RTE Responsibilities: Part -2

Continued from SAFe Release Train Engineer (RTE) Responsibilities: Part -1
  
Phew… looking at all the pre-planning activities you must be wondering is it over yet?! 
Answer is nope, not yet!

All that RTE managed to coordinate so far was about Organizational readiness and Content readiness for “THE BIG EVENT” which is PI PLANNING.

So what’s pending now ?!
Answer >> Getting the “Facility” ready for the big day!

As you might be aware, PI planning (or Big room planning as few people might call it) is typically a 2 days event. RTE must ensure that Facility is ready with:

• All the required communication devices such as Video conference facility, Phones, conf. bridge details, Projectors, Mic/Speakers, WiFi/LAN connections etc. (check and test the communication devices way before the actual PI Planning day)
• Stationary such as notepads, markers, whiteboards, Post-It notes, Pen, Pencils, Erasers etc.,
• Multiple meeting rooms that would be used during break-out sessions
• Enough collaborative tables and chairs and most important...
• Arrangement of tea, coffee, snacks and lunch or dinner.

Once the readiness of the facility is establish, RTE can take a sigh of relief and wait for the Big Day 😊

Finally the BIG Day is here -   "PI Planning" (Well, actually 2 days)

I am not going to indulge into the agenda of Day 1 and Day 2, this you can easily get it here  PI Planning 

Here is RTE’s responsibilities during PI Planning event -

• RTE is overall facilitator of PI Planning event for Day 1 and Day 2.
• After briefing entire ART on Day 1 and Day 2 agenda, RTE would invite Business representative to give Business context to ART (Agile Release Train).
• Business context is typically followed by Product vision by Epic/Business owners.
• Next comes System Architect and Engineering team to talk about Architectural vision/Runway and best software engineering practices.
• RTE provides the Planning context for PI, communicates the logistics about team breakout etc.
• RTE ensures that breakout sessions are well utilized and team gets all the support from required stakeholder (business, architects, SME)
• During breakout session, RTE would quickly visit each and every team to see how team is progressing with their plan and would conduct quick Scrum-Of-Scrum for short interval approx. every 45 mins to 1 hour.
• Towards end of Day 1, RTE invites each team to present their draft plans.
• Once the draft plan is presented, RTE facilitates Management review and problem solving. This could be in form of suggesting resources, change in scope, providing ideas on reducing the dependencies etc and closes day 1.
• During this time RTE also urges team to update the program board with the features and dependencies.
• Draft train/team level risks are identified.
• In Day 2, RTE ensure that team understands the feedback from business on draft plan and making required adjustments to increase the confidence level
• RTE facilitates teams to present their planning adjustments based on the outcome of Management review.
• During team breakout of Day 2, RTE visit each team and can do a pulse check to see how confident team is feeling with their plan and guide them with their planning.
• RTE helps Team to come up with realistic plan that is achievable.
• RTE ensures that Team level objectives are clear and have business value associated with it.
• Post breakout, RTE invites SMs/POs to present the Final plan
• RTE facilitates Program level Risk ROAMing   (ROAM: Resolved, Owned, Accepted, Mitigated)
• RTE collects the Vote of confidence at Train level and checks (based on vote of confidence) if any of the plan needs to be reworked
• RTE concludes the Day conducting retrospective for PI Planning