Within the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), PI Planning is a crucial event that ensures alignment among teams and enables everyone to work towards the same goals.
Each participant has their own role; however, the SAFe Scrum Master plays a crucial role, ensuring the teams are prepared, obstacles are removed, and collaboration is occurring along the Agile Release Train (ART).
If you have ever enrolled for SAFe Scrum Master Training, then you already understand that much of the preparation for PI Planning happens before the event itself.
This blog builds on these practices to demonstrate how the SAFe Scrum Master can prepare for successful PI Planning, enabling their teams to make new commitments with confidence.
1. Review Past PI Planning Sessions
In the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), before starting the next PI Planning, we should take a moment and look back. Every PI Planning ends with a retrospective, which provides valuable insights. Ask questions like:
- What went well last time?
- What challenges did we encounter?
- What should we have known previously?
You can also conduct a brief retrospective a few weeks after the new version is released. A simple format like “Liked”, “Learnt”, “Lacked”, and “Loved” can really help the team see things they didn’t even notice until they started working on the project.
These thoughts aren’t about making PI Planning perfect; they’re about making it better every time, which ultimately improves the delivery experience for customers.
2. Make Feature Discovery a Habit
Scrum Masters play a crucial role in ensuring the team is prepared for PI Planning. One way to do that is to find new features. It’s a simple process where teams look at new features ahead of time and ask questions like:
- What issue are we helping the customer with?
- What parts of the building will this affect?
- Are there any subject matter experts we need to help us with PI Planning?
This early discovery doesn’t mean that a feature will be prioritized, but it does mean that the team will have enough information to plan well if it is. The extra? It makes PI Planning less stressful.
3. Using Visuals To Make the Team Understand
Words might fail when the discussion becomes complex, and I think you’ll agree that a quick sketch, diagram, or flow of the discussion can help picture those blurry images.
When drawing together, one important benefit is we can all check in: Are we all seeing the same picture?
Even low-brow sketches and visuals often uncover people’s different viewpoints earlier in the planning process and save possibly futile time allocation.
4. Prioritize What Matters The Most
There are times when participating in PI Planning can be overwhelming, especially when the features being considered feel too big.
Here is a place for Safe Scrum Masters to ask the golden question:
Where’s the gold?
In other words, what’s the most valuable slice of this feature we could deliver?
Suggestions for asking the team to prioritize customer value, direct their energy and attention to the most critical scope that matters most.
5. Understand and Control Team Capacity
A good plan needs to have a realistic capacity. Scrum Masters should:
- Use historical velocity for teams that have been around for a while.
- Take into account holidays, regional differences, and planned time off.
- Take into account new members joining or old ones leaving.
Being open about your availability lowers the risk of overcommitting and helps people trust you. In some cases, teams can even guess how much capacity they will have for the next PI. This helps leaders set expectations earlier.
6. Sync with the RTE and Trifecta
PI Planning is an event for teams of teams, so it’s important that everyone is on the same page.
Before the event, Scrum Masters should talk to the Release Train Engineer (RTE), System Architect, and Product Management (often called the “Trifecta”).
These syncs make sure that everyone is on the same page about priorities, how much work each person can handle, the Definition of Done, and logistics like the tools and the format of the event (online, in person, or a mix of the two).
7. Creating a Facilitation Plan
The first day of PI Planning sets a tone. A facilitation plan gives you structure and peace of mind. Consider:
- What feature will be broken down and in what order.
- How to divide up time based on the size of the feature.
- When to get architects, business owners, or SMEs involved.
- Breaks and meals (because teams that are hungry don’t plan well).
Putting this plan on a whiteboard or virtual board lets the team see how organized they are and lets others see how far you’ve come.
Wrapping Up
PI Planning can be stressful, but it doesn’t have to be. Scrum Masters can create a valuable and inspiring experience for PI Planning in their teams by considering past events, planning features in advance, aligning everyone in the room, and creating a facilitation plan.
The goal isn’t just to get through PI Planning; it’s to help teams deliver value with clarity and confidence. When Scrum Masters help their teams go through this process the right way, they help unlock the real promise of SAFe: delivering value on a large scale.