Category Archives: Highlights

24 Feb

Calling US based RTEs to New York: June 19, NYC

After four successful editions of the RTE Summit in Europe, we’re taking this SAFe mastery event to the United States: RTE Summit Americas! As the first and only event to focus entirely on building best practices for the role of the Release Train Engineer in the Scaled Agile Framework, Gladwell Academy and Scaled Agile are bringing this event to the Western hemisphere. Andres Jansen, chairman of the previous Summits will host the Summit in New York City on the... Learn more

17 Feb

“ASML embraced SAFe, and now SAFe embraces the Architect.”

Trainer and IT Architect Hans van Herwaarden is clear when it comes to SAFe for Architects, the role-specific course that came available for training this spring. “This course gives the Architect a sense of belonging and understanding of SAFe that is greatly appreciated.” He should know: his recent audience of Architects at lithography giant ASML provided living proof. “First, some context,” says Hans. “ASML builds the hyper-sophisticated machines that allow other... Learn more

11 Feb

Sicco Maathuis: “Connect the data, connect the people”

Our first presenter to highlight for the Agile Coach Conference is Sicco Maathuis, who has worked at Dutch market leading companies such as Ahold, Nike and PostNL. He explains why he looks forward to the Conference, and a bit of what he plans to share. “It’s an exciting time for roles like the Agile Coach – so it’s also a good time to visit this event. Companies and organizations are getting used to the idea. We need someone who doesn’t fall into the conventional... Learn more

11 Feb

Your Route to RTE – Part 2: How far will you go?

In a role as newly-minted as that of SAFe Release Train Engineer there are still few practicing, certified RTEs, and no prescribed or clearly-defined career paths to becoming RTE. But there are trends in the pathways to this very significant senior role according to Andres Jansen, Senior Trainer, interim RTE at ASML and Founder of the RTE Summit. And right now, the two main career routes to becoming RTE are via the program side (PM, PL and the like); or from the (Advanced) Scrum Master... Learn more

06 Feb

“Shorter time-to-market? Too expensive.”

Making a physical product is always at risk of becoming a game of risk avoidance. Time and time again, we hear people in hardware manufacturing industries say ‘our production process is too expensive to change on a dime’. You know what’s more expensive, though? Not changing when you should. Of course, it’s true that you won’t happily throw away hundreds of thousands worth in casting dies or millions in production lines, just because you had an epiphany. But that casting die and the... Learn more

15 Jan

What Lean, Agile and SAFe have in common – and what sets them apart

Both Agile and Lean thinking have been around for more than decade now, and they’re arguably the most popular reasons for large organizations to review the way they work. Though the two terms regularly bounce around together in conversations, there are significant differences between the two. And both their mutual and their specific benefits meet each other in the Scaled Agile Framework. Here’s how. The mother of all Agile methodologies It might be nice to begin with the... Learn more

13 Jan

First Agile Coach Conference: “Building the knowledge exchange”

The number of people who call themselves ‘Agile coach’ has exploded in recent years. For Gladwell Academy, reason enough to step up and build a platform for knowledge exchange in this diverse discipline. First order of business: the first Agile Coach Conference on 15 May ’20. A place to meet and become immersed in the profession. Chairwoman Renate Cremer, experienced trainer of Agile coaches, dives into the agenda. Why an Agile Coach Conference? “With... Learn more

19 Dec

Living the Lean-Agile mindset – Anand Murthy Raj

After delivering a most inspiring keynote presentation on the Lean-Agile mindset at this year’s RTE Summit, SPCT Anand Murthy Raj joins us to further explain how to successfully embrace the Lean-Agile mindset and the success that flows from it. What do you mean by calling it a mindset? “When we talk about the Agile mindset, it’s important to understand that a mindset is a personal belief system. Very often when we are faced with a problem, we think that only one solution... Learn more

18 Dec

“Scrum Masters: upgrade your skill set with Agile coaching.”

Maaike Klasen and Renate Cremer are both experienced Agilists. Maaike is an experienced Scrum Master with extensive coaching capabilities who is involved with the International Coaching Federation, as well as working with Scrum.org; Renate Cremer, on the other hand, an ICF-certified Agile trainer and coach at Gladwell Academy who also put together the 12-day in-depth Agile Coach course. Together, they’re going to explore the Agile Coaching discipline. This first edition: the Scrum master as... Learn more

17 Dec

Give engineers problems, not instructions

We don’t apply Agile ways to make the simple stuff. We use Agile because what we create is hard. By that, I mean those hardware manufacturers that seek to apply Agile ways of working are usually in complex manufacturing industries: automotive, semiconductors, medical tech. Embracing Agility in such industries is very advisable, and indeed many are attempting this in some way. But it does come with its own manual. Here’s a page from my book. Hardware development comes down to... Learn more

14 Nov

RTE Summit 2019: “…inspirational.”

