Imagine you're in a railway station where multiple trains depart and arrive simultaneously while remaining on track to the same destination. Now, picture the Station Master who ensures all these trains stay on track, move with synchronicity, and reach their goal efficiently. That’s me in Agile – I do the same.

Welcome to my world as a Solution Train Engineer(STE). I don’t just keep the trains moving—I ensure they move together, avoiding collisions and delays. Scaling Agile across large enterprises isn’t just about speed and coordination. It is also about problem-solving, tracking delivery, and aligning the team.  

If you’re asking, isn’t it challenging? I would say yes! It is difficult, but what excites me most are my roles and responsibilities as a Solution Train Engineer. 

From solving the roadblocks during the product implementation to bringing collaboration among teams, I strive to bring a structured approach over unstructured methods.  If you’ve ever wondered how large enterprises achieve agility at scale through STEs, let me take you behind the scenes of my world!

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Understanding The Role of A Solution Train Engineer

A Solution Train Engineer (STE) is a servant leader and coach that facilitates and coordinates several Agile Release Trains (ARTs) within a Solution Train using the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe). In large organisations where several ARTs collaborate to produce complex solutions, the STE ensures seamless execution by aligning teams, resolving cross-team dependencies, and sustaining a constant flow of value delivery.

As an STE of my organisation, I need to :

• Identify risks and eliminate bottlenecks. 

• Ensure the alignment between teams and business processes.

• Bring in continuous improvement across the solution train.

• Facilitate the Program Increment planning at the solution level. 

In addition, an STE needs to coordinate with the RTEs (Release Train Engineers) across Agile Release Trains(ARTs). 

Release Train engineers manage a single ART to support the Agile teams and drive program incrementation. In short, the STE conducts the whole orchestra, while an RTE conducts a single section. 

Both roles are vital for driving Agile Transformation, but Solution Train Engineers take on greater responsibility.

Simply put,  the role of a solution train engineer is to align, coordinate and facilitate the successful execution of complex solutions in a SAFe environment.

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Why are STEs critical in Scalable Agile Environments?

Agile Transformation is more than a slogan or a buzzword in large organisations. Teams can become misaligned or misled in minutes without proper coordination and guidance. This raises the question of product delivery, leading to delays, inefficiency, and bottlenecks. This is where an STE becomes indispensable. 

Here are a few reasons why STE is critical in a Scaled Agile environment:

• To foster Collaboration:  Large-scale organisations have various teams. STEs foster communication between these teams, such as the development, operation, and business teams, to ensure alignment with organisational objectives.

• Broad Alignment: STEs, with the collaboration of RTEs, ensure the multiple Agile Release Trains work together following a shared vision and roadmap. This fosters continuous improvement and delivery within a specific time frame.

• Agile Practices: Without an STE, Agile practices at scale might fracture. They operate as a uniting factor, ensuring that Agile concepts are followed throughout huge ecosystems.

• Risk Management: STEs help cross-functional teams avoid costly delays and eliminate roadblocks by proactively managing the risks and obstacles they encounter.

In real time, STE is a facilitator and a strategic functionalist who ensures that Agile principles are translated into business value.   

Also Read: Solution Train Engineer (STE) vs Release Train Engineer (RTE) - Key Differences

Solution Train Engineer Responsibilities

The STE is a key facilitator, maintaining team alignment, supervising important Agile rituals, and removing impediments to progress. Their responsibilities extend beyond simple coordination; they supervise Program Increment (PI) Planning, manage dependencies, and create a culture of continuous development. Let's explore the responsibilities of a solution train engineer.

1. Enabling Dependence Across Teams

Large-scale organisations involve multiple teams and, therefore, multiple ARTs with interdependent components. Hence, the key challenge is ensuring these dependencies are adequately identified, managed, and resolved before they become roadblocks. 

How STE Manages Dependencies:

• Identify Dependencies: STEs use roadmaps, dependency navigators, and SAFe program boards to track the relationships that cause dependencies.

• Proritizing Dependencies: By collaborating with the product management and RTE, STEs identify the critical dependencies and track better resolutions

• Fostering Communication: Communication across RTEs to proactively organise ART and solution syncs to resolve the dependencies.

• Escalation on Unsolved Issues: When teams struggle to resolve dependencies, STEs take the initiative to collaborate with stakeholders, business owners, and solution architects to intervene. 

Poorly handled dependencies slow development, increase rework, and introduce unpredictability, making it difficult to provide a solution on time and within scope.

2. Program Increment Planning 

PI planning is generally considered to be the heartbeat of SAFe. It's a critical event in the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), where teams come together to plan, align, and commit to the work for the upcoming Program Increment (PI), which typically lasts 8-12 weeks. The STE is critical in ensuring the event is efficient and runs smoothly.

