Program Planning
At a Glance
Program Planning aligns multiple agile teams around shared business objectives by coordinating their individual planning efforts into a cohesive program-level plan. This strategic ceremony ensures teams understand their interdependencies, commit to realistic delivery timelines, and work toward common business outcomes that require coordinated effort.
Purpose: Align multiple teams around shared business objectives and coordinate delivery commitments
Audience: All team members, Product Management, business stakeholders, and program leadership
Expected Outcomes: Coordinated team commitments, managed dependencies, and aligned business objectives
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Purpose: Create coordinated delivery plans across multiple agile teams that align with business objectives while managing dependencies, risks, and resource constraints to ensure successful program outcomes.
Outcomes: Coordinated team commitments, managed cross-team dependencies, identified program risks, aligned business priorities, realistic delivery timelines, and shared understanding of program objectives.
What's In Scope: Cross-team planning coordination, dependency management, resource allocation, program-level risk identification, business objective alignment, and delivery timeline coordination.
What's Out of Scope: Individual team sprint planning details, specific technical implementation approaches, individual performance management, and operational issues unrelated to program delivery.
WIIFM (What's In It For Me): Teams get clarity on program priorities and dependencies, business stakeholders see realistic delivery commitments, and everyone understands how their work contributes to broader business objectives.
Engagement: Interactive planning sessions with cross-team collaboration, dependency mapping exercises, risk identification workshops, and commitment ceremonies that build program-level alignment.
Roles: RTE facilitates program coordination, Product Management leads business prioritization, teams create delivery commitments, and business stakeholders provide context and validation.
Documents: Business objectives and success criteria, program roadmap, dependency maps, resource availability, and team capacity planning information.
What Is It?
Program Planning is a comprehensive planning ceremony that coordinates the planning efforts of multiple agile teams working toward shared business objectives. It goes beyond individual team sprint planning to ensure teams work together effectively on complex initiatives that require coordinated delivery.
This ceremony creates the framework for teams to plan their individual sprints while maintaining alignment with program-level objectives and managing the dependencies that naturally arise when multiple teams contribute to shared business outcomes.
What Are the Benefits of Program Planning?
Ensures teams work toward shared business objectives rather than conflicting priorities
Identifies and manages dependencies before they become delivery blockers
Creates realistic program-level delivery commitments based on actual team capacity
Builds shared understanding of how individual team contributions support business outcomes
When Should Teams Hold Program Planning?
Conduct Program Planning at the beginning of each Program Increment, typically every 8-12 weeks depending on program complexity and business planning cycles. Some programs benefit from shorter quarterly planning cycles with monthly coordination checkpoints.
Schedule Program Planning after business objectives are clear but before teams begin their individual sprint planning cycles. This ensures program alignment influences team planning rather than trying to coordinate after teams have already made individual commitments.
Who Should Attend Program Planning?
Core Attendees:
All team members from participating teams
Product Management and Product Owners
RTE or Agile Delivery Lead (facilitator)
Business stakeholders and decision-makers
Optional Attendees:
System architects and technical leads
Subject matter experts and business analysts
Customer or user representatives
Executive sponsors for program context
What Inputs Do Teams Need?
Teams need clear business objectives for the planning period, current program roadmap and priorities, team capacity information including planned time off and other commitments, and visibility into dependencies from previous program increments.
Business stakeholders should provide success criteria for program objectives, context about business priorities and constraints, and decision-making authority for trade-offs that arise during planning.
What Do Teams Get Out of It?
Teams gain clear understanding of program priorities and how their work connects to business objectives, visibility into dependencies that affect their planning, and realistic expectations about what can be accomplished given actual capacity and constraints.
The program achieves coordinated delivery commitments, managed dependencies, identified risks with mitigation plans, and alignment between business objectives and team capacity realities.
Preparing for Success
Business Preparation: Define clear business objectives with measurable success criteria, prioritize features and capabilities based on business value, and ensure stakeholder availability for planning decisions.
Team Preparation: Review team capacity including planned time off and other commitments, understand current technical state and any constraints, and prepare questions about business priorities and dependencies.
Facilitator Preparation: Gather program roadmap and business context, prepare dependency mapping tools and techniques, coordinate logistics for multiple teams, and plan agenda that balances program coordination with team planning needs.
How Do Teams Facilitate Program Planning?
Program Vision and Context (30 minutes): Business stakeholders present program objectives, success criteria, and business context. Teams understand the business value they're working toward and how success will be measured.
Team Planning Sessions (90 minutes): Teams conduct their individual planning while staying aware of program objectives. They identify what they can realistically commit to delivering and surface any questions or dependencies.
Dependency Identification and Mapping (45 minutes): Teams share their draft plans and identify dependencies between teams, integration points that need coordination, and shared resources or expertise needs.
Program-Level Coordination (60 minutes): Address cross-team dependencies, coordinate delivery timelines, identify program risks, and adjust plans based on coordination needs and resource constraints.
Business Value and Risk Review (30 minutes): Review planned deliverables against business objectives, identify gaps or risks to program success, and make any necessary adjustments to plans or priorities.
Commitment and Alignment (30 minutes): Teams make their coordinated commitments for the program increment, confirm dependency agreements, and establish coordination mechanisms for ongoing work.
Communication and Next Steps (15 minutes): Document coordinated plans, establish regular coordination touchpoints, and communicate program commitments to broader organization.
How Do Teams Make Program Planning Successful?
Balance program coordination with team autonomy by focusing on shared objectives and dependencies while allowing teams flexibility in how they deliver their commitments.
Keep business stakeholders engaged throughout planning to make real-time decisions about trade-offs and priorities rather than making assumptions and validating later.
Use visual tools like dependency maps, program boards, and objective tracking to make complex coordination information accessible to all participants.
What Are Common Mistakes in Program Planning?
Creating overly detailed program-level plans that remove team flexibility and responsiveness to changing conditions. Focus on coordination points and shared objectives rather than prescriptive implementation plans.
Ignoring team capacity realities in favor of business aspirations. Successful program planning aligns business objectives with what teams can actually deliver given their constraints and dependencies.
Planning in isolation from business stakeholders and then trying to validate afterward. Business context and decision-making authority need to be present during planning to make effective trade-offs.
Prompts for Continuous Improvement
Are teams leaving with clear understanding of program objectives and how their work contributes to business value?
Do the coordinated team commitments realistically account for dependencies, capacity constraints, and program risks?
Are business stakeholders confident that program plans will deliver meaningful business outcomes within expected timeframes?
Is the balance between program coordination and team autonomy enabling both alignment and agility?
Are cross-team dependencies being managed effectively throughout program execution, not just during planning?
Start Your Program Planning
Define clear business objectives with measurable success criteria, map the dependencies between teams working toward shared outcomes, then bring everyone together for collaborative planning that balances business aspirations with delivery realities.