Designing the Agile Release Train

One initial activity is to determine the release train domain, that is, who will be planning and working together and what products, services, features, or components the train will deliver. In the Big Picture, we’ve indicated that there is some collection (or pod) of agile teams that constitute a program. That is often the case, and in the smaller enterprise or business unit, the ART domain consists of everyone on the team who will participate in the outcome. If the assets you are building can be built with five to eight agile teams, then the planning domain is the program, and not much more thought is required.

However, in the larger enterprise, there may be dozens (or more) of such teams, and planning everything together is not feasible. In that case, we must first determine who will be on the train. Considerations should include the following.