Agile Release Train

What is an agile release train?

Agile release trains or ARTs align cross-functional teams to incrementally define, build, validate, and deploy one or more solutions for a long period of time. ARTs bring together business and technology teams that are aligning to a shared mission or a company's major product line.

What are the common principles of an agile release train?

• Schedule is fixed. The cadence at which program increments are completed is known and defined during planning.
• Increments are every two weeks. Each train delivers an increment every two weeks.
• All in sync. All teams working on the train are on the same program increment duration and share similar start/end dates.
• Velocity is predictable. Each train can estimate how much work can be delivered in a program increment.
• A real agile team. The teams on the train follow the values and principles of SAFe and the Agile Manifesto.
• Fully dedicated team members. The team should be fully dedicated to the release train.
• Planning events. Teams typically meet face-to-face for a dedicated planning event.
• Innovation and planning. After every program increment, an innovation and planning iteration happens. This is so teams can estimate any buffers for objectives, innovate on the ART or product, educate, and perform increment planning.
• Inspect and adapt. At the end of each program increment, the solution is shown and evaluated in order to provide suggestions for the backlog for improvement.‍
• Develop on schedule, release as needed. The cadence or schedule of the increments is planned and teams can release them as needed.

Roles of an agile release train

The teams are very similar to that of a standard product development project, but leverage specializations of some roles specific to this development approach. Here is a list of the common roles within an agile release train team:

• Release train engineer 
• Product manager
• System architect
• Business owners
• Customers
• System teams
• Specialists