Organizations are always looking for effective methods to streamline their operations. However, it can be challenging to coordinate unified operations and missions among different teams as an organization grows.
That’s where PI (Program Increment) planning is valuable.
PI planning, often known as program increment planning, is a process wherein the teams of ART (Agile Release Train) collaborate to develop a shared vision, plan out new features, discuss cross-over dependencies, and come to a shared conclusion.
PI planning is vital to conducting a successful SAFe (Scale Agile Framework).
Product managers, development teams, and agile facilitators can utilize a PI planning tool to streamline their ideas in one place to bring their different groups around one common objective.
This PI planning guide offers an inclusive overview of PI planning events with detailed templates, step-by-step sessions, and frames so you can get your entire team on board.
This article will discover the prominent insights and reasons about PI planning to help you understand what it is all about and why your business needs it.
6 Ways PI planning benefits your business
Here are some ways PI planning can help you elevate your business:
1. Better communication and transparency
Multinational companies and firms typically have thousands of employees divided into different teams. While these teams may work on something different from one another, they might somehow be dependent or connected.
So, if a company conducts a meeting in the presence of a graphic team while the content team is absent, it would probably leave the latter clueless about its tasks. However, this dependence needs to be understood to get each team focused on one primary objective.
PI planning is an excellent method, bringing together all teams in one room where every member gets to share their ideas to plan the future of the company’s project.
This helps create a collaborative culture that fosters innovation and improves company culture.
2. Rapid decision making
Program increment planning is a method of bringing all the members of different teams onto a shared platform; as if they were all in one room.
As a result, there is no time or effort wasted waiting for someone to share their insights on a particular situation.
Thanks to this, essential discussions, tasks, and decisions take minutes to conclude instead of weeks.
3. Focus on empowering teams
A release train engineer can never dictate different teams of the Agile Release Train. Instead, they have to encourage them to share their ideas and provide them with the resources and space to grow so that each member becomes self-sufficient.
But before they empower teams, a release train engineer has to gain their trust. PI planning is an effective way of doing so. With it, you can encourage a transparent and comfortable work culture.
4. High-quality and increased productivity
This process minimizes the efforts of tracking the progress of work. In addition, it provides team members with the resources needed to deliver high-quality work by focusing on one step at a time.
Continuous integration and collaborative discussion allow team members to participate in the development process actively.
This helps make teams more adaptable and responsive to the progress and changes to get every task done efficiently.
5. One goal and mission
PI planning brings all the members of an organization to one place. It promotes face-to-face discussion and communication from senior managers to development members.
By having frank conversations, PI eradicates any confusion and chooses to help a company work towards a shared goal.
Indeed, it is a powerful method for achieving business missions and goals. By promoting integrity, PI planning brings every agile team member, business owner, and stakeholder closer to developing the same project vision or product.
6. Improved coordination
PI planning synchronizes and streamlines the program or product portfolio daily, reducing the number of additional efforts that add no value through regular tracking and prioritization of backlogged work.
Moreover, it provides clear objectives, promoting team members to have coordinated efforts toward the same goal.
Final verdict
PI planning is the cornerstone of SAFe. Bringing your different teams toward one mission is a great way to improve overall productivity.
In addition, fostering cross-team communication clears backlog, synchronizing complex company operations to maximize efficiency.
So if you’re still not sold on the importance of PI planning, you may be at risk of getting left behind.
