management review and problem solving

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• Problem management: 8 steps to better p ...

Problem management: 8 steps to better problem solving

Problem management is an 8 step framework most commonly used by IT teams. You can use problem management to solve for repeating major incidents. By organizing and structuring your problem solving, you can more effectively get to the root cause of high-impact problems—and devise a solution. Solving the root cause prevents recurrence and creates a repeatable solution to use on similar errors in the future.

In an IT department, errors and mishaps are part of the job. You can't always control these problems, but you can control how you respond to them with problem management. Problem management helps you solve larger problems and reduce the risk that they’ll happen again by identifying all connected problems, solving them, and planning for the future.

What is problem management?

Problem management is an 8 step framework most commonly used by IT teams. Your team can use problem management to solve for repeating major incidents. By organizing and structuring your problem solving, you can more effectively get to the root cause of high-impact problems—and devise a solution. Problem management is a process—used mostly by IT teams—to identify, react, and respond to issues. It’s not for every problem, but it’s a useful response when multiple major incidents occur that cause large work interruptions. Unlike problem solving, problem management goes beyond the initial incident to discover and dissect the root causes, preventing future incidents with permanent solutions.

The goals of problem management are to:

Prevent problems before they start.

Solve for repetitive errors.

Lessen each incident’s impact. 

Problem management vs. incident management 

Example: Someone leaves their unprotected laptop in a coffee shop, causing a security breach. The security team can use incident management to solve for this one, isolated event. In this case, the team could manually shut down the accounts connected to that laptop. If this continues to happen, IT would use problem management to solve the root of this issue—perhaps installing more security features on each company laptop so that if employees lose them, no one else can access the information.

Problem management vs. problem solving

While similar in name, problem management differs slightly from problem-solving. Problem management focuses on every aspect of the incident—identifying the root cause of the problem, solving it, and prevention. Problem solving is, as the name implies, focused solely on the solution step. 

Example: You’re launching a new password management system when it crashes—again. You don’t know if anything leaked, but you know it could contain confidential information. Plus, it’s happened before. You start the problem management process to ensure it doesn’t happen again. In that process, you’ll use problem solving as a step to fix the issue. In this case, perhaps securing confidential information before you try to launch a new software.

Problem management vs. change management 

Change management targets large transitions within your workplace, good and bad. These inevitable changes aren’t always negative, so you can’t always apply problem management as a solution. That’s where change management comes in—a framework that helps you adjust to any new scenario.

Example: Your company is transitioning to a new cloud platform. The transition happens incident-free—meaning you won’t need problem management—but you can ease the transition by implementing some change management best practices. Preparing and training team members in the new software is a good place to start.

Problem management vs. project management

Project management is the framework for larger collections of work. It’s the overarching method for how you work on any project, hit goals, and get results. You can use project management to help you with problem management, but they are not the same thing. Problem management and project management work together to solve issues as part of your problem management process.

Example: During problem management, you uncover a backend security issue that needs to be addressed—employees are using storage software with outdated security measures. To solve this, you create a project and outline the tasks from start to finish. In this case, you might need to alert senior executives, get approval to remove the software, and alert employees. You create a project schedule with a defined timeline and assign the tasks to relevant teams. In this process, you identified a desired outcome—remove the unsafe software—and solved it. That’s project management.

The 8 steps of problem management

It’s easy to get upset when problems occur. In fact, it’s totally normal. But an emotional response is not always the best response when faced with new incidents. Having a reliable system—such as problem management—removes the temptation to respond emotionally. Proactive project management gives your team a framework for problem solving. It’s an iterative process —the more you use it, the more likely you are to have fewer problems, faster response times, and better outputs. 

1. Identify the problem

During problem identification, you’re looking at the present—what’s happening right now? Here, you’ll define what the incident is and its scale. Is this a small, quick-fix, or a full overhaul? Consider using problem framing to define, prioritize, and understand the obstacles involved with these more complex problems. 

2. Diagnose the cause

Use problem analysis or root cause analysis to strategically look at the cause of a problem. Follow the trail of issues all the way back to its beginnings.

To diagnose the underlying cause, you’ll want to answer:

What factors or conditions led to the incident?

Do you see related incidents? Could those be coming from the same source?

Did someone miss a step? Are processes responsible for this problem?

3. Organize and prioritize

Now it’s time to build out your framework. Use an IT project plan to organize information in a space where everyone can make and see updates in real time. The easiest way to do this is with a project management tool where you can input ‌tasks, assign deadlines, and add dependencies to ensure nothing gets missed. To better organize your process, define:

What needs to be done? 

Who’s responsible for each aspect? If no one is, can we assign someone? 

When does each piece need to be completed?

What is the final number of incidents related to this problem?

Are any of these tasks dependent on another one? Do you need to set up dependencies ?

What are your highest priorities? How do they affect our larger business goals ? 

How should you plan for this in the future?

4. Create a workaround

If the incident has stopped work or altered it, you might need to create a workaround. This is not always necessary, but temporary workarounds can keep work on track and avoid backlog while you go through the problem management steps. When these workarounds are especially effective, you can make them permanent processes.

5. Update your known error database

Every time an incident occurs, create a known error record and add it to your known error database (KEDB). Recording incidents helps you catch recurrences and logs the solution, so you know how to solve similar errors in the future. 

6. Pause for change management (if necessary)

Larger, high-impact problems might require change management. For example, if you realize the problem’s root cause is a lack of staff, you might dedicate team members to help. You can use change management to help them transition their responsibilities, see how these new roles fit in with the entire team, and determine how they will collaborate moving forward.

7. Solve the problem

This is the fun part—you get to resolve problems. At this stage, you should know exactly what you’re dealing with and the steps you need to take. But remember—with problem management, it’s not enough to solve the current problem. You’ll want to take any steps to prevent this from happening again in the future. That could mean hiring a new role to cover gaps in workflows , investing in new softwares and tools, or training staff on best practices to prevent these types of incidents.

Read: Turn your team into skilled problem solvers with these problem-solving strategies

8. Reflect on the process

The problem management process has the added benefit of recording the process in its entirety, so you can review it in the future. Once you’ve solved the problem, take the time to review each step and reflect on the lessons learned during this process. Make note of who was involved, what you needed, and any opportunities to improve your response to the next incident. After you go through the problem management process a few times and understand the basic steps, stakeholders, workload, and resources you need, create a template to make the kickoff process easier in the future.

5 benefits of problem management

Problem management helps you discover every piece of the problem—from the current scenario down to its root cause. Not only does this have an immediate positive impact on the current issue at hand, it also promotes collaboration and helps to build a better product overall. 

Here are five other ways ‌problem management can benefit your team:

Avoids repeat incidents. When you manage the entire incident from start to finish, you will address the foundational problems that caused it. This leads to fewer repeat incidents.

Boosts cross-functional collaboration. Problem management is a collaborative process. One incident might require collaboration from IT, the security team, and legal. Depending on the level of the problem, it might trickle all the way back down to the product or service team, where core changes need to be made.

Creates a better user experience. It’s simple—the fewer incidents you have, the better your customer’s experience will be. Reducing incidents means fewer delays, downtime, and frustrations for your users, and a higher rate of customer satisfaction.

Improves response time. As you develop a flow and framework with a project management process, you’ll be better equipped to handle future incidents—even if they’re different scenarios.

Organizes problem solving. Problem management provides a structured, thoughtful approach to solving problems. This reduces impulsive responses and helps you keep a better problem record of incidents and solutions.

Problem management leads to better, faster solutions

IT teams will always have to deal with incidents, but they don’t have to be bogged down by them. That’s because problem management works. Whether you employ a full problem management team or choose to apply these practices to your current IT infrastructure, problem management—especially when combined with a project management tool—saves you time and effort down the road.

With IT project plans, we’ve made it easier than ever to track your problem management work in a shared tool. Try our free IT project template to see your work come together, effortlessly.

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Technical groups, follow aiche, introduction to management review and continuous improvement, element overview.

Routinely reviewing the organization’s process safety systems to spur continuous improvement is one of four elements in the RBPS pillar of learning from experience . This chapter describes the meaning of management review, the attributes of a good management review system, and the steps an organization might take to implement management reviews. Section 22.2 describes the key principles and essential features of a management system for this element. Section 22.3 lists work activities that support these essential features and presents a range of approaches that might be appropriate for each work activity, depending on perceived risk, resources, and organizational culture. Sections 22.4 through 22.6 include (1) ideas to improve the effectiveness of management systems and specific programs that support this element, (2) metrics that could be used to monitor this element, and (3) issues that may be appropriate for management review.

What Is It?

Management review is the routine evaluation of whether management systems are performing as intended and producing the desired results as efficiently as possible. It is the ongoing “due diligence” review by management that fills the gap between day-to-day work activities and periodic formal audits. Management review is similar to a doctor giving a routine physical examination – even when no overt signs of illness are present, life-threatening conditions may be developing that are best addressed proactively. Management reviews have many of the characteristics of a 1st party audit as described in Chapter 21. They require a similar system for scheduling, staffing, and effectively evaluating all RBPS elements, and a system should be in place for implementing any resulting plans for improvement or corrective action and verifying their effectiveness.

Why Is It Important?

Effective performance is a critical aspect of any process safety program; however, a breakdown or inefficiency in a safety management system may not be immediately obvious. For example, if a facility’s training coordinator unexpectedly departed, required training activities might be disrupted. The existing trained workers would undoubtedly continue to operate the process, so there would be no outward appearance of a deficiency. An audit or incident might eventually reveal any incomplete or overdue training, but by then it could be too late. The management review process provides regular checkups on the health of process safety management systems in order to identify and correct any current or incipient deficiencies before they might be revealed by an audit or incident. 

Where/When Is It Done?

Management reviews should be conducted wherever RBPS elements are implemented. The depth andfrequency of each management review should be governed by factors such as the current life cycle stage of the facility, the maturity or degree of implementation of the RBPS management system, the level of management performing the review, past experience (e.g., incident history, previous reviews, and audit results), and management’s view of the risk posed by the activities to be reviewed. Most of the management review effort will be focused on operating facilities. While they can be scheduled on an as-needed basis, management reviews of a particular RBPS element are typically conducted at a predetermined interval (e.g., frequencies ranging from monthly to annually are common), and they may be scheduled in conjunction with other regularly scheduled meetings, such as facility safety committee meetings.

Who Does It?

Strictly speaking, every level of management – from the process supervisor to the facility manager to the board of directors – should conduct periodic management reviews. Further discussion in this book focuses on program level reviews, which should be conducted by a manager who is one or two levels above the person responsible for the day-to-day execution of a specific RBPS element. This is usually the manager ultimately responsible for the proper functioning of the facility’s overall process safety management system; however, larger facilities may charter a Process Safety Committee to conduct the reviews under the leadership of a senior manager.

