The progress being made toward

the program increment timebox.

As RTE- what does the PI Burn-
Shows aggregated amount of
down Chart show?
work (story points) to Iterations
within the PI

The Pareto Chart is an output of the Fishbone effort,

where Agile team(s) list all root causes statistically
on a chart (X axis) and vote for the highest causes
As RTE, why would I care about a (y-axis). This is what is meant by the 80/20 rule or
Pareto (meaning that 20% of the root causes will
Pareto Analysis? likely cause 80% of the problems). (hint: check it out
some more and really understand how you as RTE
can facilitate this)

Better understand PI progress

At the end of each Iteration, the
and ART health; Continuous
RTE collects and aggregates the
Integration; Lean Flow
agreed upon ART metrics to....
accelerates delivery

DevOps and Release on Demand

All, shared responsibility
is the responsibility of Who?

True. NFR's are associated with all backlogs

in SAFe. From the Team Backlog, up to the
Program Backlog and then to the Solution
Do NFR's occur in every
backlog and even up to the Portfolio
Backlog? True or False backlog (keep this in mind). As RTE this is
important as it impacts the flow of the ART,
or Solution Train if multiple ARTs
 1. Current capacity and load for
During PI Planning the teams each iteration
produce a PI Plan. What is the 2. Draft PI objectives
aim of that deliverable? 3. Identified Risks and
Impediments

Funny comparison: If you're a

Wedding planner!! and a Football
great RTE, what other 2 jobs
performance coach, edging the
could you do that will be in high
team ever forward.
demand?

Empower knowledge workers to

How can the RTE support
manage the dependencies with
Decentralized Decision-making?
other teams

How do you prepare & facilitate Hold the PI event over 2.5-3 days,
for large DISTRIBUTED team in PI allowing for overlapping hours.
Planning where large time zone You must honour team culture
difference occur? and people.

Confidence vote (hint 1-5 fingers) done

initially on their own team PI plan......then
How is scoring assigned by again in the wider PI audience
teams once Risks and
Dependencies are resolved? "Given what you now know, how
confident are you that we as a team can
deliver on this plan together?"
 How is scoring assigned to ART Business Owners assign a
Business Value chart for Agile value between 1-10 in the various
teams, when they show the PI Team breakout rooms. Note the
Objectives? BO's are walking the rooms

How long is the Daily session? 15 min

How long is the Inspect & Adapt

0.5 day
(I &A) session?

How long is the main PI Event? 2 days

How long is the PI event for

Distributed Teams (different Time 2.5-3 days
zones)
 How long is the PO Synch
30-60min
session?

How long is the Scrum of Scrum

30 min
session?

How long is the System Demo? 2 hours

PIs are typically 8 - 12 weeks long.

How many iterations does one The most common pattern for a
Program Increment (PI) have in PI is four development Iterations,
SAFe followed by one Innovation and
Planning (IP) Iteration

If a team's vote on the

confidence level is high enough
ART Plan
the aggregate set of objectives
becomes
In order to evolve as a Leader in
Encourage personal
SAFe, what practices can the RTE
development
recommend?

In what way is a Value stream A value stream map measures the

map different than a Process FLOW OF VALUE....and identifies
flow? bottlenecks for improvement

List 3 types of meetings held, in

which ART representatives, come
SoS, PO Synch, ART Synch
together regularly to assess the
progress of PI Objectives

It shows the amount of work in the

various Kanban states (columns
Metrics: What does the
such as Funnel, Analyzing etc).
Cumulative Flow Diagram
One quickly can view any
provide?
bottlenecks in througput, Lead
times and WIP in the system

Shows the amount of work completed

and total work remaining in that PI
Metrics: What does the PI Burn- timebox. think of a visual Glide-slope
Down chart provide? moving down. There is an X and Y axis
(story points vs Iterations) - Nice for
showing any scope creep.
 It captures actual business objectives
achieved vs planned business value in a
visual tabular manner. - It measures all
Metrics: What does the Program
PIs at one axis and progress to
Predictability Measure do? objectives on the other axis. It reflects
ALL teams variances to meeting program
objectives.

1. Agile Product Delivery Self

Name 3 assessment used in PI assessment
Execution? (hint think what's in 2. Team and Technical Agility
the toolkit) Self-Assessment
3. SAFe DevOps Health Radar

Ishikawa diagrams
Name 3 tools to use in Problem
The 5 Why's
Solving?
Pareto Analysis

on (DAY 1) PI event , what Create PI plan for ALL their

outcomes can we expect the iterations; write DRAFT PI
Agile team breakout sessions to objectives and identify risks and
produce? impediments

Feature delivery; Team

dependencies & Milestones
The Program Board will focus on
(note: Program Board is also then
what?
used during PI planning and after
it as well - its the visual board)
 The RTE facilitates Agile Release
Train processes and execution.
The RTE escalate impediments,
Release Train Engineer (RTE)?
helps manage risk, helps ensure
value delivery, and drives
continuous improvement.

