Program Increment Planning (PI Planning) is a synchronization event within the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) used to align hundreds of people on a shared mission for a defined period. This event ensures that all teams within an Agile Release Train (ART) commit to a unified plan for the coming Program Increment (PI), typically an eight to twelve-week cycle of work. PI Planning translates strategic intent into actionable team-level objectives. The planning process culminates in a sequence of review and commitment steps that confirm the feasibility of the proposed work, which this article details.
Understanding the Context of PI Planning
PI Planning brings together the entire ART, including the Release Train Engineer (RTE), Product Management, System Architects, and development teams. Its purpose is to create alignment around business priorities and a shared vision before the PI execution begins. Teams collaboratively forecast the features and capabilities they can deliver during the upcoming cycle.
The process ensures all participants understand the Business Context and the Solution Vision presented by leadership. This shared understanding is foundational for the subsequent team breakouts where planning takes place. The RTE facilitates the event, guiding the ART through the agenda and ensuring teams remain focused on creating a balanced and achievable plan.
Preceding Steps: Finalizing the Draft Plans
Teams must solidify their individual and collective draft plans before the final commitment. This involves detailed team breakouts where teams define iteration goals and draft PI Objectives. Teams also identify cross-team dependencies and potential risks that could impede delivery. During the draft plan review, teams present their preliminary findings and objectives to the broader ART for feedback.
Following the draft review is the collective resolution of all identified Program Risks using the ROAM technique. ROAM stands for:
- Resolved: Risks that are no longer a concern.
- Owned: Risks assigned to an individual to address outside the event.
- Accepted: Risks understood and acknowledged without further action.
- Mitigated: Risks that have a plan created to reduce their likelihood or impact.
Completing the ROAMing process confirms the ART has a collective understanding of remaining uncertainties and a plan to handle them.
The Core Activity: The Program/Team Confidence Vote
The activity that immediately follows the resolution of dependencies and risks is the Program/Team Confidence Vote. This vote measures the ART’s collective belief in its ability to execute the finalized plan and meet the PI Objectives. It serves as a final check for commitment and alignment from everyone involved in the delivery process. The vote provides a mechanism for surfacing any remaining concerns that may not have been captured during formal risk management.
The vote uses the “Fist of Five” technique, where every participant holds up fingers corresponding to their confidence level. Five fingers signify the highest confidence, indicating a strong belief in the plan’s success and feasibility. Conversely, one finger represents the lowest confidence, signaling significant doubt that the objectives can be met without major changes.
A general threshold requires an average score of three or higher to proceed with the plan as written. If the vote falls below this, the RTE facilitates a discussion to understand the reasons for low confidence, which often leads to immediate plan adjustments. This may involve re-scoping features, rebalancing workload, or re-addressing risks that were not fully resolved. The group continues to iterate on the plan until a sufficient level of confidence is achieved by the entire ART.
Finalizing the Increment Plan
After a successful confidence vote, the ART formalizes the plan, starting with the Management Review and Problem Solving session. This is a dedicated time for business owners and stakeholders to review the plan and address any remaining organizational impediments or resource issues that the teams could not resolve on their own. The final PI Objectives are then documented and committed to by the teams.
These objectives are typically written to be Specific, Measurable, Ambitious, Realistic, and Time-bound (SMART) to ensure clarity for the execution phase. Business Owners sign off on the published objectives, formally committing the business to the plan and the teams to the delivery of the objectives. The next step involves updating the Program Board, which visually represents all features, dependencies, and milestones for the entire PI. This board acts as a single source of truth for tracking progress and managing the flow of work across all teams during the upcoming increment.
Post-Planning Activities
Following PI Planning, the focus shifts to execution and reflection. The RTE distributes the finalized PI Objectives and the updated Program Board to all stakeholders to ensure transparency and continued alignment. This includes sharing the list of owned and mitigated risks, along with their assigned owners, for continued management throughout the PI.
The final activity in the overall cycle is the Inspect & Adapt (I&A) session, often held immediately following or shortly after the planning event concludes. The I&A provides a structured opportunity for the ART to reflect on the planning session itself, identifying areas for process improvement before the next PI Planning event. This ensures the planning process becomes more efficient and effective with each subsequent cycle.