Konrad Sickel, Release Train Engineer, WSAudiology
Markus Hiemer, Release Train Engineer, WSAudiology

SAFe from the trenches

Working within a SAFe inspired train setup in a waterfall driven environment under constant pressure to be faster (with deliveries), meet deadlines, on- & offboard significant number of train members, deal with changing requirements or priorities requires a strong problem-solving culture to address all these needs without breaking either the train or the quality of the deliveries.
In this session, we will bring concrete examples of major problems we struggled with straight out of our train and how we addressed them.
Show what patterns helped us outline what environment needs to be created for this to happen successfully on a regular basis.

All this combined with how we used SAFe on this journey blended with other concepts like team topologies, theory of constraints, etc.

Konrad Sickel, Release Train Engineer, WSAudiology: Konrad’s experience in software development traces back to 2010, when he started as a software developer quickly recognizing that his skills are elsewhere and jumping into the role of a software project manager in the same year.
In the meantime, he was part of the launching team of two trains in with varying challenges in organizational setup, involved sites, cultures and complexity of the product to be delivered. In his current position, Konrad together with Markus fill the role of RTEs for a train with 11 teams in a multi-national setup

Markus Hiemer, Release Train Engineer, WSAudiology: Markus stumbled into agile thinking when he enrolled in an Innovation by Design Thinking project during his studies just because it sounded interesting. He started his career as a project coordinator for medical device projects tasked to build up an organization that helped project managers to be successful but at the same time had the role of a Scrum Master to make sure he saw what mattered for the teams.
After that he transitioned full time Scrum Master at WSA in 2019 to support teams all over the Software landscape. He was involved in a SAFe transition and saw the start and scaling of two trains and many PI Plannings. In 2022 he became RTE and together with Konrad takes care of a train with 11 development teams.