1. A group of developers, Scrums Masters, and Product Owners from an Agile Release Train have expressed interest in sharing knowledge and learning more about DevOps concepts. Show How can the Release Train Engineer help them collaborate to gain knowledge about DevOps? Schedule a DevOps bi-weekly synchronization* Help them launch a DevOps community of practice Align them with the System Team Provide Devops training * 2. What are three actions to take to support a Continuous Integration (CI) culture? (Choose three.) Ensure fixing a failed integration attempt is always the top priority Follow up with CI ceremonies Make integration results visible Purchase a CI tool Secure senior leadership support before starting CI Integrate often 3. What are two responsibilities of the Release Train Engineer during Program Increment (PI) execution? (Choose two.) To formulate and direct decisions on risks To direct the management of the communities of practice To escalate and track impediments To facilitate the System Demo To make decisions on resource issues for critical bottlenecks 4. What action can result in reduced collaboration between teams during the Program Increment (PI) Planning event? Skip the Inspect and Adapt event Start the Agile Release Train without a System Team in place Overprepare for PI Planning Include inexperienced team members 5. What is a Release Train Engineer anti-pattern behavior during the scrum of scrums or PO sync meetings? Ensuring compliance items are addressed Expressing positive feelings and praise Ignoring emotion and focusing on content Resolving impediments 6. Which two behaviors are an important part of the Release Train Engineer role? (Choose two.) Drive teams to specific outcomes Coach leaders to increase alignment Encourage teams to self-organize Provide answers about Features Manage dependencies for teams 7. A Scrum Master reports that the team feels like it is doing fine and would rather focus on work than waste time coming up with and implementing improvement ideas. The team has recently had trouble meeting their Iteration commitments, so the Scrum Master knows the team can do better. The Scrum Master asks the Release Train Engineer (RTE) for help. What might the RTE suggest as a first step? Arrange for an external coach for the team to help them improve Dedicate additional meeting time to brainstorm improvement items Observe the team's daily stand-ups and have a meet-after about the importance of relentless improvement Review team Metrics with the Scrum Master and look for specific improvement areas that can be shared with the team 8. During the Agile Release Train (ART) kickoff session, Operations raises a concern that they are already spread very thin and have no time to collaborate with all the teams on the ART. What should the Release Train Engineer recommend to discover bottlenecks and provide governance for Operations' engagement? Ensure all DevOps practitioners attend Leading SAFe training Have the Operations staff sit within the team areas Abstract platform/infrastructure requests from build/deploy requests Visualize the deployment pipeline requests through a Kanban system 9. When planning for a distributed Program Increment (PI) Planning event with a large difference in time zones, what are two key preparation and facilitation focus areas for a Release Train Engineer (RTE)? (Choose two.) Split up the PI Planning event per time zone and then have the final plan review, confidence vote, and planning retrospective as one centralized meeting Adjust the PI agenda to 2.5 - 3 days, allowing for overlapping hours Have a single RTE and technical support person that acts as a central point of communication for all locations Share the outcomes of preparation meetings with local Scrum Masters so they can arrange local rooms Arrange and test presentation audio and video connectivity in all locations
Program Increment (PI) Planning is the heartbeat of the Agile Release Train. Or, perhaps more accurately, it lays down the tracks for the train to make sure all the train cars go in the same direction. Large-scale SAFe development is a finely tuned machine that must be maintained. Scaling Agile across teams helps organizations deliver larger, more complex outcomes by coordinating workstreams.
The PI Planning event is two days of focused planning with all the teams, stakeholders, and product owners/managers in one place to review the program backlog and determine the direction of the business. This event typically happens every eight to 12 weeks and can be a significant challenge for large teams that are spread out across the country or even the world. We are here to explore PI Planning, its importance to SAFe development, and some of the challenges of PI planning with multi-locational teams. We can explore some of the tools and processes that teams use to ensure everyone is focused on planning and that the teams walk away from the event feeling confident in the direction the business is going and what they need to help it get there. We are here to explore PI Planning, its importance to SAFe development, and some of the challenges of PI planning with multi-locational teams. We can explore some of the tools and processes that teams use to ensure everyone is focused on planning and that the teams walk away from the event feeling confident in the direction the business is going and what they need to help it get there.
Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) helps development teams tackle the challenges of coordinating multiple teams, processes, and programs to deliver a unified product. The Agile Release Train (ART) is the core of all the teams working together for a common goal. In very large enterprises, there may be two or more trains working together, and that is why every eight to 12 weeks the teams need to step back and make sure they are still working toward the business goals and the overall vision. PI Planning is scheduled at the beginning of each Program Increment and after the Inspect & Adapt Iteration. Although some companies may start the PI Planning event with the Inspect & Adapt meeting, that is not the focus of this article. The outcomes of the Inspect & Adapt event should be a part of the content of the PI Planning going forward. These items become action items for the next Program Iteration. Three areas of preparation for PI planning are:
Standard AgendaThere are many sources for example agendas for the PI Planning event. Depending on your organization, you may want to add motivational speakers, take time to recognize the accomplishments of the last PI, or just allow for some time for ice breaking games so teams can get to know each other. These can all be useful in teambuilding and adding a social element to the event. Here is an example agenda from ScaledAgileFramework.com. It outlines the more critical of steps that are needed for a successful event. Day One Agenda
Day Two Agenda
Committed PI Objectives Program Board
PI planning delivers many business benefits, including:
The Agile Manifesto states, “The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is a face-to-face conversation.” The challenge of keeping the remote team members engaged and focused on the planning tasks can be tough. There are a number of video conferencing services on the market that allow teams to video conference individual members but to also have cameras focused on local teams. This makes it possible for everyone to see and interact with each other in the same way as if they were all sitting together in a meeting room. Applications such as Zoom offer team video conferencing but also breakout sessions for PI planning. Remote members should be required to keep their cameras on so that everyone can see each other. They should also plan to be in a quiet place so that there are no distractions and they can focus and participate in the planning sessions. Real-time digital program boards for PI PlanningAgilePlace by Planview is a solution that has templates for some of the most common SAFe development boards. These can be online during planning sessions to allow teams to work digitally in real time for all remote team members to share.
Sharing the brainstorming boards and chatsIf local teams still want to use analog planning games, teams can assign one member to work with a remote team member to create their local contributions. For example, if Jenny is remote, she can use chat or other tools to send her teammate John an idea for the board. That way, she can still contribute with the team planning breakout sessions. One team member can also be charged with updating any online digital boards so that ideas are ready to share with the rest of the meeting at the end of the breakout session. Social interactionTeams should be encouraged to do team-building games and ice breakers early in the meeting or during the breakout sessions so that team members can get to know one another. These games can easily include the remote team members on video conferencing. Ice breakers can include “little known facts about me,” sharing pictures from a vacation, or an event such as “show and tell.” Remote team members should always be required to have video. Seeing each other builds trust between members when they can see body language and facial features. The latest version of SAFe® 5.0 expands the framework beyond business operations to embrace full business agility. “Business agility happens when the entire organization – business and tech leaders, compliance, development, finance, legal, marketing, operations, sales, security, support – uses Lean and Agile practices to continually and proactively deliver innovative business solutions faster than the competition.” Scaled Agile, Inc. With the addition of business agility to the framework, PI Planning (and the pre- and post-PI Planning ceremonies) becomes even more valuable to the business. As a business expands Agile, expanding PI Planning to multiple events to include all parts of the organization, connecting the ARTs, and the work to the overall business goals, is tricky. This is where leadership comes in. There must be buy-in from the leadership at the top and implementing a PI Planning-like event for leadership (think Quarterly Steering) to inform the business may be necessary. It’s in a Quarterly Steering/Planning Meeting (often a day or two) that leadership lays out the goals and objectives for all parts of the business, based on current state and future strategies. In Quarterly Steering, the business can show the need for various changes or make requests of the value streams to help deliver against those goals/objectives. This information is then taken to corresponding PI Planning events, to inform their planning accordingly. To do this well, digital tools are even more crucial in these larger solutions and the visual nature of Kanban is growing as the front-runner for business teams. Having one source of truth for the status and priorities of the business can save a great deal of confusion and frustration and keep the organization aligned from bottom to top and across the whole. In the grand scheme of today’s development world, teams are becoming more and more distributed. While many of the team members may be onsite and can attend the PI Planning meeting, there may be entire teams that cannot. For SAFe to evolve, consideration and thought will need to be given to how best to include the valuable input of these remote teams. As online tools emerge, RTEs and business owners need to think outside the box and plan how to coordinate and train teams to use these tools for collaboration. The more teams use the tools on a day-to-day basis, the easier it will be to use them for big events such as PI Planning and other iteration meetings and ceremonies. Even teams working within the same building can benefit from having a digital source of information and a single source of truth within the organization for answers to questions. It can also serve to allow team members to know their stakeholders and product managers so that the right people can answer the right questions at the right time. Teams that rise to this challenge will have the largest pool of skills and talent for their team members and the greatest chance of success in this fast-paced market. |