesis. A minimum viable product (MVP) is an early and minimal version of a new product or solution used to prove or disprove an epic hypothesis. An epic is a significant solution development initiative that requires the definition and approval of an MVP. An epic hypothesis is a statement that describes the expected outcome, benefit, and value of an epic. The MVP is the smallest possible solution that can be used to test the epic hypothesis with real customers or users, and to gather feedback and data. The MVP helps reduce the risk of investing in a solution that nobody wants or needs, and enables faster learning and adaptation. The MVP is not the final product or solution, but rather a starting point for further development and improvement

According to the SAFe DevOps Practitioner 6.0 study guide and handbook, one potential outcome of the Verify activity of the Continuous Delivery Pipeline is to analyze regression testing results. This means that the Verify activity involves checking the functionality and performance of the Solution after a deployment, and comparing it with the expected results. The handbook states that "Verify is the activity of checking the functionality and performance of the Solution after a deployment, and comparing it with the expected results."1 Therefore, one of the possible outcomes of this activity is to analyze how well the Solution meets the quality standards and customer requirements.

According to the SAFe DevOps Practitioner 6.0 study guide and handbook, the metric that reflects the quality of output at each step in the Value Stream is Percent Complete and Accurate (%C&A). This metric measures the relative cost of delay divided by the relative job duration, which indicates how efficiently the value stream delivers value to customers. The handbook states that "Percent Complete and Accurate (%C&A) is a metric that measures the relative cost of delay divided by the relative job duration."1 Therefore, %C&A helps teams identify and eliminate any waste or inefficiencies in their value stream.

One skill that can significantly accelerate mean-time-to-restore by enabling support teams to see issues the way actual end users did is session replay. Session replay is a technique that allows the support team to replay end-user sessions to research incidents and identify problems. Session replay captures the user’s interactions with the application, such as clicks, scrolls, keystrokes, and mouse movements, and reproduces them in a video-like format. Session replay can help the support team to understand the user’s behavior, context, and feedback, as well as to reproduce and diagnose errors, bugs, and performance issues. Session replay can also help the support team to communicate and collaborate with the development team and the stakeholders, by providing visual evidence and data of the incidents. Session replay can significantly accelerate mean-time-to-restore by reducing the time and effort required to investigate and resolve issues, as well as by improving the quality and reliability of the application

Agile Teams are responsible for ensuring quality is built into the code in SAFe. SAFe is a framework for scaling agile practices across the enterprise, based on the principles of Lean, Agile, and DevOps. SAFe organizes the enterprise into Agile Release Trains (ARTs), which are teams of Agile Teams that deliver value in a regular cadence. Agile Teams are the fundamental building blocks of SAFe, and they are cross-functional, self-organizing, and self-managing teams that deliver value in short iterations. Agile Teams are responsible for ensuring quality is built into the code in SAFe, by applying the following practices:

• Test-first – Test-first is a practice that involves writing tests before writing code, to ensure that the code meets the requirements and standards, and does not introduce any defects or vulnerabilities. Test-first helps to improve the design and maintainability of the code, and to accelerate the feedback and validation process. Test-first can be implemented using various techniques, such as Test-Driven Development (TDD), Behavior-Driven Development (BDD), or Acceptance Test-Driven Development (ATDD).
• Built-in quality – Built-in quality is a practice that involves applying quality standards and checks throughout the solution lifecycle, rather than inspecting quality after the fact. Built-in quality helps to prevent defects from escaping to downstream stages or customers, and to reduce the cost and risk of rework and waste. Built-in quality can be achieved using various methods, such as code quality and security analysis, code review, pair programming, refactoring, and continuous testing.
• Continuous testing – Continuous testing is a practice that involves automating and executing tests at every stage of the Continuous Delivery Pipeline, to verify that the solution meets the functional and nonfunctional requirements and standards, and to detect and resolve any issues or defects as early as possible. Continuous testing helps to ensure the reliability and performance of the solution, and to support the delivery and deployment of value to the customer. Continuous testing can be performed using various tools and frameworks, such as unit testing, integration testing, system testing, acceptance testing, performance testing, and security testing

After conducting current-state mapping in the context of Value Stream Mapping, a team should be able to identify and describe the biggest bottlenecks in the delivery pipeline. Current-state mapping is a process of visualizing the entire flow of a product or service from start to finish, highlighting each step and identifying where delays or inefficiencies occur. By understanding where these bottlenecks are, teams can then work on strategies to improve the overall flow, reduce lead times, and enhance efficiency. This step is crucial for identifying areas for improvement and setting the stage for future actions to optimize the Value Stream.

