Hello folks:

The upcoming release of SAFe 5.0 and the recent updates to the Lean Portfolio Management (LPM) class have advanced our thinking around establishing and documenting the Portfolio Vision, which is a new artifact in V5.0.

Since we are supporting the current version (4.6) of SAFe for another year, we thought it would be helpful to update the portfolio canvas and guidance in 4.6 to reflect our latest thinking.  To that end, we’ve just updated the Portfolio Canvas article in SAFe 4.6.

With this update, we’ve also added guidance to supplement the SWOT analysis with a TOWS strategic options matrix. The key difference between the SWOT and TOWS analysis is the outcomes that they create. A SWOT analysis is a great way to uncover the current state of your value stream, product or portfolio, while TOWS is used primarily for identifying strategic options to create a better, future state.

Stay SAFe,

—Richard and the Framework team