Agile methodologies have been a significant factor in the IT scene for decades now. Developers are now encouraged to closely work with the organization and release iteration to enrich themselves continuously instead of throwing software over the business users' walls unnecessarily and working in their own bubble for months. We must admit that driving product development is not that easy. Lately, when enterprise leaders have started putting effort to become an Agile organization and shifted towards the upgraded framework and approach like SAFe, the Release Train Engineer's (RTEs) demand has heightened because they play a crucial role in receiving the best product outcome. 

Before checking out the role of Release Train Engineers (RTEs), let's get to know the architecture of SAFe to understand why it requires RTEs.

Get introduced to the SAFe framework and a SAFe RTE's responsibilities

SAFe has led to numerous dramatic successes by combining enterprise-centric organizational practices with Agile approaches. Agile is a mindset, a practical development approach that gets work done quickly as its sole focus is on the future. Let's understand this with an example. If an application is developed with an Agile mindset, the developer will always focus on the next few months or the near future, and with time, they make necessary changes to align with the users' needs. 

To handle the new complexities of a new product, Agile has evolved to become SAFe, also popular as a Scaled Agile Framework that implements Agile values and principles and applies those principles across the organization. Now Agile teams can develop high-end products quickly with the help of SAFe. 

SAFe has released the Agile Release Train (ART) to achieve all these prospects, and as the name suggests, a Release Train Engineer's responsibilities are related to it.

When a group of self-organized Agile teams strives to produce a high-performing product, they are recognized as the Agile Release Train (ART). The ART holds 5 to 15 Agile teams and around 30 to 150 people. All these people work on different product components to accomplish one final goal, and an RTE, a servant leader, fulfills the ART's needs. 

Let now jump into the details to understand a Release Train Engineer's roles and responsibilities.

What does a Release Train Engineer do?

A Release Train Engineer offers outstanding program-level support to the Agile Release Train (ART).

RTE's roles and responsibilities comprise supporting all these teams to deliver the ultimate product and simultaneously increase the value. As no one will be above an RTE, it will be their responsibility to provide ART requirements by understanding them correctly. Bringing all the self-managed and self-organized Agile teams together to ensure they are moving in the right direction also comes under a SAFe RTE's responsibilities. 

Supporting the Agile release train (ART)

An RTE supports all the teams and improves themselves to ensure they come up with their best version overnight. This continuous support will enhance and add more value to the process as the teams gradually understand how they can improve themselves with every iteration by following SAFe's iterative approach. Training all the teams, providing valuable feedback, and motivating and guiding them regularly are the responsibilities of a SAFe RTE.

Preparing ART for SAFe events

An RTE maintain the situations in the whole process and prepare all the teams for SAFe. It demands significant time and effort. With coordinated and efficient action plans, excellent planning, and preparation, RTE makes sure that they can take quick actions and quick decisions to flow the whole process smoothly. This is how a well-prepared RTE avoids chaotic situations.

Planning Program Increment (PI) right

The ART delivers incremental value. These teams deliver adequately tested working systems and software within a specific time frame, also known as the Program Increment (PI). This is similar to the Agile Software Development iteration. An RTE creates the annual calendars and timelines for iterations, helps in PI planning, and summarizes the objectives of the Program Increment to receive maximum visibility with transparency after publishing. While working on all these things, he must consider all the crucial factors that can affect the deadlines.

Eradicating impediments

Handling too many teams at a time is unmistakably a challenging job. But this is one of the most crucial parts of the Release Train Engineer's responsibilities. The challenges can include dependency issues, lack of resources, employee-related challenges, or even technological challenges like system failures. The RTE solves all these issues efficiently to ensure the obstacles cannot touch the PI. It doesn't mean that they always have to develop a great solution to combat these impediments. It simply means that the RTE has the power to provide the required thing to fix these challenges.

Fulfilling the communication gaps

Implementing Agile on a large scale comes up with various other challenges like communication gaps. Here we need to understand that different groups work on the same product. Therefore delivering valuable messages to the team is crucial as the communication should always be professional and transparent. Therefore regular sessions should be conducted by the RTE to let the Scrum Masters know what's going on in the other teams. In short, building great relationships among groups by fulfilling the communication gap is one of the most significant roles of a Release Train Engineer.

Focusing on engineering aspects

You must be wondering, when someone has so much on his plate, how can he focus on the other things? An RTE shouldn't forget about engineering aspects, including the test-first development and code review to get the best product result. In that case, they can always take the help of automation to speed up the development process. While value stream management helps the RTE understand the value of each portion of the process, value stream mapping gives him the complete outlook of the process to optimize the work further.

Must-have knowledge

SAFe has already taken Agile to the next level. If an organization wants to make sure that it works well, hiring an RTE is a must. We already know that the ART plays a vital role in product development, and to improve the teams and the product, a Release Train Engineer helps a lot. Because of the RTE, the whole product development process goes smoothly. The servant-leader continuously works on optimizing the processes, workflows, and teams. By utilizing value stream management, they can quickly prioritize and optimize the required areas.