It holds true the saying “ Change is constant”. Change is expected. As humans and professionals, we should drive, anticipate and embrace change. But I also know CHANGE doesn’t necessarily mean BETTER.
If you have been in the Agile space and have your ears on the ground, you would have noticed, heard or read that Scaled Agile Inc. recently launched a new version of the framework called SAFe 6.0. That’s a change to the SAFe 5.1 version. I loved so many things included in the change. The new colour palette, the introduction of additional capabilities, the expansion of some roles etc. However, I do not like one thing…. changing “Program Increment” to “Planning Interval”…. please hear me out…..
A few days ago, I was teaching a SAFe Scrum Master class and on Lesson 3, (Experiencing PI Planning), one of the students asked what the PI in PI Planning means… I paused for a moment…how do I answer this person without sounding funny.. then it hit me… It would be Planning Interval Planning. Nah… that didn’t sound quite right. Could it be only me?
Apparently not. I attended a Lean Coffee organised by my very good friends Siraj Sirajuddin and Susan Gibson of Temenos+Agility, people I have utmost respect for in the Agile space. In fact, Siraj trained me on SPC. And during the chat, he had the same view. Everything in SAFe 6.0 was good..not so much for Planning Interval….. So what do we do? Well, give Scaled Agile the feedback, and then just stick to PI (without going into too many details), and then we all live happily ever after.
Love to hear other people’s thoughts. How do you feel about this PI “thing”? How are you adapting and coping with it? What recommendations do you have?