PI Planning is a critical event in the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe). But, unless you’re working with it consistently, it can become overwhelming. There’s a lot of jargon and moving parts (we’ve added a terminology section at the bottom of the page to help).
In this guide, we’ll make it easy to understand for both beginners and those looking to refresh their knowledge. Let’s jump straight in.
What Is PI Planning?
PI Planning (Program Increment Planning) is the first and essential step of any Program Increment and a key event in the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe).
As a two-day, face-to-face planning session, it brings together all teams in an Agile Release Train to create a plan and shared vision for the next Program Increment.
During a PI Planning event, teams will discuss the project roadmap, decide on features, and identify dependencies for each team. By working together, roadblocks can be avoided, and the PI’s performance is optimized.
The Benefits of PI Planning
By the end of PI planning, each team should have a clearly defined set of objectives, including features, milestones, and delivery dates. Here’s what can be revealed during PI planning:
It Aligns Agile Teams
Collaboration is challenging at the best of times, especially across multiple remote departments. SAFe PI planning gets all teams on the same page, reducing miscommunication and outlining the shared vision.
Proactive Planning
By its nature, PI planning encourages proactive thinking to detect risks and roadblock solutions before the real work begins. This affects all areas, from delivery reliability and technical feasibility to shared understanding and workloads.
Sets Clear Goals
During SAFe PI planning, teams can clearly outline the objectives, breaking down goals into specific, measurable targets with manageable deliverables. Everyone leaves understanding what is needed, largely thanks to a visualized program board.
Develop Trust
Thanks to the face-to-face collaborations that happen during PI planning, conversations flow with an open dynamic that heightens trust and builds relationships. This can produce a sense of support and extra motivation moving forward.
Improve Customer Experience
As a result of aligned team processes, customers should naturally benefit from a better experience as the team prioritizes their concerns when factoring in areas such as product update deadlines.
Improved Decision Making
Decision-making gets quicker and more impactful as a result of being together during PI planning. Teams can quickly find solutions to roadblocks, brainstorming on the spot, without delays that can arise during regular weeks where focus isn’t as dedicated.
Task Prioritisation
Perhaps above all, teams will identify the priority tasks, so high-impact items are focused on first. This can drive value and maximize productivity. Often, PI planning will use techniques such as the MoSCow method to help with prioritization.
Who’s Involved in PI Planning?
PI planning involves a wide range of roles, helping to cover the key areas of any shared goal. Including:
Release Train Engineer (RTE)
The RTE is in charge of planning, guiding, and coordinating the PI Planning event. They will manage and help teams using lean and agile ideas. They may also be referred to as a SAFe® release train engineer.
Agile Teams
Agile teams are at the very core of any PI planning, doing the heavy lifting of turning goals into deliverable plans. Each team features around 5-11 members, including Scrum Masters, Product Owners, Testers, and Contributors.
Scrum Masters
Each agile team’s scrum master should be present to represent their team’s viewpoint and guide talks within their team while present. Communicating with the Release Train Engineer (RTE), they’ll help the team to estimate their capacity for iterations, finalize objectives, and manage timing, dependencies, and clarifications during breakout sessions.
Product Manager
The product manager is essential to any PI planning, as they’ll present the feature roadmap and business priorities. Their input ensures all team planning aligns with their overall product strategy. Their presence guarantees the agile team has a clean understanding of product features and acts as a clear link between teams and the product.
Contributors
Contributors are the individuals who do the core work on critical inputs on the technical viabilities of any planning and share suggestions for effort and timeline estimates.
They also typically take part in breakout sessions with product owners to break down features into user stories, identify risks and dependencies while collaborating with other teams.
Depending on the industry, these contributors may be employees such as developers, engineers, marketing managers, administrators, technicians, clinicians, or production specialists.
Business Owners
Business owners may be present to provide further business context, assign values to objectives, and participate in confidence votes.
System Architects
For more complex systems with technical architecture, system architects may be required to share technical guidance and constraints.
How to Prepare a SAFe PI Planning Event in 10 Steps:
1. Understand the purpose
First and foremost, you need to ensure everyone who’s attending the PI planning event understands the goals of the event. When the date is scheduled, communicate that the aim is to create a roadmap, identify potential roadblocks, and establish priorities for the next PI.
2. Schedule
Calendars are rarely easy to align. We advise scheduling the PI planning event before or at the end of the current quarter, to take place in the next quarter.
