RTE Roles and Responsibilities
What are the roles and responsibilities of a SAFe Release Train engineer?
The words ‘release’ in SAFe Release Train engineer sometimes mislead people into thinking that they are a release manager, which isn’t true. It is a critical role in the SAFe framework and encompasses a great deal more than release management.
The structure of the SAFe Team.
The SAFe release train engineer is a pivotal role within the environment, and I’ll run you through some of the other roles within the framework to provide some context.
SAFe Scrum Master
This is the coach of the agile team and works with developers, release train engineers, agile leaders, and product owners to create an environment where the team can excel.
They help facilitate SAFe events and meetings, coach the team through the SAFe values and principles, and work as an agile coach to help the team achieve peak performances.
In essence, they help the team become more effective and continuously evolve and improve.
SAFe Release Train Engineer
The SAFe Release Train Engineer performs a similar role to the scrum master but works with a team of agile teams.
So, they work with several agile teams to coordinate their efforts and create value for both customers and the organization. They are helping SAFe and Agile thrive within the environment.
They also work with people outside of the agile teams, but within the organization, in the capacity as a performance coach, facilitator, agile coach, and SAFe consultant.
The bigger picture
Each agile release train will have someone who is focused on product management, achieving the product vision, and so forth. They will also have an architect that provides technical authority and guidance and ensures the agile release train delivers the technical elements that lead to success.
The Agile Release Train engineer will be working to ensure those goals and objectives are achieved, across multiple agile teams, and coaching those teams to achieve the customer and organizational objectives that matter most.
A combination of power scrum master and agile coach, working across multiple agile teams, in collaboration with more specialised experts such as product owners and architects.
Addressing systemic issues
The Agile Release Train engineer cultivates strong, working relationships with people across the organization to help the team thrive. Sometimes, that involves addressing a systemic issue that might be blocking progress whilst at other times, it may be pitching policy changes.
It could be removing an impediment, or it could be working with leaders to create policies, new systemic changes that facilitate better performances, or helping the team improve processes that lead to greater effectiveness, quality outcomes, and peak performances.
In essence, they are tackling issues that are beyond the control and influence of the teams.
Focus
The agile release train engineer works to help teams and stakeholders focus on what needs doing, why it is important, and to understand the impact on the organization, customer, or team should that problem not be resolved.
What happens if we don’t do X.
An agile release train engineer helps teams to remove as many impediments as they can without going outside of the team environment. The next step is to identify what is beyond the control and influence of the team, and actively champion those elements.
The managers, leaders, and stakeholders in the organization may well hear that there is a problem or impediments, but don’t necessarily understand the context of that problem and what kind of an impact it has throughout the value stream.
The release train engineer helps them to understand the impact of that problem or impediment and focus their attention and efforts on resolving that problem or removing that impediment. Actively helps create a context that creates urgency and desire to solve the problem.
Facilitation
SAFe, like Scrum, has a few important events that need facilitation.
The SAFe release train engineer is responsible for the facilitation of these events, and coaching teams to get the most valuable outcomes from these events as possible.
Whether that is planning work or working through a review, the release train engineer plays a critical role in facilitating the kinds of outcomes that empower the team to build the most valuable product, in the most valuable way, at the most valuable time for customers.
It also ensures that the organization achieve increased business agility and grow their technical and operational skills, knowledge, and capabilities effectively.
Continuous improvement.
So, in a nutshell, this is an insight into the life of a release train engineer.
About Value Glide
Value Glide are a SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) consultancy, coaching practice, and training specialist who work with organizations to align business objectives with customer needs and wants.
As deeply experienced agile coaches and practitioners, our team are invested in continuous learning through each client engagement and use the data and evidence we gather from each implementation to inform our training, coaching, and consulting services.
In a nutshell, empirical process control or empiricism.
If you are thinking of adopting agile within your organization and have identified SAFe as a great agile framework to adopt, implement and improve your business agility, visit our SAFe Quickstart ART Launch program page or view our SAFe Consulting Services page.
If you have identified a need for an agile coach and SAFe coach to help your organization adopt and implement SAFe, visit our SAFe Coaching Services page.
If you want to know more about SAFe and how to lead SAFe, visit our SAFE Training page for a host of options, from Leading SAFe to a SAFe Release Train Engineer course.
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