SAFe 4 Release Train Engineer Exam (4.6) – 4
1. What is an effective method for finding the root cause of a problem?
Engage Business Owners
Perform a 5 Whys on the problem
Conduct empathy interviews
Perform a Team Retrospective
2. Why would an RTE use an Iteration and PI Calendar?
To provide teams and leadership with status updates
To help Business Owners remember program milestones
To manage and optimize the flow of communications
To visualize the Agile Release Train's cadence and synchronization
3. What action does an RTE take prior to an upcoming PI Planning meeting?
Allocate time in the Scrum of Scrums meeting for Product Management to socialize
with the teams the upcoming features for the upcoming PI
Ensure at least 30% of the Program Backlog is allocated to feature enablers
Facilitate Product Management and other stakeholders in prioritization of the Program
Backlog
Provide approval and sign-off for draft team backlogs
4. How can an RTE foster motivation?
Support a team member when voicing their point of view
Expedite participation and decisions from senior management on teams' frequent and
time-critical matters
Be responsible for formulating the decisions for disputes between teams
Clarify communication protocol across functional boundaries
5. Who are the two primary partners with the RTE to drive the Agile Release Train?
(Choose two.)
Product Owners
System Architects/Engineers
Business Owners
Product Management
Epic Owners
6. At the end of day two of the PI Planning event, the team's final plan review
consists of which three deliverables? (Choose three.)
Final PI Objectives with Business Value
Changes to capacity and load estimates
Program Risks and Impediments
Capacity allocation
Final estimates
Team Iteration plans
7. When gathering the information needed for the Program Predictability Measure,
the RTE meets resistance from teams that the business value does not reflect the
real effort and progress made during the PI.
What are two considerations the RTE should make when coaching the team to
give them a better feeling on what they have actually created? (Choose two.)
Illustrate the linkage between business values and the market communications/release
objectives tied to the three to six month enterprise strategy
Publish the team business values and coach teams that these values are for tracking
each Agile Release Train deliverable
Coach the Business Owner's review of objectives to see that scoring is against
acceptance criteria negotiated with the team during PI Planning
Educate teams that business value provides the enterprise with a metric of how fast the
team executed work during the PI
Work with the team to ensure they are actively involved when the Business Owners
rate the business value achieved
8. What are two main reasons why the Program Predictability Measure is
important? (Choose two.)
It indicates whether the solution is ready to be released
It demonstrates the need to fix the scope at the beginning of the PI
It focuses the Agile Release Train on value delivery
It identifies variations to discuss in the Inspect and Adapt workshop
It identifies under-performing Agile Release Train teams
9. What can occur as a result of not performing an IP iteration?
Responsibilities are unclear, resulting in delayed decision-making
No time for the teams to plan, demo, or improve together
Conflict and disagreement on processes and practices are difficult to resolve
Teams are sprinting, but the system is not
10. During the Agile Release Train (ART) kickoff session, Operations raises a concern
that they are already spread very thin and have no time to collaborate with all the
teams on the ART.
What should the RTE recommend/coach to discover bottlenecks and provide
governance for DevOps engagement?
Ensure all DevOps practitioners attend Leading SAFe training
Have the Operations staff sit within the Feature/Component team areas
Abstract platform/infrastructure requests from build/deploy requests
Visualize the deployment pipeline requests through a Kanban System
11. Which activity takes place during Team Breakout #2 on the second day of PI
Planning?
The RTE combines all Team PI Objectives into Program Objectives
The RTE modifies the Program Increment iteration schedule, if needed, based on the
scope of high priority features
All feature delivery and dependencies are visualized on the Program Board
Business Owners assign business value without team discussion so they can normalize
business value across all teams on the Agile Release Train
12. The servant leadership role of the RTE is very important and can be described by
which statement?
Coach by asking questions and articulating facts rather than using authority
Directing the teams to self-organize
Drive impediments and specific outcomes
Support teams’ commitments and fix problems for them
13. What is the most accurate definition of DevOps?
A method that ensures Operations works with Development every day to deliver value
A mindset, set of practices, and culture that emphasizes close cooperation to provide
value to the customer
A process that provides visibility to impediments between writing code and delivering
value
A set of tools and processes that govern how code is deployed
14. Which two roles should facilitate an Agile Release Train Sync? (Choose two.)
Product Owner
Epic Owner
Scrum Master
Product Manager
RTE
15. Which two activities take place during Team Breakout #1 on the first day of PI
Planning? (Choose two.)