3. Prepare the program vision.
The program’s vision and context should be carefully prepared so that program leaders and business stakeholders know in advance what they’ll be communicating to the Agile teams.
4. Book the venue
You’ll need to book a room that can accommodate what is likely to be a large number of employees. So, booking this in advance is critical. You will likely also need to plan for remote participants, with video conferencing equipment.
5. Confirm the Agile Release Team (ART) Participants
List all teams, Scrum Masters, Product Owners, stakeholders, architects, and business owners involved. Everyone should know their role, so they can prepare accordingly.
6. Plan Logistics
Arrange the tools, resources, materials, and other digital collaboration tools that may be needed to make the day a success.
7. Prepare an agenda
Create a detailed two-day event agenda. We cover what this should entail in the section below, but it must include time for vision presentations, business context, plan reviews, team breakouts, and a confidence vote.
8. Pre-PI Planning
Each team should prepare by having its pre-PI planning meetings, so they have identified potential risks and dependencies in advance, before collaborating with others.
9. Plan a Program board.
A program board is a critical part of visualising the result of your PI planning, so ensure you’ve got a physical or digital program board prepared that can be easily edited on the day.
10. Communicate
Finally, ensure every role understands their responsibilities, has received a detailed agenda sheet, and knows what success looks like. This will help the two-day event go as smoothly as possible.
How to Run a PI Planning Event: 2-Day Agenda
Here’s a look at a standard 2-day PI planning agenda:
Day 1
The first day is all about providing a clear overview of the business context, product vision, and goals, before getting into detailed team planning and initial reviews.
Business Context
- Senior management, such as a business owner or executive, presents the current state of the business, providing critical context for how solutions address customers' or clients' needs.
Product Vision
- The product manager presents the existing product vision, alongside the key features and future updates.
Architecture Vision
- Contributors such as system architects or the lead engineer present the architecture vision and outline the optimal Agile development processes that they would like to see used.
Planning Context
- The Release Train Engineer presents the planning process and their expected outcomes.
Team Breakouts
- Each Agile team then breaks off separately to make estimates, break down features, identify risks, dependencies, and capacity. They should also then draft iteration plans and objectives.
Management Review and Problem Solving
- Facilitated by Release Train Engineers, leadership then meets to review team plans and resolve any cross-team issues. This may result in adjustments, such as a change of scope, reallocation of resources, or making new priorities.
Day 2
Day two sees teams perfect their plans, confronting risks, and aligning on objectives. This is concluded with a confidence vote and a review for future PI planning events.
Planning Session
Teams should meet to update their plans based on day one feedback, before deciding on final objectives, plans, and dependencies.
Final Plan Review
Each team then presents its PI plan and objectives to all, discussing risk and dependencies. Teams present, then make a confidence vote (usually on a 1-5 scale). This vote is taken early in the day to reveal hidden concerns early.
Program Risks Review
Teams identify and address risk, using the ROAMing system.
Confidence Vote
Teams make a vote on their confidence in the plan. Should confidence be low, adjustments should be made. The team and stakeholders will then commit to the plan.
Retrospective and Closeout
Finally, feedback is received on the PI planning event to identify improvements for the next PI planning. A final plan is also displayed on the program board, ensuring all stakeholders have a clear understanding of the results of the event.
Agile PI Planning vs SAFe PI Planning
Key Terminology on PI Planning:
Release Train Engineer (RTE): A servant leader and facilitator for the Agile Release Train (ART). They effectively guide the PI planning event, ensuring alignment between teams and stakeholders.
Agile Release Train (ART): A group of multiple Agile teams (around 5-12) that work together continuously. Their input and planning during a PI are aligned with common goals and dependencies.
Agile: A way of working that values flexibility, collaboration, and delivery of small pieces fast. Teams work in short cycles, adapting fast with ongoing feedback (hence the name, ‘Agile’).
SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework): A framework that allows Agile teams to work at scale, providing structures, roles, and processes to overcome complex projects.
Program Increment (PI): A fixed timebox (of around 8 to 12 weeks) during which Agile teams plan, build, and deliver value together. PI planning is the very first event in the cycle, helping teams to align.
PI planning is just one step in making your next quarter a slick, confusion-free success. If you’d like to learn more, we welcome you to request a free personal demo with Workamajig to discover how a powerful agency management system can transform your projects into profits.
Originally published September 18, 2025.