Perform PI planning in EAP

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
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    Summary of Perform PI planning in EAP

    Enterprise Agile Planning (EAP) enables ServiceNow customers to perform Program Increment (PI) planning by using a Planning board designed for multiple teams and iterations. This tool supports Big Room Planning by allowing teams to plan, track progress, visualize dependencies, and reschedule work dynamically while aligning with business priorities.

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    Planning Board Layout and Usage

    The Planning board layout varies based on the Agile structure configured in EAP:

    • Agile Team: Uses a simple Kanban board with vertical lanes representing work item states, primarily showing Stories. Cards can be displayed in compact or full size, with full-size cards providing key details like item number, state, dependencies, and blockers.
    • Agile Release Train (ART), Solution Train, and Portfolio: Use a two-dimensional Kanban board. Horizontal lanes group child teams or trains, while vertical lanes represent iterations or item states depending on the level.

    Work items are grouped according to the hierarchy:

    • At the Agile Team level, vertical lanes correspond to story states within an iteration (e.g., Sprint).
    • At the ART level, horizontal lanes represent child teams, vertical lanes represent iterations within a PI.
    • At the Solution Train and Portfolio levels, horizontal lanes represent child ARTs or Solution Trains, with vertical lanes showing item states.

    Enabling toggles for Dependency and Capacity allows visualization of work item dependencies and team workloads directly on the Planning board.

    Customization and Configuration

    The Planning board displays work items based on the default EAP configuration, typically showing Features at the ART level. To view other work item types (e.g., Capabilities, Epics, Stories), customers need to update the EAP configuration with the help of an administrator.

    For custom story states used as vertical lanes, mapping to state buckets in the rmstory dictionary is required to ensure cards display correctly after page reloads.

    For Kanban teams, the Planning board differs slightly:

    • Portfolio level: Two-dimensional Kanban board with teams as horizontal lanes and work states as vertical lanes.
    • Team level: One-dimensional Kanban board showing assigned work.

    Practical Guidance for ServiceNow Customers

    • Use the Planning board to coordinate work across multiple teams and iterations efficiently during PI planning.
    • Leverage dependency and capacity visualizations to identify and resolve blockers or manage workloads in real-time.
    • Customize the Planning board view and card metrics to surface relevant information at a glance, improving decision-making.
    • Work with your ServiceNow admin to configure work item types and states appropriately to match your organizational processes and ensure full visibility.

    Next Steps

    • Plan work for an ART across multiple Planning Intervals using the Planning board.
    • Manage dependencies and blockers collaboratively with team members during PI planning.
    • Personalize the Planning board to display key metrics and indicators for your teams.

    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.

      If you use custom state choices as vertical lanes on the Planning board, you must map them to state buckets in the rm_story dictionary. Otherwise, story cards in those custom states don't appear after a page reload. For more information, see Configure state bucket mapping for custom story states in EAP.

    • 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.