What is program increment planning (PI)? Explained by Tempo

Program increment (PI) planning is the two-day, cadence-based event where every team on an Agile Release Train (ART) sits in the same room — physical or virtual — and commits to what they will deliver over the next 8 to 12 weeks. It is the beating heart of SAFe, the mechanism that keeps cross-functional agile teams aligned when a single product spans a dozen Scrum teams.

Alignment breaks down at scale for one reason: teams plan in isolation and discover conflicts too late. PI planning forces the conversation up front — priorities, dependencies, timelines, capacity — before a single sprint begins.

If you're new to SAFe or preparing for your first PI planning event, here's what you need to know.

What is PI planning?

PI planning is a time-boxed SAFe event, typically 1–2 days long and held every 8–12 weeks, where an Agile Release Train sets its direction for the next program increment. SAFe organizes multiple cross-functional agile teams into ARTs that work toward a common goal. During the session, stakeholders identify priorities, review current goals, and surface dependencies. The output is a SAFe roadmap that guides product development and decision-making for the next iteration.

What is the goal of PI planning?

The goal of PI planning is to synchronize workflows across an ART and align every Scrum team behind shared objectives. It's a structured communication process that tells everyone on the train what every other team plans to build. Without it, two teams working on the same feature could discover a critical dependency mid-sprint and force a rework that delays the release.

Beyond alignment, PI planning:

Clarifies goals

Regular PI planning ties the ART's objectives to the company's long-term strategy. It connects team activity to organizational outcomes, which improves engagement.

Builds trust

As a collaborative process, PI planning builds relationships between Scrum teams that would otherwise never speak to each other.

Prioritizes backlogs

PI planning surfaces the features and projects that deliver the most value, keeping the ART focused on high-impact work.

Facilitates informed decisions

By setting clear goals for each increment, PI planning gives ART leadership a stable frame for quicker, sharper problem-solving.

Enhances customer experience

Alignment and streamlined workflows give teams the flexibility to respond to customer feedback faster and improve the end-user experience.

In short, PI planning aligns teams within the ART, surfaces user needs, and removes the productivity and collaboration roadblocks that kill scaled agile.

Who should be involved in PI planning?

Key participants in PI planning include:

1. Release train engineer

The release train engineer (RTE) leads and coaches stakeholders through the planning event. The RTE manages, facilitates, and oversees the planning process, keeping the session on track.

2. Scrum master

The Scrum Master partners with the RTE to guide the group through PI planning step by step. Responsibilities include:

• Facilitating planning processes

• Reviewing team capacity

• Ensuring workloads are realistic

• Aligning work with organizational goals

• Managing time

• Identifying dependencies

• Offering insights during breakout sessions

3. Product manager

The product manager steers the PI process by defining the product vision and key milestones while surfacing customer needs. They also review the finalized increment roadmap to confirm it delivers value to the end user.

4. Systems architects

Systems architects provide the technical expertise and guidance the ART needs to make sound architectural calls during planning.

5. Developers

Development teams within the ART design, test, and refine the product. They drive breakout sessions by refining user stories, identifying risks, and working with the product manager to finalize PI goals.

PI planning agenda and best practices

A clear agenda with room for discussion is what separates a productive PI planning event from a two-day meeting. The product manager opens with an update on the business context and the strategic vision for the upcoming increment. Once everyone shares the same background, the work begins.

Agenda

#### 1. Product vision

The product manager outlines 10 key features or priority items from the backlog for development by the ART and covers changes since the previous PI planning meeting.

#### 2. Planning context

The RTE sets process criteria and establishes goals and objectives for the session.

#### 3. Team breakouts

Individual teams break away for a time-boxed session to estimate capacity and draft a development plan for the upcoming increment.

#### 4. Draft review

Each Scrum team presents the results of its breakout — capacity, PI objectives, risks, and dependencies — and the rest of the group offers feedback.

#### 5. Management review

The RTE, product manager, system architects, and Scrum Masters review the draft and address potential challenges such as:

• Limited scope

• Capacity issues

• Resource allocation

• Conflicting dependencies

#### 6. Risk assessment

The teams work together to classify increment risks into five categories.

1. Resolved: The team determines the issue is no longer a risk. 1. Owned: A team member is assigned to manage the unresolved risk. 1. Accepted: The team determines the risk is unavoidable and must be accepted. 1. Mitigated: The team determines a course of action to reduce risk impact. 1. Confidence vote: After assessing all the risks, stakeholders vote to gauge confidence in the ART's ability to address them.

#### 7. Refinement

Teams hold another time-boxed session to rework draft plans, address risks, and rebuild confidence in meeting the increment's objectives.

#### 8. Retrospective

Before closing the event, the RTE leads a retrospective covering what worked, what didn't, and how to improve for the next iteration.

Best practices

The following practices help PI planning stakeholders get the most out of the session.

#### 1. Event preplanning

Build a checklist of everything a successful PI planning event needs, including:

• A list of required stakeholders

• Documentation from previous PI planning events, including backlog lists and roadmaps

• A location with enough space for teams to move around and hold breakout sessions

• Equipment for streaming the proceedings to remote or hybrid attendees

• Project management software that supports Scrum team planning

• The finalized agenda

#### 2. Make it fun

Avoid a monotone session. Icebreakers and shared lunches help the group relax and engage.

#### 3. Set clear goals and objectives

Establish outcomes for PI planning from the start so stakeholders understand the expectations for the event.

#### 4. Record each session

Live PI planning is the most effective format, but recording sessions lets absent team members review and discuss outcomes later.

#### 5. Time block and track sessions

Use time tracking to make sure every critical topic gets its slot and nothing gets skipped.

#### 6. Leverage templates

Use templates for project management, backlog grooming, and sprint planning to structure the discussion and capture key insights.

Enhancing PI planning with Tempo

Implementing a scaled agile framework is labor-intensive, but Tempo tools take the mechanical work off the team so people can focus on the agile principles themselves.

Whether you're planning the outcomes of a PI or a sprint, Tempo's Strategic Roadmaps make it straightforward to visualize product development, priorities, and dependencies.

Capacity Planner is the tool Scrum Masters reach for when managing team capacity and resources across user stories or entire epics. It also gives leaders full visibility across the Agile Release Train, so resource sharing and performance tuning stop being guesswork.

Tempo products integrate with Jira, letting users customize dashboards and pull issues, data, and projects into a single interface.