1. Creates an environment of
The RTE is a servant leader who mutual influence
displays which two actions or 2. Listens and supports teams in
behaviors? problem identification and
decision-making

System Architect/Engineering
RTEs collaborate to ensure
and Product and Solution
strategy alignment with?
Management

It's a personal journey, when I joined, the focus was within the
Scrum level, the team level, while jumping into the SAFe
Situational Question: What could framework and getting ready for the PI planning event, getting
up on stage in front of many people and building the program
you typically expect after being boards & objectives. It did not take long until we had a team of

in an RTE role, say after say 1 excellent Scrum masters and a community of practice, on top of
our Agile Comm of Practice. And now after many PI events later,

month? our challenges are still there in many forms, but everyone can
now feel the change as we drive value down the ART and what
we now call the new normal

Situation Question: During PI planning,

the RTE sees the excitement of the team
quickly decline as Product Management
1. Lack of Training, and;
starts making sudden changes to
Priorities - including the Top 10 Features 2. Preparation for PI Planing
- in the Program Backlog! What do you
think is the cause?
Situation Question: The RTE has recently facilitated a
session to bring people from different teams d. Norming (why: the team has
together on the ART to discuss updating Engineering
practices. What stage is the team likely in?
likely already establish internal
a. Teaming agreement about their roles and
b. Storming
c. Forming responsibilities, individuals are
d. Norming
e. Virtual
adapting to it)

The Teams DRAFT plan review consists

of which three items at the end of the 1st
DAY of the PI planning event, (choose 3) Risks and Impediments; Capacity
a. Risks and Impediments and Load Estimates and Draft PI
b. Capacity and Load Estimates Objectives
c. Agile team assessment
d. Draft PI Objectives

The Work in Progress (WIP) limits are

displayed above each column. there are
What are Kanban WIP Limits? limits how many cards are in each column.
They adjust demand to capacity and hep the
(hint: think of the visual board flow through the board. The implementation
and sticky notes) of WIP limits allows you to complete single
work items faster, by helping your team to
focus only on current tasks.

For me, an RTE is a Scrum master at Program level; a

Principle Scrum master if you ask me. Someone who can
look at all the different Scrum teams that compose an
ART and is able to track and coordinate all
What are my personal dependencies, risks, goals and features that compose it.

Observations on being a RTE? But more than that - The RTE should champion the Agile
culture and promote it through the Scrum masters while
enforces a second layer of communication and
relationships between team members, Scrum masters,
Product owners and Stakeholders.

Non-Functional Requirements define system

attributes such as security, reliability, performance,
maintainability, scalability, and usability. They serve as
constraints or restrictions on the design of the system
What are NFR's? across the different backlogs.

Proper definition and implementation of NFRs is

critical
 PI System Demo; Quantitative
What are the 3 parts of Inspect &
Measurement ; Problem Solving
Adapt?
workshop

The schedule is fixed, new system

increments every two weeks, the PI timebox
is fixed, the train has a known velocity, there
What are the common principles are Agile Team, Dedicated people, Face-to-
that ARTs operate on? face PI Planning, Innovation and Planning
(IP) iteration in the PI, Inspect and Adapt
(I&A) is held, and they Develop on Cadence.
Release on Demand

What are the three key items

Dependencies, Features delivery
communicated on the Program
dates, Milestones
Board?

What are two purposes of a To Network ; Share Knowledge

Community of Practice (CoP)? and Skills

What are two ways Program Risk

can be Categorized? (choose two)
a. Reliable
Owned, Resolved
b. Owned
c. Leaning out
d. Resolved
 A guard band (buffer) for
estimating and a dedicated time
What does the IP iterations
for PI planning, innovation,
provide to an ART?
continuing education, and
infrastructure work

What does the Program

Program Performance &
Predictability Measure provide as
Reliability
an indicator?

What does the RTE coach

Lean-Agile practices and
leaders, teams, and Scrum
mindsets
Masters in?

Help quantify overall Lean-Agile

What do the 3 self assessments
journey of the ART using the
accomplish in SAFe (PI
collective intelligence on the
Execution)?
train

What do we call multiple ARTs all

Solution Train
serving a common vision?
 The continuous development of
incremental system functionality requires
a scaled DoD. (note: read section 5.5 of
What is a a Scaled definition of
Scaled Agile training notes)
Done? (DoD) my observation is that there is always
confusion about what Done is Done
means - please read more on this!

It's a proven problem-solving method, used to explore cause-and-

effect relationships underlying a specific problem. You start off by
asking a simple why (example)
"We can't seem to implement SSO for our SaaS app" to which you ask
Why? "We need specific code from our internal IT team to embed

What is the "5 Why's" approach?

into our SaaS software" and again Why? "Well, we haven't really had
much response back from our IT department? They said it s easy
enough to do it ourselves" Why? "Well, we believed them and now t
seems we need more time to get the teams together!" Why....."I
haven't setup enough time between our supplier and IT Security SSO
department to test it out" and finally "John, can you please stop ask me
all these Whys." I now know what the problem is I need to solve

What is the format of the PI

S.M.A.R.T.
Objectives developed by Teams?

