Hi all,

It is humbling for us to know that some of the largest enterprises in the Global 2000 rely on SAFe’s guidance to build the world’s most important systems. Adopting Lean-Agile at scale helps these organizations create these critical solutions better, faster, and with higher quality.  These systems range from the big IT systems that drive fintech and insurance to the cyber-physical systems in aerospace, defense, and automotive.

We released additional guidance for these big system builders this year with the Solution Management and Solution Architect/Engineering articles.  Before their ‘split,’ these solution train role articles referred to the same ART-level knowledge base articles (Solution and Product Management, Solution and System Architect-Engineering).  While the ART-level responsibilities certainly apply to the large solution-level roles, building the world’s biggest systems requires additional guidance.  Today we are happy to announce additional guidance for Solution Train Engineers (STE).  The publishing of this article completes the ‘split’ for the large solution-level roles.

STEs play a vital role in large solution development because they ensure the multiple ARTs and teams within a Solution Train innovate, operate and improve together.  To make this responsibility even more challenging, STEs typically have limited interaction with the teams on the ARTs.  Instead, STEs must align and coordinate the ART leaders as they, in turn, communicate with their Agile teams.

The STE’s responsibilities are categorized into the four distinct areas shown below and are described in detail in the STE article.  STEs help the Solution Train manage the input from all the business and technical stakeholders to prepare for PI Planning. They ensure a smooth PI Planning event across all the ARTs. They synchronize and coordinate execution during the PI.  And they help ensure the entire solution train is improving.

You can read the new article here.

We hope you find this new guidance for these three Large Solution roles helpful.  We welcome your feedback and look forward to continuing to support our community of large solution builders.

Happy reading and stay SAFe!

— Harry and the SAFe Framework team