Overview

In SAFe, the Vision describes a future view of a solution or end-user capability to be developed, providing the larger, contextual overview and purpose. A Vision statement can be defined at any level and can be as simple or robust as your organization requires to have it serve a valuable purpose for the Portfolio.

The focus for Vision is typically on solutions delivered at the Value Stream and Program levels, but a Portfolio Vision is certainly relevant as well to capture long-term goals and aspirations. Think of a Vision (at any level) as describing how you will get from an "as-is" state to the desired "to-be" state within the context to which the Vision applies.

Visit the Scaled Agile Framework topic Vision to learn more.

Artifact Template

The Vision has a corresponding artifact template that can be used when you create a new Vision artifact. The template reminds you about the things you should consider when defining a Vision for your Portfolio, Value Stream/Large Solution or Program.

[Vision Title]

Northstar

<We need to...>

Context Diagram

<Draw a picture with the solution as a black box showing all of the human (HMI) and machine (API) interfaces>

Key Elements

<What are the key ideas that need to be solved for this project to be completed. These are elements inside the black box shown in the context diagram>

Key Functionality

<List or draw the major users and epics>

Measures

<What will increase/decrease if we succeed?>

Stakeholders

Stakeholder Type	Representative	Success Criteria	Additional Responsibilities
Sponsors
End Users
Partners
Insiders

Other Scope Considerations

<Any other thoughts that help the team and outsiders understand the scope of the solution and project including things that are out of scope that are asked about frequently.>

Project Constraints

Type	Constraint	Source	Rationale
Schedule
Budget
Resources
Technology
Compliance
Conformance
Quality

Attributes

The Vision artifact type defines the following custom attributes:

• Owner - The owner of the artifact
• Status - The status of the artifact (see States below)

States

The Program artifact type has this workflow:

• Draft - Initial state of the artifact
• Under Review - Indicates that the artifact is being reviewed by the Portfolio team
• In Playback - Indicates that the artifact is being reviewed with stakeholders and customers for feedback
• Approved - Indicates that it is approved by the Portfolio team as well as stakeholders/customers
• Rejected - Indicates that the artifact is rejected and no further work will be done
• Deprecated - Indicates that the artifact has been deprecated and there may possibly be a newer version of it

Traceability