When scaling Agile at an enterprise level, coordination and alignment across multiple teams is challenging as whilst Agile teams are self-organising and empowered, someone needs to steer the train to keep it on the tracks to facilitate program level processes and execution, escalate impediment, manage risk, and drive program-level continuous improvement. In this presentation I share my experiences of being a Release Train Engineer on a transformational project across a large government enterprise and explore the challenges and lessons learnt. In particular, I will focus on the Scrum of Scrums and how the RTE is essentially the Master Scrum Master of the Release Train and how to ensure you have Scrum Masters working together towards achieving the goals for the Train's Product Increment.
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Release train engineer master scrum master - LAST Conference 2015
1. Release Train Engineer - the
Master Scrum Master
By Mia Horrigan
• Partner Zen Ex Machina
• @miahorri
2. So What is an RTE?
• Master Scrum Master
• Facilitates program level processes and execution
• Coordinates delivery at scale across an enterprise
• Team and Delivery focused to achieve Business
outcomes
3. What it is not
• Another word for Program/Release/Delvery
Manager
• Project Management at scale
4. Servant Leadership
• Provide support so teams can be self managing and
self organising
• Very different mindset to being a Program Manager
• RTE doesn’t decide where the train is going or how
to build the train, they are there to coordinates all
team efforts to the outcome
7. Dedicated People on the Train
• People on the train are dedicated to the train no
matter what their reporting structure might be
• Product Owner and Scrum Master per Team
• Most co-located on same floor
8. Joined at the Hip - Product
Manager and RTE
• Key relationship
• Product manager and RTE working closely together
• Product manager focus – What and Why
• RTE focus – How to make this happen
9. Business Involved with Teams
• Feature Owners working with Teams
• Product Owners Council
• Dev workshops with Feature Owners
• Business Owners and Executives at PI planning
10. Program Increment Planning
• Evolved from disastrous first PI planning
• Greater opportunity for business and teams to
converse on features
• Two day session with all the train in the one room
• Huge energy, collaboration and communication
11. Train Building
• Team choose their name
• PI planning as team building
• Awareness of other team and train goals
• Trained everybody on the train
12. Executive Sponsor Support
• IT Service Delivery and Business Executive
Sponsorship and Vision
• Aligned to Organisation Strategy to “reinvent” the
organisation and “Getting IT Right”
• Director focused on what she could do to help
13. Visualisation
• Made the flow and work visible
• Team centred around Boards to discuss
• Communication to others of work in progress
14. User Focused
• Showcases are scenario based
• Story mapping to understand user journey
• Pragmatic personas and empathy maps
15. Managers off the Train
• Scrum Masters and POs not team leads
• HR reporting lines different to Train
• Managers outside of train to deal with projects and
and documentation required by non Agile work
teams
17. Train’s Maturity
• Different team capability, 40 new people joined in R4
• Succeeding because we have a few smart and capable
individuals
• Don’t want hero work or burn outs
18. Line Managers struggled
• Still their HR manager but not part of the train
• Insisted on a overly burdensome QA process for
reviews that created bottlenecks
• Worried about their place in the new framework
• Went around the Train
19. Governance
• Escalation Point for Impediments and Risks
• Program Status Report
• Roles and Responsibilities need to be clear
20. Scrum of Scrums
• Not a status Report
• About alignment, communication and removing
impediments
21. Product Owner Council
• Escalation Point for scope and boundary changes
• Program Manager coordinates and makes the
ultimate call based on business value
• POs in each team with regular interaction with
feature owners
22. Coaches Council
• Coaches at Team and Program/Portfolio Layer
• Team coaches embedded with team full time
• Provide advice to Release Management Group
• Advocate for team (“Good Cop”)
25. Definition of Done
• Applied this at team, system and Release level
• Helped ensure quality standards adhered to
• Definition of Ready so teams didn’t take on work
that was likely to change scope and design
27. Push vs Pull
• Started with back end and team level
• Portfolio and program level not as mature
• Push work on team to keep them busy but feature
not ready for delivery
• Want to get to a stage where Teams pull work from
an ordered backlog – not there yet
28. Challenges at Scale
• Teams are self managing however still need
coordination and alignment across multiple teams
• Working together towards achieving the goals for
the Train's Product Increment
• 100 people on the train, 8 teams
• Hard to steer and keep it on the tracks
30. I even have SMs email me as
Dear Scrum Mum……
• I tell myself its an affectionate term but wasn’t sure
• I feel protective of the team but was I stopping
them from succeeding and holding them back?
32. Scrum Dude• Rudimentary skills , very little experience
• Team secretary, lists impediments
• Black and White on process
• Results into low-performing teams
33. Scrum Mom
• Protective to their teams
• “Takes care of everything” to remove impediments
• Teams functional, but not challenged
• Results in stagnation
34. True Scrum Master
• Mentors, leads and develops high performing teams
• Address conflict and challenges the team
• Encouraging, collaborative and motivating
• Team able to learn and continuously improve
36. Circular Model of Scrum
Maturity
https://agileanecdotes.wordpress.com/2014/09/30/scrum-maturity-model/
37. Apply based Team maturity
• It takes time but It’s not a timeline
• Teams never stands still, maturity can be fragile
• If team is immature, they’ll need a Scrum Mom
• A True Scrum Master must be able to evolve as
team matures and be that Coach/Mentor/Trainer
38. Competencies of an SMS/RTE
Listen
Ask deep questions
Empower
Enable to Act
Increase Insight
Facilitator
• Owns process
• Independent
• Non judgemental
• Offers no advice
Consultant
• Advise based on skills,
expertise, experience
• Focus on problem
The Scrum Dude: Scrum Dudes have rudimentary scrum master skills and little experience with scrum, which results into low-performing and mostly disoriented teams. Scrum Dudes are more like secretaries for their teams.
The Scrum Guy: has rudimentary ScrumMaster skills and very small experience with scrum, which results into low-performing and mostly disoriented teams. The Scrum Guy acts as the team secretary, just scheduling meetings and listing impediments.
The Scrum Mom: Scrum Moms are solicitous and protective to their teams like a mother for her children. Teams with a Scrum Mum can be well functional, but Scrum Moms miss to challenge their teams, which often leads to stagnation.
The Scrum Mom: is protective towards her teams like a mother for her children. Teams with a Scrum Mom can be well functional, but Scrum Moms miss to challenge their teams, which often leads to stagnation. She doesn’t really trust the team and still bossy.
The True Scrum Master: The true scrum master coaches, leads and develops high-performance teams that are able to self-reflect, learn and continuously improve. She addresses conflicts, keeps the team challenged, encouraged and motivated.
The True ScrumMaster: The true scrum master coaches, leads and develops high-performance teams that are able to continuously improve, learn and to be self-organized. She addresses conflicts, challenges the team but in the same time encouraging and motivating people in the team.
The True Scrum Master: The true scrum master coaches, leads and develops high-performance teams that are able to self-reflect, learn and continuously improve. She addresses conflicts, keeps the team challenged, encouraged and motivated.
The True ScrumMaster: The true scrum master coaches, leads and develops high-performance teams that are able to continuously improve, learn and to be self-organized. She addresses conflicts, challenges the team but in the same time encouraging and motivating people in the team.