SAFe® Product Owner Product Manager (POPM) Certification | Product Management

A digital badge is an online image of your SAFe® Certification that allows you to instantly verify, share, post, and manage your SAFe competence from any platform. Acclaim, the exclusive certification authority for Scaled Agile, Inc., issued the Digital Badge. Your digital badge verifies your qualification and reflects your knowledge of SAFe® as well as your dedication to professional excellence.

A Digital Badge comes with the following benefits:

• You can share your knowledge in a format that is straightforward, secure, and easily verifiable.
• Employers have a better understanding of your degree of experience and ability.
• The Acclaim platform allows you to both look for and apply for job openings.

No. SAFe 5 is the current version. SAFe 5 to 5.1 is merely a collection of upgrades to SAFe 5. A new SAFe 5.1 Big Picture is included in one of these updates, although this and the other upgrades are all in support of SAFe 5 for Lean Enterprises.

The latest update 5.1 was rolled out to the latest version, SAFe 5 on February 10, 2021. The key updates are as follows:

• An updated Big Picture (now at version 5.1) 
• New recommendations for operational and development value streams to assist organising around value, including ART and Team Topologies, patterns for arranging teams and ARTs to enhance flow, and the #1 request from our clients.
• The Continuous Delivery Pipeline now has new information on DevSecOps technical skills and technologies.
• IPB stands for Integrated Participatory Budgeting, which is a dynamic and participatory approach for allocating funds to value streams.
• A new SAFe for Hardware paper provides specific guidelines for applying Lean-Agile methods to business and technology domains.

More information can be found on Scaled Agile.

You can share your Digital Badge directly from the Acclaim Platform: 

• On social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn 
• On email 
• In your email signature
• You can also embed it on your website

No, the benefits of your SAFe Community subscription include the Digital Badge. As long as you are a member of the SAFe Community Platform, the Badge will be valid. The badge page will display the message “Expired” if your membership expires or you do not renew it. 

To get the Digital Badge, go to the SAFe Community Platform’s Privacy Preference Settings and select it. Obtaining a Digital Badge is entirely up to you; it is not required.

No-reply@youracclaim.com will send you an email with instructions on how to claim your badge. The email will also include instructions for creating an account for managing and sharing certifications. To know more, please visit http://support.youracclaim.com.  

Scaled Agile is on a mission to fulfil the ever-changing demands of SAFe Enterprises and Partner communities by supporting and evolving SAFe techniques. To that aim, Scaled Agile will continue to update old articles and add new ones to reflect the latest understanding of best practises in Lean Agile at scale from the SAFe community and practitioners.

When a significantly updated version of the Scaled Agile Framework® (SAFe®) is issued, it is referred to as an upgrade. This is usually indicated by an increase in the major version number (e.g. 4 to 5).

Updates are minor updates to an existing version of the Framework that do not necessitate an upgrade. If you already hold the most up-to-date certification available, you won’t need to retest, and you won’t need to upgrade.

The change from SAFe 5 to 5.1 is an update, not an upgrade.

No, your certificate will not state whatever type of course you took. It will have the same appearance as the physical certificates.

Not at all. Professionals in IT industries or non-IT industries who want to work in a SAFe® environment can take up this course. This includes: 

• Program or Project Managers 
• Scrum Masters 
• Release Train Engineers 
• Business Analysts 
• Agile Coaches 
• SAFe Program Consultants 
• Development Managers 
• CTOs 
• Consultants 
• Architects 
• Engineers 
• Directors 
• Product Managers 
• Product Owners 
• Delivery Managers 
• Solution Train Engineers 
• Software Developers 

Despite the fact that badges are just digital picture files, they are linked to unique validated data, making them more secure and dependable than any other type of certificate. As a result, it removes the risk of your certification and related identity being copied.

The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe®) is a complete methodology for large-scale Agile project teams to carry out an Agile transformation seamlessly. It provides a guide to work at the Portfolio, Large Solution, Program, and Team levels. After implementing SAFe®, businesses are yielding benefits that include:

• 10 – 50% happier, more motivated employees

• 30 – 75% faster time-to-market

• 20 – 50% increase in productivity
• 25 – 75% defect reduction

Since its inception in 2011, Scaled Agile, Inc. has come up with 5 major updates to its SAFe® framework that reflect the changing industry needs. The latest upgrade is version 5.1, which introduces the ‘Seven Core Competencies’ of the Lean Enterprise. These competencies help SAFe® organizations in building a truly Lean enterprise, which is critical to achieving an advantage over your peers in an increasingly competitive age.

