From Scrum Master to Release Train Engineer
How to make the leap from Scrum Master to SAFe Release Train Engineer (RTE)
One of several possible career paths for a Scrum Master is to become a Release Train Engineer (RTE). This is a move I made myself in 2020. In this article, I share my personal observations of the main similarities and differences between the two roles, list reasons why a Scrum Master may or may not want to become an RTE, and discuss some of the things that I needed to learn as a Scrum Master to become an effective RTE.
What is the difference between a Scrum Master and a Release Train Engineer?
A Scrum Master is a coach who works primarily at the team level, with Scrum teams (typically fewer than 10 people) to improve their practices within the Scrum framework.
An RTE works in the context of an organization that is using the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) and works primarily at the program level. They coach an Agile Release Train (ART), which is a team of teams, typically consisting of 50–125 people.
The RTE is sometimes referred to as a ‘Chief Scrum Master’. While I don’t find this description entirely accurate, it is still a useful generalization, as there are lots of overlaps in terms of skills and responsibilities, only they are often applied at a program level rather than a team level.
Examples:
- Scrum Masters are responsible for “the Scrum Teams' effectiveness” and “for establishing Scrum as defined in the Scrum Guide”. RTEs are responsible for managing and optimizing “the flow of value through the ART” and helping to “configure SAFe to the organization’s needs”.
- Scrum Masters generally facilitate team events (or at least ensure that they occur) such as Daily Scrum, Sprint Planning, Sprint Review, and Sprint Retrospective. RTEs facilitate program level events such as ART Sync, PI Planning, and the Inspect & Adapt event.
- Scrum Masters are responsible for “causing the removal of impediments to the Scrum Team’s progress”. RTEs have a responsibility to “escalate and track impediments” (across the ART).
- Scrum Masters serve Product Owners by finding “techniques for effective Product Goal definition and Product Backlog management”. RTEs work with Product Managers to facilitate “a Continuous Exploration process that drives the synthesis of a Vision, a Roadmap, and Backlogs”.
Although the wording is slightly different (the quotes above are taken from the 2020 Scrum Guide and the Scaled Agile Framework website) you can hopefully see that many of the skills and experiences that you have as a Scrum Master are directly applicable to the RTE role.
There are also some key differences between the Scrum Master and RTE role including:
- Scrum Masters work primarily at the team level and are usually part of one or a couple of Scrum teams. RTEs work at a program level and coach an ART.
- Scrum Masters can work in an organization of any size (as long as they have at least one development team). RTEs only work at larger organizations (Enterprises) with enough team members to form an ART (50+ people).
- RTEs work within SAFe, which has the concept of PI Planning and Program Increments (PIs). PI Planning is typically a 2-day event when the entire ART plans together to align on goals and objectives, and collaborate on cross-team dependencies, for the next 8–12 week period (i.e a PI). The PI contains Iterations which are commonly 2-week timeboxes. Scrum Masters work within Sprints (one month or less, but commonly 2 weeks). Depending on their organization’s context, Scrum Masters who are not working in SAFe may or may not have an event similar to PI Planning.
Reasons why a Scrum Master may or may not want to become a Release Train Engineer
Although there are many similarities between the roles, becoming a Release Train Engineer is not necessarily the right career path for all Scrum Masters. Below I have listed some of the main reasons why a Scrum Master may or may not want to become an RTE.
Why a Scrum Master might want to become an RTE
Some of the reasons why a Scrum Master may wish to become an RTE include:
- You are interested in working at a program level — RTEs work at a program level. Their focus is on optimizing the flow of value across the entire ART, rather than being accountable for a single team’s effectiveness. They are usually involved in more strategic work, and higher-level planning activities (such as facilitating the creation of Product Roadmaps, Portfolios, Epics, etc), and addressing more systemic issues.
- You want to work with senior managers and stakeholders — RTEs tend to work with and interact with more senior leaders and stakeholders than Scrum Masters typically would.
- You enjoy large-scale facilitation — RTEs facilitate large-scale events for up to 125 people. If you enjoy facilitation this is an incredibly interesting challenge, that often requires different approaches and techniques to team facilitation.
- You are interested in working in the enterprise context — RTEs work in larger organizations that have multiple development teams delivering software at scale. Many of the challenges they face are different to those of a smaller organization.
- You want to gain experience with SAFe — SAFe is widely acknowledged as being the most commonly used scaling framework (used by 37% of survey respondees to the 2021 State of Agile Report, and over 1 million people have been trained worldwide). Given its popularity, having experience in SAFe can be a prudent career move.
Why a Scrum Master might not want to become an RTE
Some of the reasons that a Scrum Master may not want to become an RTE include:
- You prefer working in a Scrum team — Some Scrum Masters prefer working at a team level, rather than at a program or organizational level. Working at a program or ART level is not necessarily better, it is just different, in terms of focus, challenges, and capabilities.
- You do not want to speak in front of large groups — You don’t necessarily need to be an extrovert to be an RTE (in fact, many RTEs that I know are not), but you do need to be willing to talk in front of and facilitate large groups (up to 125 people).
- Not wanting to work at an enterprise — Some Scrum Masters prefer to work at start-ups or smaller organizations. SAFe recommends that an ART consists of a minimum of 50 people.
- Wanting to work in a framework-neutral environment or use an alternative framework — Some Scrum Masters and Agile practitioners do not like working within SAFe. Common criticisms are that they perceive it to be too heavy or prescriptive, not agile, or insufficiently effective in bringing about organizational change (this has not been my personal experience). Some alternative scaling approaches include LeSS or Scrum@Scale.
What does a Scrum Master need to learn to become a Release Train Engineer?
A Scrum Master transitioning to an RTE role is essentially making a shift from being primarily team-focused to working across the program or ART level. Below are four areas that I focused on initially when I became an RTE.
- Large-scale facilitation — RTEs facilitate ART/program level events for 50-125 people. RTEs might explore advanced facilitation techniques such as Liberating Structures, World Cafe, Open Space, etc.
- Value Stream Mapping — SAFe uses the concept of value streams (development and operational). I recommend reading Value Stream Mapping by Karen Martin and Mike Osterling.
- Team Topologies — Team Topologies by Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais offers comprehensive guidance on organizational design, and how to optimize team interactions for flow. It is not specifically about SAFe but all of the principles and ideas are applicable to ARTs. The SAFe website references the book in this advanced topic article.
- Lean Product Development— SAFe is based on Lean principles and Lean thinking as much as Agile. You may want to explore the work of Donald G Reinersten, Mary and Tom Poppendieck, and others if this is not an area you are as familiar with.
How to become a Certified Release Train Engineer
Scaled Agile offer a specific 3-day course and certification for the Release Train Engineer role. I wrote a detailed article about my experience going through the process in 2020 (see below for the link).
Final thoughts
There is a lot to consider if you are a Scrum Master looking for your next career move. You may prefer targeting a framework-neutral Agile Coaching role or continuing to grow your capabilities in coaching teams. However, if you are interested in working at the program level, and working in SAFe, RTE is an incredibly interesting and varied role.
Thanks for reading. I hope you’ve found this article helpful in understanding the key differences between the two roles, and some of the capabilities that a Scrum Master may need to build when becoming an RTE.
Please feel free to contact me at www.linkedin.com/in/tom-boswell/ or at www.tomboswell.com if you have any questions or feedback, or if you would like to connect with me.
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