Enterprise
A strategic inflection point is that moment when some combination of technological innovation, market evolution, and customer perception requires the company to make a radical shift or die.
- Allen Ward, Lean Product and Process Development [1]
Definition: The Enterprise represents the business entity to which each SAFe portfolio belongs.
Summary
An enterprise in SAFe is the overarching business or organization that contains portfolios, ARTs, and Agile Teams. It supplies the essential resources and support for everyone within to succeed. The enterprise strategy, a plan of action designed to fulfill the enterprise's mission, is integral to this support. The strategy addresses key questions about target markets, products and solutions, unique value and resources, and future expansion. In SAFe, portfolios align with the enterprise strategy through strategic themes and Lean budget allocation. Alignment and coordination techniques ensure a continuous flow of valuable solutions that contribute to the overarching business mission.
While smaller enterprises may only require a single portfolio, larger organizations often need multiple portfolios to support various business lines, departments, and customer segments. Enterprise portfolio management (EPM) is crucial in these cases to coordinate work across portfolios, create connecting strategic themes, and allocate budgets effectively. EPM ensures alignment between portfolios and the overall enterprise strategy, enabling decentralized decision-making while maintaining a connection to the broader organizational goals. This fosters agility and responsiveness to market changes, which are essential for competitive success in today's dynamic business environment.
What is an enterprise in SAFe?
The enterprise is the business/organization that portfolios, ARTs and Agile Teams are a part of. It provides the resources and support they need for success. Enterprises utilizing Lean Portfolio Management (LPM) often organize their portfolios to ensure a continuous flow of valuable solutions that align with their business mission. When multiple portfolios need to align and collaborate, the enterprise may implement Enterprise Portfolio Management (EPM) to coordinate a connected strategy across them. This ensures that related portfolios are aligned with the vision and strategy of the organization.
Each enterprise has an enterprise strategy — a plan of action to achieve the enterprise’s mission. An enterprise strategy should answer four critical questions:
- What customers and markets do we serve?
- What products and solutions do we provide?
- What unique value and resources do we bring to the endeavor?
- How will we extend these in the future?
The guidance covered in this article explains the techniques and practices for coordinating portfolios across an enterprise.
Read more about Portfolios and Strategic Themes
How do portfolios align with an enterprise?
Smaller enterprises and government agencies may only need a single SAFe portfolio, which can build and govern all the solutions required to fulfill their mission and help deliver on this enterprise strategy. The portfolio is connected to the enterprise strategy via strategic themes and an allocated lean budget (Figure 1). The Portfolio article explains the constructs, interactions, and activities of a SAFe portfolio in more detail.
Collaboration among portfolio executives and Business Owners determines the portfolio budget, identifies strategic themes, and supports other LPM activities.
However, many of the world’s largest organizations use SAFe. These enterprises have thousands, and even tens of thousands, of IT, system, hardware, and solution development practitioners. Not all these practitioners work in the same portfolios. More likely, people are organized to support various lines of business, internal departments, customer segments, regional areas, and specific business capabilities. In these cases, there is often a need to coordinate work across portfolios, create strategic themes that connect them, and allocate appropriate budgets across them (Figure 2). In this situation, EPM is required.
Last Update: 8 April 2025