Perform PI planning in EAP

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of Perform PI planning in EAP

    The Enterprise Agile Planning (EAP) Planning board enables ServiceNow customers to perform Program Increment (PI) planning across multiple teams and iterations efficiently. This tool supports Big Room Planning by allowing users to plan, track progress, visualize dependencies, and reschedule work in real time while aligning with business priorities.

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    Planning Board Layout and Grouping

    The layout of the Planning board adapts based on the team level configured in EAP:

    • ART, Solution Train, Portfolio: Two-dimensional Kanban boards with horizontal and vertical lanes showing teams or trains and work states or iterations.
    • Agile Team: Simple Kanban board with vertical lanes representing work item states for iterations such as Sprints, displaying stories as cards.

    Work items are displayed as cards, which can be viewed in either compact or full size. Full-size cards show detailed data such as item number, state, and indicators for enablers, dependencies, or blockers.

    Default grouping of work items follows the hierarchy:

    • Agile Team: Stories grouped by state within an iteration.
    • ART: Stories grouped horizontally by child teams and vertically by iterations within a PI.
    • Solution Train: Grouped horizontally by child ARTs and vertically by item state.
    • Portfolio: Grouped horizontally by child Solution Trains and vertically by item state.

    For Kanban teams, the board displays assigned work items with Portfolio boards showing teams horizontally and item states vertically, while Team boards use a one-dimensional Kanban layout.

    Key Features

    • Dependency Visualization: Enable the Dependency toggle to see dependencies between work items directly on the Planning board.
    • Capacity Visualization: Enable the Capacity toggle to view team workloads for better resource management.
    • Configurable Work Item Types: By default, the Planning board shows specific work item types (e.g., Features for ART). Administrators can configure the board to display other types like Capabilities, Epics, or Stories as needed.
    • Personalization: Users can personalize the Planning board by selecting metrics and indicators to display on cards for quick insights.

    Practical Use and Next Steps

    To get started with PI planning in EAP, teams can:

    • Plan work for an ART across multiple planning intervals and coordinate with teams to manage dependencies and resolve blockers in real time.
    • Learn how work item dependencies appear and function on the Planning board to improve cross-team collaboration.
    • Personalize the Planning board to highlight relevant metrics and indicators for efficient monitoring and decision-making.

    Administrators should ensure correct configuration of work item types and personalization settings to enable seamless switching and accurate display of cards during planning sessions.

    Using the Planning board of Enterprise Agile Planning, plan work for multiple teams across iterations (for example, Big Room Planning). Track the progress of work, create and visualize dependencies between work items, and reschedule work to react quickly to changes while confirming alignment with business priorities.

    Layout of Planning board

    Figure 1. Planning Board for an Agile Release Train (ART)
    ART planning board in EAP.
    Based on the EAP configuration, the layout of the Planning board across different team levels such as Agile Team, ART, Solution Train, or Portfolio is:
    • ART, Solution Train, and Portfolio: Two-dimensional Kanban board layout with differences in the horizontal and vertical lanes.
    • Agile Team: Simple Kanban board with work item States as the vertical lanes.

    The work items are represented as cards. You can choose to display cards in the compact or full size. Full size cards have data points on them such as item Number, State, and indicators for enabler, dependencies, or blocked whereas compact cards display just the short description.

    Default grouping of work items

    As you go bottom to top in an Agile structure, the cards are grouped as follows for each team:
    Important:
    The team hierarchy and the iterations within teams are based on your EAP configuration. The following information applies to the default Full Configuration.
    • Agile Team: For an iteration, vertical lanes represent the State of the story.

      For example, if Sprint is the planning calendar configured for an Agile Team, the cards on the Planning Board represent the work assigned for the selected Sprint. For an Agile Team, you can see Stories on the planning board.

    • ART: For an iteration, the Story cards are horizontally grouped by child teams and vertical lanes represent the iterations of the child teams.

      If Planning Interval (PI) is the planning calendar configured for ART, the vertical lanes represent the Sprints within the selected PI.

    • Solution Train: Horizontally grouped by child ARTs and vertical lanes represent the state of the item.
    • Portfolio: Horizontally grouped by child Solution Trains and vertical lanes represent the state of the item.
    • If the Dependency toggle is enabled, you can visualize the dependencies between work items.
    • If the Capacity toggle is enabled, you can visualize the work load of the teams.
    The Planning board for an EAP team shows only those work items that are enabled in its default configuration. For example, for an ART with Full Configuration, the Planning board shows only Features by default. If your product managers or team members want to switch to viewing other work item types such as Capabilities, Epics, or Stories, work with your admin to update the required EAP configuration details. For more information, see Configure display of other work item types in EAP Backlog and Planning board.
    Switch between viewing Feature and Story on ART planning board.
    Tip:
    For an ART, if you switch from viewing Story to another work item type on the planning board for the first time after updating this configuration, you might not have your work item cards displayed. To resolve this, ensure that the Vertical lane selection in the Planning board personalization is not set to Enterprise agile iteration.

    Layout and default grouping for Kanban teams

    The Planning board for Kanban teams is grouped as follows:
    • Portfolio: Assigned work items are displayed in a two-dimensional Kanban board, with the teams as the horizontal lanes and state of the assigned work as the vertical lanes. Any work item that is not assigned to the child teams is displayed in the Portfolio section.

      Planning Board for an EAP portfolio of the type Kanban.

    • Team: Assigned work is displayed in one-dimensional Kanban board.

    As with Backlog, you can change the Type of work items displayed and create work items of multiple types from the Planning board.

    Use the following tasks to get started with PI Planning within Enterprise Agile Planning.