Engineering practices that make Agile delivery work
The SAFe Agile Software Engineering course is designed for organisations that want to strengthen the practical engineering capability behind Agile delivery. It is not a coding course, and it does not teach a programming language, framework, or toolset. Instead, it focuses on the shared engineering practices that help teams define, test, build, integrate and evolve software with greater confidence.
This distinction matters because many organisations have improved their Agile process, ceremonies and planning routines, while still experiencing late quality issues, slow feedback, difficult integration, fragile releases and uncertainty about whether work is genuinely ready to move forward. SAFe Agile Software Engineering addresses that deeper layer by helping teams connect Agile and Lean principles to concrete engineering behaviours.
The course brings together well-established practices including eXtreme Programming, Behaviour-Driven Development, Test-Driven Development, intentional architecture, agile modelling, code quality, design quality, continuous testing and refactoring, showing how they support built-in quality and faster flow across modern software delivery.
What your people will learn
- How Agile Software Engineering connects Lean-Agile principles to practical engineering practices
- How built-in quality is supported through test-first thinking, automation and clear acceptance criteria
- How to improve the flow of value by reducing delays, loopbacks and late discovery of defects
- How intentional architecture supports near-term delivery while allowing systems to evolve safely
- How to use systems thinking to understand both operational and development context
- How BDD helps create shared understanding between customer, developer and tester perspectives
- How to discover story detail using scenarios, personas, workflows, story maps and assumptions
- How models can improve communication around static structure and dynamic behaviour
- How cohesion, coupling, SOLID principles and design patterns influence maintainability
- How TDD and refactoring support safe implementation and ongoing design improvement
Who this course is for
SAFe Agile Software Engineering is useful for anyone involved in the delivery of software systems, especially where teams need to improve quality, predictability and flow without simply adding more process.
- Software developers and engineers working in Agile teams
- Testers, QA specialists and quality engineers
- Architects and technical leads supporting Agile Release Trains
- Product Owners and Product Managers who want clearer, testable requirements
- Scrum Masters, Team Coaches and Release Train Engineers
- Agile coaches supporting technical teams and ARTs
- Delivery leaders responsible for improving flow and quality
- Organisations looking to strengthen engineering discipline beneath Agile ways of working
Course content and learning domains
The course is structured around eleven core learning lessons, supported by review and practice activities, with each lesson helping learners connect concepts to real development situations and team-level improvement actions.
- Introducing the Course: define Agile Software Engineering and form an Agile Software Engineering team
- Connecting Principles and Practices to Built-In Quality: connect values, principles and practices, describe XP practices, explore key definitions, built-in quality and tradeoffs
- Accelerating Flow: outline the flow of value, identify delays and loopbacks, and validate benefit hypotheses
- Applying Intentional Architecture: apply systems thinking, explain Agile architecture, and design for testability
- Thinking Test-First: shift testing left, use the Agile testing matrix, define NFRs, and build quality throughout the pipeline
- Discovering Story Details: examine story criteria, split stories, create workflows and story maps, and identify assumptions and risks
- Creating Shared Understanding with BDD: apply BDD, specify behaviour for domain terms, business rules, algorithms, UI and test doubles
- Communicating with Models: explain the use of models, outline static and dynamic models, and practise Class-Responsibility-Collaboration techniques
- Building Systems with Code Quality: identify code qualities, describe cohesion and coupling, and explore collective ownership
- Building Systems with Design Quality: explore design options, interface-oriented design, SOLID principles and software design patterns
- Implementing with Quality: apply TDD practices and refactor code to support new behaviour
- Course Review: review the learning journey and identify practical improvement actions for the learner's own context
Examples of the kind of content explored
The course uses practical examples and activities to help learners move from abstract Agile concepts into applied engineering practice. For example, learners consider how a Minimum Marketable Feature can be linked to a benefit hypothesis, how telemetry can be used to understand whether a feature is genuinely being used, and how smaller features and stories improve flow by enabling faster feedback.
Participants also work with test-first ideas at multiple levels, from business-facing BDD scenarios through to lower-level TDD practices, learning how tests can clarify requirements, guide development and act as living specifications. This includes examples such as turning acceptance criteria into Given/When/Then scenarios, separating UI tests from business rule tests, and using test doubles where dependent systems are slow, expensive or unpredictable.
Later lessons move into design and maintainability, including how cohesion and coupling affect change, how interface-oriented design supports flexibility, and how SOLID principles and design patterns can help teams create systems that can evolve without becoming fragile or overly expensive to change.
Certification and assessment
After completing the course, learners access the SAFe Agile Software Engineering assessment through their SAFe Learning Plan. The current ASE Study Guide describes the assessment as a web-based quiz with multiple-choice, single-select questions across the workbook content.
- Duration: 45 minutes
- Number of questions: 20
- Question format: Multiple-choice, single-select
- Passing score: 90%
- Delivery: Web-based
- Access: SAFe Learning Plan after course completion
- Retakes: Unlimited retakes until the quiz is passed
- Retake cost: $0 retake fees
Exam and assessment details are provided from the current ASE Study Guide and are subject to change by Scaled Agile. Unanswered questions are marked as incorrect, and feedback for incorrect answers directs learners back to relevant workbook topics.
Why this course matters
Agile delivery depends on more than ceremonies, planning and backlog management. Teams also need disciplined engineering practices that help them reduce ambiguity, get feedback earlier, manage design quality, automate meaningful tests and build systems that can continue to change safely.
For organisations that have already adopted SAFe or other Agile ways of working, this course provides a practical next step by focusing on the capability that sits underneath the process. It helps teams ask better questions about quality, flow, architecture, testability and maintainability, and it gives them a shared language for improving how software is actually built.
Why organisations choose this course
SAFe Agile Software Engineering is a strong choice when an organisation has improved Agile planning and delivery rhythms, but still needs stronger engineering practices to improve quality, reduce rework, shorten feedback loops and increase confidence in delivery.
It is particularly useful for private groups because the course activities can be grounded in your own systems, architecture, quality challenges and delivery context.
Schedule a Call Email AgilityProCourse focus
Not a coding course
SAFe ASE is about engineering practices. It helps teams understand how to define, test, build, integrate and evolve software more effectively, rather than teaching a specific programming language or tool.
LinkedIn article
For a broader explanation of the course and why engineering practices matter in Agile delivery, read AgilityPro's LinkedIn article:
What is the SAFe Agile Software Engineering Course (ASE) all about?
Common questions about Agile software engineering
Why do Agile teams still struggle with delivery?
Agile teams can improve planning and visibility while still struggling with delivery if the engineering practices underneath the process are weak. Practices such as BDD, TDD, continuous integration, continuous testing and intentional architecture help teams reduce ambiguity, defects, rework and late feedback.
What is the difference between Agile process and Agile engineering?
Agile process describes how work is organised, planned and reviewed. Agile engineering describes how software is defined, tested, built, integrated and evolved, which is why both are needed for reliable delivery outcomes.
Assessment summary
- 45-minute web-based quiz
- 20 multiple-choice, single-select questions
- 90% passing score
- Unlimited retakes until passed
- $0 retake fees
Details are subject to change by Scaled Agile.
Private delivery
AgilityPro provides private instructor-led SAFe training for organisations, delivered remotely or in person. Private delivery allows examples and discussions to be connected to your own products, systems, architecture, testing practices and delivery constraints.
Lead Trainer
Matt Hosking
SAFe Premier Trainer & SPCT-C
Matt has been working with SAFe since 2012 and brings practical enterprise delivery, training and transformation experience into the classroom.