Who can the rte work with to help eliminate policies and procedures that demotivate employees

The RTE role in Agile involves a number of responsibilities, including managing ART events and processes, communicating with stakeholders, escalating and tracking impediments, managing dependencies and risk, and encouraging collaboration between teams. It is the job of the RTE to facilitate program increment (PI) planning, create calendars to schedule them, and communicate this information to the relevant stakeholders. 

The role of an RTE in Agile is also to share additional knowledge with Scrum masters and other teams, ensure the processes operate within lean budgets and make sure teams understand and adhere to outlined guardrails. 

Becoming a Super Scrum master requires RTE Agile training that is held across a three-day course, where someone with extensive Scrum master experience learns more about the RTE role in Agile, and how to plan and implement a PI. Because ARTs typically include over 100 people, the RTE role in Agile requires advanced facilitation skills, vast knowledge of the Agile mindset, and strong communication and negotiation skills. 

This chapter is from the book 

SAFe Lean-Agile Leaders are lifelong learners and teachers who help teams build better systems through understanding and exhibiting the Lean-Agile Mindset, SAFe Principles, and systems thinking. Such leaders exhibit the behaviors below.

#1 – Lead the Change

The work of steering an organization toward Lean and Agile behaviors, habits, and results cannot be delegated. Rather, Lean-Agile Leaders exhibit urgency for change, communicate the need for the change, build a plan for successful change, understand and manage the change process, and address problems as they come up. They have knowledge of organizational change management and take a systems view with respect to implementing the transformation.

#2 – Know the Way; Emphasize Lifelong Learning

Create an environment that promotes learning. Encourage team members to build relationships with Customers and Suppliers and expose them to other world views. Strive to learn and understand new developments in Lean, Agile, and contemporary management practices. Create and foster formal and informal groups for learning and improvement. Read voraciously from the recommended reading list and on other topics. Share selected readings with others and sponsor book club events for the most relevant texts.

Allow people to solve their own problems. Help them identify a given problem, understand the root causes, and build solutions that will be embraced by the organization. Support individuals and teams when they make mistakes, otherwise learning is not possible.

#3 – Develop People

Employ a Lean leadership style, one that focuses on developing skills and career paths for team members rather than on being a technical expert or coordinator of tasks. Create a team jointly responsible for success. Learn how to solve problems together in a way that develops people’s capabilities and increases their engagement and commitment. Respect people and culture.

#4 – Inspire and Align with Mission; Minimize Constraints

Provide mission and vision, with minimum specific work requirements. Eliminate demotivating policies and procedures. Build Agile Teams and trains organized around value. Understand the power of self-organizing, self-managing teams. Create a safe environment for learning, growth, and mutual influence. Build an Economic Framework for each Value Stream and teach it to everyone.

#5 – Decentralize Decision-Making

(See “SAFe Principle #9” for further discussion.)

Establish a decison-making framework. Empower others by setting the mission, developing people, and teaching them to problem-solve. Take responsibility for making and communicating strategic decisions—those that are infrequent, long lasting, and have significant economies of scale. Decentralize all other decisions.

#6 – Unlock the Intrinsic Motivation of Knowledge Workers

(See “SAFe Principle #8” for further discussion.)

Understand the role that compensation plays in motivating knowledge workers. Create an environment of mutual influence. Eliminate any and all management by objectives (MBOs) that cause internal competition. Revamp personnel evaluations to support Lean-Agile principles and values. Provide purpose and autonomy; help workers achieve mastery of new and increasing skills.

Role of the Development Manager

As an instantiation of the principles of Lean and Agile development, SAFe emphasizes the values of nearly autonomous, self-organizing, cross-functional teams and Agile Release Trains. This supports a leaner management infrastructure, with more empowered individuals and teams and faster, local decision-making. Traditional, day-to-day employee instruction and activity direction is no longer required.

However, all employees still need someone to assist them with career development; set and manage expectations and compensation; and provide the active coaching they need to advance their technical, functional, individual, and team skills and career goals. They also have a right to serve as an integral member of a high-performing team.

In addition, self-organizing ARTs do not fund themselves or define their own mission. That remains a management responsibility, as it is an element of implementation of strategy.

Much of this responsibility traditionally falls to the traditional role of the development manager, and the adoption of Lean-Agile development does not abrogate their responsibilities. However, in SAFe these responsibilities fall to those who can adapt, thrive, and grow in this new environment.

Responsibilities

The development manager (or engineering manager for system development) is a manager who exhibits the principles and practices of Lean-Agile leadership as described above. Further, the manager has personal responsibility for the coaching and career development of direct reports, takes responsibility for eliminating impediments, and actively evolves the systems in which all knowledge workers operate. They have final accountability for effective value delivery as well. A summary of responsibilities is highlighted below.

Personnel and Team Development

• Attract, recruit, and retain capable individuals

• Build high-performing teams; establish mission and purpose for individuals and teams

• Perform career counseling and personal development

• Listen and support teams in problem identification, root cause analysis, and decision-making

• Participate in defining and administering compensation, benefits, and promotions

• Eliminate impediments and evolve systems and practices in support of Lean-Agile development

• Take subtle control in assignment of individuals to teams; address issues that teams cannot unblock; make personnel changes where necessary

• Evaluate performance, including team input; provide input, guidance, and corrective actions

• Serve as Agile coach and advisor to Agile Teams

• Remain close enough to the team to add value and to be a competent manager; stay far enough away to let them problem-solve on their own

Program Execution

• Help in building Agile Milestones and Roadmaps, as well as the building plans that enable them

• Help develop, implement, and communicate the economic framework

• Participate in Inspect and Adapt workshops

• Protect teams from distractions and unrelated or unnecessary work

• Assist the Release Train and Value Stream Engineers with PI Planning readiness and Pre- and Post-PI Planning activities

• Participate in PI planning, System Demo, and Solution Demo

• Build partnerships with Suppliers, subcontractors, consultants, partners, and internal and external stakeholders

• Provide other resources as necessary for teams and ARTs to successfully execute their Vision and roadmap

Alignment

• Work with Release Train and Value Stream Engineers and system stakeholders to help ensure alignment and effective execution of Strategic Themes

• Work with the System Architect/Engineer, Product Managers, and Product Owners to establish clear content authority

• Continuously assist in aligning teams to the system mission and vision

• Help ensure the engagement of Business Owners, Shared Services, and other stakeholders

Transparency

• Create an environment where the facts are always friendly

• Provide freedom and safety so individuals and teams are free to innovate, experiment, and even fail on occasion

• Communicate openly and honestly with all stakeholders

• Keep backlogs and information radiators fully visible to all

• Value productivity, quality, transparency, and openness over internal politics

Built-in Quality

• Understand, teach, or sponsor technical skills development in support of high-quality code, components, systems, and Solutions

• Foster Communities of Practice

• Understand, support, and apply Agile Architecture

LEARN MORE

[1] Manifesto for Agile Software Development. http://agilemanifesto.org/.

[2] Reinertsen, Donald. The Principles of Product Development Flow: Second Generation Lean Product Development. Celeritas Publishing, 2009.

[3] Rother, Mike. Toyota Kata: Managing People for Improvement, Adaptiveness, and Superior Results. McGraw-Hill, 2009.

[4] Liker, Jeffrey and Gary L. Convis. The Toyota Way to Lean Leadership: Achieving and Sustaining Excellence Through Leadership Development. McGraw-Hill, 2011.