The role definition sounds easy, and the job is not
The Release Train Engineer (RTE)
Recently, we hosted a webinar in collaboration with Michele Lanzinger, SAFe Strategic Advisor from Scaled Agile Inc., about the role of the RTE and what it means to be the Agile Release Train Engineer in SAFe. We have compiled the highlights in this article for those who did not manage to watch the webinar.
The RTE or Release Train Engineer is perhaps the most peculiar role in SAFe, working with cross-functional teams similarly to the Scrum Master to help them deliver value and improve over time. Release Train Engineers should interact with multiple levels within their organisation. They should possess an advanced and broader understanding of delivering value to the organisation environment with Agile and SAFe practices.
Being an RTE is a tough job. People in this role should possess a variety of talents. It may be challenging to find a person who possesses all the necessary skills.
When we talk about this, we should pay attention to five dimensions:
Being an RTE is a tough job. People in this role should possess a variety of talents. It may be challenging to find a person who possesses all the necessary skills.
When we talk about this, we should pay attention to five dimensions:
1. Servant Leadership
"RTE is a person who creates an atmosphere of psychological safety and mutual trust, in which each team can focus on delivering value and relentless improvement."
"RTE is a person who creates an atmosphere of psychological safety and mutual trust, in which each team can focus on delivering value and relentless improvement."
RTE is the quintessence of servant leadership when we talk about Agile Release Train. An RTE is not someone who has the solution to every problem or the answer to every question, but someone who creates an environment of mutual trust and psychological safety. So every team in this environment can focus on delivering value and on what we call relentless improvement. This dimension of the RTE focus is on creating conditions for self-organization, which is also the principle of SAFe.
2. Empathy
"The RTE should truly listen to Release Train members and all stakeholders and understand their needs or problems. It is a person of integrity who recognizes conflicts and problems at an early stage and enables the right conversations towards their resolution."
"The RTE should truly listen to Release Train members and all stakeholders and understand their needs or problems. It is a person of integrity who recognizes conflicts and problems at an early stage and enables the right conversations towards their resolution."
Servant leadership is strongly connected to what is commonly called empathy. There is no servant leadership without empathy. A Servant Leader has to communicate to many people inbound (to all the teams working on the Agile Release Train - ART) and outbound (all the stakeholders). It is common to introduce a traditional waterfall world into the ART, at least at the beginning of the transformation. And it is crucial to have empathy and good facilitation skills towards stakeholders to enable the proper conversations towards a solution. It is one of the most critical skills an RTE needs to bring to the table.
3. Value Delivery
"The RTE is the one who understands the entire flow of value and focuses on identifying bottlenecks and handoffs that impede a smooth value delivery."
"The RTE is the one who understands the entire flow of value and focuses on identifying bottlenecks and handoffs that impede a smooth value delivery."
The mission of an RTE is value delivery. They guide the train to move on the right path from the beginning till the delivery. System thinking plays a significant role in making this happen. We have to think about teams, about the fact that some do not deliver value, and RTE needs to understand the entire flow value and know how the value stream is working and where the value is flowing. It means that their focus needs to be on identifying bottlenecks and being conscious of handoffs and dependencies between teams. An RTE is the kind of person who can put things together and has a systemic view.
There is another aspect associated with this - cadence and synchronization - RTE needs to establish and manage it between the teams. And the last element is also related to the roles consuming the work that ART generates. The value delivered to someone, and that someone needs to be well informed. And RTE should focus on this. Stakeholder management is the keyword in the previous point. The focus here is on optimizing the whole system rather than individual parts to deliver value to the organization.
There is another aspect associated with this - cadence and synchronization - RTE needs to establish and manage it between the teams. And the last element is also related to the roles consuming the work that ART generates. The value delivered to someone, and that someone needs to be well informed. And RTE should focus on this. Stakeholder management is the keyword in the previous point. The focus here is on optimizing the whole system rather than individual parts to deliver value to the organization.
4. Facilitation and Execution
"The RTE is ensuring every ART ceremony will deliver the extended outcomes and is that problem solver who will work on removing any impediment so that every ART member can focus on executing towards value delivery."
"The RTE is ensuring every ART ceremony will deliver the extended outcomes and is that problem solver who will work on removing any impediment so that every ART member can focus on executing towards value delivery."
