Jen's Agile Cliff Notes - The Release Train Engineer

What on earth does a Release Train Engineer (RTE) do? The Scaled Agile Framework definition states that “The Release Train Engineer (RTE) is a servant leader and coach for the Agile Release Train (ART).” That’s a mouthful! Well, there’s a lot that goes on “behind the scenes” to keep an Agile Release Train on the tracks. It’s more than just organizing PI Planning! Is it a Release Manager? No, but here’s a highlight of just a few areas that an RTE can help!

● Protecting the Agile Release Train and keeping it “on the tracks” (PI Management). First and foremost, managing communication on behalf of the train. This includes Leadership, Product Management, Product Owners, Team Coaches (Scrum Masters), and our Business Owners (business partners). The role is to promote an environment that anticipates and acts upon potential threats and opportunities. They will also look into potential solutions. It also includes escalating and tracking ART impediments (aka blockers), helping to manage risks for the ART, and helping with team and technology dependencies.

● Maintaining metrics that provide visibility to our business owners on how the ART is performing and its predictability. Metrics can help us determine whether we are delivering value, managing our flow of work, and holding ourselves accountable to our commitments made at PI Planning. This allows the business to plan more efficiently.

● Ensuring PI Planning readiness. Did we socialize the features sufficiently? Are the features ready? Do we have a solid presentation deck ready? Do we have all of our supplies ready for the event to be held off-site? Has the agenda been finalized? Negotiation with the off-site facility to hold the event?

● Facilitation of ART events and processes. This starts at the beginning of the PI with the PI Planning event, Iteration System Demos, various syncs, including the weekly ART Sync, feature socialization, and leading our Inspect and Adapt Retrospective at the end of the PI.

● Coach leaders, teams, and Scrum Masters in Lean-Agile practices and mindsets. This is not only coaching on SAFe principles!

● Drive relentless improvement. It’s the reason why we hold the Inspect and Adapt Retrospective at the end of the Program Increment! The RTE also reviews current Agile processes and drives process improvements — how can we constantly strive to be better? Another area is assessing the ART's agility and how aggressively or conservatively we can implement change identified by following SAFe or Lean-Agile practices.

Now…how can I help YOU to succeed as an individual, as a team, and as a train?

● PI Management

● Chasing down blockers and managing risk and dependencies for the ART

● ART communication

● ART metrics

● PI Planning readiness

● Facilitation and coordination

● Coaching and process improvements

So that’s just a few things in a day in the life of a Release Train Engineer. This is not an exhaustive list.