Release Train Engineer – a role unique to SAFe and is one of the most coveted roles in enterprises adapting Scaled Agile. But the role has been in practice for a very long time, albeit under different names and with varying roles and responsibilities. During transformation of enterprises from Waterfall/ Semi Agile to SAFe, I have seen project/ program managers, release managers, senior business analysts etc applying for this role. If I look at the job description of an RTE, I believe it encompasses the responsibilities and traits of all these roles, and a lot more.

Summarizing in a line, RTE is someone who manages the flow of Value within the enterprise.

Roles of an RTE:

• One of the roles that an RTE performs is to look at the flow holistically. Flow happens to be one of the pillars of the ‘SAFe House of Lean’ and having a constant flow ensures value is delivered to the customer – the person who is at the centre of everything. While we have the concept of value delivery in past as well, none was aligned to the customer directly at the heart of it which is the differentiation that SAFe and the RTE brings in.
• Another key role of an RTE involves the people side of things – to ensure there is psychological safety and there is right collaboration among the individuals on the train. SAFe follows the Dunbar number to ensure the train size is small enough to realize value, but not large enough to fall into the issues of managing it.
  RTE isn’t supposed to be an expert at things, he or she doesn’t possess a magic wand which will solve the problem. But an RTE should have the skills to engage the right members and create an environment where team should be coming out with the solutions without having to worrying about the failures.

• Another thing that the RTE needs to do is ensure that ‘Systems Thinking’ is practiced. Looking from grounds up, there are 5-12 teams who are working towards the solution. And looking from the top, there are multiple trains working towards delivering the solution across a value stream. There has to be someone to connect these as well as look at the solution as a whole thereby reducing lead time. RTE is uniquely placed to play this role and ensure everyone is aligned to the right goals. Every decision must be made based on flow and whole team must be involved in the process. PI planning plays the critical cog in this and RTE is the heart of the show.

To perform all these, there are some skills that RTE needs to possess.

• An RTE should be good facilitator – The job necessities playing the role of a thread of a necklace that bounds the beads together. And facilitation skills become critical when playing that role.
• Should have strong leadership skills – This is evident with the role, chief scrum master. Leading the train and ensuring all the teams are aligned to the value delivery as well as ensure the leadership and product management groups are focussed on the right value that needs to be delivered to the customer.
• Should have strong interpersonal skills – Like referenced earlier, the train has a max of 125 members so there is a stable relationship among the members. With the various dynamics around these individuals, RTE holds the key to ensure they are all aligned to the same goal despite the different skills and dynamics they hold.

Release Train Engineer is a new role to many, but the job has been in existence for a long time. Not as a single person maybe, but the tasks are needed to successfully deliver the right value to the customer. With SAFe the role is now aligned to the customer, thereby ensuring the core theme of customer centricity is maintained.

Performing this role requires skills, mindset, perseverance, and a different approach to look at a problem. Many of these can be achieved through practice, some needs trainings. I have served as Enterprise Architect and Delivery manager among other roles, but the experience I gained from my delivery role helped me know what is to be done and what not as part of an RTE. An experienced delivery manager with a growth mindset is the right start to get into this role. Trainings always help; when I attended the RTE training, the discussions around mindset, people, facilitation, etc triggered in me what I have been doing and how I can improve on them continuously. A lot of the war stories from the fellow participants helped me take note of some of the potential problems that occur and hence gave an idea on signals to keep an eye out for.

Refer to the below link for more details around RTE.

https://www.scaledagileframework.com/release-train-engineer-and-solution-train-engineer/

References:

https://www.scaledagileframework.com/