By now we’ve all felt the impact the COVID-19 pandemic is having around the world. Over the last few months we’ve adjusted to a different sort of life. Those of us with the option to work remotely have had to adapt to new challenges: staying engaged on video calls, managing wonky internet connections, or trying to read our colleagues’ emotions through chat emojis instead of across a conference table. 

Fortunately Agile principles give us guidance for adapting to change and planning amidst uncertainty. Many organisations practicing SAFe have discovered they already possess the muscle memory to organize, prioritize, and collaborate remotely. Several of these community members have shared their remote PI Planning stories with us, and we’ve had the chance to learn through our own experience as well. From these stories we’ve gathered some helpful tips and strategies,  and we’re eager to share these learnings with the broader SAFe community. 

“How do you handle PI planning with a virtual team?”

In this webinar, CGI SAFe Program Consultant Trainer Phil van Sickel and Scaled Agile Consultant and SAFe Fellow Inbar Oren shared best practices, strategies, and tips from five organizations implementing SAFe remotely. They discussed how to prepare a virtual PI Planning agenda, tools for managing I&A workshops and breakouts, and how to handle the typical challenges of a remote environment. 

“Remote Working in a SAFe Environment: Collaborative Online Meetings and Fully Distributed PI Planning”

I joined Mike Carew from CPrime for a webinar in which we discussed the necessary behaviors for remote working with a Lean-Agile mindset, techniques for leading collaborative online meetings, how to overcome the pitfalls of remote events, and how to prepare for and facilitate a successful, fully distributed PI Planning.

“We Did It! Our Very First, Fully Remote, Distributed PI Planning”

In this blog post, RTE Jeremy Rice describes how Scaled Agile approached, planned, and ran our very first, 100-percent remote PI Planning event. He explains how we accommodated multiple time zones, the tools we used within the event, and how icebreakers and music helped to keep people engaged. 

We continue to refine our knowledge base as we learn more. At the virtual 2020 European SAFe Summit in a few weeks, Inbar will explore how to prepare and facilitate PI Planning and other ART events when we cannot be together, and share PI Planning experiences from SAFe customers. We hope you will join us for this and other upcoming sessions, and we direct you to the advanced topics article on distributed PI Planning as a guide in planning your own remote SAFe events.

Stay SAFe,

Andy