What can a Release Train Engineer use to support relentless improvement for the Pro-gram Increment?

 The Release Train Engineer (RTE) plays a crucial role in facilitating events and processes that support relentless improvement within the Program Increment (PI). According to the SAFe framework, one of the primary responsibilities of the RTE is to “facilitate ART practices and PI execution” and to "drive relentless improvement"1.

The Inspect and Adapt (I&A) event is specifically designed as a significant event held at the end of each PI, where the current state of the Solution is demonstrated and evaluated. Teams then reflect and identify improvement backlog items via a structured problem-solving workshop2. This aligns with the SAFe principle of relentless improvement, which is a core value and a dimension of the Continuous Learning Culture competency within SAFe2.

During the I&A event, all ART stakeholders participate along with the Agile Teams. The result is a set of improvement backlog items that go into the ART Backlog for the next PI Planning event, ensuring that every ART improves every PI2. This structured approach to reflection and problem-solving is what makes the Inspect and Adapt event a key mechanism for the RTE to support relentless improvement for the Program Increment.