Gain confidence in a technical or functional approach, reducing risk and uncertainty.

Conduct primary research to familiarize them with a new technology or domain.Perform feasibility analysis and other activities that help determine the viability of Epics.Estimate new Features and Capabilities to analyze the implied behavior, providing insight into the approach for splitting them into smaller, quantifiable pieces.Teams may use spikes in a variety of situations: When faced with a question, risk, or uncertainty, Agile Teams conduct small experiments before moving to implementation rather than speculate about the outcome or jump to a Solution. DetailsĪgile and Lean value facts over speculation. They also provide a mechanism and workflow that Agile Release Trains (ARTs) use to help determine the viability of Epics. Like other stories, spikes are estimated, implemented and demonstrated.

Their purpose is to gain the knowledge necessary to reduce the risk of a technical approach, better understand a requirement, or increase the reliability of a story estimate. Defined initially in Extreme Programming (XP), spikes represent activities such as exploration, architecture, infrastructure, research, design, and prototyping.

Note: This article is part of Extended SAFe Guidance and represents official SAFe content that cannot be accessed directly from the Big Picture. If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn’t be called research.

Spike meaning in sprint