The Continuous Delivery Pipeline (CDP) is a key element of the Agile Product Delivery competency in SAFe. It represents the workflows, activities, and automation needed to guide new functionality from ideation to an on-demand release of value. The CDP consists of four aspects: Continuous Exploration (CE), Continuous Integration (CI), Continuous Deployment (CD), and Release on Demand. CE focuses on creating alignment on what needs to be built, using design thinking and hypothesis-driven development. CI focuses on building quality into the solution, using practices such as test automation, code analysis, and continuous feedback

The lead time for a particular step in a value stream is the time from when the work is ready from the previous step to work completion. It includes both the process time and the wait time at that step. Lead time is an important metric to measure the efficiency and flow of a value stream, as it indicates how long it takes for a unit of work to move through a step. Reducing lead time can help eliminate waste, improve throughput, and increase customer satisfaction1

Lean flow is the DevOps principle that focuses on identifying and eliminating bottlenecks in the Continuous Delivery Pipeline. Lean flow is the application of Lean thinking and principles to optimize the flow of value from ideation to delivery. Lean flow aims to reduce waste, increase efficiency, and deliver value faster and more reliably. Lean flow involves the following practices:

• Reducing batch size – Breaking down large batches of work into smaller, more manageable pieces that can be delivered more frequently and with less risk.
• Limiting work in progress (WIP) – Restricting the amount of work that can be started or in flight at any given time, to avoid overloading the system and creating queues and delays.
• Implementing pull systems – Aligning the production and consumption of work by allowing downstream customers to pull work from upstream suppliers when they are ready, rather than pushing work based on forecasts or schedules.
• Managing queue lengths – Monitoring and controlling the amount of work waiting to be processed at each stage of the value stream, to reduce lead time and variability.
• Reducing handoffs – Minimizing the number of transitions and dependencies between different teams or individuals, to avoid communication gaps, context switching, and rework.
• Implementing Work in Process (WIP) visualization – Making the work and its status visible to all stakeholders, using tools such as Kanban boards, Cumulative Flow Diagrams (CFDs), and Value Stream Maps (VSMs), to enable collaboration, coordination, and improvement.
• Implementing Work in Process (WIP) feedback – Establishing fast and frequent feedback loops within and across the value stream, using tools such as automated testing, monitoring, and metrics, to detect and resolve issues, validate assumptions, and learn from outcomes3

Value stream mapping metrics include calculations of three metrics: total process time, rolled % complete and accurate, and activity ratio. Value stream mapping is a lean technique to analyze, design, and manage the flow of materials and information required to bring a product or service to a customer. It uses a system of standard symbols to depict various work streams and information flows, and to identify value-adding and non-value-adding activities. Value stream mapping metrics are used to measure the efficiency and effectiveness of a production process, and to identify areas for improvement. Some of the common value stream mapping metrics are:

• Total process time: the sum of the process times for all the activities in the value stream. It measures how long it takes to complete a unit of work from start to finish.
• Rolled % complete and accurate: the percentage of units that are completed and accurate at each step of the value stream, multiplied across all the steps. It measures the quality and reliability of the process output.
• Activity ratio: the ratio of value-adding time to total lead time. It measures the proportion of time spent on activities that create value for the customer, versus activities that do not

Weighted Shortest Job First (WSJF) is a prioritization model used to sequence work for maximum economic benefit. In SAFe, WSJF is estimated as the relative cost of delay divided by the relative job duration. In a flow-based system, priorities must be continuously updated to provide the best economic outcomes. In other words, job sequencing produces the best results rather than prioritization based on a theoretical return on investment for each job. To that end, SAFe applies WSJF to prioritize backlogs. Backlogs are continuously prioritized based on a WSJF algorithm that uses relative user and business value, time criticality, risk reduction and/or opportunity enablement, and job size. WSJF also conveniently and automatically ignores sunk costs, a fundamental principle of Lean economics

Blue/green deployment falls outside the scope of the Stabilize activity. The Stabilize activity is part of the Release on Demand aspect of the Continuous Delivery Pipeline, which is responsible for releasing new functionality to end users, either immediately or incrementally, based on business and customer needs. The Stabilize activity ensures that the solution is working well from a functional and nonfunctional perspective, and that it can be operated and supported effectively. The Stabilize activity involves the following practices:

• Continuous security monitoring – Applying automated tools and processes to detect and respond to security threats and vulnerabilities in the production environment, and ensuring compliance with security policies and standards.
• Failover and recovery processes – Establishing and testing backup and restore mechanisms, disaster recovery plans, and business continuity procedures, to ensure the availability and resilience of the solution in case of failures or disruptions.
• Features monitoring – Collecting and analyzing data on the usage, performance, and outcomes of the released features, to measure their value and impact, and to identify any issues or defects that need to be fixed or improved.
• Support and maintenance – Providing ongoing support and maintenance for the solution, such as resolving incidents, handling requests, applying patches, and performing upgrades, to ensure the reliability and quality of the solution.

