Participating in PI Planning
What the Scrum Master does before and during
PI Planning is the two-day event that opens the PI. The Scrum Master's job is preparation and facilitation, not authoring the plan. Before the event: confirm the Product Owner has a refined, prioritized backlog; ensure the team has a realistic capacity estimate based on historical velocity; confirm logistics and attendance; and help the team arrive with a draft of iteration objectives.
During the event the Scrum Master facilitates the team breakout, keeps the conversation productive, and ensures the team produces: iteration goals, a set of PI objectives (committed and uncommitted), a list of risks (ROAMed - Resolved, Owned, Accepted, Mitigated), and the dependencies that go onto the program board.
Concepts to name
- Confidence vote (fist of five): below a three signals the plan needs rework before commitment.
- Business value on PI objectives is assigned by the Business Owners, not the Scrum Master.
- Dependencies are visible at program level; hiding them in a local plan defeats the purpose.
- Management review and problem-solving follows the draft plan review.
Traps
- An option where the Scrum Master assigns business value or rewrites the team's objectives.
- Skipping the confidence vote or accepting a low vote without revisiting scope.
- Treating PI objectives as a task list rather than outcome statements.
- Forgetting dependency capture on the program board.
- Confusing ROAM with risk avoidance - "Accepted" is a legitimate response.
Rule of thumb
A confidence vote below three means the plan is not done. The Scrum Master facilitates the team back into negotiation on scope, capacity, or dependencies - never simply records the low score.