PI Planning for Beginners Series | #2 - Forming an Agile Release Train

This video builds upon the first video which talks about my embarassing story, what PI Planning is and the introduction of the Legal example we will be using throughout this series. So if you've not watched that, please start there: • PI Planning for Beginn...
In this video we are building upon the Real World Example and look at the pretend structure of this fictitious legal company, which I very imaginatively called 'Justice Inc' (I know, I astound myself too sometimes 😂).. Here you'll see us just put together a ridiculously simple Train structure to get this train rolling ...
Ahmed Syed is a Scaled Agile Transformation and Productivity coach based in the UK.
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❓ Any questions please leave them in the comments, and I'll do my best to answer these quickly.

[@mysticallybelle]

Really great content! I'm excited for the remainder of the series. Thank you Ahmed!

[@SAFeintheRealWorld]

Thanks Bella, glad you enjoyed :)

[@rajeshm6703]

Awesome. Thanks!

[@ABab-jf2jb]

Thank you. Subscribed.

[@SAFeintheRealWorld]

Welcome aboard!

[@scubamanbrian1518]

I really appreciate this video. We formed into system teams and I’ve been wondering how we could reform into true multifunctional teams. We are implementing SAP and much of the required knowledge is specific to certain SAP modules. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how we could form multifunctional teams?

[@SAFeintheRealWorld]

Hi SCUBA Man, there are a few steps that you'll need to follow to ensure you have a multi-functional team: 1) Be clear on what is value in your context ? 2) What skills / tech / processes are needed to deliver those 'typical' value items (let's call them Features). 3) Know here's the tricky bit : trying to get all the skills you need to be able to release value independently as a team. With SAP, you'll need to also understand dependencies and impact upon other modules. 4) You will probably find that once you apply this to your ART you will probably have some skills that may be your 'pinch points', you then need to decide whether to have a shared team or have these as 'floating resources'. Regardless from a strategic point of view, if these constraints are likely to remain, you should look at strategies to eliviate these constraints over time. Remember a single Pinch Point can impact your whole Agile Release Train and a typical ART could have a burn rate of $50000 per day! Best of luck Ahmed.

[@andreasvictorhs]

Hi, can project manager be ART ? Currently, I still looking for some references to transform my department from watertall into agile, unti I have found this wonderfull video that you explain about SAFE.

[@SAFeintheRealWorld]

Hi Andreas, if I understand the question correctly you are enquiring whether a Project Manager can help support an Agile Release Train (ART) perhaps as a Release Train Engineer. In my experience, Project Managers do make great RTEs as they need the same skills : Organisation, Strong Communication, Delivery Orientation, Collaboration and Consensus building. Hope this helps - thanks for your kind words.

[@bananmq7009]

perfect

[@michaeld585]

Thanks for these videos. They have been helpful into my journey into implementing SAFe in a large enterprise. Video topic suggestion: should companies try to “normalize” story points across teams for the purpose of tracking metrics? If teams use relative Fibonacci series estimation, everyone’s story points will mean something different. If we map story points to hours...this brings other well documented problems. Thoughts?

[@SAFeintheRealWorld]

Hi Michael, thanks for your kind comments and for your suggestions. Good point - I’ll make sure I cover this carefully in this series. In short: Standardisation across teams is a real pain in the backside 😂. I avoid it and will walk you through an alternate solution in a couple of vids. 👍

[@olufemisonuga1049]

You have to realise that Team A skillset and experience will more than likely differ from Team B. Human Beings think releatively and not absolutely - just my humble opinion

[@hajeraissi6195]

Thank you Ahmed..it is a first time I discover you videos...and that is great ..better late than never...I have question if you permit: I am in functional organization so it is better to me to choose structural teams and not cross fictional one my Problem is how to follow the iteration work through these teams ...how to commit to teams tasks dependencies

[@SAFeintheRealWorld]

Hi Hajer, if I understand your situation correctly, you have teams where you need to maintain a functional rather than a cross-functional structure. In this case where Value Oriented Features which span multiple teams need to be delivered, that's where PI Planning can help by splitting the Features into separate stories for the teams - not optimal at all - but will still be a lot more efficient than without co-ordination. Hope that helps.

[@way-ht1yu]

Hi,if possible Plz create similar video considering IT or software industry.

[@SAFeintheRealWorld]

Thanks for the request - considering what is most useful for 2023 at the mo, so will take into consideration!