When we talk about the RTE, we mean that this person has to organise the PI planning events. An RTE is a professional and well-trained event manager who can lead a large group and bring them together for PI planning and all ART activities. A good RTE must always be well prepared, so they cannot improvise during PI planning. And especially these days, it can be more complicated than usual because everything is remote and technology is a big part of preparation and logistics. The focus should therefore be on conducting ceremonies and managing any delays and obstacles that may arise.
5. Coaching
"The RTE is embodying the Lean-Agile principles and practices and through its authenticity and example is encouraging the new way of working, especially through active coaching the Scrum Masters on the ART."
"The RTE is embodying the Lean-Agile principles and practices and through its authenticity and example is encouraging the new way of working, especially through active coaching the Scrum Masters on the ART."
Of course, the ART embodies the Lean-Agile principles in practice, and they have to encourage this new way of working within the train and beyond. It is a person who is actively coaching Scrum Masters on the ARTs. They cannot coach every single team member; this is the role of a Scrum Master. Unlike the typical SM, whose primary focus is on the team, the RTE will interact with various levels of the organization.
A Scrum Master working at a team level should have facilitation skills and generally have the same skills as an RTE, but empowering a team of 100/150 people and making those people feel like a part of the one train is a different story. And the ultimate effort is directed towards making this a reality, creating a psychologically safe environment, mutual trust. ART should be seen as a single body, not as a group of competing teams, and the focus is on helping them reach this excellence.
It is not easy to find someone with all these skills and all the different aspects, but usually, a few people can be the right hand and act as a shoulder of the RTE.
It is not easy to find someone with all these skills and all the different aspects, but usually, a few people can be the right hand and act as a shoulder of the RTE.
— Is it better to have a self-developing RTE in the company who has had previous experience as a Scrum Master and has grown to become an RTE, or is it better to bring in someone from outside?
— From my experience, it needs to be a person who is already within the organisation. When it comes time to create a new role in your organisation, look at the people in the company. You may already have people there with the necessary skills. Next piece of advice: if you have more than one person, you may have an RTE in charge of the train, but having a coach on board or another "shadow/supporting" RTE facilitates the coaching experience.
— When we talk about in-house growth, what roles can become an RTE?
— The SAFe Release Train Engineer role is relatively new. There are currently several major career routes to becoming an RTE. One of them is from the Scrum Master (ASM/SM), incredibly passionate and engaged. Another via the program side - Program or Project Managers. Sometimes coaches. It's not that common, but there are cases where coaches wanted to come back and be in charge of delivering value again. In some cases, external consultants are then staying in the company. It is a perfect pattern too.
— What are the first steps of a Scrum Master promoted to an RTE in the organisation?
— The Scrum Master should actively support the RTE. Take care of moderating, supporting, and facilitating events or coordinating team activities and contributions to coaching the teams to collaborate. And also, during the PI planning, going just beyond the team support. Checking whether this is compatible with your character is highly recommended as well. Are you ready to perform in front of large numbers of people? The company should test at the beginning whether he has the appropriate skills or at least is willing to do it because people can always train skills.
— Can we say that RTE is a model of a manager or leader for the organisation?
— The Scrum Master should actively support the RTE. Take care of moderating, supporting, and facilitating events or coordinating team activities and contributions to coaching the teams to collaborate. And also, during the PI planning, going just beyond the team support. Checking whether this is compatible with your character is highly recommended as well. Are you ready to perform in front of large numbers of people? The company should test at the beginning whether he has the appropriate skills or at least is willing to do it because people can always train skills.
— How can RTE help the Portfolio level to do the work better?
— When we talk about SAFe, we're generally talking about large organisations. And even if we say, like Scrum, that a Scrum Master is someone who doesn't just focus on the team but brings a new way of working by introducing practices and principles into the organisation, we support that. The limitation comes when you have a large organisation, and it's hard for a single Scrum Master to contact and coach stakeholders outside of the team. Stakeholders coaching is where the RTE comes into play. Community of practice is a good tool and mechanism for bringing these two layers together. It can move the organisation forward. Just bring in the people with the most developed skills or experience who are also embracing the others and showing the others the way of working. The RTE is the crucial person who connects these two levels. So creating a community of practice enables continuous learning and development of the organisation.