How to Effectively Conduct PI Planning? 

Program Increment (PI) planning is the lifeline of Agile Release Train (ART). It lays down a track for all the train cars to run efficiently. Program Increment is a timeframe in which the Agile Release Train serves incremental value in ways of working, tested system, performance, and software. PIs are stretched to 8 to 12 weeks. Any organization that is scaling Agile and endorsing the SAFe Framework is supposed to be running a frictionless PI Planning process.

A prosperous PI Planning offers to enact a culture of unambiguous operation-oriented alignment, regardless of the industry’s base of business or size of programming. It can be said to be a linchpin step of the SAFe.

The Essence of PI Planning

Okay, so the part where we talk about how PI Planning helps strengthen your Agile Project team is clear. Now we move on to understand the gravity of PI Planning.

Scaled Agile Framework, or SAFe, helps the development team counteract the challenges of coordinating with multiple heads, processes, teams, steps, and programs to carry out a federate product.

The Agile Release Train (ART) is the bedrock of all the teams working together for a mutual goal. In large-scale enterprises, there can be more than two trains of a program running simultaneously. It requires the team to set back every eight to twelve weeks to make sure that they are all working together towards achieving mutual business goals and proceeding towards the organization’s vision.

PI Planning helps in faster and better decision making, face-to-face communication among the team members and stakeholders, creating a social network for the ART to base upon, leveling demand and capacity, and eliminating extra Work In Progress.

How to Conduct Successful PI Planning?

If your problem statement is, “How to conduct a successful PI Planning?”, then here are the three steps for effective PI Planning:

Organizational Fitness

There is no benefit in conducting a Program Increment Planning session if your key stakeholders are not present to witness it. So the first step is to schedule a timely PI Planning session and send regular reminders to the people who are expected to attend the same. Check if the PI Planning session you’re conducting comes before the quarter begins. It can help your team prepare for the next quarter to come.

Content Preparation

Why are we doing this PI Planning? The answer to this question will be the program’s mission of every plan. The reason for any activity to be carried on is defined by the mission and vision of the idea. Ensure that the ‘Why’ of the program increment planning session is clear to every member attending the event. Prepare the reasons and context behind this implementation, and ensure that everyone you’re working with is in the same phase as you.

Logistics Fabrication and Attainability

Whether the PI Planning session is offline or online, guiding your team to make the most of the same is your job as the host. You have to ensure to have a larger room to act as an enabler for your team or your team Zoom call sessions that accommodate the statutory amount of attendees. You can also use Zoom breakout rooms to divide your team into certain small groups according to a mutual subject matter. It will provide them with a space to engage & discuss the matter on a much more personal basis.

What Do We Get Out of a Successful PI Planning Session?

A successful PI Planning session ticks out the following boxes:

• Cross ART and Cross Team Collaboration
• Social network
• Synchronization
• Alignment of objectives, vision, mission, business context objectives, and more
• Efficiency in decision making
• System architecture evaluation
• Transparency in predictability and agility
• Elimination of excess Work In Progress (WIP)

Help your Agile Team collaborate effectively and stay focused, whether they are in the same room or across continents. If you wish to learn more, you can get in touch with us.

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By- CP360TEAM