The formation of martensite (epsilon and alpha') in metastable austenitic Fe-18Cr-(10-11.5)Ni alloys was investigated in situ during cooling. High-energy X-rays were used to study the bulk of the alloys. Both grain-averaged and single grain data was acquired. s played an important role in the formation of a' with an indistinguishable difference in the martensite start temperature. The single-grain data indicated that stacking faults appear as precursors to a An analogy can be made with deformation-induced martensitic transformation, where the generation of nucleation sites would significantly lower the driving force required to overcome the energy barrier in low stacking fault energy Fe-Cr-Ni alloys.