The Release Train Engineer (RTE) is the Chief Scrum Master for a group of teams and is a critical role for delivering at scale. To perform this role effectively requires advanced skills and experience to support the organisation agility effort, as well as facilitate and enable end-to-end value delivery through the Agile Release Train (ART). Show
This role is responsible for building a high-performing team through servant leadership, self organisation and supporting scrum masters. They must facilitate the scrum at scale processes and play a critical role in planning and executing program delivery, and fostering relentless improvement. To be effective in this role, it is essential for the RTE also continue to learn and develop their own skills and capabilities, in order to effectively coach other leaders in the organisation, stakeholders, scrum masters and their teams in new processes and building agile mindsets. I was recently working with a client who was a new RTE. To help focus their development and build capability, we developed an RTE coaching canvas that looked at all aspects of the role, and what it would take for them to be effective in the role, to achieve the program goals and to support teams to deliver. ZXM’s Coaching Canvas provides a framework to support and empower the RTE to develop key capabilities required for success. By exploring the RTE role and related challenges and responsibilities, this approach helps to first identify, and then focus on high value areas for improvement. The primary goal of the coaching canvas is to prepare the RTE to commit to, and focus on their own personal and professional development. Leading by example, they must demonstrate and model the benefits of relentless improvement. This model engages the RTE in understanding their own areas for development, at the same time developing the necessary capabilities to coach others, who are often new in their own roles and less experienced. Create commitment to a structured learning plan The Coaching Canvas details a meaningful program of learning, outlining specific, measurable goals and strategies to best achieve those goals. The RTE works with a senior agile coach to build on what they currently know, and focus on their strengths and potential. The canvas articulates activities and responsibilities, which are regularly reviewed and evaluated, to determine what’s working and what isn’t working. Focus on high priority areas for improvement The overall performance and maturity of the ART provides an indication of the effectiveness of the RTE. By assessing the effectiveness of the release train and the program, this helps to unearth and highlight essential areas for improvement. By utilising ZXM’s Agile IQ® assessment framework, we were able to assess the four key areas of program effectiveness to inform where improvements could be made and what capability development was needed to help achieve these outcomes. The four primary factors of assessment in Agile IQ® are:
The RTE Coaching Canvas aligns to these program goals. Together with the coach, the RTE identifies the ‘target condition’, which incorporates priority skills and competence to be developed, how improvement will be measured, and what success looks like. Diverse learning activities to achieve success Having identified and selected a particular topic or skill to focus on, the conversation moves to determining the appropriate method and relevant learning activities to achieve the target condition. Planned activities must take into consideration the learner’s strengths and weaknesses. Each activity is focused and meaningful, and customised to the current ability and experience level of the participant RTE. Learning tasks and experiments build on previous activity and allow the RTE to engage with and develop their skills, knowledge and understanding in different ways. Learning activities are active, constructive, intentional and cooperative. Evaluate outcomes and determine next steps The Coaching Canvas enables the coach and RTE to inspect outcomes, evaluate the results of the learning and adapt the approach to guide next steps. This stage focuses on what was learned, what was effective, as well as what didn’t work as expected. Review and evaluation also provides an opportunity to inspect the process and reaffirm the overall goals of the Coaching Canvas. This ensures the model and approach continue to provide a relevant, positive and constructive experience for both the learner (RTE) and the agile coach. Conclusions By focusing on their own learning and development, RTE’s build essential capability for ART success. A structured approach to learning through use of the Coaching canvas, helped the RTE to focus on key areas for development and improvement, and empowers them to better lead and support others in their roles. This commitment to personal and professional development further demonstrates and model essential behaviours for others, and builds a culture of relentless improvement.
As a Release Train Engineer (RTE) it is your job to facilitate the Program Increment (PI) planning session, which can seem overwhelming if you have not done it before. Here are some helpful tips to prepare you for the PI planning session whether it is your first time or if you simply want to further your “drive for relentless improvement.” 1. Secure an Executive SponsorHaving an executive sponsor in your session is a great way to get the top down and bottom up engagement. Ask your executive to join even if it’s just to open the PI planning session. Have them give a brief overview of why you are doing this program and it will help the teams see the engagement and commitment throughout the company and help the executive understand how the day to day work is done. Executive sponsors are typically very busy, so be sure you have a slot in their calendars as early as possible to ensure attendance. 2. Schedule a pre-planning sessionInvite all relevant team members, which can include (but is not limited to) scrum masters, lead developers, lead architects and product owners for all teams that will be in the PI session. 3. During the pre-planning session
4. Arrange (at least) two separate feature briefing sessionsSchedule these two feature briefing sessions at least 2 weeks prior to the PI session to ensure everyone from business, architecture, development teams and management are fully aligned on the scope. 5. Ensure that features are ready as candidates for the PI sessionEnsure product owners and product managers are having continuous refinement sessions and are involving the business and all needed teams so there are as few open points as possible in the PI session. Feature visualization and their dependencies on a single board will highlight underlying problems that RTE should focus on. This will also help to prepare a list of items that are crucial for the upcoming PI. 6. Ensure Engagement with the system architecture teamInvolve the system architecture team to ensure architecture runway and enablers are in good shape for the planning session. 7. PI Execution
8. ToolsUse a tool that synchronizes Team Level user stories status and progress into Program Level board. Check out Kendis, a powerful Program Increment planning tool to conduct promising Agile Release Trains. 9. Arrange an evening activity after the first day of the PI sessionUse the opportunity of having everyone together to arrange dinner, drinks and create an environment where people can have fun and build relationships with the other teams. You will find this to be a great side benefit of the PI session and often issues that come up during the PI will get resolved sooner if individuals have a personal relationship with one another. 10. Closing of PI
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