Yesterday’s LinkedIn post by Bengt Magnus Dyrkorn of EVRY/Tieto just about sums it up for us: “…two super exiting days at the yearly RTE Summit in Amsterdam.…really inspirational talks and presentations on a variety of subjects.” Thanks, Bengt! He also mentions some of the most ear-catching topics covered: measuring of value delivery, improving flow and value throughput in product development; enhancing predict ability and how to create energy when speaking to big... Learn more

07 Nov

UMS Consulting: “The new generation of employees embrace change.”

First-time Platinum partners to the RTE Summit UMS consulting are ready to share their experience with end-to-end transformations. Senior Manager Roger Balcombe and Partner Frank Rill will present together alongside the global stainless-steel manufacturer, Outokumpu. UMS Consulting is an established brand with over 30 years of experience. While Lean and ‘end-to-end’ transformations are their bread-and-butter business, they recently adopted SAFe as a fitting addition to their consulting... Learn more

06 Nov

What’s new in SAFe 5.0

With the recent unveiling of SAFe 5.0, the world’s leading framework for Agility at scale has acknowledged in the theory what leading organizations have been pioneering in practice: to spread Lean/Agile principles far beyond digital development and IT. From Finance to HR and from Sales to Facilities, SAFe 5.0 is where Agile means Business. But wait; there’s more. The new version of SAFe contains several major improvements and redesign, making the 5.0 version... Learn more

01 Nov

Aegon Asset Management: “Health radars made our teams central to our transformation.”

Aegon Asset Management Agilists Kok Hing Cheung and Alexander Wierstra will present together at the RTE Summit. “We’re positively surprised by this powerful growth platform… and we wanted to share our experience.” It isn’t a sponsored contribution if the company behind the product isn’t on stage. When Kok Hing Cheung speaks about AgilityHealth’s ‘radars’, he does sound a bit like an advertisement though: “Finally we have a real sense... Learn more

31 Oct

Airbus: “Leadership has evolved just as much as we have.”

From Airbus France come two seasoned Agilists to share their experiences. Solution Train Engineer (STE) Laeticia Chatiron and Agile Coach Florian Labadens present on the Skywise Solution Train: “It has gone very quickly. We started two years ago and already we’re at 500 team members.” Skywise is a new and exciting ambition at Airbus, explains Florian Labadens: “If you know that thousands of Airbus airplanes are in the air at any given moment, you also know... Learn more

29 Oct

Rentouch is a Bronze partner: “The piplanning app makes all the difference for RTEs.”

First time Bronze Partners to the RTE Summit, Rentouch look forward to sharing how their piplanning app enables RTEs to facilitate remote PI planning events. SPC Silvio Wandfluh: “RTEs are constantly looking for opportunities to increase performance and effectivity of teams and ARTs. That’s why the RTE Summit community is the perfect stage for the piplanning app!” Digital Boards for a PI Planning - Why? “Four years ago, our focus was on other products, but we were in contact... Learn more

23 Oct

Petrie Velthof, Dutch National Police Force: “From 200 cases to zero in a matter of months.”

Petrie Velthof pioneer the Agile transformation within the Dutch police force takes the stage at this year’s RTE Summit to introduce how the Agile way of working is increasingly allowing the police to work faster and with higher satisfaction rates – for officers as well as civilians. Around two years ago, Petrie Velthof introduced the way of Agile working to a few innovation-minded teams in the Force. At the same time “Q”, the innovation start-up movement within the... Learn more

22 Oct

Signify’s Lieven Verdin: “We made our UX design into a shared service for multiple ARTs”

Design Lead Lieven Verdin and Agile Coach Joris van Doorn have ‘tweaked’ an arrangement that isn’t perhaps orthodox SAFe, but it works well for them. They’re visiting the RTE Summit to shed light on building a shared service for a team that’s too small to be an ART, but too much in demand to be left aside. The international brand in advanced lighting solutions Signify has four Trains in operation, and they all need UX and other design skills for the many lighting... Learn more

02 Oct

Architecting while Agile? Yes, you can.

If you’d been in one of my trainings a while ago, you’d have heard someone ask me this question. “You Agile evangelists are always talking about these new roles: Product Owner. Development Team. Release Train Engineer. This, that and the other. Fine and good - but where does my work fit in? I’m an architect. And I can see my role is changing, but I’m not sure how exactly. Why is it changing, and more importantly what can I change... Learn more

01 Oct

Platinum partner CollabNet VersionOne: “Insight into the delivery process is vital to RTEs.”

After visiting last year’s RTE Summit, platinum partner CollabNet VersionOne is once again looking forward to this year’s RTE event. Enterprise Account Director Olav Maassen: “whether you’re using enterprise Agile or more traditional methods, we have an option for everyone.” CollabNet is an established brand with over 20 years of experience in the IT industry. VersionOne is its main agile product, with suites such as TeamForge more suitable for waterfall organizaitons.... Learn more