Release Train Launch Support
Hands-on support to launch an Agile Release Train — through the first PI Planning event and stabilization after it. This is consulting on your launch, not RTE certification training.
Who This Is For
Organizations that have committed to launching or relaunching an ART and want the first PI to work.
Signs You Need This
- Teams are formally assigned to the train, but no one has ever run a PI Planning event
- The first PI Planning is coming up fast, and no one has done it before.
- Features exist as vague epics - no acceptance criteria, nothing concrete enough to plan against
- Leadership set a launch date before validating whether team composition, architectural runway, or roles are actually settled
Our Approach
Readiness assessment and ART definition
Validate team topology, cadence, and role coverage against readiness criteria checklist.
Pre-launch training
A pre-launch training close to the first PI Planning event.
Backlog and feature preparation
Coach Product Management to write features with real acceptance criteria.
Facilitate the first PI Planning event
I'm in the room running the PI planning.
Post-launch stabilization coaching
Coach the RTE and Scrum Masters through the early System Demos and Inspect & Adapt.
What Changes
- A defined ART validated against readiness criteria checklist
- A first PI Planning event with committed PI Objectives
- A repeatable PI cadence your RTE can run without me in the room
- Real flow and predictability data from PI 1 to calibrate PI 2
Questions
Why do we need outside support if we already sent people to RTE training?
RTE training teaches the role. It doesn't give anyone the experience of having actually run a PI Planning event before — and the first one is where most of the damage gets done if it's fumbled. I'm there to carry that first event and hand off a working cadence, not to repeat what the training already covered.
Can't we just launch and figure it out as we go?
You can, and plenty of organizations do — I've seen what those trains look like six months in, still recovering from a rough start. Figuring it out as you go usually means the recovery period costs more time than getting the launch right would have. This engagement is built to shorten that recovery, not eliminate the learning curve entirely.