I&P Iteration is not a buffer!

It quickly becomes tempting to use the Innovation and planning sprint as a buffer; I have seen companies do this over and over again. The thought of using the I&P sprint as a buffer resonates strongly with most participants in our SAFe® training as well.

Once in awhile situation might demand and if the need arises, by all means, inspect, adapt, and respond to the lack of the hour. The danger occurs when you consistently make this a habit.

Using the Innovation and Planning sprint as buffer time and time again is detrimental in many ways:

1. Teams begin to take this fact for granted, and the pace of work in previous sprints gets affected
2. It might impact the sense of urgency that is essential for iterative releases
3. You send the message that creativity and innovation is not important
4. Teams don’t get a chance to step back and reflect and come up with new ideas
5. The cost of loss of change can be enormous in terms of being left behind in a competitive marketplace
6. You miss the window for Gemba to think outside of the box.

While these may not sound fatal in the short term, it could harm creativity and culture at the workplace. It is essential to make productive use of this time and rally the teams behind ideation activities, sharing knowledge, and encouraging exciting innovations to emerge.

Editor’s Note: Original blog was published on: Oct 10, 2016

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