Teams use color-coding for their backlog items as a reminder that they are required to
have all backlog item types on their planning boards
All teams' planning boards are visible and use the same color-coding
Draft objectives are written but do not include exploration enablers
Risks on the teams' planning boards are resolved by the RTE
Draft objectives and stretch objectives are written
16. What are the two primary impacts of having a well-executed IP Iteration?
(Choose two.)
Redistribution of people on teams
Increased delivery predictability
Decreased defects
Innovation is leveraged and enabled
Faster delivery
17. What are the three key items communicated on the PI Program Board? (Choose
three.)
New Feature delivery dates
Dependencies among teams and other Agile Release Trains
Important milestones
Program risks
PI Objectives
Team velocity
18. The Innovation and Planning iteration provide which three elements?
Time to release, continuous integration, and planning
Time for innovation, planning, and an estimating guard band
Estimating techniques, training, and innovation
Planning, estimating, and continuous exploration
19. The Agile Release Train (ART) team is nearing the end of the final Iteration of
their first PI. Integration into the staging environment is proving more
challenging than estimated.
After considering options, the ART decides to add a week to the IP Iteration for
additional buffer space for solution integration and testing. Why is this a bad
idea?
Overall train velocity goes up and the time to market goes down
It substantially decreases the predictability of the Solution Intent
It reduces the overall predictability established through cadence and synchronization
of the Program
It decreases job satisfaction by removing autonomy and purpose
20. Which statement is true about the Definition of Done (DoD)?
At the higher levels there is only one DoD for everything that passes through the Agile
Release Train to a Solution Increment or a Release
The DoD should evolve as system capabilities evolve
The DoD is not used at the Team Level because it is used as a method to manage
technical debt at the Program Level
At the lower levels the teams share one common DoD
21. A Scrum Master reports that his team feels like it is doing fine and would rather
focus on work than waste time coming up with and implementing improvement
ideas.
The team has recently had trouble meeting its Iteration commitments, so he
knows they can do better. He asks the RTE for help. What might the RTE suggest
as a first step?
Dedicate additional meeting time to brainstorm improvement items
Observe the teams Daily Stand-ups and have a meet-after about the importance of
relentless improvement
Review team metrics with the Scrum Master and look for specific improvement areas
that can be shared with the team
Arrange for an external coach for the team to help them improve
22. What are two responsibilities of the RTE during PI execution? (Choose two.)
To escalate and track impediments
To facilitate the System Demo
To formulate and direct decisions on risks
To direct the management of the Communities of Practice
To make decisions on resource issues for critical bottlenecks
23. Why should the RTE encourage lifelong learning?
To increase team velocity
To motivate team members to form as a team
To evolve the system
To decentralize decision making
24. What are three actions to take to support a Continuous Integration (CI) culture?
(Choose three.)
Follow up with CI ceremonies
Ensure fixing a failed integration attempt is always the top priority
Integrate often
Secure Senior Leadership support before starting CI
Purchase a CI tool
Make integration results visible
25. What action can result in reduced collaboration between teams during the PI
Planning event?
Start the Agile Release Train without a System Team in place
Include inexperienced team members
Overprepare for PI Planning
Skip the Inspect and Adapt sessions
26. An Agile Release Train (ART) is frequently discovering compatibility issues
between the developed solution and the Enterprise information architecture.
What can the RTE do to prevent this from occurring?
Conduct the data architecture design earlier
Develop more detailed Feature definitions
Add Data Architects to the ART
Confirm attendance of architectural representatives at PI Planning
27. Which two key skills does an RTE bring to Economic Prioritization? (Choose
two.)
Research and data gathering for cost of delay factors
Facilitate stakeholder collaboration
Determine job size by surveying Scrum Masters of impacted teams
Understand and facilitate Weighted Shorted Job First
Coordinate Lean Portfolio Management in providing feedback for cost of delay factors
28. Which statement is true about using a Kanban board?
The Program Kanban Board helps visualize PI readiness
If a card is larger than 8 story points it needs to be broken down
Dependency management across teams can only be accomplished if similar sized cards
are used across the teams
Policies are only necessary on columns with WIP limits
29. Migrating component teams to feature teams on an Agile Release Train (ART)
can be enabled by which action?
