What are External Organizations
Whether you're dependent on your Marketing Team, another Business Unit, a key supplier, a third-party vendor, or an External Development Partner, we refer to all of these as External Organizations. These dependencies are common in large-scale planning and can be easily managed and tracked in piplanning.io to ensure alignment and visibility throughout the PI.
Configuration
To share dependencies with External Organizations, you need to:
Add the External Organizations under your Organization settings.
Configure Swimlanes for them in the PI Session Configuration under ART Planning Board > Settings.
Additional Swimlanes on the ART Planning Board
Based on your Configuration, you will have additional Swimlanes on your ART Planning Board.
An individual Swimlane for a dedicated External Org.
A Swimlane for multiple External Orgs.
Share a Dependency with an External Org
Create a Dependency Sticky Note on your Team Board in the Iteration when you expect the delivery.
Link the Dependency to the related Feature.
Share the Dependency to the External Org. Use the "Depend" button on the sticky note action bar or the "Depend On" chip directly on the sticky note to share the dependency to the team you're relying on.
Mirror the Dependency Sticky Note on the ART Planning Board
Remove the Red Flag to indicate that both Teams agreed on the Dependency.
The Dependency is going to be visualized on one of the dedicated Swimlanes for your External Orgs.
Pro Tip
Consider establishing regular check-ins with external parties and use the ART Planning Board during coordination meetings to discuss external dependency status and resolution strategies.