Blue/green deployment, on the other hand, is a technical practice that belongs to the Continuous Deployment aspect of the Continuous Delivery Pipeline, which is responsible for deploying new functionality into the production environment, where it can be tested and validated. Blue/green deployment is a change management strategy that reduces the downtime and risk of deploying new versions of software. It involves having two identical but separate environments: one is the active environment that serves the user traffic (blue), and the other is the inactive environment that hosts the new version of the software (green). The deployment process consists of switching a small portion of the user traffic from the blue environment to the green environment, after verifying that the new version is working properly. The portion of users who receive the new version are called canaries, as they serve as early indicators of the quality and performance of the new version. If the canary release is successful, the entire user traffic is gradually switched to the green environment, which becomes the new active environment. If the canary release fails, the user traffic is switched back to the blue environment, which remains the active environment. Blue/green deployment has several benefits, such as:

• It allows for fast and reliable rollback, in case of any issues or errors in the new version, by simply switching back to the active environment.
• It eliminates the need for complex and error-prone migration scripts, as the inactive environment can be prepared and tested in advance, without affecting the active environment.
• It enables testing and experimentation of the new version with a subset of users, by directing some user traffic to the inactive environment, before switching completely.
• It facilitates continuous delivery and deployment, by automating the switching process and reducing the transaction cost and risk of moving changes to production

Two of the technical practices that focus on Built-in Quality are pair work and test-driven development. Pair work is a collaborative technique where two developers work together on the same code, one writing the code and the other reviewing it. Pair work improves the quality of the code by reducing defects, increasing knowledge sharing, and enhancing creativity and problem-solving. Test-driven development (TDD) is a practice where developers write automated tests before writing the code, and then refactor the code until it passes the tests. TDD ensures that the code meets the requirements and specifications, as well as improves the design, readability, and maintainability of the code

The Respond activity in the SAFe DevOps Health Radar is about proactively detecting and resolving production issues before they cause business disruption. It requires two skills: cross-team collaboration and version control. Cross-team collaboration enables faster resolution of incidents by involving the right people and teams. Version control enables tracking changes and restoring previous versions of the code or configuration if needed

According to the SAFe DevOps Practitioner 6.0 study guide1, a canary release is a type of release on demand that involves making a Solution available to any subset of users, such as a specific team, product, or region. A canary release allows the DevOps teams to test the Solution in a controlled environment and monitor its performance and feedback before rolling it out to the entire customer base. A canary release can help reduce the risk of introducing errors or failures into production and improve the quality and reliability of the Solution.

According to the SAFe DevOps Practitioner 6.0 study guide1, continuous deployment enables release continuously. Continuous deployment is an aspect of the Continuous Delivery Pipeline that automates the migration of new functionality from a staging environment to production, where it is made available for release. Continuous deployment allows teams to deploy small, incremental changes to production continually, enabling them to respond to market opportunities with the highest possible value in the shortest sustainable lead time. Continuous deployment also helps teams to reduce the risk of deploying faulty or incomplete code, as well as to optimize the performance and resource consumption of the system. Therefore, continuous deployment enables release continuously, which is a key business objective for delivering value to customers faster and more reliably.

According to the SAFe DevOps Practitioner 6.0 study guide1, one of the top advantages of mapping the current state of the delivery pipeline is to achieve a collective understanding and consensus around problems. Mapping the current state of the delivery pipeline is a technique that helps teams visualize and analyze their current processes, practices, and performance. Mapping the current state of the delivery pipeline enables teams to identify pain points, inefficiencies, and opportunities for improvement. Mapping the current state of the delivery pipeline also fosters collaboration, communication, and alignment among team members and stakeholders. By mapping the current state of the delivery pipeline, teams can gain a shared vision of their current situation, challenges, and goals. This can help them to reach a collective understanding and consensus around problems that need to be solved or opportunities that need to be pursued. Therefore, mapping the current state of the delivery pipeline is an advantage that can improve team cohesion and decision making.

One aspect of the Continuous Delivery Pipeline is Continuous Integration. Continuous Integration (CI) is the practice of merging all development versions of a code base several times a day and verifying them with automated tests. CI helps to improve the quality and consistency of the code, and to accelerate the delivery and deployment of new functionality. CI is the second aspect in the four-part Continuous Delivery Pipeline of Continuous Exploration (CE), Continuous Integration (CI), Continuous Deployment (CD), and Release on Demand. CI consists of four activities: develop, build, test end-to-end, and stage12

Identifying the Minimal Marketable Feature (MMF) is part of Lean UX, which is a user-centric approach to designing and delivering products. An MMF is a small, self-contained feature that can be developed quickly and that delivers significant value to the user. It is the smallest unit of functionality that can be released to the market and generate feedback. Lean UX advocates for releasing MMFs as early and often as possible, to validate assumptions, learn from users, and iterate on the product

Agile Release Trains (ARTs) should release on demand, which means releasing new functionality immediately or incrementally based on business and customer needs. Release on demand is the final aspect of the Continuous Delivery Pipeline (CDP) in SAFe DevOps, which enables the delivery of value to the end user as fast as possible, based on market demand. The decision of what and when to release is a critical economic driver that requires careful consideration of the customer needs, market rhythms, and economic outcomes. Release on demand is decoupled from the Continuous Deployment activity, which automates the migration of new functionality from a staging environment to production, where it is made available for release