Multi-Team Planning

Play Description

Pattern Summary

Multiple-team planning is a gathering of multiple teams to align on shared goals, manage dependencies and synchronize work across the teams.

Related Patterns

Multi-Team Review (System Demo)

Symptom Categories

Misaligned Objectives, Unmanaged Dependencies, Inconsistent Delivery Cadence, Lack of Transparency, Slow Decision-Making

Symptoms Addressed

This pattern seeks to address the following challenges:

1. Misaligned objectives occur when teams pursue divergent goals without effective coordination, leading to fragmented product increments and integration bottlenecks.
2. Unmanaged dependencies arise from a lack of proper management of inter-team dependencies, introducing bottlenecks and planning complications that can derail even well-organized projects.
3. Variations in team schedules and outputs can cause unpredictability in releases, leading to stakeholder dissatisfaction.
4.  Insufficient visibility into team progress and dependencies can hinder timely decisions.
5. Slow decision-making can exacerbate delays and misalignment.

Detailed Description

A Multi-Team Planning event is a gathering of multiple agile teams to plan and achieve a significant goal or objective. This goal could be the release of a product, an increase in market share, the acquisition of a new client, or another strategic aim. By bringing together all teams and key stakeholders, these events foster alignment, collaboration, and transparency, ensuring that everyone works towards shared objectives.

There are four common multi-team planning techniques, including Big Room Planning, Small Room Planning, Rolling Wave Planning, and Planning Interval (PI) Planning. These methodologies serve as process scaffolds to facilitate coordination among multiple agile teams. Organizations should therefore select the approach that best suits their needs.

Big Room Planning

This is a large-scale, in-person or virtual event where all agile teams, stakeholders, and leadership come together to align on a shared plan. It involves open discussions, dependency mapping, and setting objectives for a specific time frame, such as a quarter or program increment. Big Room Planning enhances cross-team coordination by ensuring transparency and alignment on shared goals. It helps teams identify dependencies early and mitigate risks collaboratively, making it a highly effective approach for large-scale agile environments.

Small Room Planning

This is a more focused and limited-scope planning approach where only key representatives from each team participate. These representatives align priorities, discuss dependencies, and bring insights back to their respective teams for execution. Small Room Planning is beneficial when full-team participation is impractical. It streamlines decision-making while still ensuring alignment, making it useful for organizations with distributed teams or resource constraints.

Rolling Wave Planning

Rolling Wave Planning is an iterative planning approach where teams progressively refine and adjust their plans based on evolving information. Instead of planning everything upfront, details are continuously updated as teams gain more clarity on objectives and dependencies. This approach allows teams to stay flexible and adapt to changing priorities while maintaining coordination. It is particularly useful for dynamic environments where long-term predictability is challenging.

Planning Interval (PI) Planning

PI Planning is a structured, cadence-based planning event used in the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe). It brings multiple teams together to define objectives, identify dependencies, and establish a roadmap for the upcoming Program Increment (usually 8–12 weeks). It provides a clear framework for synchronizing multiple teams toward shared business goals. It ensures structured alignment and prioritization, making it an effective planning method in organizations implementing SAFe.

In Frameworks

Different Agile frameworks provide structured approaches to multi-team planning, each aligning with specific planning methods:

Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe): Uses PI Planning to synchronize teams on a shared vision, ensuring coordinated planning and commitment. Agile Release Trains (ARTs) maintain alignment across teams, making SAFe ideal for Big Room Planning when scaling agility.

Scrum@Scale: Employs the Scrum of Scrums (SoS) to coordinate multiple teams. Representatives align on progress and resolve dependencies, supporting Big Room or Small Room Planning, where fewer participants drive decision-making while keeping teams synchronized.

Nexus: Introduces a Nexus Integration Team to coordinate multiple Scrum teams. Nexus Sprint Planning ensures a shared backlog and synchronized delivery, making it effective for Big Room Planning or Rolling Wave Planning, depending on complexity.

Extreme Programming (XP): Encourages frequent integration, shared ownership, and continuous feedback, supporting Rolling Wave Planning. Its focus on technical excellence helps teams adapt plans iteratively based on real-time progress.

Product Operating Model (POM): Organizes teams around value streams, promoting decentralized decision-making while maintaining cross-team alignment. Focused teams plan within their domains while staying connected to the larger strategy.

How to Use:

To effectively implement the Multi-Team Planning pattern, consider the following steps for each technique:

1. Use as a process scaffold to guide structured planning and coordination.
2. Big Room Planning: Bring all teams together in one location (physical or virtual) to collaboratively plan the release. This creates a shared understanding of goals, dependencies, and commitments, ensuring all teams are aligned from the start.
3. Small Room Planning: For teams working in smaller groups or with more localized goals, gather key representatives to focus on dependencies and integration efforts. This method ensures that the broader goals are understood while keeping planning efficient and manageable.
4. Rolling Wave Planning: Use this approach for ongoing, iterative planning where detailed planning occurs for the immediate future, and longer-term plans evolve over time. This allows teams to stay flexible and adapt to changing requirements.
5. PI Planning: Leverage PI Planning to align multiple teams around a shared vision and ensure synchronization across the organization. PI Planning helps in establishing a roadmap for the next program increment, defining key milestones, and ensuring coordinated execution.

Do Not Use This Pattern When

The Multi-Team Planning pattern may not be suitable in the following scenarios:

1. When planning takes priority: Focus on value, not just timelines and budgets.
2. Small Team Sizes: If the organization or program has fewer than 50 people, the complexity and overhead of these planning techniques may outweigh the benefits. In such cases, simpler planning methods may be more effective.
3. Overemphasis on Processes: If using these techniques leads to excessive process overhead or rigidity, hindering the ability to adapt quickly, it can conflict with the core Agile principle of prioritizing individuals and interactions over processes and tools.
4. Misalignment with Organizational Goals: If the planning methods do not align with the organization’s objectives, culture, or capacity, they may cause friction or inefficiency. It’s crucial to ensure that these techniques match the organization’s maturity and goals.