Combining the testers into one team
Carefully rotating team members between different component teams to spread the
knowledge
Encouraging the System Architect and Product Management to share roles
Creating a business case to support the migration
30. In a Scrum of Scrums meeting, several Scrum Masters raise a common issue that
their teams are finding difficult to resolve. The RTE has seen this problem many
times and could suggest several proven solutions.
Rather than offering up answers, she asks the Scrum Master team a series of
questions. Why would she do this?
Because identifying and solving team problems is not the RTE’s responsibility
Because she wants the Scrum Masters to clarify the problem and come to solutions
that best fit their contexts
Because she wants them to brainstorm through the issues before she provides the
answer
Because her suggested answers would likely be valid
31. PI Planning is a major event that requires preparation, coordination, and
communication. What are two key areas an RTE should focus on to support a
successful PI Planning event? (Choose two.)
Facilities readiness - space and logistics for the event
Process readiness - the operational rhythm that enables SAFe governance
Operational readiness - facilitating SAFe PI events such as Scrum of Scrums, PO
Sync, Iteration Planning, System Demo
Architectural readiness - the architectural runway completed
Organization readiness - strategic alignment; roles, teams, and train setup
32. Which role should the RTE play related to a hackathon event?
Get approval for work to be done in the hackathon
Ensure the teams have allocated story points in the Innovation and Planning Iteration
during the PI to account for the effort
Allow the teams as much flexibility as possible to promote innovation
Work with development leaders to make sure they give clear and detailed guidance to
the developers on what is expected
33. Value flows through which part of an Enterprise System?
Scrum of Scrums
Interconnections
Management Systems
Backlogs
34. After PI Planning, when is the program board typically used?
PI Sync
Before the System Demo
Scrum of Scrums
Agile Release Train Scrum
35. In addition to adopting and exhibiting a new mindset, which enterprise
competency also supports teaching the skill set necessary to practice the goal of
delivering value?
Lean-Agile Leadership
SAFe House of Lean
Lean-Agile Principles
Lean Portfolio Management
36. What are two purposes of the System Demo? (Choose two.)
To demonstrate a team's build
To exercise the performance of the staging area
To test and evaluate end-to-end system integration
To conduct the Inspect and Adapt
To get feedback from the primary stakeholders
37. Which SAFe core value creates an environment where facts are always friendly?
Flow
Respect for People and Culture
Innovation
Transparency
38. What is one primary responsibility of an RTE?
Manage and optimize the flow of value through the Agile Release Train
Select and manage an Agile life cycle management tool
Manage and optimize the Release on Demand process
Communicate a weekly status report on each team
39. When planning for a distributed PI Planning event with a large difference in time
zones, what are two key preparation and facilitation focus areas for an RTE?
(Choose two.)
Arrange and test presentation audio and video connectivity in all locations
Have a single, centralized RTE and technical support person that acts as a central point
of communication for all locations
Split up the PI Planning event per time zone and then have the Final Plan Review,
Confidence Vote, and Planning Retrospective as one centralized meeting
Adjust the PI Agenda to 2.5 - 3 days allowing for overlapping hours
Share the outcomes of preparation meetings with local Scrum Masters so they can
arrange local rooms
40. Why is it helpful to communicate newly refined Features and Enablers to the
teams during the current PI?
Teams can help support overall product integrity and facilitate working agreements
during PI Planning
Teams can prepare backlogs, give feedback to the Product Owner/ Product
Manager/System Architect, and begin looking at dependencies, impediments, and
knowledge building
Teams can review the Features and Enablers at the start of PI Planning so they have a
feel of the Roadmap for the next PI
Teams can breakdown Features and Enablers into stories, estimate them based on their
acceptance criteria, and identify dependencies to be well prepared for PI Planning
41. PI Planning is several weeks away. Product Management wants to define the list
and number of features that are likely to be planned by the train in the upcoming
planning meeting.
The RTE should coach the Product Manager to use which option as the
denominator of the WSJF calculation?