What Is the Anticipated Work Product?

The output of a management review is generally an internal memorandum summarizing the review, any deficiencies or inefficiencies noted, and recommendations for improvement or corrective action. The recommendations should be given deadlines and then assigned to specific individuals. All outputs of the management review element are intended to facilitate the performance of other elements. In addition, the management reviews provide input that the audits element can use to focus its efforts.

How Is It Done?

Management reviews are conducted with the same underlying intent as an audit – to evaluate the effectiveness of the implementation of an entire RBPS element or a particular element task. However, because the objective of a management review is to spot current or incipient deficiencies, the reviews are more broadly focused and more frequent than audits, and they are typically conducted in a less formal manner. Nevertheless, like an audit, a management review at least checks the implementation status of one or more RBPS elements against established requirements. The management review team meets with the individuals responsible for managing and executing the subject element to (1) present program documentation and implementation records, (2) offer direct observations of conditions and activities, and (3) answer questions about program activities.

The team attempts to answer such questions as:

• What is the quality of our program?
• Are these the results we want?
• Are we working on the right things?

Organizational changes, staff changes, new projects or standards, efficiency improvements, and any other anticipated challenges to the subject element are also discussed so that management can proactively address those issues. Recommendations for addressing any existing or anticipated performance gaps or inefficiencies are proposed, and responsibilities and schedules for addressing the recommendations are assigned. Typically, the same system used to track corrective actions from audit findings is used to track management review recommendations to their resolution. The meeting minutes and documentation of each recommendation’s resolution are maintained as required to meet programmatic needs. Management review results should be monitored over time, and more frequent reviews should be scheduled if persistent problems are evident.

Quick Guide to Easier Remote Program Increment (PI) Planning

Updated on: 25 November 2022

PI Planning is an essential part of the Scaled Agile Framework TM . It is a great way to get your teams aligned and focused on what’s important. However, it can be tough to know where to start. This guide will walk you through the basics of PI Planning and what you need to include in your agenda to achieve successful planning outcomes. 

What is PI planning?

Program Increment planning, or PI planning, is a cadence-based event that is essential to the successful execution of agile releases. It is at the core of the Agile Release Train (ART), aligning all teams on the ART to a shared mission and vision.

PI planning sessions are regularly scheduled events held throughout the year where multiple teams in the same Agile Release Train meet to discuss features, the way forward, the roadmap, and cross-team dependencies. 

The PI Planning event is usually organized by the Release Train Engineer (Scrum Master) and is held over a 2-day period that includes 8 to 12 weeks of program increments.

An organization can decide on when to have the PI sessions. For example, many companies schedule PI planning at the beginning of a program increment and after the inspect and adapt iteration, while some opt to have the sessions quarterly. These sessions happen regularly on a fixed schedule allowing project managers or relevant teams to plan ahead of time.

SAFe or Scaled Agile Framework TM is a set of guidelines and practices that support larger organizations to adopt agility. It consists of four steps; planning, execution, adaptation, and reflection. SAFe is accepted as a methodology that increases visibility, alignment, and collaboration among different teams and levels resulting in better productivity and delivery.

Remote PI Planning

PI Planning sessions are traditionally held in person. However, the pandemic changed the workplace irrevocably where locating different teams and team members in one place, in person, is not always possible. As such, the priority is to gather all relevant teams who are part of the work in real-time to be present in the planning. To facilitate and support these sessions remotely, a host of online tools and necessary technologies are used.

Why is PI Planning Important?

PI planning is essential for companies of all sizes but is especially valuable for large organizations that may have 100-200 teams and 1000s of developers. Previous to introducing PI planning, these teams did not have any communications with each other and therefore information would be cascaded down from the leadership and management level leading to conflicts in resources, budgets, and work.

With PI Planning in place, proper communication protocols enable teams to get together and discuss what they’re working on and ensure that dependencies are understood and managed effectively. For example, situations where two teams working on different features without realizing there’s a dependency that could hold up the release or require a significant rework of the code, could be avoided. 

During PI Planning sessions, teams and team members meet face-to-face (remotely or in person), paving the way for one-on-one interactions that would result in better cooperation in future work. At the end of a PI planning session, the teams are equipped with a plan that includes iterations, backlogs, objectives, and risks for the next program increment.

PI Planning in a nutshell enables, 

• structured communications and visibility 
• collaboration and better synchronization among different teams 
• effective work, alignment on tasks and objectives
• ability to release features in less time and to stay within a budget.

Planning the Event

There are three steps for successful PI Planning.

• Organizational readiness: Make sure that all stakeholders and leaders in the program are available to participate. It would be best if PI planning sessions are scheduled in advance and teams are sent reminders.
• Content readiness : The vision and purpose of the PI session and the program need to be well prepared and in hand in time for the session. This should be clearly communicated to all participants on the first day.
• Logistics preparation: Arrange a large room, if in person, a Microsoft Teams or team Zoom call that can accommodate all participants. In remote sessions, use breakout rooms to divide the teams into small groups so that they can engage with each other more.

Before a PI event, besides the above steps, ensure that the below-mentioned items are identified and established as well. 

• Project vision and goals
• Project scope, constraints, timeline, and milestones
• Resources required
• Roles and responsibilities

The agenda of the PI planning event plays a critical role. It is the framework that guides participants on what needs to be covered in order for all to understand their role in building and executing the agile release train. The agenda should always be kept simple and easy so that participants can focus on what matters the most: delivering value.

While PI planning or remote PI planning may be different for each organization, there are certain similarities. Below is the standard agenda for a two-day PI planning session that you could follow.

Business Context

An update about the current business status, portfolio vision, and how effective the current solutions are in addressing customer needs. This is usually presented by the business owner or a senior executive.

Product/Solution Vision

This entails the current vision, which includes the top 10 upcoming features, any changes from the prior PI planning event, and prospective milestones. The product/solution vision is typically presented by Product Management.

Architecture Vision & Development Practices

The architecture vision and agile-related changes for improvements to the infrastructure, development process, and communications in the upcoming PI. The Architect/Engineering department takes the lead in presenting the architecture vision and development practices.

Planning Background

An outline of how the planning process works and what is expected.

Breakout Sessions

Several breakout sessions, two at least, spread out during the two days. For the first session, teams will work to identify their capacities, backlogs, risks, and dependencies to come up with draft plans that include initial team PI objectives to be shared with others. These PI objectives consist of goals that are included in the plan but are not committed due to unknown factors or risks. 

In the second session, which typically takes place on the second day, teams will continue to work on the plans and make adjustments as necessary. The objectives for the PI are finalized by the teams before being handed over to the business owners or senior management to assign business values.

Draft Plan Review

Teams present draft plans for feedback. Here teams are encouraged to communicate and identify associated dependencies with other teams or agile release trains. The session is a tightly timeboxed sitting where teams present key planning outputs, draft PI objectives, potential risks, and dependencies. Business owners and other teams provide input after each team presents.

Management Review

Business owners, stakeholders, and management will meet to address challenges presented in the draft plan to propose solutions or changes. Special attention will be paid to challenges in scope, resource issues, and dependencies. During the management review and problem-solving meeting, the management will look into sorting scope changes, resolving various issues, and making adjustments.

Final Plan Review

Each team presents its plans to the group. After each presentation, each team highlights risks, dependencies, and barriers. The plan is presented to the business owner and management for approval. If the plan is approved, the PI objectives are put forth for everyone to see. If the management has certain concerns, the team is provided time to address the concerns and present the revised plan.

Program Risks

Teams will identify risks that impede achieving objectives during the planning session. The identified risks will be presented to the whole group and addressed with transparency. During this process, the risks will be categorized as below. 

• Resolved: the risk is no longer a concern and has been resolved
• Owned: a member of the group takes ownership of the risk, which cannot be resolved during the discussion
• Accepted: some risks are understood and accepted as potential issues or the reality of the situation 
• Mitigated: a plan is identified to reduce the impact of the risk

Retrospective

A brief retrospective is held to obtain feedback on the event and what needs to be improved for future events.

Inputs and Outputs of PI Planning (Useful Templates)

• Business context

• Roadmap and vision

• Top 10 features of the program backlog

• Committed PI objectives: this includes a set of SMART objectives created by the teams with the value of the business assigned by the owners of the business.

• Program board: include dates as to when the new features will be released, dependencies among teams, and milestones.

Tips for Successful Remote PI Planning

Remote PI planning events are ideal for distributed teams. It’s cost-effective and allows all teams to participate regardless of their location. Besides the three important steps mentioned in ‘Planning the Event’, it would be important to keep note of the following for a hiccup-free remote event.

Online tools are your go-to platform

Use online tools to confirm participation, share information, conduct meetings and interact in real-time. Also, have a dedicated team to facilitate the sessions and provide support. 

Create a schedule and sign up sheets well in advance

Create the PI planning event’s schedule and inform stakeholders well in advance. Ask participants to sign up to confirm their participation.

Select the right time

With distributed teams, chances are team members are scattered throughout the world in different time zones. When selecting the time for the event, be mindful of the time differences and ensure that the event does not go beyond 6-8 hours. 

Etiquettes to follow

To avoid miscommunications, and unnecessary interruptions, circulate a list of etiquettes to follow. For example, request all team members to have their cameras turned on and to actively participate. Also, make sure to let them know when it is acceptable to talk and when to keep their mics muted. 

Avoid monotony and build trust

Provide participants some respite by including several 5-minute breaks and also ice breaker sessions to keep things interesting and to build trust.

Record the session

Livestream and record the session. This is useful for team members who may miss the session due to unavoidable circumstances or if you need to refer back.

Avoid surprises 

Stick to the shared agenda and communicate with participants regarding their roles and expectations. 

PI planning sessions are an essential part of agile release management. Make sure to attend a few sessions each year to stay on track and ensure successful product delivery.

Use Creately for your Remote PI Planning

Creately has a host of tools to make your PI planning virtually seamless from the very start.

• Whiteboard and freehand drawing capabilities to brainstorm and collaborate on important ideas, risks, and dependencies.
• 1,000 plus templates and shapes to start preparing the agenda and other needed formats for the PI planning sessions ahead of time to share with the members of the agile train. 
• In-app audio and video conferencing to liaise with other team members to brainstorm and discuss the preparations.
• Share workspaces and folders with peers and colleagues. Multiple access and role levels to manage, share, edit and review along with multiplayer capabilities to collaborate in real-time.
• Integration with MS Teams to conduct your meeting and manage the project board all in one place

Initiate your next PI Planning or Remote PI Planning session with Creately to experience the best of visual project management!

