The ART Planning Board is a central visual tool in Program Increment (PI) Planning within the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe). It displays the planned features or enablers per iteration of an Agile Release Train (ART) and highlights dependencies between teams. It is created collaboratively during PI Planning and serves as a shared alignment and coordination artifact.
Origin and Purpose
The board was introduced in SAFe to improve transparency of work, dependencies, and risks in large initiatives involving multiple teams. Its main functions are to:
- Visualize features and goals across teams and iterations.
- Expose and manage dependencies.
- Support collective decision-making about priorities and capacities.
- Foster ownership, as teams surface and address their own dependencies.
Core Elements
- Time horizon: All iterations of the PI (typically five plus one IP iteration).
- Teams: Lanes for all participating teams.
Features/Enablers: Placed in the iterations where they are planned to be delivered.
- Dependencies: Shown with strings, lines, or markers.
- Risks: Complemented by the Program Risk Board, closely linked to the planning board.
Application and Best Practices in SAFe Context
- Collaborative: Created jointly during PI Planning.
- Dynamic: Dependencies are captured live and resolved in team breakouts.
vLinked to PI Objectives: Feasibility of PI Objectives is checked against the board.
- Transparency: The board remains visible throughout the PI (physical or digital).
- Tools: Organizations often use digital boards (e.g., Jira Align, Rally, Miro, Mural).
Practice Examples
Automotive: An ART plans a control unit; dependencies between software teams and hardware suppliers become visible, enabling immediate adjustments.
Banking: Dependencies between frontend and backend teams surface early, allowing mitigation.
Remote ARTs: Virtual boards provide the same transparency as physical boards for distributed teams.
Use Outside of SAFe
The concept can be applied outside SAFe wherever multiple teams or departments need joint planning:
- Large traditional projects to visualize interfaces.
- Hardware or plant engineering to coordinate mechanics, electronics, and software.
- Public sector or NGOs for program-level synchronization.
- OKR planning, when multiple teams contribute to shared objectives.
- These are not official SAFe practices but adaptations of the principle to other contexts.
Criticism and Limitations
- Effort: Maintenance requires discipline.
- Complexity: Boards can become cluttered in very large ARTs or solution trains.
- Tool integration: Value diminishes if not connected to operational tools (e.g., Jira, Azure DevOps).
- Illusion of certainty: Boards may suggest clarity while PI plans remain dynamic and uncertain.
- These points are not part of the SAFe definition but are common practical experiences.
Embedding and Combination
- PI Planning
- Program Risk Board
- PI Objectives
vInspect & Adapt Workshop
CALADE Perspective
In many organizations, the ART Planning Board is seen only as an event artifact. CALADE helps clients use it as a living steering tool throughout the PI. We also extend the principle of visual dependency management beyond SAFe—for example, in large transformation programs or in combination with Living Transformation® or Flight Levels.
Cross-References
- PI Planning
- Agile Release Train (ART)
- Program Risk Board
- PI Objectives
- Inspect & Adapt Workshop
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