What happens during the "Release Planning" event in SAFe?

During the "Release Planning" event in the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), teams align on feature delivery and synchronization points for the program increment. This event plays a crucial role in the planning cadence within SAFe, allowing teams to collaboratively define the goals and objectives for the upcoming increment, ensure that everyone understands what needs to be accomplished, and establish how their work will interconnect with that of other teams.

The alignment on feature delivery is essential because it fosters collaboration between different teams and stakeholders. It ensures that there is a shared understanding of priorities, dependencies, and timelines, which ultimately leads to a more coordinated and efficient delivery of value to the customer. By focusing on synchronization points, teams can effectively manage dependencies, avoid last-minute surprises, and create a unified effort focused on delivering business outcomes in the program increment.

This structured approach not only enhances communication and collaboration among teams but also supports the overarching goals of SAFe, which emphasize aligning strategy with execution and delivering customer value in a predictable and sustainable manner.