Join over thousands of organizations that use Creately to brainstorm, plan, analyze, and execute their projects successfully.

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What is PI planning?

Table of Contents

Definition of pi planning.

Program increment (PI) planning is an event that creates a shared vision among Agile teams. Throughout the event, business stakeholders, project owners, and project teams review their program backlog. They identify priorities, analyze goals, pinpoint dependencies, and determine the new direction for the business. Organizations typically carry out these meetings every 8–12 weeks. They’re usually spread over 1–2 days (although virtual sessions tend to be shorter). This allows teams plenty of time to host breakout sessions, collaborate, and discuss the new plan of action. But where does Agile come into this, and what is a PI planning event in Agile ? In the Agile framework, PI planning allows teams to create an Agile Release Train (ART). An ART brings teams together to help them make informed decisions about the future of product development.

What is SAFe PI planning?

The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) is a structure for implementing Agile practices. It helps teams come together to review the same products, outcomes, and key objectives at an enterprise scale. The SAFe program board is an important part of Agile PI planning. In fact, it’s the key deliverable of a PI session (more on this later). A SAFe program board maps delivery dates, dependencies, milestones, and timelines.

What is the goal of a PI planning event?

There are many benefits to running a PI planning session with your team. The main goals of a PI planning event is to:

1. Align Agile teams

Cross-functional collaboration is tricky, especially for distributed and remote teams. Everyone is on the same page  with a PI planning event — no matter what department they’re from.

2. Set clear goals

PI planning outlines your company goals and objectives. Every participant knows what the end goal is, why it’s important, and how to achieve it.

3. Build trust

PI planning is a collaborative process. It’s a great way for Agile teams to build relationships and develop trust with other team members.

4. Offer a better customer experience

PI planning allows you to streamline your processes and ensure that your teams are aligned across the business. As a result, your customers get a smoother, more efficient, and an overall better experience.

5. Make quick decisions

Decision-making isn’t easy for large, cross-functional teams. Use a PI planning event to bring teams together to make fast and informed decisions.

6. Prioritize tasks

Use a PI planning session to pinpoint the most important areas of your work and focus on action items that will help you achieve your objectives.

Who should be involved in PI planning?

The following team members form a PI planning event:

Release train engineer

The release train engineer (RTE) is the leader and coach of the Agile Release Train (ART). They form the head of the PI planning board. Their role is to plan, manage, and facilitate the PI planning event.

Scrum master

The scrum master in PI planning manages and leads processes during the event and facilitates preparation with the RTE. They also review team capacity, making sure the team can complete the work required to meet the goals and objectives. The scrum master is responsible for the timebox, identifying dependencies, and addressing any ambiguities during the breakout sessions.

Product manager

The product manager is responsible for presenting the program vision and any upcoming milestones. They review the draft plan to ensure they can effectively manage the flow of work. Their perspective is also valuable to the PI planning process, mostly because they fully understand customer needs. Their input ensures that the goal and direction add value to the end user.

Developers research, design, test, and maintain software systems. During PI planning, they participate in breakout sessions to help refine user stories, identify risks, and help the product owner finalize the PI objectives.

Big room planning versus PI planning

Big room planning is another word for PI planning, but it indicates that the team meeting is in-person. Today, many teams opt for a hybrid format to host these meetings. This allows distributed teams to easily attend the sessions from wherever they are. And when the meetings are online, the teams can record the sessions and review them in the future.

But managing an online PI planning session doesn’t come without challenges. Hosting a virtual meeting can be hard for hosts, with more considerations to make than an in-person event. Technology, for example, is a big factor to think about. If the technology doesn’t work or isn’t efficient, the entire meeting could fall apart. Online meetings can also be tricky for attendees. Focusing on a screen for long periods can be challenging, leading to a lack of concentration. Fortunately, there are tools to help you overcome these issues. Take a look at Miro as an example. If you choose to host a virtual PI planning session, a tool like Miro can help you plan, manage, and execute your meeting — as well as keep your participants engaged. Using a customizable and intuitive visual workspace allows teams to collaborate online. Start by selecting the ready-made PI planning template and begin recording all the information on Miro's infinite canvas. To keep participants focused, use the timer to cap the time spent in each session. Allow for breaks, and consider using icebreaker games to keep things light and engaging.

What to include in a PI planning agenda?

A successful PI planning meeting agenda should include the following information:

Business context

The business owner starts by describing the current state of the business. They’ll share the company’s vision for the future and outline how existing business solutions address current customer needs.

Product/solution vision

Product management then presents the current vision. This is often represented as the next 10 product features or the most pressing items in the product backlog. The product manager then highlights any changes from the last PI planning session.

Planning context

The RTE presents the planning process and outlines the expected outcomes.

Team breakouts

Participants break away into their teams to estimate the capacity for each iteration. The teams then create a draft plan outlining each iteration. This session is timed (use Miro’s Timer to manage this).

Draft plan review

Teams present their key planning outputs, including their capacity, PI objectives, risks, and dependencies. Other teams review all the draft plans and provide feedback.

Management review and problem-solving

Draft plans often present challenges to overcome, such as limited scope, capacity, resources, and conflicting dependencies. Management spends some time figuring out how to address these challenges. The RTE keeps this meeting on track.

Program risks

Before launching any new iterations, it’s important to identify potential risks. Teams categorize these risks into one of five categories. The first category is Resolved , which means the entire team agrees that there’s no longer a risk. The second category is Owned , meaning someone takes ownership of managing an unresolved risk. The third category is Accepted , which includes risks that are unavoidable and simply need to be understood and accepted. The fourth category is Mitigated , where teams figure out how to reduce the impact of a risk. Finally, the fifth category is Confidence Vote . The confidence vote in PI planning allows teams to vote on how confident they are that the team will meet the objectives after addressing all the risks.

Rework plan

Teams then rework their plans and address potential risks to achieve as high a confidence level as possible.

Planning retrospective and moving forward

In the final stage of the meeting, the RTE leads a brief retrospective. They’ll cover what went well, what didn’t, and what can be improved for the next session. The amount of time you assign to each of these areas is up to you. There’s no right or wrong but bear in mind that it’s harder for team members to maintain focus if they’re attending the meeting virtually. Allow for enough breaks throughout the session to keep them motivated and engaged.

How to prepare for a PI planning session

Follow these three simple steps to prepare for your next PI planning session.

Perform pre-planning activities

Pre PI planning events help everything run smoothly on the day of the session. You’ll make sure that all teams are ready for the session, that the necessary people have been invited, and that the technology (or location, if the meeting is in person) is ready to go. Here are the three key areas of pre PI planning:

1. Organizational readiness

This involves preparing the planning scope to ensure everyone is prepared for the meeting. It also means aligning the business priorities ahead of the meeting to make them as streamlined as possible and ensuring all critical roles are assigned.

2. Content readiness

To ensure a clear vision for the meeting, teams need to have all the right content ahead of it. This includes the executive briefing to define the current state of the business, an up-to-date product backlog, and the architecture vision briefing.

3. Logistics readiness

Organizing logistics is a vital part of PI planning. It involves planning the location (at a facility or online), sourcing the right technology, and choosing the right communication channels.

Choose the right platform

Planning to run a virtual PI planning session ? You need software that works for you and your Agile team. If the platform isn’t right, it can be difficult to run a successful meeting. To find the right platform, think about the features you need to make your meeting run as smoothly and efficiently as possible. Here are some suggestions:

A collaborative workspace . A virtual, collaborative workspace allows teams to work together throughout the session. Using an online workspace, especially one with specific features to enable PI Planning can help boost productivity, camaraderie and innovation.

Top-quality video chat . If participants are dialing in virtually, you need a high-quality video call platform. That way, everyone can experience the meeting without experiencing any glitches.

A timer . Keep your meetings on track by using a timer. This helps teams be as concise and productive as possible during the session.

Voting . Ensure all opinions are taken into account by using a voting tool.

Templates . Speed up by leveraging tried and tested templates to take advantage of best practices.

Understand the inputs and outputs

The items you’ll need to prepare before the meeting are your inputs. They’re vital to the success of your PI planning session, so it’s important to know exactly what they are and how to prepare them. Here are some examples of PI planning inputs:

Executive briefings. Briefings must be prepared beforehand to align teams and provide context for your session.

Roadmap and vision. You need a clear definition of the business’s direction and management’s vision for the future.

Program backlog. Prepare your prioritized list of product features and functionalities before the meeting so that you can discuss which items to focus on in your upcoming iterations.

Now, let’s look at the outputs.

Outputs are any tangible outcomes from your planning session. Two outcomes of PI planning indicate that the session was a success:

Committed PI objectives. The team’s commitment during the PI planning will result in a set of SMART goals that outline what you intend to achieve in your upcoming iterations. Each team may have its own goal to focus on, depending on what you discussed during the session.

A program board. A program board outlines your delivery dates, dependencies among teams, milestones, and a timeline of the events.

These outputs mark the end of your PI planning session. They’ll guide your future iterations and help your teams achieve their goals before returning to the drawing board for a new PI planning meeting.

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31 examples of problem solving performance review phrases

Understand Yourself Better:

Big 5 Personality Test

Jump to section

You're doing great

You should think of improving

Tips to improve

Use these practical examples of phrases, sample comments, and templates for your performance review , 360-degree feedback survey, or manager appraisal.

The following examples not only relate to problem-solving but also conflict management , effective solutions, selecting the best alternatives, decision making , problem identification, analyzing effectively, and generally becoming an effective problem-solving strategist. Start using effective performance review questions to help better guide your workforce's development. 

Problem solving appraisal comments: you're doing great

• You always maintain an effective dialogue with clients when they have technical problems. Being clear and articulate makes sure our customers' faults are attended to promptly.
• You constantly make sure to look beyond the obvious you never stop at the first answer. You’re really good at exploring alternatives. Well done!
• Keeping the supervisors and managers informed of status changes and requests is important. You’re really good at communicating the changes to the projects at all times. Keep it up!
• You stay cool and collected even when things aren’t going according to plan or up in the air. This is a great trait to possess. Well done!
• You’re excellent at giving an honest and logical analysis. Keep it up! Effectively diagnosing complex problems and reaching sustainable solutions is one of your strong points.
• Your ability to ability to make complex systems into simple ones is truly a unique skill to possess. Well done!
• You often identify practical solutions to every roadblock. You’re a real asset to the team! Great job.
• You always listen actively and attentively to make sure you understand what the exact problem is and you come up with solutions in an effective manner.
• You have an amazing ability to clearly explain options and solutions effectively and efficiently. Well done!
• When driving projects, you can shift to other areas comfortably and easily. making sure the project runs smoothly. Great job!

Problem solving performance review phrases: you should think of improving

• You always seem too overwhelmed when faced with multiple problems. Try to think of ways to make problems more manageable so that they can be solved in a timely and effective manner.
• Avoiding conflicts constantly with people is not a good idea as you will only build up personal frustration and nothing will be done to remedy the situation. Try to face people when there are problems and rectify problems when they occur.
• Don’t allow demanding customers to rattle your cage too much. If they become too demanding, take a step back, regulate your emotions , and try to make use of online support tools to help you rectify problems these tools can help a lot!
• It’s necessary that you learn from your past mistakes . You cannot keep making the same mistakes , as this is not beneficial to the company.
• You tend to ask the same questions over and over again. Try to listen more attentively or take notes when colleagues are answering!
• Providing multiple solutions in an indirect and creative approach will allow you to be more effective at problem-solving . if you struggle with this typically through viewing the problem in a new and unusual light.
• You fail to provide staff with the appropriate amount of structure and direction. They must know the direction you wish them to go in to achieve their goals .
• You need to be able to recognize repetitive trends to solve problems promptly.
• You tend to have problems troubleshooting even the most basic of questions. As a problem solver and customer support person, it’s imperative that you can answer these questions easily.
• Read through your training manual and make sure you fully understand it before attempting questions again.

Performance review tips to improve problem solving

• Try to complain less about problems and come up with solutions to the problems more often. Complaining is not beneficial to progression and innovation.
• As a problem solver, it’s important to be able to handle multiple priorities under short deadlines.
• You need to be able to effectively distinguish between the cause and the symptoms of problems to solve them in an efficient and timely manner.
• Try to anticipate problems in advance before they become major roadblocks down the road.
• Try to view obstacles as opportunities to learn and thrive at the challenge of solving the problem.
• Remember to prioritize problems according to their degree of urgency. It's important that you spend the majority of your time on urgent tasks over menial ones.
• When putting plans into place, stick to them and make sure they are completed.
• When solving problems, try to allocate appropriate levels of resources when undertaking new projects. It is important to become as efficient and as effective as possible.
• Try to learn to pace yourself when solving problems to avoid burnout . You’re a great asset to the team and we cannot afford to lose at this point.
• Meeting regularly with your staff to review results is vital to the problem-solving process.
• Staff that has regular check-ins understand what it is that is required of them, what they are currently achieving, and areas they may need to improve. Try to hold one-on-one meetings every week.

Madeline Miles

Madeline is a writer, communicator, and storyteller who is passionate about using words to help drive positive change. She holds a bachelor's in English Creative Writing and Communication Studies and lives in Denver, Colorado. In her spare time, she's usually somewhere outside (preferably in the mountains) — and enjoys poetry and fiction.

25 performance review questions (and how to use them)

How a performance review template improves the feedback process, agile performance management: how to improve an agile team, 5 tactics for managing managers effectively — and why it matters, managers have a strong effect on team performance, for better or worse, awakening human potential: developing people and driving performance in the new world of work, 3 ways to solve your performance management problems, how stanford executive education embraces vulnerability as a form of resilience, how to manage poor performance in 5 steps, similar articles, 10 problem-solving strategies to turn challenges on their head, teamwork skills self-appraisal comments: 40 example phrases, your complete guide to self-assessments (with examples), 30 communication feedback examples, 30 customer service review examples to develop your team, 15 tips for your end-of-year reviews, 37 innovation and creativity appraisal comments, 8 creative solutions to your most challenging problems, 10 performance review tips to drastically move the needle, stay connected with betterup, get our newsletter, event invites, plus product insights and research..

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Evolving the Scaled Agile Framework:

Update to SAFe 5

Guidance for organizing around value, DevSecOps, and agility for business teams

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It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong. —Thomas Sowell

Business Owners

Business Owners can be identified by asking the following questions:

• Who is ultimately responsible for business outcomes?
• Who can steer this ART to develop the right Solution ?
• Who can speak to the technical competence of the solution now and into the near future?
• Who should participate in planning, help eliminate impediments, and speak on behalf of development, the business, and the customer?
• Who can approve and defend a set of Program Increment (PI) plans, knowing full well that they will never satisfy everyone?
• Who can help coordinate the efforts with other departments and organizations within the Enterprise?

The answers to these questions will identify the Business Owners, who will play a key role in helping the ART deliver value. Among other duties, they have specific responsibilities during  PI Planning , where they participate in mission setting, planning, draft plan reviews, conducting management reviews, and problem-solving. They also assign business value to Team PI Objectives and approve the PI plan. But they don’t just disappear after planning. Active and continuous involvement throughout each PI by Business Owners is a determining factor in the success of each train.

Self-managing, self-organizing Agile Teams and Agile Release Trains (ARTs) are essential to the success of SAFe. This represents a significant change in the traditional management mindset. Managers no longer need to directly supervise work by assigning tasks and activities. Instead, they lead by establishing mission and Vision . They help the teams with coaching and skills development, but largely decentralize execution authority to the members of the ART. However, transformation to a Lean-Agile way of working does not relieve management of their ultimate responsibilities. They remain accountable for the growth of the organization and its people, operational excellence, and business outcomes.

To facilitate this goal, SAFe defines the responsibilities of Business Owners, the key managers who guide the ART to the appropriate outcomes. The recommended activities for Business Owners in SAFe enable them to fulfill their obligations to the enterprise while empowering the teams to do their best work. Business Owners are  Lean-Agile Leaders  who share accountability for the value delivered by a specific ART. They are responsible for understanding the Strategic Themes  that influence the train. They have knowledge of the current Enterprise , Portfolio , and  Value Stream  context, and they’re involved in driving or reviewing the program vision and Roadmap . The continuous involvement of the Business Owners throughout the PI serves as an important Guardrail to the budgetary spend of the ART.

Responsibilities

An effective Business Owner is an active and involved Business Owner, fulfilling SAFe responsibilities daily. The following sections describe their responsibilities from the perspective of incremental development and execution through Program Increments (PIs) .

Prior to PI Planning

The time before PI planning is a busy period for Business Owners, as they will:

• Provide input to backlog refinement activities
• Participate in Pre-PI Planning  as needed
• Understand and help ensure that business objectives are understood and agreed to by key stakeholders of the train, including the Release Train Engineer (RTE) , Product Management , and System Architects
• Prepare to communicate the business context, including Milestones and significant external dependencies, such as those of Suppliers

During PI Planning

The importance of the Business Owner’s role during PI planning cannot be overstated. They:

• Provide relevant elements of the business context in the defined PI planning agenda timebox
• Are ready and available to participate in key activities, including the presentation of vision, draft plan review, assigning business value to team PI objectives, and approving final plans
• Play a primary role in the draft plan review, understanding the bigger picture and how these plans, when taken together, do or do not fulfill the current business objectives
• Watch for significant external commitments and dependencies
• Actively circulate during planning, communicating business priorities to the teams, and maintaining agreement and alignment among the stakeholders regarding the key objectives of the train
• Participate in the management review and problem-solving meeting to review and adjust scope, resolve problems and compromise as necessary

Assigning Business Value

Assigning business value during PI planning provides an essential face-to-face dialogue between the team and their most important stakeholders, the Business Owners. This is an opportunity to develop personal relationships between Agile teams and Business Owners, identify common concerns which require mutual commitment, and to better understand the business objectives and their value. An example is provided in Figure 1.

When assigning business value, on a scale of 1 to 10, Business Owners will typically assign the user-facing Features the highest values. But they also should seek the advice of technical experts who know that architectural and other concerns will increase the team’s velocity in producing future business value. So placing suitable business value on Enablers helps drive velocity and shows support for the team’s legitimate technical challenges.

Because the road after PI planning takes its inevitable twists and turns, assigning business value to objectives guides the teams in making trade-offs and minor scope adjustments. In short, it allows them to deliver the maximum possible business benefit. These numbers also later inform the Program Predictability Measure , a key indicator of program performance and reliability.

At Inspect and Adapt

The Inspect and Adapt (I&A) event is the larger, cadence-based opportunity for the whole ART to come together to reflect on progress and identify the systemic impediments they’re facing—many of which cannot be addressed without the involvement of Business Owners. During the event, Business Owners help assess actual value achieved versus plan, and they participate in the problem-solving workshop that follows.

During PI Execution

The Business Owners’ job is not complete when PI planning is done; they have an ongoing role to help assure the success of the PI. Business Owners:

• Actively participate in maintaining business and development alignment as priorities and scope inevitably change
• Help validate the definition of Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) for Program Epics and guide the pivot-or-persevere decision based on delivery of the MVP
• Attend the  System Demo to view progress and provide feedback
• Attend Agile team Iteration Planning and Iteration Retrospective events, as required
• Participate in Release Management , focusing on scope, quality, deployment options, release, and market considerations

Other Responsibilities

Business Owners may have additional duties beyond those described above, including:

• Participate in Pre- and Post-PI Planning for the Solution Train and assist in adjusting the ART’s PI plans as needed
• Participate and provide feedback from the Solution Demo regarding the capabilities and subsystems being built by the ART
• Actively address impediments—especially those that escalate beyond the authority of the key stakeholders on the train
• Participate, in some cases, in Lean Portfolio Management (LPM) , Product Management, and System Architecture
• Help drive investment in the Continuous Delivery Pipeline to improve the responsiveness of the ART and quality of its solutions
• Help break silos to align development and operations to create a DevOps culture of shared responsibilities
• Serve as Epic Owners to guide major enterprise initiatives

It cannot be emphasized enough: Active participation of Business Owners is critical to the success of the train.   

Last update: 10 February 2021

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The Most Underrated Skill in Management

There are few management skills more powerful than the discipline of clearly articulating the problem you seek to solve before jumping into action.

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It’s hard to pick up a current business publication without reading about the imperative to change. The world, this line of argument suggests, is evolving at an ever-faster rate, and organizations that do not adapt will be left behind. Left silent in these arguments is which organizations will drive that change and how they will do it. Academic research suggests that the ability to incorporate new ideas and technologies into existing ways of doing things plays a big role in separating leaders from the rest of the pack, 1 and studies clearly show that it is easier to manage a sequence of bite-sized changes than one huge reorganization or change initiative. 2 But, while many organizations strive for continuous change and learning, few actually achieve those goals on a regular basis. 3 Two of the authors have studied and tried to make change for more than two decades, but it was a frustrating meeting that opened our eyes to one of the keys to leading the pack rather than constantly trying to catch up.

In the late 1990s, one of the authors, Don Kieffer, was ready to launch a big change initiative: implementing the Toyota production system in one of Harley-Davidson Inc.’s engine plants. He hired a seasoned consultant, Hajime Oba, to help. On the appointed day, Mr. Oba arrived, took a tour of the plant, and then returned to Don’s office, where Don started asking questions: When do we start? What kind of results should I expect? How much is it going to cost me? But, Mr. Oba wouldn’t answer those questions. Instead he responded repeatedly with one of his own: “Mr. Kieffer, what problem are you trying to solve?” Don was perplexed. He was ready to spend money and he had one of the world’s experts on the Toyota production system in his office, but the expert (Mr. Oba) wouldn’t tell Don how to get started.

The day did not end well. Don grew exasperated with what seemed like a word game, and Mr. Oba, tired of not getting an answer to his question, eventually walked out of Don’s office. But, despite the frustration on both sides, we later realized that Mr. Oba was trying to teach Don one of the foundational skills in leading effective change: formulating a clear problem statement. Since Mr. Oba’s visit, two of the authors have studied and worked with dozens of organizations and taught over 1,000 executives. We have helped organizations with everything from managing beds in a cardiac surgery unit to sequencing the human genome. 4 Based on this experience, we have come to believe that problem formulation is the single most underrated skill in all of management practice.

There are few questions in business more powerful than “What problem are you trying to solve?” In our experience, leaders who can formulate clear problem statements get more done with less effort and move more rapidly than their less-focused counterparts. Clear problem statements can unlock the energy and innovation that lies within those who do the core work of your organization.

As valuable as good problem formulation can be, it is rarely practiced. Psychologists and cognitive scientists have suggested that the brain is prone to leaping straight from a situation to a solution without pausing to define the problem clearly. Such “jumping to conclusions” can be effective, particularly when done by experts facing extreme time pressure, like fighting a fire or performing emergency surgery. But, when making change, neglecting to formulate a clear problem statement often prevents innovation and leads to wasted time and money. In this article, we hope to both improve your problem formulation skills and introduce a simple method for solving those problems.

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How Our Minds Solve Problems

Research done over the last few decades indicates that the human brain has at least two different methods for tackling problems, and which method dominates depends on both the individual’s current situation and the surrounding context. A large and growing collection of research indicates that it is useful to distinguish between two modes of thinking, which psychologists and cognitive scientists sometimes call automatic processing and conscious processing (also sometimes known as system 1 and system 2). 5 These two modes tackle problems differently and do so at different speeds.

Conscious Processing

Conscious processing represents the part of your brain that you control. When you are aware that you are thinking about something, you are using conscious processing. Conscious cognition can be both powerful and precise. It is the only process in the brain capable of forming a mental picture of a situation at hand and then playing out different possible scenarios, even if those scenarios have never happened before. 6 With this ability, humans can innovate and learn in ways not available to other species.

Despite its power, conscious processing is “expensive” in at least three senses. First, it is much slower than its automatic counterpart. Second, our capacity to do it is quite finite, so a decision to confront one problem means that you don’t have the capacity to tackle another one at the same time. Third, conscious processing burns scarce energy and declines when people are tired, hungry, or distracted. Because of these costs, the human brain system has evolved to “save” conscious processing for when it is really needed and, when possible, relies on the “cheaper” automatic processing mode.

Automatic Processing

Automatic processing works differently from its conscious counterpart. We don’t have control over it or even feel it happening. Instead, we are only aware of the results, such as a thought that simply pops into your head or a physical response like hitting the brake when the car in front of you stops suddenly. You cannot directly instruct your automatic processing functions to do something; instead, they constitute a kind of “back office” for your brain. When a piece of long-sought-after information just pops into your head, hours or days after it was needed, you are experiencing the workings of your automatic processing functions.

When we tackle a problem consciously, we proceed logically, trying to construct a consistent path from the problem to the solution. In contrast, the automatic system works based on what is known as association or pattern matching. When confronted with a problem, the automatic processor tries to match that current challenge to a previous situation and then uses that past experience as a guide for how to act. Every time we instinctively react to a stop sign or wait for people to exit an elevator before entering, we rely on automatic processing’s pattern matching to determine our choice of action.

Our “associative machine” can be amazingly adept at identifying subtle patterns in the environment. For example, the automatic processing functions are the only parts of the brain capable of processing information quickly enough to return a serve in tennis or hit a baseball. Psychologist Gary Klein has documented how experienced professionals who work under intense time pressure, like surgeons and firefighters, use their past experience to make split-second decisions. 7 Successful people in these environments rely on deep experience to almost immediately link the current situation to the appropriate action.

However, because it relies on patterns identified from experience, automatic processing can bias us toward the status quo and away from innovative solutions. It should come as little surprise that breakthrough ideas and technologies sometimes come from relative newcomers who weren’t experienced enough to “know better.” Research suggests that innovations often result from combining previously disparate perspectives and experiences. 8 Furthermore, the propensity to rely on previous experiences can lead to major industrial accidents like Three Mile Island if a novel situation is misread as an established pattern and therefore receives the wrong intervention. 9

That said, unconscious processing can also play a critical and positive role in innovation. As we have all experienced, sometimes when confronting a hard problem, you need to step away from it for a while and think about something else. There is some evidence for the existence of such “incubation” effects. Unconscious mental processes may be better able to combine divergent ideas to create new innovations. 10 But it also appears that such innovations can’t happen without the assistance of the conscious machinery. Prior to the “aha” moment, conscious effort is required to direct attention to the problem at hand and to immerse oneself in relevant data. After the flash of insight, conscious attention is again needed to evaluate the resulting combinations.

The Discipline of Problem Formulation

When the brain’s associative machine is confronted with a problem, it jumps to a solution based on experience. To complement that fast thinking with a more deliberate approach, structured problem-solving entails developing a logical argument that links the observed data to root causes and, eventually, to a solution. Developing this logical path increases the chance that you will leverage the strengths of conscious processing and may also create the conditions for generating and then evaluating an unconscious breakthrough. Creating an effective logical chain starts with a clear description of the problem and, in our experience, this is where most efforts fall short.

A good problem statement has five basic elements:

• It references something the organization cares about and connects that element to a clear and specific goal;
• it contains a clear articulation of the gap between the current state and the goal;
• the key variables — the target, the current state, and the gap — are quantifiable;
• it is as neutral as possible concerning possible diagnoses or solutions; and
• it is sufficiently small in scope that you can tackle it quickly.

Is your problem important? The first rule of structured problem-solving is to focus its considerable power on issues that really matter. You should be able to draw a direct path from the problem statement to your organization’s overall mission and targets. The late MIT Sloan School professor Jay Forrester, one of the fathers of modern digital computing, once wrote that “very often the most important problems are but little more difficult to handle than the unimportant.” 11 If you fall into the trap of initially focusing your attention on peripheral issues for “practice,” chances are you will never get around to the work you really need to do.

Mind the gap. Decades of research suggest that people work harder and are more focused when they face clear, easy-to-understand goals. 12 More recently, psychologists have shown that mentally comparing a desired state with the current one, a process known as mental contrasting, is more likely to lead people to change than focusing only on the future or on current challenges. 13 Recent work also suggests that people draw considerable motivation from the feeling of progress, the sense that their efforts are moving them toward the goal in question. 14 A good problem statement accordingly contains a clear articulation of the gap that you are trying to close.

Quantify even if you can’t measure. Being able to measure the gap between the current state and your target precisely will support an effective project. However, structured problem-solving can be successfully applied to settings that do not yield immediate and precise measurements, because many attributes can be subjectively quantified even if they cannot be objectively measured. Quantification of an attribute simply means that it has a clear direction — more of that attribute is better or worse — and that you can differentiate situations in which that attribute is low or high. For example, many organizations struggle with so-called “soft” variables like customer satisfaction and employee trust. Though these can be hard to measure, they can be quantified; in both cases, we know that more is better. Moreover, once you start digging into an issue, you often discover ways to measure things that weren’t obvious at the outset. For example, a recent project by a student in our executive MBA program tackled an unproductive weekly staff meeting. The student began his project by creating a simple web-based survey to capture the staff’s perceptions of the meeting, thus quickly generating quantitative data.

Remain as neutral as possible. A good problem formulation presupposes as little as practically possible concerning why the problem exists or what might be the appropriate solution. That said, few problem statements are perfectly neutral. If you say that your “sales revenue is 22% behind its target,” that formulation presupposes that problem is important to your organization. The trick is to formulate statements that are actionable and for which you can draw a clear path to the organization’s overarching goals.

Is your scope down? Finally, a good problem statement is “scoped down” to a specific manifestation of the larger issue that you care about. Our brains like to match new patterns, but we can only do so effectively when there is a short time delay between taking an action and experiencing the outcome. 15 Well-structured problem-solving capitalizes on the natural desire for rapid feedback by breaking big problems into little ones that can be tackled quickly. You will learn more and make faster progress if you do 12 one-month projects instead of one 12-month project.

To appropriately scope projects, we often use the “scope-down tree,” a tool we learned from our colleague John Carrier, who is a senior lecturer of system dynamics at MIT. The scope-down tree allows the user to plot a clear path between a big problem and a specific manifestation that can be tackled quickly. (See “Narrowing a Problem’s Scope.”)

Managers we work with often generate great results when they have the discipline to scope down their projects to an area where they can, say, make a 30% improvement in 60 days. The short time horizon focuses them on a set of concrete interventions that they can execute quickly. This kind of “small wins” strategy has been discussed by a variety of organizational scholars, but it remains rarely practiced. 16

Four Common Mistakes

Having taught this material extensively, we have observed four common failure modes. Avoiding these mistakes is critical to formulating effective problem statements and focusing your attention on the issues that really matter to you and your organization.

1. Failing to Formulate the Problem

The most common mistake is skipping problem formulation altogether. People often assume that they all already agree on the problem and should just get busy solving it. Unfortunately, such clarity and commonality rarely exist.

2. Problem Statement as Diagnosis or Solution

Another frequent mistake is formulating a problem statement that presupposes either the diagnosis or the solution. A problem statement that presumes the diagnosis will often sound like “The problem is we lack the right IT capabilities,” and one that presumes a solution will sound like “The problem is that we haven’t spent the money to upgrade our IT system.” Neither is an effective problem statement because neither references goals or targets that the organization really cares about. The overall target is implicit, and the person formulating the statement has jumped straight to either a diagnosis or a solution. Allowing diagnoses or proposed solutions to creep into problem statements means that you have skipped one or more steps in the logical chain and therefore missed an opportunity to engage in conscious cognitive processing. In our experience, this mistake tends to reinforce existing disputes and often worsens functional turf wars.

3. Lack of a Clear Gap

A third common mistake is failing to articulate a clear gap. These problem statements sound like “We need to improve our brand” or “Sales have to go up.” The lack of a clear gap means that people are not engaging in clear mental contrasting and creates two related problems. First, people don’t know when they have achieved the goal, making it difficult for them to feel good about their efforts. Second, when people address poorly formulated problems, they tend to do so with large, one-size-fits-all solutions that rarely produce the desired results.

4. The Problem Is Too Big

Many problem statements are too big. Broadly scoped problem formulations lead to large, costly, and slow initiatives; problem statements focused on an acute and specific manifestation lead to quick results, increasing both learning and confidence. Use John Carrier’s scope-down tree and find a specific manifestation of your problem that creates the biggest headaches. If you can solve that instance of the problem, you will be well on your way to changing your organization for the better.

Formulating good problem statements is a skill anybody can learn, but it takes practice. If you leverage input from your colleagues to build your skills, you will get to better formulations more quickly. While it is often difficult to formulate a clear statement of the challenges you face, it is much easier to critique other people’s efforts, because you don’t have the same experiences and are less invested in a particular outcome. When we ask our students to coach each other, their problem formulations often improve dramatically in as little as 30 minutes.

Structured Problem-Solving

As you tackle more complex problems, you will need to complement good problem formulation with a structured approach to problem-solving. Structured problem-solving is nothing more than the essential elements of the scientific method — an iterative cycle of formulating hypotheses and testing them through controlled experimentation repackaged for the complexity of the world outside the laboratory. W. Edwards Deming and his mentor Walter Shewhart, the grandfathers of total quality management, were perhaps the first to realize that this discipline could be applied on the factory floor. Deming’s PDCA cycle, or Plan-Do-Check-Act, was a charge to articulate a clear hypothesis (a Plan), run an experiment (Do the Plan), evaluate the results (Check), and then identify how the results inform future plans (Act). Since Deming’s work, several variants of structured problem-solving have been proposed, all highlighting the basic value of iterating between articulating a hypothesis, testing it, and then developing the next hypothesis. In our experience, making sure that you use a structured problem-solving method is far more important than which particular flavor you choose.

In the last two decades, we have done projects using all of the popular methods and supervised and coached over 1,000 student projects using them. Our work has led to a hybrid approach to guiding and reporting on structured problem-solving that is both simple and effective. We capture our approach in a version of Toyota’s famous A3 form that we have modified to enable its use for work in settings other than manufacturing. 17 (See “Tracking Projects Using an A3 Form.”)

The original A3 form was developed by Toyota Motor Corp. to support knowledge sharing in its factories by summarizing a structured problem-solving effort in a single page. Though the form may often have supporting documentation, restricting the project summary to a single page forces the user to be very clear in his or her thinking. The A3 divides the structured problem-solving process into four main steps, represented by the big quadrants, and each big step has smaller subphases, captured by the portions below the dotted lines. The first step (represented by the box at the upper left) is to formulate a clear problem statement. In the Background section (in the bottom part of the Problem Statement box), you should provide enough information to clearly link the problem statement to the organization’s larger mission and objectives. The Background section gives you the opportunity to articulate the why for your problem-solving effort.

Observing the Current Design

The next step in the A3 process is to document the current design of the process by observing the work directly. Due to automatic processing, most people, particularly those who do repetitive tasks, cannot accurately describe how they actually execute their work. Through pattern matching, they have developed a set of habitual actions and routine responses of which they may not be entirely aware.

Because those who do the work often cannot fully describe what they do, you as a manager must get as close to the locus of the problem as you can and watch the work being done. Taiichi Ohno, one of the founding fathers of the Toyota production system, developed the Gemba walk (Gemba is a Japanese word that roughly translates to “the real place”) as a means for executives to find out what really happens on a day-to-day basis. The goal is to understand how the work is really done. This could mean watching a nurse and a doctor perform a medical procedure, engineers in a design meeting, or salespeople interacting with a customer.

Senior executives are often quite removed from the day-to-day work of the organizations that they lead. Consequently, observing and thoroughly understanding the current state of the work often suggests easy opportunities for improvement. We give our students the following rule of thumb to guide their efforts: When you go see the work, if you aren’t embarrassed by what you find, you probably aren’t looking closely enough. Recently, we helped a team tackle the problem of reducing the time to process invoices. In walking through the process, the team observed that each invoice spent several days waiting for the proper general ledger code to be added. The investigation, however, revealed that for this type of invoice, the code was always the same; each invoice spent several days waiting for a piece of information that could have been printed on the form in advance!

Root Causes

Observing the work closely often shakes loose a variety of preconceptions. The next step in filling out the A3 is to analyze root causes and engage your conscious processing by explicitly linking your observations to the problem statement.

There are a variety of techniques and frameworks to guide a root cause analysis. Perhaps most famously, Sakichi Toyoda, founder of Toyota Industries, suggested asking the “5 whys,” meaning that for each observed problem, the investigator should ask “why” five times in the hope that five levels of inquiry will reveal a problem’s true cause. Later, Kaoru Ishikawa developed the “fishbone” diagram to provide a visual representation of the multiple chains of inquiry that might be required to dig into the fundamental cause of a problem. 18 Since then, just about all structured problem-solving methods have offered one or more variants of the same basic method for digging into a problem’s source. 19

The purpose of all root-cause approaches is to help the user understand how the observed problem is rooted in the existing design of the work system. Unfortunately, this type of systems thinking does not come naturally. When we see a problem (again, thanks to pattern matching) we have a strong tendency to attribute it to an easily identifiable, proximate cause. This might be the person closest to the problem or the most obvious technical cause, such as a broken bracket. Our brains are far less likely to see that there is an underlying system that generated that poorly trained individual or the broken bracket. Solving the immediate problem will do nothing to prevent future manifestations unless we address the system-level cause.

A good root-cause analysis should build on your investigation to show how the work system you are analyzing generates the problem you are studying as a part of normal operations. If the root-cause analysis identifies a series of special events that are unlikely to happen again, you haven’t dug deeply enough. For example, customer service hiccups often differ from instance to instance and are easily attributed to things that “are once in a lifetime and could never happen again.” Digging deeper, however, might reveal a flawed training process for those in customer-facing jobs or an inconsistent customer on-boarding process. A good root-cause analysis links the data obtained in your investigation to the problem statement to explain how the current system generates the observed challenges not as a special case but as a part of routine conduct.

Target Design

Once you have linked features of the work system to the problem you are trying to solve, use the Target Design section of the A3 form to propose an updated system to address the problem. Often the necessary changes will be simple. 20 In the Target Design section, you should map out the structure of an updated work system that will function more effectively. This might be as simple as saying that from now on we will print the general ledger code on the invoice form or something more complicated, such as changes to training and on-boarding programs. The needed changes will rarely be an entirely new program or initiative. Instead, they should be specific, targeted modifications emerging from the root-cause analysis. Don’t try to solve everything at once; propose the minimum set of changes that will help you make rapid progress toward your goal.

Goals and Leadership Guidelines

Completing the Target Design section requires two additional components. First, create an improvement goal — a prediction about how much improvement your proposed changes will generate. A good goal statement builds directly from the problem statement by predicting both how much of the gap you are going to close and how long it will take you to do it. If your problem is “24% of our service interactions do not generate a positive response from our customers, greatly exceeding our target of 5% or less,” then an improvement goal might be “reduce the number of negative service interactions by 50% in 60 days.” Clear goals are highly motivating, and articulating a prediction facilitates effective learning.

Finally, set the leadership guidelines. Guidelines are the “guardrails” for executing the project; they represent boundaries or constraints that cannot be violated. For example, the leadership guidelines for a project focused on cost reduction might specify that the project should identify an innovation that reduces cost without making trade-offs in quality.

Execution Plan

The next step is running the experiment. In the upper portion of the Execution Plan box of the A3 form, lay out a plan for implementing your proposed design. Be sure that the plan is broken into a set of clear and distinct activities (for example, have the invoice form reprinted with the general ledger code or hold a daily meeting to review quality issues) and that each activity has both an owner and a delivery date.

Now execute your plan and meet your target. But, even as you start executing, you are not done engaging in conscious learning. Instead, you want to make sure that you are not only solving the problem but also absorbing all the associated lessons. Track each activity relative to its due date and note those activities that fall behind. These gaps can also be the subject of structured problem-solving. During this phase, interim project reports should be simple: The owner of the action should report whether that element is ahead of or behind schedule, what has been learned in the latest set of activities, and what help he or she may need.

In the Track Results section of the form, measure progress toward your goal. For example, if the overall target is to reduce the number of poor service interactions by 50% in 60 days, then set intermediate goals, perhaps weekly, based on your intervention plan. Put these intermediate targets in the first column of the Track Results section and then measure your progress against them. Also, make sure that you continue to track the results for an extended period after you have met your target. You want results that stick.

Once the project is complete, document what you learned in the What Did We Learn and What’s Next section. Here you should both outline the main lessons from the project and articulate the new opportunities that your project revealed. If you exceeded your predictions, what does that tell you about future possibilities? In contrast, falling short of your target may reveal parts of the work system that you don’t understand as well as you thought. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, what problem are you going to tackle next? A well-functioning process, whether in manufacturing, customer service, or new product development, is the product of numerous small changes, and fixing one real problem often reveals many additional pressing issues. Close out your A3 by outlining the next problem you and your organization need to solve.

A Case Study in a Hospital

How does this process work in practice? To illustrate, we describe a recent case where one of the authors, a hospital executive who had been introduced to the basics of problem formulation and structured problem-solving, used the techniques to improve organizational performance. (Note: You can read an additional case about structured problem-solving here. )

Todd Astor and his team transplant human lungs at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. Although the lung transplant procedure is highly complex, its complexity pales in comparison to managing the recipient’s health after the transplant. The human body often responds to the transplanted organs in dangerous ways. A big part of Todd’s job is staying in close contact with his patients and carefully managing the complicated suite of medicines needed to suppress the body’s natural immune response.

Several times a week Todd’s lung transplant unit has a clinic in which transplant recipients come to be evaluated and receive any necessary adjustments in their treatment. Each clinic session lasts for three hours and utilizes three dedicated exam rooms. Based on the evaluation criteria of Todd’s hospital, that should allow him to see 27 patients (three per hour in each room). But at the outset of the project, the team was able to see an average of seven patients per clinic session. Running the clinic at less than 30% of its ideal capacity potentially compromised care — patients might have to wait longer to be evaluated — and had significant revenue implications for the hospital. With a few iterations, Todd’s challenge led to the following problem statement and supporting background:

The post-lung transplant outpatient clinic session has an average volume of 7 patients, even though the clinic has the recommended space capacity for up to 27 patients (20 minutes per patient) per session.

The “gap” between the actual and ideal utilization of clinic space (26% of ideal utilization) has resulted in a delay in timely access to care for many lung transplant patients and a loss of potential revenue/profit for the outpatient clinic and the hospital.

After adding some additional background information about the problem to the A3 form, Todd went on to understand the work. (See “Todd’s Completed A3 Form.”) He tracked 71 patients over nine sessions as they flowed through the clinic day. Todd discovered huge variability in both the patient arrival rates and the time that patients spent in the various stages of a clinic visit. A little digging into the root causes revealed numerous ambiguities and departures from the way the system was supposed to work. Patient arrival times were highly variable, due both to a lack of clarity on appointment details and to traffic patterns around the hospital; lab testing times varied depending on the time of day; different versions of the pulmonary function test (PFT) were conducted; there was often little coordination between the doctors and the nurse practitioners; and large amounts of time were spent checking each patient’s medication list.

Todd’s Completed A3 Form

Todd made two key decisions in analyzing the root causes and proposing changes. First, despite variability at all stages of the visit, he scoped down the problem to focus only on processes occurring in the clinic area. He and his team had more direct control over these processes (compared with those occurring in the laboratory, radiology area, etc.), and were more able to make changes. Second, Todd included every member of the team, from the administrative staff to the physicians, in analyzing the root causes and proposing changes. Widespread inclusion allowed every individual to think about specific ways to address the problem in his or her own assigned area.

The root-cause analysis led to several proposed changes. The administrative assistant would call patients both a week and a day in advance to remind them about their appointments and provide advice on managing traffic and parking. The PFT test was standardized with a clear rule for when a more detailed test was needed. When possible, the medication list reconciliation would happen the day before the clinic via the telephone. And, finally, the nurse practitioner and the doctor would coordinate their exams to eliminate asking the patient for the same information twice. With these changes, Todd set a target of adding two patients per clinic session until the clinic reached a throughput of 18 patients. Todd further outlined a clear set of guidelines, the most important being that quality of patient care could in no way be sacrificed during the project.

The results were impressive. In seven weeks, the throughput moved from the average of seven to a high of 17 in week seven, not quite meeting Todd’s target of 18, but more than doubling the existing patient flow. After the initial project was completed, the lung transplant clinic subsequently did reach a maximum flow of 18 patients per session.

The increased throughput had several positive benefits. The clinic was able to provide better, more timely care to its patients. Surveys suggested that despite the higher volume, patient satisfaction improved, due to shorter wait times and the perception that they were getting better, more consistent care. Revenue also improved significantly. Less obvious but equally important, improved throughput created space for more patients, thereby matching the growth in the transplant program. Finally, Todd’s team got to control their work and improve it, generating clear gains in motivation and engagement.

From Reorganization to Real Learning

We always ask executives in our MIT Sloan classes: “How many of your companies reorganize every 18 to 24 months?” Typically, more than half of the people in the class raise their hands. Change has become a big business, and any number of consultants will be more than happy to assist your company in your next reorganization. But be careful. Changing everything at once takes a lot of time and resources, and big initiatives often collapse under their own weight as senior executives, tired of waiting for the results, move on to the next big idea. By focusing your scarce resources on those issues that really matter and enabling rapid learning cycles, good problem formulation and structured problem-solving offer a sustainable alternative to the endless stream of painful reorganizations and overblown change initiatives that rarely deliver on their promises.

About the Authors

Nelson P. Repenning is the School of Management Distinguished Professor of System Dynamics and Organization Studies at the MIT Sloan School of Management in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as well as chief social scientist at the consulting firm ShiftGear Work Design LLC. Don Kieffer is a senior lecturer in operations management at the MIT Sloan School and managing partner of ShiftGear Work Design. Todd Astor is the medical director of the lung and heart-lung transplant program at Massachusetts General Hospital and an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts.

1. R. Gibbons and R. Henderson, “What Do Managers Do? Exploring Persistent Performance Differences Among Seemingly Similar Enterprises” in “The Handbook of Organizational Economics,” ed. R. Gibbons and J. Roberts (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2013), 680-731.

2. N.P. Repenning and J.D. Sterman, “Nobody Ever Gets Credit for Fixing Problems That Never Happened: Creating and Sustaining Process Improvement,” California Management Review 43, no. 4 (summer 2001): 64-88.

3. A study by Towers Watson reported than only about one in four change efforts are effective in the long run. See Towers Watson, “How the Fundamentals Have Evolved and the Best Adapt: 2013 - 2014 Change and Communication ROI Study,” (December 2013), www.towerswatson.com . Others have reached similar conclusions; for example, see J.P. Kotter, “Leading Change” (Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business School Press, 1996); and M. Beer, R.A. Eisenstat, and B. Spector, “Why Change Programs Don’t Produce Change,” Harvard Business Review 68, no. 6 (November-December 1990): 158-166.

4. A. Mangi and N.P. Repenning, “Dynamic Work Design Decreases Post-Procedural Length of Stay and Enhances Bed Availability,” manuscript available from the author; S. Dodge et al., “Using Dynamic Work Design to Help Cure Cancer (And Other Diseases),”MIT Sloan School of Management working paper 5159-16, June 2016, www.mitsloan.mit.edu.

5. For very readable summaries, see D. Kahneman, “Thinking, Fast and Slow” (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2011); and J. Haidt, “The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom” (New York: Basic Books, 2006). For recent overviews of scholarly work, see J. St. B.T. Evans and K.E. Stanovich, “Dual-Process Theories of Higher Cognition: Advancing the Debate,” Perspectives on Psychological Science 8, no. 3 (May 1, 2013): 223-241; and S.A. Sloman, “Two Systems of Reasoning, an Update” in J.W. Sherman, B. Gawronski, and Y. Trope, “Dual-Process Theories of the Social Mind” (New York: Guilford Press, 2014), 107-120. For a collection of reviews, see Sherman, Gawronski, and Trope, “Dual-Process Theories of the Social Mind.”

6. K.E. Stanovich, “Rationality and the Reflective Mind” (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011).

7. G.A. Klein, “Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions” (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1998).

8. J. Singh and L. Fleming, “Lone Inventors as Sources of Breakthroughs: Myth or Reality?” Management Science 56, no. 1 (January 2010): 41-56.

9. C. Perrow, “Normal Accidents: Living With High-Risk Technologies” (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1999).

10. A. Dijksterhuis and L.F. Nordgren, “A Theory of Unconscious Thought,” Perspectives on Psychological Science 1, no. 2 (June 1, 2006): 95-109; and A. Dijksterhuis, “Automaticity and the Unconscious,” in “Handbook of Social Psychology,” 5th ed., vol. 1, ed. S.T. Fiske, D.T. Gilbert, and G. Lindzey (Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, 2010), 228-267.

11. J. W. Forrester, “Industrial Dynamics” (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1961), 449.

12. E.A. Locke and G.P. Latham, “Building a Practically Useful Theory of Goal Setting and Task Motivation,” American Psychologist 57, no. 9 (September 2002): 705-717.

13. G. Oettingen, G. Hönig, and P. M. Gollwitzer, “Effective Self-Regulation of Goal Attainment,” International Journal of Educational Research 33, no. 7-8 (2000): 705-732.

14. T.M. Amabile and S.J. Kramer, “The Power of Small Wins,” Harvard Business Review 89, no. 5 (May 2011): 70-80; and T.M. Amabile and S.J. Kramer, “The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work” (Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business Review Press, 2011).

15. For a summary, see J. Sterman, “Business Dynamics: Systems Thinking and Modeling for a Complex World” (Boston, Massachusetts: Irwin/McGraw-Hill, 2000).

16. K.E. Weick, “Small Wins: Redefining the Scale of Social Problems,” American Psychologist 39 (January 1984): 40-49; Kotter, “Leading Change”; and T.M. Amabile and S.J. Kramer, “The Power of Small Wins.”

17. J. Shook, “Toyota’s Secret: The A3 Report,” MIT Sloan Management Review 50, no. 4 (summer 2009): 30-33.

18. “Fishbone Diagram (Ishikawa) — Cause & Effect Diagram | ASQ,” http://asq.org.

19. For a summary of root-cause analysis techniques, see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Root_cause_analysis.

20. In other work, we have proposed four principles for effective work that may be helpful in more complex situations. See Dodge et al., “Using Dynamic Work Design.”

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Gregg.malmstrom, nisha jainu, kavita sarwal, abhijit bhattacharya, michael bremer, timothy wilson, geoff davis.

All you need to know about Program Increment (PI) Planning

The same way tracks keep all train cars going in the same direction, PI Planning keeps your Agile Release Train running. Without PI Planning, there’s no proper SAFe®. But what is PI Planning and how do you do it? We’ve got you covered!

A word on Program Increment (vs Sprint)

Before we dive into PI Planning, let’s first explain what SAFe® PI is, and how it compares to a Sprint/iteration in Agile.

In many ways, PIs and Sprints are fairly similar. After all, SAFe® is one of many Scaled Agile frameworks meant for practicing Agile on a much larger scale. So like Sprints in Scrum , SAFe® Program Increment also delivers incremental value based on a  common goal after a fixed period of time. 

But instead of a single one- to four-week Sprints in Agile, SAFe Program Increments comprise several Sprints, lasting a total of 8-12 weeks . So how many Sprints are there in a single PI? It depends on the duration of your Sprints. If your Sprints are two weeks long, then one PI consists of four to six Sprints . In other words, Sprints are subsets of PIs.

The incremental value of a Program is the outcome of not one or two but several Agile/ Scrum teams . Those teams, in turn, are part of an ART (Agile Release Train) comprising 50 to 125 people. As a result, Program increments (PIs) take place among several Scrum teams , while Sprints occur within individual Scrum teams .

And the cadence in Scrum is higher because Sprints are much shorter. They “beat” more frequently. Program Increments, on the other hand, take longer and don’t happen as often. For that reason, the cadence of PIs is lower .

To summarize, Program Increments are like Sprints but at a higher level. They last longer and involve more people. And just as Sprint/iteration is to an Agile team , a Program Increment is to an Agile Release Train.

So what is PI planning?

PI Planning is a  regular face-to-face event based on the cadence of consequent Program Increments. Organizations carry out PI Planning sessions every 8-12 weeks (depending on the length of their Program Increments) typically after the Inspect and Adapt session . A standard planning session is 2 days long, but the ART can extend this timebox to accommodate planning across multiple time zones.

Who attends the PI Planning event?

PI Planning brings together everyone who has an interest or can contribute to the planning. So this event isn’t just for the teams on their respective ARTs, or the RTE (Release Train Engineer) facilitating the event. You’ll also see key stakeholders, Product Owners and Managers, Scrum Masters /Team Coaches, and maybe even someone from the lean portfolio management group.

What’s the ultimate goal of PI Planning?

The Agile Release Train (ART) is the key to all your Scrum teams working together toward a common goal. In large enterprises, there could be more than two Trains working. Making things even more complicated, members of the Scrum teams on those ARTs often work from different locations. So it stands to reason that teams need a chance to step back and make sure they’re still working toward the same business goals and overall vision. 

So in essence, the PI Planning helps ARTs create alignment and encourage collaboration . It also enables them to self-organize and eliminate waste. During the event, participants get to know one another face-to-face, which translates into stronger relationships and better cooperation.

In addition, because everyone is present in the same room (or sees each other remotely), participants can quickly resolve dependencies and talk with Managers and stakeholders. Thus, PI Planning also promotes faster decision-making for stakeholders and Agile teams.

Other goals of PI Planning

In to addition opening communication lines and encouraging cooperation, a PI planning event promotes other goals.

• Q1 PI Planning: December
• Q2 PI Planning: March
• Q3 PI Planning: June
• Q4 PI Planning: September

Preparing for Program Increment Planning

Having so many people at a single meeting is undoubtedly beneficial and fun. But it does have its downsides because PI Planning involves dozens of people. To make such a large event successful, you’ll need to devote a lot of attention to details in three major areas : organizational readiness, content readiness, and logistics readiness. Let’s take a look at them in more detail.

Organizational readiness

PI Planning is a massive event that involves many people from different organizational levels and departments. You need to make arrangements early enough (usually 4 weeks before) to enable participants to accommodate it in their schedules. Your organization could also consider making PI Planning a  regular quarterly meeting so it’s already on participants’ schedules.

Organizational readiness also involves the assignment of critical roles and assuring strategy alignment among participants, stakeholders, and Business Owners. At this stage, you identify members for your Agile teams. And also designate a Scrum Master/Team Coach and Product Owner for each team. In terms of business alignment, Organizational readiness means that Product Owners should’ve reached a reasonable agreement on priorities.

Content readiness

You’ll also need to ensure that senior leadership has prepared a  clear program vision and context they can communicate to the teams on day one. This step of PI Planning involves three types of briefings : Executive briefing (defines current business context); Product briefing (indicates top 10 features in the ART backlog); Architecture vision briefing (communicates new Enablers, features, and Non-Functional Requirements). 

Logistics readiness

The last step is securing and preparing the large space for people who’ll attend PI Planning in person. If you expect to have remote attendees or hold a fully distributed planning event, you’ll need to organize the necessary technical infrastructure .

Executing PI Planning with a standard two-day agenda

During PI Planning, Product Managers present the Vision Roadmap and the highest-priority features of the Program Backlog. Then Agile teams review what they can achieve on the basis of resource capacity , dependencies , and technical knowledge. (In PI Planning, Product Managers own feature priorities , while Agile teams own story planning and estimates .)

As teams create their plans and estimate capacity during breakouts, the Architects run the room to ensure teams plan their technical work properly. They also address any issues and concerns as they arise.

The entire 2-day event follows a  standard agenda. Below, you’ll find an outline of typical agenda items for each day, one by one.

PI Planning Agenda: Day 1

• 8:00 AM – 9:00 AM (Business Context): Business Owner (or senior executives) address how the organization is doing and how the solutions it produces meet customer needs.
• 9:00 AM – 10:30 AM (Product/Solution Vision): Product Managers present the Product Vision for the upcoming Program Increment (typically in the form of the top ~10 features).
• 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM (Architecture Vision and Development Practices) – the System Architect presents the architecture vision. Additionally, senior development managers go over Agile-supportive changes to development practices (e.g., test automation, DevOps, Continuous Integration, and Continuous Deployment) that Agile teams will adopt in the upcoming PI.
• 11:30 AM – 1 PM (Planning Context and Lunch): The Release Train Engineer outlines the planning process and the meeting outcome expectations. 
• 1 PM – 4 PM (Team Breakouts #1): With the help of the Agile planning boards, teams estimate their capacity and identify the backlog items they’ll need to complete to accomplish the tasks in each iteration.

• 4 PM – 5 PM (Draft Plan Review): Each team presents its key planning outputs and gets feedback from business owners, Product Owners, stakeholders, and other teams.
• 5 PM – 6 PM (Management Review and Problem-Solving): Facilitated by the RTE, the final hour on the agenda is dedicated to solving issues that have arisen due to architecture, dependencies, resources, and scope . The meeting is an opportunity to resolve those issues by negotiating the scope changes and other planning adjustments.

PI Planning Agenda: Day 2

• 8:00 AM – 9:00 AM (Planning Adjustments): The second day begins with management presenting any changes resulting from the Management Review and Problem-Solving meeting.
• 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM (Team Breakouts #2): Teams continue planning and make appropriate adjustments based on the changes communicated by management. They finalize objectives for the upcoming PI, while the Business Owners assign business values to those objectives and rank them accordingly.

• 11:00 AM – 1 PM (Final Plan Review and Lunch): This meeting is time-boxed. Every team presents its plans and identifies impediments and dependencies. Business Owners must approve all plans.
• Resolved (Teams agree the risk is no longer a concern).
• Owned   (One of the ART members becomes an owner of the risk and they’ll work on it later).
• Accepted (Some risks are simply facts that teams must understand and accept).
• Mitigated (Teams create a plan to reduce the impact of the risk).
• 2 PM – 2:15 PM (Confidence Vote): When teams finish discussing the PI risks, they vote on how confident they feel about meeting the PI objectives. On-site team members vote using their hands (a fist to five) while remote participants use a digital tool. If the objectives receive an average of less than three fingers , the team needs to rework their plan. Next, teams vote again, but this time for the entire ART with respect to the collective plan.

• 2:15 PM – until done (Plan Rework) – If the objectives received less than three fingers, team members have a chance to voice and address their concerns so teams can rework their plans.
• (Planning Retrospective and Moving Forward) – The RTE conducts a small retrospective to find out what went well in the PI planning sessions and what needs improvement.

PI Planning: next steps

When the PI Planning event is over, you still have a series of post-planning activities to complete. You’ll need to clean the meeting room (unless you had fully-remote planning). But there’s still some work left to do on the business side. 

First, the RTE and other ART stakeholders summarize individual team PI objectives into a collection of ART PI objectives. Then, the Product Managers use those objectives to refine their roadmaps and forecasts for the following two PIs. The teams now have a pre-populated backlog with their PI objectives, iteration plans, and risks: everything they need to kick off with the new PI. 

The inputs and outputs of PI Planning

PI Planning is an essential part of SAFe® because it enables organizations to produce outputs that are crucial for successful Program Increment execution. But before that happens, you need to clearly define a few inputs. Having a set of inputs ready before PI Planning takes place will help you get where you want to go faster.

The first PI Planning input is the business context . It comes in the form of briefings that are the result of the Content Readiness planning preparatory step. The second one is a  roadmap and vision . And third, a set of the highest-priority Features sitting in the ART backlogs.

There are two primary outputs: committed PI objectives and the ART planning board . The PI objectives, apart from being SMART, also come with business values assigned by Business Owners. The ART planning board, on the other hand, indicates new Feature delivery dates, Feature dependencies between the teams, and milestones . 

PI Planning vs. Sprint planning: the top 5 differences

How do PI Planning and Sprint planning compare, and what does it mean for you? If PI is a scaled Sprint, is PI Planning simply Agile planning on steroids? Here’s a breakdown.

The first major difference between planning Sprint and PI is the number of participants. The Sprint planning event is for one Agile team (5 to 10 people). One PI Planning, by contrast, is for the entire Agile Release Train (of 5 to 12 Agile teams, so 50 to 125 people).

#2. Time horizon

Sprint planning takes place every 1 to 4 weeks, depending on Sprint cadence. 

But in PI planning, we look at a much wider planning horizon that can be as short as 8 weeks or as long as 12 weeks . The default duration is 10 weeks, but organizations often go for the 12-week horizon to align with their financial quarter. For example:

•   Q1 PI Planning: December

Organizations that want to stay more Agile choose the 8-week interval.

Because Sprint planning focuses on frequent releases, the time horizon is much shorter, and the scope of planning is less far-reaching. Instead of high-level long-term planning, Sprint planning revolves around selecting and estimating small user stories , the value the individual team is expected to deliver (based on those stories), and deciding on the stories and tasks individual team members will work on.

PI Planning, on the other hand, is a bit like crafting a  high-level roadmap that tells you what goals your organization wants to achieve over the coming 8-12 weeks.

#4. Commitment

With a time horizon that can be as short as 1 week, you can expect a higher degree of focus and commitment. Because the distance between “now” and the goal the team is expected to meet feels closer.

In contrast, even an 8-week plan feels more distant and further “in the future.” And while teams can fully commit to the first Sprint, then the second, it’s challenging to maintain an equal level of commitment for 2 or 3 months.

#5. Event duration

The planning of one Sprint or iteration takes only a few hours (2-4 hours in the case of Sprints in Scrum). For PI Planning, the event takes 2 days (or more for distributed teams).

Does your organization want to implement SAFe? BigPicture can help!

BigPicture makes PI Planning and Execution quick and easy.

The Roadmap feature helps you define and present product plans for the upcoming Program Increment, setting clear targets for your ARTs. On the Roadmap, you can define both PI Objectives and visualize the Iteration Goals which your stakeholders can later view. Based on that, they’ll be able to monitor how teams are performing against objectives throughout the entire PI.

In addition, a Program Board will help you determine backlog items at the PI level. And if you dig into the Iteration level, you’ll be able to carry out more detailed planning.

PI Planning, as daunting as it looks, forms the foundation of SAFe®. If your company wants to make Agile convenient and measurable, PI Planning is the key. It’ll help you achieve your goals and help everyone involved understand company plans and leadership’s vision.

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Is Your AI-First Strategy Causing More Problems Than It’s Solving?

• Oguz A. Acar

Consider a more balanced and thoughtful approach to AI transformation.

The problem with an AI-first strategy lies not within the “AI” but with the notion that it should come “first” aspect. An AI-first approach can be myopic, potentially leading us to overlook the true purpose of technology: to serve and enhance human endeavors. Instead, the author recommends following 3Ps during an AI transformation: problem-centric, people-first, and principle-driven.

From technology giants like Google to major management consultants like McKinsey , a rapidly growing number of companies preach an “AI-first” strategy. In essence, this means considering AI as the ultimate strategic priority , one that precedes other alternative directions. At first glance, this strategy seems logical, perhaps even inevitable. The figures speak for themselves: the sheer volume of investment flowing into AI technologies shows the confidence levels in an increasingly AI-driven future.

• Oguz A. Acar is a Chair in Marketing at King’s Business School, King’s College London.

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