STE’s Role in PI planning: 

• Pre-Planning: STE ensures that all the ARTs and stakeholders are aware and prepared for the PI planning. They even work with the product manager and RTEs to define the business goals and identify the bottlenecks and dependencies the requirement provides.

• Facilitating PI Event: STE guides the team through the overall agenda of the meeting and makes the priority list to be followed. They also ensure the teams thoroughly understand the road map and business objectives. Additionally, assist RTE and scrum masters to resolve the cross-functional conflicts and blockers among teams..

• Post PI Planning: STE ensures all teams have committed objectives that align with the solution vision. Tracks progress through solution backlog monitoring and ART syncs. Monitors PI execution, ensuring teams meet their commitments while adapting to changes.

Effective PI planning reduces delays and aligns priorities, ensuring a smooth workflow throughout the cycle.

3. Enabling ART(Agile Release Trains) Coordination 

In large-scale organisations, multiple agile release trains work together to develop large-scale solutions for large-scale organisations. The STE is a leader in ensuring these ARTs remain aligned as planned and function as a unified system instead of isolated ones.

How does STE enable ART coordination?

• Facilitating Openness and Visibility: The STE uses Agile tools such as JIRA, SAFe Program Boards, and Kanban dashboards to track ART development and manage real-time dependencies.

• Aligning Agile Teams across ARTs: Since each ART has its objective, scope, and velocity, the STE confirms that the teams maintain a shared goal to grow business objectives.

• Collaboration with stakeholders and Business owners: By constantly collaborating with the product management team, business owners, stakeholders, and RTEs, STE ensures that every team is working together.

• Hosting Cross-Train Sync Meetings: Regular sync-up meetings, such as the Solution Train Sync, help identify misalignments, track progress, and discuss impediments.

Without effective coordination, ARTs may operate in silos, resulting in fragmented solutions, delayed deliveries, and a lack of enterprise-wide alignment.

Also Read: How to Become a Release Train Engineer? - StarAgile

4. Eliminating Roadblocks

No Agile implementation is without bottlenecks and hurdles. The STE proactively identifies and addresses obstacles to ART performance. 

Common Roadblocks that STEs address are: 

• Misalignment Between the Business and Development Teams: Ensure practical corporate priorities and technological feasibility communication.

• Technical and architectural constraints: The team collaborates with Solution Architects and Engineers to address scalability, integration, and infrastructure concerns.

• Cross-team conflict and resource bottlenecks: Mediate disagreements and ensure fair resource allocation.

• Lack of Clarity in Requirements: Collaborates with Product Management to improve and clarify requirements before development begins.

How do STEs Resolve These Challenges?

STEs resolve these challenges by:

• Conducting regular risk assessments which helps them tackle the obstacles priorly

• Encouraging ARTs to collaborate and share the blocker problem in solution Syncs fostering a collaborative-approach to problem solving and resolution

• Resolving dependencies based on the priority list of dependencies

• Providing team members with the training, tools and resources to resolve their challenges

• Facilitating decision-making and coordination with stakeholders and teams

A proactive approach to problem-solving keeps Agile teams engaged and productive, ensuring that barriers do not compromise delivery schedules.

5. Continuous Improvement and Delivery

At its core, SAFe encourages continuous value delivery, ensuring that work is completed quickly and without unnecessary delays. The STE is crucial for building predictable and consistent delivery pipelines.

STE's role is to drive continuous flow and enable agility at scale: 

• Helps ARTs implement Lean-Agile principles to improve workflow.

• Monitor and improve lead time by tracking important Agile metrics such as cycle time, velocity, and throughput.

• Bringing in the continous improvement and developmentg

• Conducting retrospectives to improvise the procedures and boost efficiency. This process also minimizes waste.

• Bringing in the DevOps practices such as CI/CD

The fundamental challenge for agile teams is maintaining a specific rhythm while avoiding an unstructured flow of deliveries. They create complexities, such as delays and inefficiencies in the product, which impact overall product delivery.

Also Read: What is a Release Train Engineer? Required Skills for SAFe RTE

Bottom Line

As a Solution Train Engineer, I am more than just a coach; I am an effective facilitator. My mandate is always to ensure that Agile Release Trains work flawlessly together. 

My position is vital to Agile scaling success, from coordinating PI Planning to minimizing bottlenecks and optimizing delivery flow. By focusing on alignment, problem-solving, and efficiency, I help organizations navigate the complexities of Agile at scale, ensuring that teams consistently and efficiently deliver high-value solutions.

StarAgile's SAFe Certification will give you the information and skills to lead Agile transformations. If you want to take on this job or improve your Agile abilities, take the SAFe Agile certification from StarAgile and upskill yourself. 

Take the next step in your Agile career by attending the SAFe course and becoming a certified SAFe specialist through StarAgile!