What does the term "Lean Budgeting" mean in SAFe?

The term "Lean Budgeting" in the context of SAFe refers to funding that aligns with value delivery. This approach emphasizes the importance of ensuring that financial resources are allocated in a manner that enhances the flow of value across the organization. Lean Budgeting allows for funding to be responsive and flexible, aligning financial investments with the strategic priorities and value streams of the organization.

By focusing on value delivery, this method encourages an understanding of the cost of delivering value and promotes funding decisions based on outcomes rather than outputs, encouraging innovation and agility within the teams. It supports decentralized decision-making, enabling teams to make quicker, more effective use of their resources to create value.

In contrast, funding models linked to traditional project management tend to follow rigid structures based on predefined budgets, which may hinder responsiveness to change. Allocating funds solely based on team performance metrics might misalign with broader organizational objectives, while distributing funding evenly among teams does not necessarily reflect the varying value that different initiatives contribute to the organization’s goals. Thus, Lean Budgeting as a concept focuses primarily on value delivery, supporting a lean, agile organization.