Understanding the Four Types of Enablers in SAFe Framework

Blog Author

Siddharth

Published

26 Jun, 2025

Four Types of Enablers in SAFe Framework

The Scaled Agile Framework® (SAFe®) is designed to help organizations build large, complex systems with agility and efficiency. Within SAFe, enablers play a unique role by supporting business features, driving architectural innovation, and ensuring sustainable delivery. However, enablers often get overlooked or misunderstood, leading to gaps in technical readiness, architectural runway, or process maturity.

This post explores the four types of enablers in SAFe, how they function, why they matter, and how your teams can leverage them to achieve both immediate goals and long-term business agility.

What Are Enablers in SAFe?

Before diving into the types, it's important to clarify what enablers are. In SAFe, enablers are a special category of work items that support efficient development and delivery of business solutions. Unlike regular features that provide direct business value, enablers build the foundation for future work, reduce technical risks, and allow organizations to adapt to changing needs.

Enablers typically address:

Infrastructure and architectural needs
Exploration of technical or business opportunities
Enhancements to development pipelines
Compliance and regulatory requirements

According to the Scaled Agile Framework, enablers help teams and ARTs (Agile Release Trains) to deliver value both now and in the future.

The Four Types of Enablers in SAFe

SAFe defines four distinct types of enablers: Architecture Enablers, Exploration Enablers, Infrastructure Enablers, and Compliance Enablers. Each type serves a specific purpose and addresses unique aspects of the product development lifecycle.

1. Architecture Enablers

Architecture enablers lay the technical groundwork for future business features. They focus on evolving the solution’s architecture to support new capabilities, enhance performance, and ensure scalability. These enablers are crucial for maintaining a sustainable architectural runway, which is essential in continuous delivery environments.

Examples of Architecture Enablers:

Refactoring code for scalability
Adopting new architectural patterns (e.g., microservices)
Introducing a new security layer

Architecture enablers are closely linked with the roles of Solution Architects and System Architects, who work alongside Agile teams to ensure that solutions remain robust as they grow. Effective handling of architecture enablers helps organizations avoid technical debt and build resilient systems.

If you want to develop deeper skills in handling architectural decisions at scale, the Leading SAFe Agilist Certification Training provides essential knowledge on architectural enablers and their role in business agility.

2. Exploration Enablers

Exploration enablers allow teams to investigate, prototype, and validate technical approaches or new business opportunities before committing significant resources. These enablers support innovation, risk reduction, and informed decision-making through activities like proof-of-concept development, feasibility studies, and spike solutions.

Examples of Exploration Enablers:

Building a proof-of-concept for a new technology
Conducting usability research with real users
Testing integration options with a third-party API

Exploration enablers are critical for Product Owners and Product Managers who want to ensure the team invests in the right solutions. By allowing time for research and experimentation, these enablers help teams avoid costly missteps and create products that truly meet user needs.

Those interested in mastering these aspects should consider the SAFe Product Owner/Product Manager (POPM) Certification, which delves into backlog management and the use of enablers in prioritizing exploration work.

3. Infrastructure Enablers

Infrastructure enablers address the underlying systems, tools, and environments needed to support efficient development, testing, and deployment. These enablers often focus on automation, pipeline improvements, test environments, and deployment strategies.

Examples of Infrastructure Enablers:

Setting up continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines
Automating test environments
Implementing containerization or virtualization solutions

Without proper infrastructure enablers, teams can struggle with slow feedback loops, fragile builds, or deployment bottlenecks. Scrum Masters and DevOps teams play a crucial role in identifying and implementing these enablers to support high-quality and fast delivery.

To gain expertise in infrastructure-focused Agile practices, explore the SAFe Scrum Master Certification, which covers how Scrum Masters can help teams leverage infrastructure enablers for smooth and efficient releases.

4. Compliance Enablers

Compliance enablers ensure that the solution meets regulatory, legal, security, or other mandatory requirements. They are essential in industries with strict governance, such as finance, healthcare, or government.

Examples of Compliance Enablers:

Implementing audit trails or data retention policies
Developing documentation for regulatory approval
Performing security vulnerability assessments

These enablers often require coordination between Agile teams and compliance experts to ensure that work is integrated into the development flow, rather than being an afterthought.

Scrum Masters and Advanced Scrum Masters play a vital part in making compliance work visible and actionable during Program Increment (PI) Planning. If you’re interested in advanced practices around compliance, the SAFe Advanced Scrum Master Certification Training covers methods for supporting compliance within Agile teams.

For those driving large-scale initiatives, the SAFe Release Train Engineer Certification Training is ideal for understanding how to coordinate compliance enablers across multiple teams and ARTs.

How Enablers Fit Into the SAFe Backlog Hierarchy

Enablers can appear at any level in SAFe’s hierarchy, from Portfolio to Team. They exist as Enabler Epics at the Portfolio level, Enabler Capabilities at the Solution level, Enabler Features at the Program level, and Enabler Stories at the Team level. This structure ensures technical and process needs are considered alongside business features throughout the organization.

The official SAFe Enablers page provides more insights into how these items flow through the backlog and become visible work that teams can act upon.

Best Practices for Managing Enablers

Managing enablers requires intentional planning and collaboration across roles:

Make enablers visible in the backlog. Avoid hiding technical work—document enabler stories, features, and epics with clear acceptance criteria.
Prioritize enablers based on business value, technical risk, and readiness. Involve both business and technical stakeholders during PI Planning.
Timebox exploration work to prevent endless research and keep teams focused on outcomes.
Balance enablers with business features. An effective flow ensures technical needs do not stall user value delivery but still get the attention they deserve.

Release Train Engineers and Agile leaders must foster a culture where enablers are seen as value-producing, not as secondary tasks. Training such as the SAFe Release Train Engineer Certification Training helps organizations develop this mindset at scale.

Why Enablers Matter for Agile Teams and Business Agility

Ignoring enablers can lead to:

Technical debt accumulation
Fragile architectures
Missed compliance requirements
Slow, painful releases

On the other hand, teams that recognize and prioritize enablers are more adaptive, resilient, and capable of delivering high-quality products that stand the test of time. Enablers bridge the gap between business needs and technical realities, creating a sustainable path to true business agility.

For those who want to see examples of how organizations balance enablers and features in practice, check out this article on Feature and Enabler Work in SAFe.

Key Takeaways

Enablers in SAFe come in four types: Architecture, Exploration, Infrastructure, and Compliance.
They enable innovation, reduce risk, support future development, and ensure compliance.
Enablers must be visible, prioritized, and balanced with business features in the backlog.
Roles like Product Owner, Scrum Master, Advanced Scrum Master, and Release Train Engineer are vital in driving enabler work.
Learning how to manage enablers through structured training, such as the Leading SAFe Agilist Certification Training or SAFe Product Owner/Product Manager (POPM) Certification, can significantly enhance your Agile journey.

Understanding and embracing enablers is crucial for any organization aiming to achieve sustainable agility at scale. By making enablers a core part of your SAFe implementation, you not only strengthen your technical foundation but also empower your teams to deliver lasting value.