What is the PI Planning template?
Meet with multiple teams of the Agile Release Train, also known as ART, to discuss and plan the roadmap, deliberate on new feature releases, and identify the dependencies between teams. Scaled PI Planning sessions can help your dispersed team collaborate in the same virtual room to debate possible risks and solutions.
Clearly define goals for the upcoming PI Planning session and highlight any learning from the last event. Explain the mission and vision of the increment meeting to relevant team members. Make sure your goals, objectives, and milestones are aligned with the actual end-user needs and market dynamics. Schedule timely meetings with key stakeholders and team members in advance, so everyone expected can attend and also be prepared.
Program increment meetings can help align all ART teams toward shared goals. PI Planning session gives you a set of practices that enhance project quality, boost team productivity, and promote employee engagement. It allows organizations to focus on innovations, develop new ideas, and support existing solutions.
What are the benefits of the PI Planning template?
Thanks to the PI Planning template, you can:
- Collaborate with all Agile teams on the same whiteboard and establish better face-to-face communication across all team members and stakeholders.
- Align development processes with business goals, context, and vision and plan out the work for the next program iteration.
- Meet with multiple ART teams to identify cross-team dependencies between tasks, plan out the roadmap, and deliberate on new features.
- Mobilize all dispersed teams under a single umbrella to discuss possible risks and dependencies and work towards a resolution. Host PI Planning sessions in real time or let people work asynchronously.
- Create a continuous value for end-users by leveraging PI Planning to make quicker decisions and iterate faster.
How to use the PI Planning template in a few steps?
- Open the PI Planning template on a new board or add it to an already existing one.
- Invite your team to the board by sending an email invitation or sharing the board URL.
- Join the audio and video chat with your teammates to see their faces and talk to each other. Add camera stream cards to the board or show your video next to your cursor. You can find these settings in Call Options.
- Read the manual first to conduct the PI Planning session with your Agile team properly and follow the steps suggested in the written instruction. Watch video tutorials available on the board to get a visual overview of how to use the template.
- Start with the Program Level section and add at least ten features/epics to the Program Backlog column. Place your features/epics on sticky notes or import Jira epics to the whiteboard with the help of the Import zone.
- Prioritize your features/epics in the Program Priorities column. Place the most crucial features/epics at the top and the least important ones at the bottom of the list. Add notes or comments if necessary.
- Move to the Team Level section below. Determine your team’s capacity for each sprint, excluding Scrum Master and Product Owner, personal days off, and public holidays. Capacity determines how many tasks the team can complete in a given sprint and Load tells you the current number of tasks for the sprint. Craft the objectives of the Product Increment Session, define them as committed or uncommitted, provide business and actual values, and write down any risks at the team level.
- Prepare Card Table to divide different tasks into sprints and sync them automatically with Jira. Add it to your whiteboard and set the fields for the horizontal and vertical axis (respectively, choose Sprint and Team). Move tasks from the Backlog to the appropriate Sprint columns to know when your team will work on them. Break features/epics into smaller stories to better manage your workload. Create similar Tables for all teams taking part in the PI Planning session.
- Get back to the Program Board (created with the help of the Card Table) and add there only epics to see the high-level view of your initiatives. Set the field values for the horizontal and vertical axis (respectively, choose Sprint and Team). The epics will adjust automatically on the Program Board when the team moves them to a different column in the Team Level section.
- Address the risks (based on those reported in specific teams) and place them in appropriate quadrants (Resolved, Owned, Accepted, or Mitigated) on the ROAM Board.