What activity takes place during Iteration Planning in SAFe?

During Iteration Planning in the SAFe framework, the focus is on setting the team's capacity for the upcoming iteration. This activity involves assessing the team's availability and the number of story points or work items that can be realistically completed within the iteration timeframe. By determining team capacity, the team can align their available resources with the expected workload, ensuring they commit to a manageable amount of work while maintaining quality.

This step is critical for effective planning as it helps the team gauge their workload based on factors like holidays, potential absences, or other commitments that could impact their available working hours. It anchors the team in reality and allows them to make informed decisions about which backlog items to prioritize and take on during the iteration.

While discussing team cohesion, planning for future PI objectives, and refining backlog items are important activities in the overall SAFe process, they are not the primary focus during Iteration Planning. Setting the team's capacity is a specific and actionable element of this planning meeting that directly influences the team's execution capability for the upcoming iteration.