Pi Planning is a cadence-based event for the entire Agile Release Train (ART) that aligns teams and stakeholders to a shared mission and vision . It is an essential part of the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), which is a methodology for large-scale software development teams .
The standard agenda for a Pi Planning event includes a presentation of business context and vision, followed by team planning breakouts—where the teams create their Iteration plans and objectives for the upcoming PI . The event is facilitated by the Release Train Engineer (RTE) and includes all members of the ART . The event occurs within the Innovation and Planning (IP) Iteration and takes two days, although the ART can extend this timebox to accommodate planning across multiple time zones .
The first day of the event is dedicated to reviewing the current state of the ART, identifying the business context and vision, and defining the objectives for the upcoming PI . The second day is focused on creating the plan for the upcoming PI, including the identification of dependencies and fostering cross-team and cross-ART collaboration .
The benefits of Pi Planning are numerous. It establishes face-to-face communication among all team members and stakeholders, builds the social network the ART depends upon, aligns development to business goals with the business context, vision, and Team and ART PI objectives, identifies dependencies and fosters cross-team and cross-ART collaboration, and provides the opportunity for just the right amount of architecture and Lean User Experience (UX) guidance .