#solution train

What is a Solution Train?

The Solution Train is when multiple Agile Release Trains band together to create large and complex solutions. In the Scaled Agile Framework, scaling agile teams may consist of hundreds of practitioners to develop a solution. These Agile Release Trains are lead by multiple Release Train Engineers.

Executing a feat of this magnitude requires extensive planning and coordination. Managing this in real time without any visualization can complicate the entire process. There is a dire need of thorough analysis, design, and architecture. This requires constant transparency, collaboration, and alignment to successfully develop the solution.

Problems

When planning the Solution Train, some of the commonly faced problems by the Portfolio Teams of the Program Management Office (PMO) are:

Failing to do real time planning and prioritizing higher level features. These features include capabilities, epics, and dependencies of the product roadmap.

Difficulty in comparing the planned features with the real time situation of the Agile Release Train.

Inability to align the scope of the upcoming Program Increment and on-going releases.

Struggling to manage the dependencies among Portfolio Work Items and handling risks.

No transparent view of impediments tracking.

No statistics to predict the on-going sprints’ progress.

These problems are a result of a lack of visibility into the progress. These teams are unaware of a data-driven tool that would give them real-time visibility across the business organization. It becomes a mammoth task for the Portfolio Management to see the progress of the Program Increment.

How are these problems overcome? Just another brick in the Wall

An Epic Owner creates an Epic which possesses economic and business value . Once the epic is approved from the Lean Portfolio Management, the epic owner works directly with the Agile Release Train and Solution Train. The approval or rejection of the epic is conveyed to the epic owner. Being an epic owner is not a job title, rather a responsibility.

An epic owner works on one or two epics at a time.

Solution train builds complex solution with a Lean-Agile approach. It organizes and coordinates multiple Agile Release Trains into one. It guides the focus of hundreds or even thousands of individuals towards achieving a common mission. This is planned for creating solutions on a large scale. Solution trains are widely used for the development of medical devices, automobiles, aircraft or banking systems.

HOW IS THE SOLUTION TRAIN PLANNED?

A solution train starts like a conventional SAFe Program Increment Planning session. But instead of having Agile Teams that become a part of the Agile Release Train, there are Agile Release Trains that participate. The vision and the backlog are aligned. The dates are decided for the cadence and the schedule to follow. The planning of the budget is done according to an Economic Framework. This framework consists of lean budgets, epic funding, decentralized planning and job sequencing. The Economic Framework effectively arranges the team to complete its business objectives by considering the business constraints and staying within the set budget.

There are regulatory standards that the solution has to comply with. These standards are concerned with building high quality solutions with Lean and Agile practices. The Solution Kanban helps in managing the epics and limits the WIP (Work In Process). The capabilities are analyzed and become part of the Solution Backlog from where features are then implemented. Finally, all the Agile Release Trains are coordinated to form the solution train.

Model-Based Systems Engineering is a technique that provides flexibility in defining the solution. It describes how the design of the solution can be developed, documented and maintained. Every solution has an intent and context. The intent depicts the behavior of the solution whereas the context describes how the solution fits in the deployment environment.