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In Leading SAFe 6.0, the Release Train Engineer (RTE) is described as “a coach for the Agile Release Train.” While this is definitely part of the role, it is not the whole story. In a recent RTE certification class, one participant shared that leaders in her organisation were completely undervaluing Read more...

If you look at the Agile Team guidance in SAFe, you won't find a Technical Lead listed as one of the speciality roles (i.e. Scrum Master and Product Owner). That said, a Tech Lead or Lead Engineer is a construct we have found to be a valuable addition to a Read more...

Having recently posted on The ART of Selecting SAFe Product Owners, I am now finding myself getting questions about the role of the SAFe Product Manager.  What is the role of the Product Manager in SAFe? While all Product Managers focus on a similar set of functions, such as understanding Read more...

Ideas from Team Topologies have been referenced by the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) since version 5.1. Many SAFe classes, including the very popular Leading SAFe, have two slides summarising Team Topologies in the context of SAFe. Personally, I’ve always found a two-slide summary of a 240-page book to be somewhat Read more...

A few weeks ago, I was teaching an executive Leading SAFe class, and our Business Owners were clearly very new to Agile, SAFe and Scrum. As I started the lesson on Team and Technical Agility, I noticed them leaning in to try and better understand the role of the SAFe Read more...

What is an Agile Release Tram? Well, that is a great question. It sounds a bit like Agile Release Train; however, there are no references to it in the Scaled Agile Framework. While I’m sure we are not the only people who have Agile Release Trams, this is a pattern Read more...

It feels like every time we launch an Agile Release Train, one of the first hard conversations we have is the need for a full-time dedicated Scrum Master for every Agile team. I suspect there are two main reasons this conversation comes up time and again. The first and perhaps Read more...

This is a question I’m occasionally asked, but having been asked twice this week it prompted me to write this post. Why not pre-write stories for PI Planning? Sure, it takes the stress and pressure out of the two days of PI planning; however, it is a SAFe anti-pattern. You Read more...

It is hard to believe it has been over a year since the Pretty Agile team was at Agile 2019 in Washington D.C. where I had the pleasure of presenting  "Learning from the Books You Said You Read…" with Melissa Hay as well as "Is There a Place for Individuals and Interactions Read more...