Scaled Agile is the certifying body for the Scaled Agile Framework or SAFe. It is a professional certification program that assesses the knowledge, skills, and mindset of professionals. Here are the various SAFe Certifications available from Scaled Agile:

• Certified SAFe Agile Product Manager

This certification combines the values and principles of Lean-Agile with design thinking for creating viable, sustainable, feasible, and desirable solutions and products. For this certification, you must have the following prerequisites:

• Familiarity with the principles and practices of Agile
• Completed at least one SAFe course
• Background in solution or product management
• Experience being a business owner, product marketer, product manager, or product owner
• Certified SAFe Lean Portfolio Manager

These professionals understand how to establish a strategy and investment fund, apply Lean governance and Agile portfolio operation, and build a plan for the implementation of Lean Portfolio Management. Here are the prerequisites for this certification:

• An understanding of SAFe, strategy and funding models
• Knowledge of value stream organization
• Should have attended the Lean Portfolio Management course
• Certified SAFe Architect

These professionals are a change agent and an effective leader who delivers the Agile Architecture for enabling the creation of business value. The prerequisites for this program are:

• Knowledge of the application of Lean-Agile principles
• Should have attended the SAFe for Architects course
• Certified SAFe Agile Software Engineer

These professionals are responsible for applying test-first principles so that they can create alignment between requirements and test, communicate with Agile modelling, apply Lean-Agile principles, build applications with design and code quality, etc. You must satisfy the following requirements for this program:

• Understand the SAFe framework
• Have a background in development, engineering, quality assurance or managing development.
• Should have attended the SAFe 5 Agile Software Engineering course
• Certified SAFe Government Practitioner

This program is for the SAFe change agent who uses the principles and practices of SAFe to execute and release value through Agile Release Trainings (ARTs) while leading a Lean-Agile transformation. The prerequisites for this certification are:

• Foundational understanding of SAFe principles, House of Lean, and Agile Manifesto.
• Understanding of the lifecycle of government technology programs.
• Should have attended the SAFe Government course.
• Certified SAFe DevOps Practitioner

This is a SAFe professional who improves the flow of value throughout the Continuous Delivery Pipeline – from idea to the operational solution. Here are the prerequisites for this certification program:

• Experience working in operations or development environment
• Should have attended the SAFe 5 DevOps Practitioner course
• Certified SAFe Program Consultant

These professionals are SAFe change agents leading all organizational levels through the Lean-Agile transformation by coaching, training, mentoring, and facilitation. The certification has the following requirements:

• Should possess facilitation, time and classroom management skills
• Sufficient Agile experience to be able to teach it to beginners
• Technical skills to work with the workflows and processes
• Should have attended the Implementing SAFe course
• Certified SAFe Release Train Engineer 

These are coaching professionals and program servant leaders who drive end-to-end delivery of value in a value stream or a single program of a Lean-Agile enterprise. Prerequisites for this program are as follows:

• Skills for cross-team communication
• Working knowledge of team dynamics
• Knows how to use SAFe principles in action and can coach
• Launch or participate in at least one Program Increment (PI) or ART
• Minimum 3 months of hands-on, real-world experience as an RTE
• Attend the SAFe Release Train Engineer Course
• Certified SAFe Product Owner/Product Manager

This SAFe professional works with development organizations and customers to identify and prioritize requirements. The prerequisites for this certification program are:

• Experience in Agile and Lean
• Should have attended the SAFe Product Owner/Product Manager course
• Certified SAFe Advanced Scrum Master

These professionals are Scrum Masters who are responsible for improving the results of the team by facilitating relentless improvement and cross-team interactions. Here are the prerequisites for this certification program:

• Hands-on experience in a Lean-Agile environment
• Should have attended the SAFe Advanced Scrum Master course
• Certified SAFe Scrum Master 

These are SAFe Scrum Master Professionals who integrate the Scrum practices into an organization. Here are the requirements for this certification program:

• Hands-on, real-world experience working in an Agile-Lean environment
• Should have attended the SAFe Scrum Master course
• Certified SAFe Practitioner

They are SAFe team members responsible to use Scrum, Extreme Programming (XP), and Kanban in a SAFe environment. Here are the prerequisites:

• Familiarity with Scrum, XP, Kanban, concepts, and principles of Agile
• Working knowledge of hardware and software development process
• Should have attended the SAFe for Teams course
• Certified SAFe Agilist

These are SAFe enterprise leadership professionals who are a part of the Lean-Agile transformation. Prerequisites for this certification are:

• Experience in Scrum
• At least 5 years of experience in software development, testing, product or project management, and business analysis
• Should have attended the Leading SAFe course