Manage PI planning in the program room

Manage the entire PI planning and execution workflow through the Program Room—one central command center.

• Configure your Program Room
• Check the key metrics
• Commit and start a PI 

You can view work related to a certain team within the selected program to focus on one team in particular, or display the work for the entire program. To view work related to a team, click the team's icon in the top-right of the page, to the left of the Program View button. To display work for the entire program, click the Program View button.

When in the Program View, you will also see the number of features, stories, and story points loaded into your program increment. In the Team View, you will see how many stories and total story points are associated with the selected team.

Configure your Program Room

Use the View Configuration option to tailor your Program Room view according to your needs by selecting the necessary cards that you want to work with:

• Progress: Program increment statistics:
  • When in the program view, view the time left for the PI (not including weekends), percent of objectives done, a number and percent of accepted stories vs. total stories, percent of accepted epics, capabilities, and features, and a number of dependencies done out of a total number of dependencies.
  • When in the team view, view the percent of accepted stories out of a total number of stories, a number of dependencies done out of a total number of dependencies, and a number of defects closed out of a total number of defects in the PI assigned to the selected program.
• Actions: A list of open and closed meeting action items for a specific program within a PI.
• Chat: An area for chat and discussions on any work item involved in the PI.
• Dependencies: Dependencies where the selected program is a Requesting or a Depends On program as well as dependencies between the program teams. If PI1 is selected, then a dependency will show if its PI is directly associated with the PI1 and/or if the Needed By date for the dependency falls in the range of PI1. 
• Impediments: Impediments blocking teams in this PI.
• Objectives: Objectives set for this PI at the planning meeting.
• Program Increment Load: Velocity shows the average total story points delivered by the program over the previous 2 PIs. You can override velocity manually by clicking Override. Changing the velocity here affects anywhere else the given PI or program velocity is used. You can switch between the actual and estimate program increment load.
  • By default, the program increment load shows as Estimate. Estimated load is based on the number of feature points. When showing estimate, the calculation is: (total number of feature points loaded in the selected PI for the selected program) / (velocity) * 100 = % load.
  • For Actual, the load is based on the number of story points. When showing estimate, the calculation is: (total number of story points loaded in the selected PI for the selected program) / (velocity) * 100 = % load.
• Release Vehicle: All release vehicles with work assigned to the PI (even if release vehicle dates are outside of the PI) and tied to the program (through a contributing program).
• Risks: All risks for the selected program that are assigned to the selected PI.
• Team Load vs Capacity: For each team associated with the program, you’ll see a load vs capacity % value. The value is calculated as follows: 
  
  (Program Increment Load / Program Increment Capacity) * 100. 
  • Program Increment Load: The sum of effort points from stories assigned to the team and planned for the program increment. Note: Team stories in the PI that are not yet planned for a sprint are included in this count. Misaligned stories, which are planned for a sprint that does not match the program increment, are not included.
  • Program Increment Capacity: The sum of team velocities for each sprint in the program increment. A team's velocity will use one of three values for each sprint: Average Team Velocity, Accepted Points, or Override Velocity:
    • Average Team Velocity: The average of all accepted story points from the last five completed sprints. This value is used to calculate Program Increment Capacity when a sprint has not started, and no override velocity is present.
    • Accepted Points: The number of story points in the sprint. This value is used to calculate Program Increment Capacity when a sprint in the program increment has been completed.
    • Override Velocity: Override value entered for a sprint, useful for anticipating sprints that will have reduced team capacity, increased headcount, or are new to the program. This value is used to calculate Program Increment Capacity when a sprint has not started and an override is present.

  Click a row to open the team’s Details panel, focused on the Sprints tab. There you can review current and past sprints, along with planned, accepted, and override velocity values. 
  
  The % of load vs capacity in the card will change as the PI progresses, as the team's Program Increment Capacity and Average Team Velocity values will update after the completion of each sprint. 

• Program Increment Planning Checklist: A configurable list of steps to complete before the PI.
• Team Progress: All teams contributing to the PI and within the selected program. The team progress is calculated as follows:

(team’s average velocity) * (number of synced sprints in the PI) = team PI velocity

(total number of points accepted by the team within the PI, including stories not loaded in a sprint) / (team PI velocity) * 100 = % progress

• Runway: This card shows runway for three work items: epics, features, and stories. Compare the amount of time needed to complete the work you haven't started with a goal you set. Configure the card by selecting the gear icon on the right of the card. In the Manage Runway dialog box that appears, you can enter the runway goal (measured in sprints for stories and in months for features, epics, and capabilities) and percent deviation, a percentage that signifies how close the user wants to be to the goal. For detailed information on the runway calculations, see the Working in the Program Room article.

Check the key metrics

• Program Increment Burndown and Burnup: A burndown chart represents work remaining versus time. A burnup chart shows how much work has been completed as well as the total amount of work. 
• Points Accepted (by Sprint): The Points Accepted (by Sprint) report shows the overall velocity by the LOE points completed for the teams participating in the PI.
• PI Defect Trend: The PI Defect Trend report displays daily counts of active, high, critical, opened, and closed defects for a selected sprint within a PI.

Run a Meeting

Click the Run a Meeting button and select from the following options:

• Grooming: conduct a meeting to plan the PI and refine the backlog.
• Scrum of Scrums: conduct a meeting to scale Scrum to large project teams; teams discuss their work, areas of overlap, and integration.

Commit and start a PI

When the selected program increment is not complete or in progress, you will see the Commit and Start button on the toolbar. If the user selects Yes, then the PI status changes to In Progress and the Program Room switches to the execute mode. After the PI ends, you can close it by clicking the Close Program Increment button.

See also

Working in the Program Room