gemba walks are an important competency in support of the Collaborate and Research activity of the DevOps Health Radar. Collaborate and Research is the process of creating alignment on what needs to be built, synthesizing Solution ideas into ART Backlog Features, and utilizing WSJF to prioritize a DevOps backlog. Gemba walks are a technique where the product team observes how stakeholders execute the specific activities in their operational value streams to identify opportunities for relentless improvement. Gemba walks help the product team understand the customer needs, market problems, and solution requirements from the perspective of those who deliver value to customers. Therefore, gemba walks are essential for collaborating and researching with stakeholders and validating or invalidating hypotheses.

The statement that describes the Lean startup lifecycle is: Define the hypothesis, build a minimum viable product (MVP), continuously evaluate the MVP while implementing additional Features until WSJF determines work can stop. The Lean startup lifecycle is a highly iterative build-measure-learn cycle that has proven to be effective in optimizing the economic value of strategic investments. It consists of three learning milestones: MVP, tune the engine, and pivot or persevere. The MVP is the smallest possible experiment that allows the enterprise to test the assumptions and hypotheses of an epic or a large initiative. The tune the engine phase involves quickly adjusting and moving towards the goal based on the data and feedback gathered from the MVP. The pivot or persevere phase involves deciding whether to deliver additional value or move on to something more valuable based on the validated learning. The Lean startup lifecycle is supported by the SAFe Lean Startup Cycle, which provides guidance and tools for applying the Lean startup principles in the context of SAFe. The SAFe Lean Startup Cycle includes the following steps:

Define the hypothesis -- This step involves creating an epic hypothesis statement that defines the initiative, its expected benefits, and its leading indicators.

Build the MVP -- This step involves defining, building, and deploying the MVP that tests the hypothesis and delivers the minimum amount of value to the customer.

Evaluate the MVP -- This step involves measuring and analyzing the results of the MVP against the leading indicators and the hypothesis.

Implement additional Features -- This step involves developing and delivering additional features or capabilities that enhance the value proposition of the initiative, based on the learning from the MVP.

WSJF determines work can stop -- This step involves using the Weighted Shortest Job First (WSJF) prioritization method to determine whether the initiative has delivered enough value to the customer and the enterprise, or whether it needs more investment or termination3

According to the SAFe DevOps Practitioner 6.0 study guide1, a canary release is a type of release on demand that involves making a Solution available to any subset of users, such as a specific team, product, or region. A canary release allows the DevOps teams to test the Solution in a controlled environment and monitor its performance and feedback before rolling it out to the entire customer base. A canary release can help reduce the risk of introducing errors or failures into production and improve the quality and reliability of the Solution.

One skill that can significantly accelerate mean-time-to-restore by enabling support teams to see issues the way actual end users did is session replay. Session replay is a technique that allows the support team to replay end-user sessions to research incidents and identify problems. Session replay captures the user's interactions with the application, such as clicks, scrolls, keystrokes, and mouse movements, and reproduces them in a video-like format. Session replay can help the support team to understand the user's behavior, context, and feedback, as well as to reproduce and diagnose errors, bugs, and performance issues. Session replay can also help the support team to communicate and collaborate with the development team and the stakeholders, by providing visual evidence and data of the incidents.Session replay can significantly accelerate mean-time-to-restore by reducing the time and effort required to investigate and resolve issues, as well as by improving the quality and reliability of the application

Culture is a core DevOps principle. DevOps is not only a set of technical practices, but also a mindset and a culture that supports the integration, automation, and collaboration needed to effectively develop and operate a solution. DevOps culture is based on the following values and behaviors:

Shared responsibility -- DevOps culture fosters a sense of shared ownership and accountability for the entire solution lifecycle, from ideation to operation. Development and operations teams work together, not only to help each other, but also to ensure that the overall organization succeeds. DevOps culture eliminates the blame game and the silo mentality, and encourages mutual trust and respect among all stakeholders.

Continuous learning -- DevOps culture promotes a culture of continuous learning and improvement, where teams are constantly seeking feedback, experimenting with new ideas, and learning from failures. DevOps culture embraces a growth mindset, where teams are not afraid to try new things, challenge the status quo, and learn from their mistakes. DevOps culture also supports a learning organization, where teams share their knowledge and best practices, and leverage the collective intelligence of the whole enterprise.

Customer focus -- DevOps culture emphasizes the importance of delivering value to the customer, and aligning the solution to the customer needs and expectations. DevOps culture applies customer-centric and design thinking approaches, such as personas, empathy maps, and customer journeys, to understand and empathize with the customer problems and desires. DevOps culture also validates the assumptions and hypotheses about the customer value proposition, by collecting and analyzing data and feedback from the customer.

Automation -- DevOps culture leverages automation to improve the efficiency, quality, and reliability of the solution delivery process. DevOps culture applies automation to various aspects of the Continuous Delivery Pipeline, such as testing, integration, deployment, monitoring, and security.DevOps culture also uses automation to reduce manual work, eliminate human errors, and accelerate feedback loops5