Welcome to the world of Scaled Agile Framework and the key concept of Program Increment (PI) objectives. Scaled Agile Framework undoubtedly transforms large-scale product development. It does it by offering a wholesome system for organizations to adopt Agile and Lean practices. 

In this post, we will get into the key aspects of SAFe PI Objectives. This is a basic aspect of the Scaled Agile Framework’s cadence-based planning.

Why Are SAFe PI Objectives Important?

PI Planning or Program Increment planning aims at the generation of alignment. It permits teams not only to plan but also to estimate and innovate their own work. PI Planning is part of the Scaled Agile Framework approach to mission planning. The top management in an organization will present the overall objectives of the list of features and Program Increment to the teams. With them, the teams will frame the objectives. They will express the specific timelines and actions to achieve goals.

PI Objectives – What Are They?

SAFe PI Objectives summarize the technical and business goals. These goals are intended to be reached in the forthcoming Program Increment. They can either be committed or uncommitted. At the time of Program Increment Planning, teams create Program Increment Objectives. These are objectives that they want to achieve in the upcoming Program Increment.

Benefits of PI Objectives

Here are the benefits of PI Objectives businesses can expect:

• Discloses dependencies that need coordination
• Conveys and underlines the contribution of each team to business value
• Helps the Agile Release Train to evaluate its performance
• Enables the achievement of business values via Agile Release Train Predictability Measure
• Generates the short-term vision and focus
• Offers a common communication language for technology and business stakeholders

Importance of PI Objectives in SAFe

Program Increment are the brief of different technical and business objectives. These objectives are the summary of the goals of an Agile team or training. They should be reached in the upcoming program increment. These objectives are generated when the team is approaching the Pi planning phase of a project. Here are some factors that make PI Objectives important:

• Let us consider that the need to have a mutual dialect arises between technical and business stakeholders
• In this case, PI objectives can serve their purpose effectively
• They help with ensuring that everyone is on the same page
• These objectives help ensure that the team has a vision
• Also, they make sure that the team walks down the road of focus
• With these objectives, it becomes possible for Agile Release Trains to ensure that they are assessing their functions
• Program Predictability Measure is a part of the SAFe methodology. They help with achieving the business values

In general, any business needs different teams to work together. Also, the teams should ensure that they communicate well with each other. In turn, they can work towards the shared goal for the business. PI Objectives are very crucial to highlight those efforts and the value to those teams. 

With PI Objectives, it turns out to be simple for teams to highlight their dependencies. It will help with the timely coordination plan, which, in turn, will benefit the entire business.

What Are the Features of A Good PI Objective?

So, you now know the importance of PI objectives for any organization. But what makes a good PI Objective? Here are some features that make a PI Objective good:

• It will permit businesses to view deliverables within a set timeframe
• Provide clearness on how scheduled work goes in line with the big picture
• Improves communication between stakeholders and teams
• Include around 7 to 10 objectives overall
• Goes in line with what business is concerned about
• Good PI objectives are understood by anyone picking up them
• The objectives are SMART

What Makes PI Objectives Smart?

SMART goals are highly popular among organizations. With the help of the SMART goal-setting framework, PI objectives will be concise and clear. According to the SMART principle, your PI Objective should be:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant 
• Timebound

In other words, the objective should be specific in stating the intended outcomes. They should be measurable and should tell what is to be achieved. Also, the objectives should be realistic to achieve. Relevancy denotes that the objectives should align with overall business goals. Further, there should be a set timeframe within which the objective should be achieved.

How Are PI Objectives Different from Features?

Features explain particular capabilities or functionalities. These capabilities will be delivered at the time of the Program increment. Objectives, on the other hand, describe the expected outcomes. Otherwise, they describe the effect of those features on the business. 

For instance, you can consider the feature to be the ability to process payments via a new payment gateway. The parallel PI objective could be to enhance the efficiency of payment processing. Also, its role is to bring down the occurrence of failed transactions.

In other words, from the features, you can know what will be delivered. On the other hand, the objectives explain the desired impact or outcome on the business. 

Know About Committed and Uncommitted PI Objectives

Committed objectives are those that the team is confident to deliver within the Program Increment. Businesses can arrive at a Program Predictability Score with the help of Planned Business Value. Only the business value for these objectives is used to arrive at the total planned value. So, assigning business value to PI objectives should happen with committed objectives.

Uncommitted objectives are helpful when planning the work. However, the result is not certain. When teams are not fully confident of meeting the objectives, they can use uncommitted objectives.

Benefits of Uncommitted Objectives

You might think that committed PI objectives are better. Indeed, they are better. However, in some instances, uncommitted objectives can bring the following benefits:

Adaptability

• For dependable speed, teams can get free capacity required.
• They can get this from meeting commitments from uncommitted objectives
• If the need arises, they can change priorities

Increased Dependability

• Uncommitted objectives show variation in capacity
• So, teams can focus on their priorities
• They can adhere to a set schedule to build confidence between business stakeholders and teams
• Teams can get their job done on time
• In turn, they can gain the trust of stakeholders

Improved Economics

• Teams work hard to achieve 100% in the allotted time without uncommitted objectives
• In turn, they will have to instill different system buggers or compromise on quality
• Rather, they can accumulate other buffers
• This will increase the probability that an early life that is not certain will face some delay
• The outcome will bring down the entire throughput

Business Vs. Actual Value

When comparing uncommitted and committed PI objectives, you should also compare business and actual value. At the time of PI planning, owners of businesses assign “business value”. They do this for every PI objective. 

This business value will act as a guide to the importance of an objective. Here, 10 is the highest value to the business, while 1 is the lowest value.

As part of or before the PI System demo, the owners of businesses get together again with the agile teams. They do this to assign real business value based on what was delivered. 

How to Write SMART PI Objectives?

Let us consider writing the SAFe PI objectives for your team. In this case, you will have to make a lot of effort. In conclusion, your efforts will bring fruitful results. The reason is that PI objectives offer a clear understanding of what should be done. You should create the PI objectives in such a way that everyone can know what to get. Here are some points to remember when you are engaged in writing PI Objectives:

Planning Your Objectives

You will be interested in getting great outcomes for your team. If so, you should have at least one PI objective for your Agile team. However, before you start creating these objectives, you will have to find answers to the following questions:

• What do you wish to achieve?
• Why do you want to achieve a particular objective in the PI?
• How you are going to take your team to walk on the path of achievement?

To find answers to the questions mentioned above, you should have a complete understanding of the project. You should familiarize yourself with the objective and project scope. Also, you should have a clear idea of your vision. 

Your team should know about the capabilities of the members. Also, everyone should know about their dependencies, competencies, velocities and milestones. With these ideas, you can evaluate and offer an estimation for the forthcoming work and stores. Ensure that you place a time limit to achieve the set objectives. 

When creating your own objectives, make sure to follow the SMART approach.

Communicating Business Value with PI Objectives

You finalize your objectives in PI Planning. Now, the owners of your business will collaboratively assign business value. They will assign a value to the objectives of your team and other teams face-to-face. Conversion is highly important in any organization. The reason is that it communicates the context and strategy behind these weighing decisions. As mentioned earlier, business owners can use a scale from 1 to 10 to rate every objective. They need not have to normalize the rating across teams. 

Business value is not calculated rather it is assigned. It serves as an input for executing considerations. Many team objectives offer immediate and straight value to the solution. Different factors are to be weighed in the final balance.