What Are OKRs in SAFe and How Do They Work?

OKRs are a goal-setting framework popularized by Intel and later adopted by companies like Google, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

Integrating OKRs in SAFe in your goal-setting practices can lead to greater alignment and accountability across teams. The structure is simple.

• Objective: A clearly defined, qualitative goal that sets a direction. It should be inspirational, time-bound, and actionable.
• Key Results: 2–5 quantifiable outcomes that measure progress toward achieving the objective. They are specific, time-bound, and ideally outcome-focused.

Example:

• Objective: Improve team performance and delivery speed
• Key Results:
  • Reduce average lead time from 10 days to 6 days
  • Increase sprint velocity by 15%
  • Conduct 3 team retrospectives with measurable improvements

The strength of OKRs lies in their clarity and alignment. They bridge the gap between high-level strategy and ground-level execution, making them an excellent complement to agile frameworks.

How OKRs Fit Into SAFe

SAFe already emphasizes alignment via tools like Strategic Themes, Portfolio Vision, PI Objectives, and Lean Budgets. OKRs can enhance these artifacts by making goals measurable, transparent, and outcome-focused.

Here’s how OKRs are typically applied in SAFe:

OKRs at the Portfolio Level

At the top level of SAFe, OKRs align with Strategic Themes and Epics. These OKRs define what the enterprise wants to achieve over a 6–12 month horizon.

• Objective: Deliver high-priority digital capabilities to enhance customer satisfaction
• Key Results:
  • Launch 3 new mobile-first features by Q4
  • Achieve a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 60+
  • Reduce customer support tickets by 20%

These OKRs guide funding decisions and epic prioritization.

OKRs at the Large Solution Level

At the Large Solution level, OKRs reflect objectives that the program aims to accomplish during a Planning Interval (PI) — typically a 10-12 week timeframe.

• These can be derived from Portfolio OKRs or be more delivery-focused.
• Often used to replace or augment traditional PI Objectives.

Example:

• Objective: Strengthen our CI/CD pipeline for faster and safer releases
• Key Results:
  • Decrease build failures by 30%
  • Increase deployment frequency to twice per week
  • Achieve 80% test automation coverage

These OKRs drive the content of the PI Backlog and influence team plans during PI Planning.

OKRs at the Essential (Team) Level

Agile teams may adopt their own OKRs to track improvements in team performance, quality, or delivery. These should align with ART-level goals but be focused on areas the team can directly influence.

Example:

• Objective: Improve code quality and team ownership
• Key Results:
  • Reduce critical bugs by 40%
  • Implement code reviews for 100% of PRs
  • Hold 2 knowledge-sharing sessions per sprint

Team-level OKRs can complement Iteration Goals and support Inspect & Adapt workshops.

OKRs vs. PI Objectives: Should You Use Both?

In SAFe, PI Objectives are already used to plan and track goals for each program increment. OKRs are not a strict replacement but can enhance focus by adding measurable success criteria.

• Use PI Objectives for tactical alignment during PI Planning
• Use OKRs for strategic and outcome-based alignment across timeframes

Some organizations map PI Objectives directly to Key Results, while others maintain them as separate but complementary artifacts.

Best Practices for Using OKRs in SAFe

1. Top-Down + Bottom-Up Alignment: Encourage all levels (portfolio, program, team) to co-create OKRs with clear traceability.
2. Limit the Number of OKRs: Focus on 3–5 objectives per level to maintain clarity.
3. Make Them Measurable: Avoid vague goals—each key result should be trackable.
4. Review & Adapt Frequently: Sync OKR reviews with PI cadence (every 10–12 weeks).
5. Integrate with Inspect & Adapt: Use OKR outcomes to shape the retrospective and systemic improvement actions.

Next Steps

OKRs provide SAFe organizations with a structured, measurable, and agile-compatible way to express intent and align execution. When thoughtfully implemented, OKRs can enhance transparency, improve focus, and help organizations move from output-driven to outcome-driven delivery.

Whether you’re scaling agile across departments or trying to tighten the link between strategy and delivery, OKRs are a tool worth incorporating into your SAFe practice. To learn more about this topic and how our “SAFe® in Jira” solution, Agile Hive, helps you integrate OKRs into your organizational practices and helps you measure their effectiveness, we encourage you to schedule a demo with us at a time that works best for you.

Related Resources

• Understanding Flow Metrics in SAFe®: A Beginner’s Guide to Measuring and Improving Agile Performance
• Integrated Budgeting for SAFe® Practitioners
• Implementing WSJF in Jira: Unlocking Agile Prioritization
• Embrace Jira Capacity Planning
• SAFe in Jira with Agile Hive
• Mastering SAFe Planning Interval (PI) Objectives