Use this template to assess the likelihood and impact of risks and prioritize them based on their urgency and significance.
The Underlying Principles of SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework):
- Drive cost-effective solutions
- Apply systems thinking
- Assume change
- Protect options
- Build incrementally with fast, integrated learning cycles
- Base milestones on evaluating working systems
- Visualize and limit work in progress, reduce batch sizes, and manage queue lengths
What is a SAFe ROAM Board?
A SAFe ROAM Board allows teams to identify and highlight risks, ensuring proactive action is taken. Once a risk is recorded, the team decides on the next steps. For each risk, you can:
- Avoid it: Take an alternative approach to bypass the risk.
- Reduce it: Lower the chances of the risk occurring.
- Share it: Bring in outside expertise to help manage the risk.
- Accept it: Acknowledge the risk without ignoring it.
- Mitigate it: Take action to minimize its impact.
The framework is designed to help your team either Resolve, Own, Accept, or Mitigate risks:
- Resolved Risks: Risks that are no longer an issue, allowing the team to move forward
- Owned Risks: Risks assigned to a team member for future resolution or mitigation.
- Accepted Risks: Risks that can't be immediately addressed but are acknowledged and understood.
- Mitigated Risks: Risks with a plan to reduce their likelihood or impact.
Keeping the ROAM Board updated ensures team alignment on the status of risks and how they are being managed. If your team uses Jira, you can import Jira cards directly onto the board for easier tracking and integration.
Create Your Own SAFe ROAM Board
Building a SAFe ROAM Board in FigJam is simple with the provided template. Follow these steps to create your own:
- Add Risks During PI Planning
Start by adding identified risks to the Program Risks section. Keep in mind that the number of sticky notes may grow or shrink as your team discusses mitigation strategies throughout the planning process.
- Move Risks to the ROAM Board
After the final plan review, move all identified risks to the ROAM Board. Assign each risk to one of the ROAM categories: Resolved, Owned, Accepted, or Mitigated.
- Prioritize Risks as a Team
Conduct a team voting session to prioritize the most critical risks. Agile coaches can facilitate this, ensuring that any risk receiving at least three votes is considered a high-priority risk.
- Review and Adjust Risks Regularly
Risk profiles can evolve as plans progress. During weekly or biweekly PO (Product Owner) Sync meetings, ensure a team member updates the board to reflect any changes in risk status or new action items.
With these steps, you’ll have a clear, organized process for managing risks using your SAFe ROAM Board.
When to Use SAFe ROAM Boards
ROAM Boards are primarily used during PI Planning sessions to identify obstacles that may hinder teams from achieving their goals. They provide an Agile approach to managing risks and uncertainties, reducing unpredictability through active identification and mitigation strategies.
Key Use Cases:
- PI Planning Tool: During PI Planning, the ROAM Board helps teams pinpoint risks and collaboratively decide how to resolve, own, accept, or mitigate them.
- Agile Risk Management: Instead of relying on traditional risk logs, ROAM Boards align with Agile methodologies, allowing teams to address risks dynamically (e.g., by adding new user stories to a backlog).
- Clarifying Ambiguity: The ROAM method supports the Agile Release Train (ART) by eliminating ambiguity and promoting clearer paths for incremental software delivery, ensuring teams and stakeholders are aligned.
Using ROAM Boards keeps risk management proactive and collaborative, enabling teams to navigate uncertainties more effectively during Agile processes.