A larger, cadence-based
What is the Inspect and Adapt opportunity for the ART to come
(I&A) workshop? together to address the systemic
impediments they're facing

Alignment must rely on the Enterprise

business objectives. It starts with the strategy
and investment decisions at the Portfolio
What is the term Alignment in
level and is reflected in Strategic Themes,
SAFe? Portfolio Vision, and the Portfolio Backlog. In
turn, this informs the Vision, Roadmap, and
the backlogs at all levels of SAFe.
 ART sync at the Program Level
What periodic synchronization
and the value stream sync for
meetings does the RTE facilitate?
Solution Trains

What SAFe principle is being

applied when a RTE treats Apply Systems Thinking
suppiers as Partners?

What's an ANTI-PATTERN, for an

Reviewing Individual team
RTE, facilitating a Scrum of
Performance
Scrum?

Sometimes the Scrum of Scrum meeting and

PO Synch meeting can be combined and
handled together. Remember now that both
SoS and PO Synch truly keep things at a
What's an ART Synch? program-level conversation. So now that
said, as denominator... we can actually
combine SOS and POPM Synch ... SAFe
calls this the ART Synch

What's one way to secure

Have them attend the Program
Stakeholder commitment to the
Increment (PI) event
ART?
 What's the best way for the RTE
to show progress in the current Use a System Demo
PI to Management?

What's the best way for the RTE

to support teams having
challenges with problem By listening to the Team
identification and decision
making?

What's the Best way to foster flow

of value, innovation and apply Implement the Lean Portfolio
Lean Budgeting in the core Competency
enterprise?

What's the duration of a

2 weeks
Iteration?

What's the duration of an ART? 8-12 weeks

 Whats the duration of an ART
1 hour
Synch? (Think carefully)

System Demo (hint: make sure

What's the only true OBJECTIVE you know difference between a
measure of an ART? Solution demo and System
demo)

5-11 people (all cross functional,

What's the size of an Agile team?
they build, design test, deploy)

50-125+ people (virtual

What's the size of an ART?
organization)

What two items should be kept under

VERSION control? (choose two)
a. SAFe tool
b. Test data
Test data; Configuration Items
c. PI objectives
d. Configuration items
 What types of potential
Risks and dependencies; escalate
bottlenecks does the RTE help
and track impediments
manage, track and escalate?

Which activity takes place during

Feature deliveries dependencies
Team Breakout #2 on the second
visualized; / SMART PI objectives
day of Program Increment (PI)
developed
Planning?

Which primary role should

emphasize LIFELONG- Lean Agile Leaders
LEARNING?

The RTE or PO can facilitate this

Which role facilitates the PO event for Product Owners or
Synch? Product Management. (hint:
occurs weekly or as needed)

RTE (done weekly) - hint: The SoS

helps coordinate the
Which role facilitates the Scum of
dependencies of the ARTs and
Scrum meeting?
provides visibility into progress
and impediments
 Which tool can the RTE use to
Kanban systems
visualize the flow of value?

Which Tool is useful in facilitating

Program Board
Scrum of Scrum meetings?

1. Distribute the PI planning

Which two actions must the RTE
Agenda to Agile teams
take when facilitating the PI
2. Ensure all Audio/Visuals are
planning event? (choose two)
setup correctly

Which two statements describe Single voice for customer and

the responsibilities of the Product stakeholders, and to own and
Owner? manage team backlog

Who's responsible for the PI

event logistics and cascading the RTE
Agenda?
 Well, he stated that "A problem well defined is a
problem half solved" -

Who was Charles Kettering and He was interestingly enough, an American inventor, held
186 patents, and headed up General Motors back in the
why's he brought up in SAFe? day. He knew alot about problems and ways to solve
them. Given the SAFe mindset, we can learn from
people that know how to solve problems. As an RTE you
will be crucial to facilitate problem solving sessions.

Helps visualize the flow of work of Features

& Enablers through the ART. Helps with PI
planning and of course, with ongoing PI
Why are Kanban Boards useful? progress. Its really great for SoS, PO Synch
and ART Synch sessions...and visually great
for problem solving. The entire ART can see
whats going on

As RTE you need to plan events very carefully. You cant say, Oh
my, we dont have any "Post-It stickies". So plan:
a. Post-Its, (multi-colors)
b. Audio visual equipment - all rooms
c. Red thread for dependencies in PI Planning
Why do RTE's love shopping? d. Markers
e. Paper roll, Boards
f. Masking tape, Scissors
g. Digital tool for capturing data
h. Cell numbers of all ScrumMasters (text them for SoS
meetings)

(Also known as Cause and Effect Diagram, Fishbone

Diagram, Ishikawa Diagram) it allows Agile teams to
conduct problem solving simulation , you agree on the
Why is a Fishbone diagram so problem to solve, apply root causes to that problem,
then identify root causes - restate the problem again
important to an ART? and out of this allows team to then brainstorm solutions -
the result is fantastic as that output goes into improving
the Backlog list (long winded answer, I recommend
some study on how to use it)