Tips and Tools for PI Planning

We’ve all experienced the dreaded flat backlog. Thousands of issues, captured over years or decades.

All these business requirements and bright ideas pile up to form an impressive wall of ‘everything we didn’t do’.

It’s incoherent, depressing and has no sense of being customer-focused.

So why do we keep them? There’s a better way.

Sean will explain how user story mapping can be used to create a customer-focused view of prioritized work.

A user story map creates a 3D view of customer touch points and gives the team better clarity into what they are trying to achieve and which persona they are seeking to serve.

Take control of your backlog

Easy Agile User Story Maps

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When everything is “top priority”, nothing ships. Two weeks before planning, teams pull in different directions; work starts, but no one can name the one outcome you’ll deliver together.

If that sounds familiar, this session is for you.

In this on-demand session, Hayley Rodd (Easy Agile) and Andreas Wengenmayer (catworkx) show a practical way to align on outcomes, cut the noise, and keep delivery moving. You’ll see how to make priorities visible, surface dependencies early, and keep a single, living view of progress. We demo the flow in Jira with Easy Agile Programs, but the lessons apply to any tool you use today.

Why this matters now

• Goals live in slides, backlogs live elsewhere, and priorities change mid-cycle. Teams are busy, yet progress feels brittle.
• Dependencies show up late, reviews balloon into status theatre, and the roadmap quietly drifts from the original intent.
• Leaders ask for visibility; teams want fewer interruptions. Both are possible with a clearer shared view.

What you’ll walk away with

• A 5-step checklist to connect strategy to execution
• How to choose 3–5 objectives and prioritise with a simple business value scale
• How Release Train Engineers, Product Managers, Product Owners and Engineering Managers align on outcomes
• Mapping dependencies early and tracking progress in real time in Jira
• Using PI Objectives and a lightweight review rhythm to stay on course

Speakers

Hayley Rodd - Senior Partner Manager, Easy Agile
Helps customers and partners turn strategy into shipped work inside Jira.

Andreas Wengenmayer - Practice Lead, Enterprise Strategy Planning, catworkx
Advises enterprises on strategy, portfolio planning and delivery alignment.

Further Reading and Resources

• Free Goal-Clarity Canvas & Template
  An easy one-pager to turn vague goals into a clear outcome statement, success measures, and ownership. Includes guided prompts and a printable template you can use with any team.
• How We Simplified Our OKRs - and Got Better Strategy, Alignment, and Execution
  The inside story of how Easy Agile reduced OKR bloat, focused on outcomes, and improved cadence. Practical tips, examples, and pitfalls to avoid.
• The Ultimate Guide to PI Planning + Free Template
  A step-by-step guide to running effective increment/quarterly planning: roles, agenda, dependency mapping, and anti-patterns. Comes with a free downloadable template you can adapt to your context.

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