In the Agile program app, the PI roadmap tab has been added. A PI (Planning Interval) roadmap can be created on this new tab, by scheduling features into increments and linking them to teams.
By setting a team’s velocity (the number of story points a team can burn during an increment) and putting an estimate for completion on each feature in this planning phase, you get a picture of the feasibility of the roadmap.
Then on the PI planning tab, planning can be detailed for each increment by planning the features in sprints.
Setting up the PI roadmap
Adding Increments
As a first step, increments should be added to the PI roadmap. You can add the first increment using the
An increment has a name and increment number. The increment number is a consecutive number. If desired, you can deviate from this when creating the increment. Afterwards, this number is not editable.
When creating an increment, you also choose the number of sprints within the increment. Finally, choose the start and end date of the increment. This can be done by selecting a quarter or a specific start and end date.
Adding teams to the Agile program
If this has not already been done, teams should be added to the program. These can be Jira or Azure teams. The teams then become visible in the planning grid of the PI roadmap.
Selecting the backlog of features to be planned
On the PI roadmap, you can choose the appropriate backlog of features you want to schedule in the PI roadmap on the left side of the page. You can create the features on the ‘Portfolio items breakdown tab’ or the ‘Kanban tab’.
Setting up velocity, story points en hours per story point
Velocity per increment per team
Per increment per team, the velocity can be set. At the first increment, the velocity for each team is 0. On subsequent increments that you create, the velocity for a team from the previous increment is adopted. Of course, the velocity can be adjusted thereafter if desired.
Story points per feature
Then on the detail page of each feature, the story points can be defined. Often that will be a rough estimate at this stage. By adding a rough estimate in story points on each feature, planning in the PI roadmap creates a sense of feasibility of the whole.
Hours per story point
The velocity per increment and story points per feature are stored as booking lines in hours. For example:
By default, the number of hours per story point is set to 10 hours. This can be changed in the menu under the 3 dots.
Please note: Booking lines are therefore always stored in hours. When changing hours by story point, existing booking lines are not changed. The value in story points will then change. So the advice is to set the number of hours per story point first, before adding story points on all features.
Insight into progress of epics
Feature are linked to epics. These epics are shown at the top of the PI roadmap tab. The epics are automatically moved when the linked feature is scheduled in the increments. The epic appears in the last increment where features are scheduled. It thus shows the scheduled time of completion. The epic line can be collapsed if desired.
Plans in the PI roadmap
Now that the setup of the PI roadmap is complete, you can start planning. You do this by dragging the features from the backlog on the left side of the page to the appropriate increment and team.
If you already know in which increment a feature should be realized, but do not yet know which team can realize the feature, you can put the feature in the ‘Unassigned’ row at the top.
Indicators that help with planning
When planning, you have two indicators at your disposal that will help you arrive at a realistic schedule.
Create dependencies between features
It is possible to create dependencies between features. A dependency can be made by clicking the button at the top right of a feature ( ). Then you make the dependency by clicking the same button on another feature. The features are connected with a line. Dependency is laid.
Dependencies are shown with green and red lines. With a green line there is no conflict and with a red line there is. The following conflicts may occur:
- The feature that depends on another feature is scheduled earlier in time. This may be in an earlier increment or in the same increment but in an earlier sprint.
- The feature that depends on another feature is scheduled in the same increment and in the same sprint.
Removing a dependency can be done by clicking on the button at the top right from where the dependency is laid. A trash can appears at the line. Clicking on this will remove the dependency.
In the PI roadmap, you can choose to show or not show dependencies. By unchecking the checkbox, the dependencies remain, but are not shown. At that point, you can’t create new dependencies either.
Understanding which features are already planned
In the backlog you can see if a feature is scheduled in an increment and team. If so, the feature displays the team and increment number. In this example, you can see that feature 7 and feature 8 are not yet scheduled.
Complete an increment
An increment is complete when all associated sprint are complete. At that point, the ‘Completed’ checkbox is automatically filled in.
Sprints can be set to complete on the PI planning tab.
On the PI roadmap tab, you can then choose to show or not show completed increments. Removing the check mark will not show completed increments.
Adjustments in the PI planning tab
By adding the PI roadmap tab, two changes have also been made to the PI planning tab.
First, the backlog column on the left side is no longer displayed by default. If desired, however, this column can be turned back on. When you work with the PI roadmap tab you no longer need the backlog column on the PI planning tab. After all, on the PI roadmap tab, the features are already scheduled in an increment and are scheduled in a sprint on the PI planning tab. The feature is on the PI planning tab by default in the ‘Not planned in a sprint’ column. So this column replaced the backlog column.
In addition, teams are displayed horizontally and a team’s row has been made collapsible.
