Release Train Engineer

type: role
role-keeper: Greta Vossberg
for-domain: Charger ART
version: 1.0
decision_date: 2026-01-12
review_date: 2027-01-11
created_at: 2026-10-10

Purpose

Driver

Three product lines, two platforms serving them and an integration team cannot keep their dependencies straight by talking in corridors. The Charger ART needs someone whose job is the train itself, not any one wagon.

Requirement

One role that owns the ART’s cadence and events, makes dependencies visible, and removes what blocks the teams between them.

Description

The Release Train Engineer is the servant-leader of the Charger ART: facilitates PI planning, the weekly ART sync, the system demo and inspect-and-adapt; keeps the program board of cross-team dependencies current; escalates risks to the Business Owners. Borrowed from SAFe, where the role has the same name.

Concerns

Cross-team dependencies — above all between the two product lines and HW Base and the Firmware Platform; PI predictability; the integration dates System Integration plans around; and lately, the lead times from Supply Chain that no ART event covers.

Accountabilities

Prepare and facilitate every ART event; publish PI objectives and the program board.
Track dependencies and risks across the PI; escalate what the teams cannot resolve.
Run inspect-and-adapt and follow through on its improvement items.

Decision Rights

Decides the ART’s event schedule and planning format (autonomous).
Re-sequences cross-team work within a PI — agrees with the affected teams.
Does not rank the backlog (Product Management) and does not decide architecture (System Architect).

Evaluation

Metrics and Monitoring

PI predictability; dependencies still open at the end of PI planning; improvement items closed per PI.

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Release Train Engineer.md

---
type: role
role-keeper: "[[Greta Vossberg]]"
for-domain: "[[Charger ART]]"
version: "1.0"
decision_date: 2026-01-12
review_date: 2027-01-11
created_at: 2026-10-10
---

## Purpose

### Driver

Three product lines, two platforms serving them and an integration team cannot keep their dependencies
straight by talking in corridors. The [[Charger ART]] needs someone whose job is the train
itself, not any one wagon.

### Requirement

One role that owns the ART's cadence and events, makes dependencies visible, and removes
what blocks the teams between them.

## Description

The Release Train Engineer is the servant-leader of the [[Charger ART]]: facilitates PI
planning, the weekly ART sync, the system demo and inspect-and-adapt; keeps the program
board of cross-team dependencies current; escalates risks to the [[Business Owner]]s.
Borrowed from SAFe, where the role has the same name.

## Concerns

Cross-team dependencies — above all between the two product lines and [[HW Base]] and the
[[Firmware Platform]]; PI predictability; the integration dates [[System Integration]]
plans around; and lately, the lead times from [[Supply Chain]] that no ART event covers.

## Accountabilities

- Prepare and facilitate every ART event; publish PI objectives and the program board.
- Track dependencies and risks across the PI; escalate what the teams cannot resolve.
- Run inspect-and-adapt and follow through on its improvement items.

## Decision Rights

- Decides the ART's event schedule and planning format (autonomous).
- Re-sequences cross-team work within a PI — **agrees** with the affected teams.
- Does not rank the backlog ([[Product Management]]) and does not decide architecture
  ([[System Architect]]).

## Evaluation

### Metrics and Monitoring

- PI predictability; dependencies still open at the end of PI planning; improvement items
  closed per PI.