Order of Activities before configuring a new PI Session
Before clicking the Prepare new PI button or Duplication an existing Session in the RTE Cockpit | SAFe PIs, follow the steps below as a sort of order of activities:
Ensure all necessary team-level nodes are set up in the Organization, i.e. the Teams, ART, and Solution Trains.
Ensure the ALM Connection is setup with all tabs completed for the Authentication, WebHooks, Team Mapping and ART Mapping.
Know the PI event dates and Iteration cadences, i.e. start date, number of Iterations, and the duration of each Iteration in calendar days.
Login as Admin or PI Admin role. Navigate to RTE Cockpit | SAFe PIs and create a new PI session. You can also duplicate an existing session (see more information below)
Warning:
Once you setup a PI Session with the appropriate ST or ART, no changes can be made to the ARTs or Teams participating in the PI Session. If there are organizational changes e.g. an additional Team, reordering the Teams swimlanes on boards, or removing a Team, then you will need to create a new PI Session.
In that case, check out the Duplicate PI Session article.
You would then archive or delete the original PI session that is now obsolete.
Note: The ART Mapping tab on the ALM Connection is only required for supporting Solution Train PI Sessions. PI Sessions that support a single ART do not need to complete the ART Mapping tab on the ALM Connection page.
Duplicate Session
Apart from saving precious time, there are mainly two reasons why you'd want to duplicate an existing session.
Prepare for a new PI
Updating the teams
Check out the Duplicate Session article for more details.
Configuration Overview
Setting up a new or adjusting an existing PI Session, you'll be guided through the following steps.
Step | Purpose | Comments |
#1 General | Provide general information such as PI Session name, Iteration duration, ALM-tool, etc. |
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#2 Teams | Select an ART or a Solution Train and underlying Teams participating that PI |
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#3 Team Boards | Configure the Sticky Types you want to use on the Team Boards and which sticky types are synched with your ALM tool | This is where the ALM Team Mapping is relevant |
#4 ART PI Risk Board | Configure the Sticky Types you want to use on the ART Risk Board |
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#5 ART Backlog Board | Configure the Sticky Types you want to use on the ART Backlog Board. These Sticky Types are by default also available on the ART Planning Board. | This is where the ALM ART Mapping is relevant (ONLY in case of a Solution Train Session) |
#6 ART Planning Board | Configure the Sticky Types you want to use on the ART Planning Board, in addition to the ones you defined on the ART Backlog Board. |
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#7 Solution Planning Board | Configure the Sticky Types you want to use on the Solution Planning Board. | Only needed in case multiple ARTs (a Solution Train) is selected under Teams |
#8 Solution Backlog Board | Configure the Sticky Types you want to use on the Solution Backlog Board. These Sticky Types are by default also available on the Solution Planning Board. | Only needed in case multiple ARTs (a Solution Train) is selected under Teams |
#9 Collaboration Canvases | Define what canvas types you want to provide to your Teams in this PI Session. |
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#10 Links | Define what link types you use in your ALM tool should be used and how links are synched to your ALM tool. |
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#11 Iterations | Define iterations names and do the mapping between piplanning.io iterations and the iterations you have in your ALM tool | This is where the Team Mapping (Scrum Board) is relevant. |
Sessions without ALM Sync
Note: Prepare a new PI session without the ALM tool sync, if one of the options below suits your needs:
Teams (business teams, dev teams, etc.) do not use an ALM tool but they want to leverage the collaboration and facilitation tools piplanning.io provides.
Teams use another ALM tool (e.g. Apptio TargetProcess, GitHub, ServiceNow, etc.) and you will perform a manual sync using the CSV Import and XLSX Download utilities. Details on the CSV Import utility are here.