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PI Planning for Beginners Series | #1 - My Story
Intelligent Delivery | Ahmed Syed
Overview
This video introduces the concept of PI (Program Increment) Planning, a large-scale agile event designed for coordinating multiple teams over an 8-12 week period. The speaker shares a personal anecdote about his first PI Planning experience in 2013, highlighting the initial nervousness and the significant cost implications. The video explains what PI Planning is, when it should be used (problems requiring multiple teams, value spanning teams, and dependencies), and why it's crucial for aligning efforts and ensuring realistic, achievable goals. It contrasts PI Planning with traditional waterfall methods by emphasizing the collaborative, all-hands-on-deck approach. A hypothetical example of building a "Google for lawyers" product is introduced to illustrate the application of PI Planning in subsequent videos.
How was this?
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Chapters
- The speaker's first PI Planning event in 2013 involved over 100 people, causing significant nervousness due to his inexperience.
- He convinced executives of the event's value despite personal doubts about his ability to manage such a large group.
- This video series aims to provide the guidance the speaker wished he had when he started.
- The series will cover step-by-step implementation for an 'amazing' PI Planning event, not just an 'okay' one.
Understanding the speaker's initial challenges and motivations helps establish the relevance and practical focus of the upcoming PI Planning series.
The speaker's nervousness and self-doubt before his first PI Planning event in 2013 with over 100 attendees.
- A finance manager calculated the significant cost of a PI Planning event (e.g., 80 people at £500/day for 2 days = £80,000).
- The high cost necessitates a successful event, increasing pressure and visibility, with senior leadership attendance.
- PI Planning events often become cornerstone events that entire 'agile release trains' rely on for success.
- In 2013, resources like YouTube videos for PI Planning guidance were scarce, making self-learning and experience crucial.
This highlights the substantial investment required for PI Planning, underscoring the need for meticulous planning and execution to justify the cost and meet stakeholder expectations.
The finance manager's calculation showing that 80 people at an average daily rate of £500 for a two-day event would cost £80,000.
- PI Planning is a high-level planning event for an Agile Release Train (ART) covering an 8-12 week period.
- An ART is a collection of 5-12 agile teams, though practical experience suggests 3-16 teams are manageable.
- Unlike traditional planning, PI Planning involves everyone on the ART to leverage collective intelligence, gain buy-in, and assess viability.
- It facilitates identifying dependencies and creates a more realistic plan, increasing the likelihood of achieving targets.
This defines the core purpose and structure of PI Planning, differentiating it from traditional methods and explaining its collaborative nature.
An Agile Release Train (ART) is a collection of 5-12 agile teams working together.
- Use PI Planning when a problem or mission cannot be solved by a single team, requiring the coordination of multiple teams (at least 3-4).
- It's necessary when the value delivered requires the interaction and coordinated effort of multiple teams.
- PI Planning is suitable for problems that span multiple sprints and cannot be solved within a short timeframe (e.g., a week or two).
- The primary 'why' is to ensure alignment and coordination among multiple teams, preventing individual plans from diverging and ensuring dependencies and priorities are managed effectively.
This provides clear criteria for determining if PI Planning is the appropriate framework, helping learners avoid using it unnecessarily and ensuring its effective application.
Using PI Planning when a new product feature requires simultaneous development by content editors, a data processing team, and a customer-facing portal team.
- The speaker introduces a hypothetical scenario: building a 'Google for lawyers' product in Australia.
- This involves new content, customer requirements, systems, and search capabilities.
- To simplify, the example uses three teams: Editorial (content compilation), Fabrication (data parsing and cleansing), and Customer System (customer-facing portal).
- The next video will detail how these teams form and plan in a real-world, non-textbook manner.
This concrete example sets the stage for future videos, making the abstract concepts of PI Planning more tangible and demonstrating how different teams contribute to a larger goal.
Creating a new digital legal research product for Australia, requiring teams for content, data processing, and the user interface.
Key takeaways
- PI Planning is a collaborative, multi-team event for aligning work over 8-12 weeks.
- The significant cost and time investment in PI Planning demand careful preparation and execution.
- PI Planning leverages collective intelligence by bringing all relevant teams together, unlike traditional siloed planning.
- It is essential for coordinating efforts when a single team cannot achieve the objective or deliver the full value.
- Effective PI Planning ensures that inter-team dependencies and priorities are identified and managed.
- The goal of PI Planning is to create a realistic and achievable plan that aligns with business objectives.
- While theory exists, practical application and overcoming real-world challenges are key to successful PI Planning.
Key terms
PI PlanningProgram Increment (PI)Agile Release Train (ART)Agile TeamsDependenciesCollective IntelligenceBuy-inViabilityCustomer ValueSprints
Test your understanding
- What is the primary purpose of PI Planning in an agile context?
- Why is it important to involve all teams within an Agile Release Train in PI Planning?
- Under what circumstances is PI Planning a more suitable approach than single-team planning?
- How does PI Planning differ from traditional waterfall planning methodologies?
- What are the potential financial and visibility implications of conducting a PI Planning event?