Agile release train

Definition

An Agile Release Train, often called ART, is a long-lived team of agile teams that work together to deliver value in a coordinated and continuous manner. It is a central concept in the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), enabling large organisations to align development efforts across multiple teams working on complex systems or products.

For example, a financial services company developing a new digital banking platform may form an ART consisting of 10 agile teams, each focused on features such as security, payments, and mobile access, but delivering together on a shared schedule.

Advanced

An ART typically includes 50 to 125 people organised into cross-functional teams. It operates on a fixed cadence, usually through Program Increments (PIs), which are timeboxed planning intervals lasting 8 to 12 weeks. Each PI involves planning, iteration execution, system demos, and an inspect-and-adapt workshop.

Advanced ART practices include applying DevOps and continuous delivery pipelines, synchronising backlogs across teams, and integrating product management, system architecture, and business owners into the release train. ARTs also foster alignment through PI Planning events, where all teams plan together, identify dependencies, and commit to shared objectives.

Why it matters

• Aligns multiple agile teams to a common vision and cadence.
• Reduces silos by integrating business, development, and operations.
• Improves predictability through synchronised planning and delivery.
• Scales agile principles to enterprise-level initiatives.

Use cases

• Coordinating development of large software platforms.
• Aligning hardware and software teams in product engineering.
• Managing multiple agile teams working on enterprise solutions.
• Scaling agile practices across regulated industries like healthcare or finance.

Metrics

• Program predictability measure (planned vs delivered objectives).
• Delivery frequency of program increments.
• Defect rates and quality trends across teams.
• Employee and stakeholder satisfaction scores.

Issues

• High coordination overhead with large groups of teams.
• Risk of bureaucracy if ARTs become too rigid.
• Dependency management across teams can delay delivery.
• Cultural resistance to scaling agile beyond team level.

Example

A telecom company launches an ART to coordinate 12 agile teams building a 5G customer portal. Through PI Planning and shared objectives, the teams align on priorities, synchronise delivery, and release integrated features every quarter, improving time-to-market.