Introduction to IP Iteration in SAFe
Innovation and Planning iteration is shortly called IP Iteration. It denotes a unique opportunity for teams to work on improvements and discoveries. From IP iteration, teams in organizations get the time to reset their brains. Also, they get the chance to learn, grow, sharpen their tools and involve in creative thinking to solve any issues they face. In turn, they will experience an improvement in their overall efficiency, job satisfaction and efficiency. With it, professionals will emerge from teams by helping their organization to thrive.
When it comes to Enterprise level, there is always high attention on ongoing value delivery to customers. When they engage in Iteration Planning, the members of a team commit themselves to work on features. As they are highly focused on solution delivery, the team members do not get time for innovative thinking. But, when an organization does not innovate, it cannot stay against the competition. To resolve this issue, SAFe offers dedicated Innovation and Planning Iterations.
What is IP Iteration?
Innovation and Planning Iterations are regular cadence-based opportunities. These opportunities occur at the end of every Program Increment or PI. In fact, they are chances for teams to work on activities that are hard to fit into an incremental and ongoing delivery pattern. IP Iterations include:
- Time to innovate and explore more than iterations devoted to delivery.
- Work on technical setup, instruments and other hindrances to delivery.
- Education to back ongoing learning and improvement.
- Cross-training to develop skills in new systems, development languages and niches.
- Devoted period of Inspect & Adapt (I & A) event and Backlog Refinement. It encompasses PI planning, Weighted Shortest Job First and final feature prioritizing.
The good thing about innovation and planning iteration is that it fulfills another crucial role and does by offering a judging hedge to achieve PI objectives and improving the predictability of PI Performance. From the records, Agile Release Trains or ARTs report that their entire job satisfaction, speed and efficiency improves. They see this happen when they get the chance to sharpen their tools and recharge their batteries.
What To Expect from IP Iteration?
SAFe IP Iteration can bring the following outcomes to your organization:
Continuous Learning:
It will not be an overstatement to say that employees in any organization should continue to learn. Only then, they can stay ahead in the competition. In the same way, change alone is constant. Changes happen not only in technology but also in practices and methods. But, the opportunity to learn continuously is less frequent. When an organization moves to Lean-Agile, it needs new skills and techniques to be learned. They are listed below:
- Team Building
- Mastering Scrum Master and Product Owner Roles
- Pair Work
- Continuous Integration
- Agile Architecture
- Collective Ownership
- Automated Testing
- Building in Quality
- Feature and Story Writing
Team members are also confronted to keep their technical skills current. In the present situation, new technologies are being introduced at a higher frequency than ever before. Let us consider that a business invests in people working across more than a single system, language or domain. In turn, it will help with the creation of an E-shaped and T-shaped workforce. Here, the former denotes a workforce with deep skill in more than a single area. The latter denotes deep skill in one area with working knowledge in more than a single domain. When they do this, organizations can gain the agility to complete the crucial tasks in the backlog list. Nevertheless, it is hard to find time to engage in these activities besides working on the release of new features to customers. Here comes IP Iterations as the solution.
When they get time, leaders and teams will show interest to learn new techniques. In other words, not only the organization but also each employee will benefit personally. In turn, speed increases, job satisfaction improves along with employees mastering new techniques. When all these things happen, the time taken by a particular feature to reach the market reduces.
Enables Predictability:
SAFe IP iteration will improve predictability within the organization. It does it by providing the capacity buffer for ceasing unfinished work from one planning increment to another. When problems show up, planning to complete utilization leads to unpredictable results. Even, it can contribute to longer lead times.
Get Time to Innovate and Explore:
Of course, innovation is one of the four pillars of the Lean-Agile approach. Nevertheless, teams do not get time to innovate. This is where SAFe innovation and planning iteration can help. Yes, many organizations use them for design and research activities like hackathons. Apart from helping the organization as a whole, they help individual employees as well. When you take the case of SAFe hackathons, this is why they are not meant for Developers alone. Here, every idea is given importance and every participant gets the right appreciation. In reality, all people are welcome on the program including Architects, Product Managers, Product Owners, Agile coaches, Testers and Developers. At the time of hackathons, people are motivated to do whatever they want. The only thing they will have to ensure is that the work reflects their employer's goal. When the hackathon comes to an end, they are motivated to give a demonstration of what they did to others. By doing this, they keep learning and they get into Program Backlogs too. In short, hackathons are not only fun-filled but also help drive innovation among employees.
Grasping the Estimation Buffer:
One thing that Lean flow teaches teams is that operating at 100% utilization drives results that cannot be predicted. In other words, when everything is planned to its full capacity, people cannot stay flexible to handle issues when they show up. In turn, there will be unprecedented delay in the delivery of value to customers. To handle this situation, Scaled Agile IP Iteration offers something called a guard band. This guard band is otherwise called the buffer. Its purpose is to prevent unfinished work from the present Program Increment from moving into the next Program Increment.
Gives Time to Work on Technical Infrastructure:
Agile teams rely greatly on their work environments. So, organizations spend time improving the working atmosphere for them. When business plans for migration or improve infrastructure, Scaled Agile IP iteration can help. It helps when teams are in the middle of crucial work. It is also an excellent chance to work on improvement stories from the iteration retrospective or enablers of the team. It means that they can engage in stories like the implementation of new automation frameworks. Even, they can engage in training communication systems, enhancing and upgrading cross-teams. It will be possible for them to adopt Agile project management tooling.
Devoted Time for PI Events:
PI events like final prioritization, PI planning and inspection and adaptation are performed during Innovation and Planning Iteration. Due to these activities, there will not be any reduction in the speed of regular influence. Further, due to the cadence base of IP iteration, the betterment of these events can also be guaranteed.
Final Readiness:
The good thing about SAFe IP iteration is that it offers time for the final user acceptance. It also helps with documentation and testing. Even, it aids with other readiness activities. These activities are otherwise not economical or feasible to perform every iteration.
Why Should An Organization Not Skip IP Iteration?
In SAFe, IP iterations are crucial elements. When they are absent, an organization will not have time for many things. For instance, there will not be any time for processes, automation, frameworks, exploration of new technologies, cross-training and education. Also, there will not be time for bringing down technical debt. Further, organizations will not get a slack time that aids them with increasing the morale of teams. There will not be time for motivations that are crucial for the team members to think creatively.
Also, without SAFe IP iteration, there will not be any buffer that will hinder carrying incomplete work into the PI that follows. ARTs will not get time to solve issues as they cannot conduct problem-solving workshops. They cannot solve issues that can otherwise be solved easily at the team level itself.
Conclusion
Do you wish to leverage the advantages of SAFe? Then, you should understand the importance of SAFe innovation and planning iteration. It will provide opportunities for team members to pay attention to new solutions. Even, they can brainstorm fresh ideas and can prepare the upcoming PI. Also, they can reflect on the previous PI. These iterations can be of great help with meeting the PI objectives. When the teams get time for many things like ongoing learning, they can contribute their share towards the project's growth. In turn, it will be possible to achieve organizational growth as a whole as you know the power of teams that undergo ongoing training.
References
- https://www.scaledagileframework.com/innovation-and-planning-iteration/
- https://www.valueglide.com/blog/scaled-agile-framework-innovation-and-planning-iteration-ip
- https://agilephoria.com/news/innovation-and-planning-ip-iteration-everything-you-need-to-know/
- https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/safe-45-reference/9780134892917/ch056.xhtml
