Common Mistakes to Avoid in SAFe Measure and Grow Initiatives

Blog Author

Siddharth

Published

18 Jul, 2025

Common Mistakes to Avoid in SAFe Measure and Grow Initiatives

When a company rolls out SAFe Measure and Grow, the intention is clear: raise the bar on agility, get real data, and drive smarter improvements. But too many teams trip over the same hurdles—most of them completely avoidable. Here’s a closer look at those missteps, why they happen, and what to do instead.

1. Treating Measure and Grow as a One-Time Event

A classic error: treating Measure and Grow like a checkbox exercise. Run the assessment, share the results, then forget about it until the next PI. What this really means is you lose the power of continuous feedback and iterative improvement.

How to avoid:

Make Measure and Grow a regular habit, not a yearly or quarterly spectacle.
Use it to spark real conversations in retrospectives, not just status updates.
Encourage leaders and teams to revisit their action items after every PI.

If you’re looking for leadership guidance to keep the momentum alive, check out Leading SAFe Agilist Certification Training. It’s built for this level of sustained change.

2. Focusing Only on Scores, Not on Insights

It’s tempting to chase higher scores just to look good in reports. The problem? Teams start gaming the system, or worse, ignore the real story hiding in the data.

How to avoid:

Dig into why the scores are what they are.
Use qualitative feedback alongside the numbers. Comments and stories matter.
Frame results as starting points for coaching, not as pass/fail grades.

Teams that dive into this mindset get far more out of SAFe Product Owner/Product Manager (POPM) Certification, which puts a strong emphasis on learning from feedback, not just measuring it.

3. Lack of Transparency with Results

When leaders hoard assessment results, trust erodes. People start second-guessing the purpose, or assume it’s just another management gimmick.

How to avoid:

Share results openly with all relevant teams, not just managers.
Invite discussion and ideas on how to improve, rather than dictating solutions.
Use results to build a shared sense of ownership, not a blame game.

Transparency is a core principle in SAFe Scrum Master Certification training, which underlines how openness accelerates team growth.

4. Skipping Action Plans or Not Following Through

Seeing the gaps is step one. Acting on them is what moves the needle. Too many organizations let insights fade into a backlog with no real owners or deadlines.

How to avoid:

Assign specific owners for improvement actions.
Set realistic, time-bound goals.
Follow up every PI with a review of what’s changed—and what hasn’t.

This type of disciplined follow-through is drilled into SAFe Advanced Scrum Master Certification Training. It’s not enough to spot problems; you have to keep the pressure on to fix them.

5. Ignoring Qualitative Data

Teams often get stuck on the numbers and miss the qualitative gold in comments, stories, and team sentiment. That means they miss out on context and deeper root causes.

How to avoid:

Actively seek feedback during and after assessments.
Ask for specific examples when reviewing low scores or concerns.
Use “Five Whys” or root cause analysis to get to the bottom of issues.

If you want a playbook for this, see how Scaled Agile’s Measure and Grow guidance encourages a blend of quantitative and qualitative assessment.

6. Using a One-Size-Fits-All Assessment

Different teams have different challenges. Using the exact same survey for everyone, every time, will only get you surface-level results.

How to avoid:

Tailor questions to fit the maturity and needs of different teams.
Rotate focus areas based on current objectives or pain points.
Mix in custom questions specific to recent changes or experiments.

Customizing your assessment approach is a big part of SAFe Release Train Engineer Certification Training, which covers how to adapt practices to context, not just copy-paste frameworks.

7. Failing to Train Teams on the Why and How

If teams don’t understand the why behind Measure and Grow, or see it as just another audit, participation tanks. People give half-hearted answers or skip it entirely.

How to avoid:

Kick off every assessment with a short, honest explanation of its purpose.
Show examples of how past assessments led to positive change.
Bring in agile coaches or external trainers if teams seem disengaged.

This is especially important for new Scrum Masters. You can get a deep dive into effective facilitation with the SAFe Scrum Master Certification.

8. Not Involving All Stakeholders

Sometimes assessments get siloed within development or delivery teams, while business, architecture, or leadership are left out. That creates blind spots.

How to avoid:

Include voices from product, architecture, operations, and business in the assessment.
Get cross-functional feedback to capture the full picture.
Make sure improvement actions are coordinated across the whole ART or value stream.

Scaled Agile’s guidance on organizational agility is a good reference here.

9. Focusing Only on Team-Level Improvements

There’s a tendency to zero in on just team-level issues, ignoring systemic or organizational factors. You can optimize teams all day, but if the value stream or leadership is broken, results will stall.

How to avoid:

Use Measure and Grow to surface both team-level and system-level challenges.
Review leadership practices, value stream alignment, and organizational culture as part of the assessment.
Address organizational impediments, not just technical or process issues.

If you want to see how this works in action, look at how Release Train Engineers drive improvements across the whole system—this is core in SAFe Release Train Engineer Certification Training.

10. Neglecting the Celebration of Wins

Focusing only on gaps and problems demotivates teams. It’s important to call out where you’re improving and celebrate the progress, not just the issues.

How to avoid:

Highlight improvements in each review, no matter how small.
Share success stories widely, not just within the team.
Use celebrations to reinforce the value of continuous improvement.

Wrapping Up

Measure and Grow can transform the way your organization works—but only if you avoid these common traps. Treat it as a living, breathing part of your agile journey. Focus on learning, not just measuring. Involve everyone, celebrate progress, and use the results to drive real, sustained improvement.

For teams and leaders who want to dive deeper, explore these certification programs to anchor your skills: