kaizania courses

PI Planning as a service

Feedback from our clients

What is Program Increment (PI) planning and why is it important?

PI planning (sometimes referred to as “Big room planning”) is at the heart of teams and organizations that are implementing the SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework).

PI planning is a cadence-based event that brings all teams together to plan work and outputs that are aligned to the shared mission of the greater team. The event takes place every 10 weeks and allows for visibility and transparency to be achieved across all teams in the following areas:

Sprint and PI goals at a Team and programme level are planned for and committed to by the teams

Delivery dates, key milestones and dependencies between teams are identified, mapped and understood

Team capacity is matched to organizational demand to ensure comprehensive, achievable plans are developed

Risks are identified, solved or mitigated

IT, architecture and other functions are given visibility into the plans to allow for feasibility to be assessed

Who needs PI planning as a service?

As Teams grow and get more experience in Agile ways of work, they may start to use and be effective at the day to day running of smaller teams. Each team may be effective in the following ceremonies / tools / Agile ways of work:

Scrum & Kanban

Daily Stand-ups

Backlog refinement

Demos and Retro’s

Sprint planning

Writing and sizing stories

However, in order to run an effective Agile Release Train in a SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) way, PI planning is required. Different teams & programmes may have different challenges:

Teams may require SAFe SPC knowledge and experience in delivering cross functional, quarterly delivery plans that are aligned to business strategy

Teams may wish to get firsthand experience of PI planning before committing to an Agile transformation plan

Internal capacity may be limited making delivering a smooth PI planning event difficult, this allows teams to “scale up” for a short period and deliver quality quarterly plans

What Kaizania offers

The Kaizania PI as a service offering can be broken into four stages and can be adjusted to suit the individual needs, requirements and size of the programme.

Prior to PI planning Kaizania will work with the team to ensure they have a clear, prioritized list of Features that they are aiming to deliver in the next PI. Roles and responsibilities are clearly articulated and understood.
Locations, technology, tools and communication (as well as communication channels) are agreed to ensure a smooth PI planning event. PI planning can be done remotely or in person.
The output of PI planning is an agreed, clear and committed plan – aligned to business strategy. Dependencies are mapped and risks are understood.
Kaizania will provide a report on key areas and aspects of the programme for leadership to understand. This will be benchmarked against other programmes (anonymously and where relevant)

Bespoke solutions, tailored to the size of the programme

Kaizania understands that not all PI planning events are the same, as such Kaizania has four offerings from which to choose:

Small PI planning. (approx. 3 weeks)
Up to three working teams and a maximum of 30 people in total.
One Kaizania coach will work with you and your teams.

Medium PI planning. (approx. 3-4 weeks)
Up to 6 teams and a maximum of 60 people in total.
Two Kaizania coaches will work with your teams.

Large PI planning. (approx. 3 – 4 weeks)>
Up to 10 teams and a maximum of 120 people.
Three Kaizania coaches will work with your teams.

XL PI planning.
For programmes larger than 10 teams or with more than 120 people there is a strong likelihood of a bespoke solution being needed.
Please contact us so we can better understand your needs.

Remote or in person?

Kaizania has delivered 9 PI planning session in 100% remote fashion in 2020. In programmes ranging in size from 30 people to over 250 people.

We have the knowhow and experience to implement successful PI planning remotely, and when the time is right, in person too.

Before you book – Read this

The following needs to be in place before we start:

It is understood that programmes looking to implement PI planning as a service will have the following in place:

Teams will be formed. Teams will have Scrum masters and Product owners in place.

Teams will be familiar with Agile and agile methodology and mindset. Skills such as Scrum, Kanban will be in place

Leadership will need to be able to articulate the short, medium- and (ideally) long-term vision and deliverables for the programme.

Internal staff will be available to fulfill the roles of RTE, Product Manager and Systems Architect / IT lead for the duration of the process

What is excluded from PI planning as a service:

Kaizania will not offer the following as part of the PI planning as a service offering. However, these can be arranged separately:

Training. Upskilling teams, scrum masters and product owners with training (certification or non-certification) is not included in the service.

Value stream mapping and team formation workshops to ensure that teams are optimized for end to end delivery.

Change management. Our communication plan is robust and practical, it does not cover a change management process

Agile Coaching post PI planning.

COSTS

Size of programme Duration Cost
Small
Max 3 teams
Approx 3 weeks
R150 000 excl vat
Medium
Max 6 teams

Max 60 people
Approx 3 - 4 weeks
R250 000 excl vat
Large
Max 10 teams

Max 120 people
Approx 4 - 8 weeks
R450 000 excl vat
*Number of people is the key determinant of programme size.
Add on services
Training
Please see Kaizania offerings
Agile Bootcamp
up to 25 people
R80 000 excl vat
Value Stream Mapping workshop for Team formation
Per value stream
R20 000 excl vat
Size of programme Duration Cost
Small
Max 3 teams
Approx 3 weeks
R150 000 excl vat
Medium
Max 6 teams

Max 60 people
Approx 3/4 weeks
R250 000 excl vat
Large
Max 10 teams

Max 120 people
Approx 4 weeks
R350 000 excl vat
XL
More than 120 people
tbc
tbc
*Number of people is the key determinant of programme size.
Add on services
Training
Please see Kaizania offerings
Agile Bootcamp
up to 25 people
R80 000 excl vat
Value Stream Mapping workshop for Team formation
Per value stream
R20 000 excl vat
Change Manager
R850 p/h excl vat
Agile coach
(for out of scope work)
R950 p/h excl vat
Snr Agile Coach
(for out of scope work)
R1 300 p/h excl vat
Enterprise Agile Coach
(for out of scope work)
R2000 p/h excl vat

Enquire about our courses

Call or write to us

Email: info@kaizania.co.za

Business Queries

Vanessa Martens: +27 83 432 4196

Training Queries

Isabel Banda: +27 81 519 1454

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