The number of features in the backlog
An absolute number of story points estimated by development teams working on the
current PI
Job size based on relative estimation by the stakeholders
A relative (Fibonacci) number estimated by the Business Owners
42. How can an RTE be aware of employee satisfaction?
Survey full-time employees
Address and resolve any problems areas
Conduct an employee Net Promoter Score survey
Gather employee metrics immediately after the Agile Release Train launches
43. Which two behaviors are an important part of the RTE role? (Choose two.)
Drive teams to specific outcomes
Encourage teams to self-organize
Provide answers about Features
Coach leaders to increase alignment
Manage dependencies for teams
44. Which two behaviors are an important part of the RTE role? (Choose two.)
Drive teams to specific outcomes
Encourage teams to self-organize
Provide answers about Features
Coach leaders to increase alignment
Manage dependencies for teams
45. What are two benefits of having a team Definition of Done? (Choose two.)
To collect team performance metrics
To optimize quality
To maintain predictability
To reduce technical debt
To measure the team's capacity to load ratio
46. Who can the RTE work with to help eliminate policies and procedures that
demotivate employees?
Business Owners
Portfolio Managers
Lean-Agile Leaders
Product Managers
47. What is an RTE anti-pattern behavior during the Scrum of Scrums or PO Sync
meetings?
To ask a lot of detailed questions
To ignore emotion and focus on content
To express positive feelings and praise
To ensure compliance items are addressed
48. What is an RTE anti-pattern behavior during the Scrum of Scrums or PO Sync
meetings?
To ask a lot of detailed questions
To ignore emotion and focus on content
To express positive feelings and praise
To ensure compliance items are addressed
49. What value do Iteration Goals provide in SAFe?
Metrics to best understand Agile Release Train health
Better understanding of the sequencing of the team's backlogs
Detail on how work is managed in the Iteration
Clarity, commitment, and transparency
50. Which statement is true about the Retrospective and Problem-Solving part of the
Inspect and Adapt workshop?
Key Agile Release Train stakeholders, including Business Owners, customers, and
management can participate along with the teams
The improvement backlog items resulting from the Problem-Solving Workshop should
be items that only leadership can address
Encourage teams to sit together during the retrospective portion to ensure an effective
outcome
The RTE gathers the list of problems to be solved during the final Scrum of Scrums of
the PI
51. Which enterprise competency organizes the activities of building large-scale
Solutions?
Business Solutions and Lean Systems
DevOps and Release on Demand
Team and Technical Agility
Lean Portfolio Management
52. The RTE ensures that Business Owners assign business value to what during PI
Planning?
Stories
Features
Program Level PI Objectives
Team Level PI Objectives
53. Which enterprise competency describes how enterprises collaborate to implement
approaches to strategy and investment funding?
Set-Based Design
Lean Portfolio Management
Lean-Agile Leadership
Business Solutions and Lean Systems
54. What should the RTE do during the Final Plan Review on Day #2 of PI Planning?
Facilitate the ROAMing of each team's risks
Verify each team's stretch objectives have lower Business Value than the committed PI
objectives in order to reflect proper prioritization
Encourage discussion of each team's product vision as part of the final plan review
Facilitate all teams when they are presenting their final plans to the entire Agile
Release Train
55. During the Management Problem Solving workshop, the System Architect notices
that one team has raised the risk of not finishing a Feature before the end of the
PI.
What decision should the management team make to help the Program complete
the Feature within the PI?
Ensure the Feature is properly measured against revenue and profitability
Assign the Feature to another team
Resize the stories for the team
Negotiate a reduction in scope of the Feature
56. How does an RTE view the role of functional managers on the Agile Release
Train?
As developers of people
As problem solvers
As decision makers
As content authority for work
57. How does an RTE view the role of functional managers on the Agile Release
Train?
As developers of people
As problem solvers
As decision makers
As content authority for work
58. What helps to encourage lifelong learning behavior in other people?
Identify skill gaps
Establish a sense of urgency
Share learnings and knowledge
Apply the SAFe Implementation Roadmap
59. Which two actions can the RTE take to facilitate team growth? (Choose two.)
Encourage continuous learning
Define Key Performance Indicators for the teams
Ensure time is allocated for innovation and planning
Require several Enablers per Iteration
Encourage skill specialization
60. How does the RTE help develop the Agile Release Train (ART) over time?
Analyze the velocity trend
Facilitate post-PI Planning
Create an ART improvement roadmap
Conduct a retrospective