Three responsibilities. Three levels. One certification path.
HeptaMS is not yet another framework next to Scrum or ITIL — it is the ordering layer above them. That yields a role model you can lay over any organisation, and exactly two kinds of certificate: skill and role.
From sense to certificate
The sense is the question, the skill is the answer, the role puts the answers together.
Seven guiding questions as a map — direction, leadership, flow, cadence, stability, collaboration, reach. Not a course, but the way you locate yourself.
One concrete tool or topic each (OKR, Scrum, Kanban, ITIL, DevOps, make-or-buy, AI security …), half a day to a day. Leads to a skill certificate.
A curated bundle of skills plus the role-specific layer — facilitation, leadership, hands-on. Leads to a role certificate.
The seven guiding questions and their skill axes
Architecture, scaling, AI, improvement and recovery cut across the senses — they serve several guiding questions at once and form skill families of their own.
The VFA triad: three roles every team needs
Value, Flow and Architecture Owner are functions, not job titles. They answer three questions that come up in every endeavour — and that nobody can afford to leave unanswered.
Stands for working on the right problem: product vision, backlog ownership, prioritisation, stakeholders.
Makes sure the work flows: cadence, events, impediments, protecting the team, flow metrics.
Owns technical viability: decoupling, operations, security — and specification in the age of AI.
The same three functions on three levels
Team, domain, portfolio. The question stays the same, the altitude changes — so there is no new role family per level, just the same cut one level up.
Why three levels instead of four? SAFe defines two intermediate levels between team and portfolio (ART and Large Solution). HeptaMS merges them into the domain level: a clean domain cut covers what SAFe needs an entire solution train for.
Why "owner" rather than "manager" or "lead"? The term carries responsibility in the sense of rangatiratanga — responsibility for your own contribution and for the whole, not ownership. A Value Owner does not "own" the product; they stand for the team working on the right problems.
Three levels of depth — same topic, different altitude
A topic is taught at different depths depending on the audience. That is why "how do I facilitate an OKR workshop" sits in the role layer, not in the skill course.
- Who for
- C-level, decision makers, newcomers
- What is taught
- Concept, the why, decisions — no mechanics
- Typical product
- Webinar · executive briefing · foundation
- Who for
- Practitioners (scrum masters, architects, POs)
- What is taught
- Full mechanics, tools, hands-on
- Typical product
- Skill course
- Who for
- Role holders
- What is taught
- Skill plus role-specific facilitation and leadership
- Typical product
- Role course
- A — OKR as a steering logic, when it does not fit, how it relates to MBO and BSC. No workshop mechanics.
- P — writing OKRs, making key results measurable, cascades, typical mistakes.
- R — additionally facilitating a real OKR workshop, cascading portfolio OKRs to teams, running an alignment event.
Two kinds of certificate
- One topic at practitioner depth (half a day to a day)
- Formats: online self-paced or online live (VILT)
- Multiple-choice exam at the end
- Counts as a building block towards role certification
- Curated skill bundle plus the role layer (2 to 4 days)
- Formats: self-paced, online live or in person (minimum cohort 6–8)
- Exam plus optional practical submission
- For Value, Flow and Architecture Owner as well as leadership and scaling
Exam, validity, proof
Multiple choice, 10–15 questions, 70 % pass mark, three attempts included.
Training is a mandatory part of certification — there is no exam without the course.
Versioned and valid for life, no mandatory recertification. Minor updates yearly at no cost, major versions every 24–30 months as an upgrade course.
Every certificate carries a QR code with a verification link: anyone can check its authenticity publicly, without an account.
HeptaMS role names compared
The HeptaMS function names describe what the role is responsible for; framework names label the role inside a specific method. The mapping shows the closest functional equivalent, not an exact match.
Team level
| HeptaMS | Scrum | SAFe | LeSS | DA (DAD) | PRINCE2 / PMI | German |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Value Owner | Product Owner | Product Owner | Product Owner | Product Owner | Product Manager | Wertverantwortlicher |
| Flow Owner | Scrum Master | Scrum Master | Scrum Master | Team Lead | Project Manager | Flussverantwortlicher |
| Architecture Owner | — (implicit in Developers) | — (only at ART level) | — (implicit) | Architecture Owner | Technical Lead | Architekturverantwortlicher |
Domain / programme level
| HeptaMS | SAFe | LeSS | PRINCE2 / PMI | German |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Domain Value Owner | Product Management | Area Product Owner | Senior Product Manager / Programme Manager | Wertverantwortlicher (Programm) |
| Domain Flow Owner | Release Train Engineer (RTE) | — (no equivalent) | Programme Manager / PMO Lead | Flussverantwortlicher (Programm) |
| Domain Architecture Owner | System Architect | — (implicit) | Solution Architect | Architekturverantwortlicher (Programm) |
Portfolio level
| HeptaMS | SAFe | PRINCE2 / PMI | German |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portfolio Value Owner | Lean Portfolio Management (LPM) | Portfolio Director / Investment Board | Wertverantwortlicher (Portfolio) |
| Portfolio Flow Owner | Agile PMO (APMO) | Head of PMO | Flussverantwortlicher (Portfolio) |
| Portfolio Architecture Owner | Enterprise Architect | Chief Architect / CTO | Architekturverantwortlicher (Portfolio) |
Notes on use
The absence of an explicit architecture role at team level is not an oversight but a design decision: Scrum assumes the Developers carry architectural responsibility together. With experienced teams that works; with mixed teams or under AI-assisted code generation a vacuum often appears.
Deliberately functional — "Wertverantwortlicher", "Flussverantwortlicher", "Architekturverantwortlicher". They avoid both the English framework terms and traditional hierarchy language, and can be dropped straight into job descriptions and org charts.
The title comes from the TOGAF® tradition (business, data, application, technology). SAFe adopted it but narrows the scope to agile portfolio architecture. Organisations using TOGAF as their EA framework will find the mapping to the Portfolio Architecture Owner in the book.
Certification paths
Two sensible entry points — depending on whether you are taking on a role or closing a specific gap.
- 1 Free webinar (e.g. "The VFA triad") to locate yourself
- 2 Lean-AI Foundation: shared language, the seven guiding questions
- 3 Role course for Value, Flow or Architecture Owner
- 4 Role certificate, then build up at domain or portfolio level
- 1 Skill course on the specific topic (OKR, kanban, ITIL, AI security …)
- 2 Skill certificate
- 3 Collect further skills as needed
- 4 Later roll them up into a role certificate
Find the right course
The course finder lists all skill and role courses with dates, formats and prices. For in-house cohorts and team events, get in touch directly.
The role model and certification logic follow the book "Hepta Management System". The course range and formats keep growing; the course finder is authoritative.