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PI Calendar

FCC's Program Increments run on a 10-week cadence aligned to the Research Center (RC) quarterly rhythm. Each PI starts on the first day of a calendar quarter (Q3 = Jul 1, Q4 = Oct 1, Q1 = Jan 1, Q2 = Apr 1) and closes on the last day of that quarter. Inside each PI: five 2-week iterations.

Rolling 4-PI horizon

PI Start End FCC release Focus RC-aligned milestones
PI-2026-Q3 (current) 2026-07-01 2026-09-30 v1.4.1 → v1.4.2 ice_ext absorption + SAFe instance bootstrap + vocabulary-parity hardening RC PI-2026-Q3 ecosystem-integration-tests CI gate maturation; RC NEXUS v2.1.0 registry drift audit
PI-2026-Q4 2026-10-01 2026-12-31 v1.4.3 → v1.4.4 Real seed data foundation prep + GraphRAG scaffolding + event-split (PE-008) refactor RC portfolio review; JV partner alignment audit
PI-2027-Q1 2027-01-01 2027-03-31 v1.5.0-rc → v1.5.0 v1.5.0 pillar convergence (real seed data, GraphRAG, patent delegation, POLARIS/LYRA) RC v2.2.0 cross-ecosystem contract freeze
PI-2027-Q2 2027-04-01 2027-06-30 v1.5.1 → v1.5.2 v1.5.0 hardening (i18n, multi-user collab, advanced federation, perf optimization) RC portfolio-review quarterly sync

Current PI objectives (PI-2026-Q3)

Committed (3-5 per ART):

  • Framework ART:
  • Land the SAFe instance scaffold (this docs/safe/ tree + make safe-report + 5 new personas SMC/SFBI/TLDR/VDS/ZCA).
  • Absorb ice_ext classification patterns into src/fcc/classification/.

  • Register POLARIS + LYRA v1.5-preview plugins for PE-009 readiness.

  • Ecosystem ART:

  • Integrate ice_ext_element_mapping.yaml into packaged vocabulary; add ice_ext provider to VDS parity audit.
  • Re-baseline SHA-256 manifests across all 13+ VocabularyProviderPlugins.

  • Publish the v1.4.1 bridge report under SFBI ownership.

  • Docs ART:

  • Publish docs/safe/ into MkDocs nav at v1.4.1 integration.
  • Re-run TLDR reconciliation against all 10 constellations + ice_ext + research_center_ext.
  • Regenerate 173 → 178 model cards (5 new personas landing).

Uncommitted (stretch):

  • SAFe audience tutorial under docs/for-teams/ (or a v1.3.10-era successor tree).
  • SAFe-instance Streamlit walkthrough demo.

Predictability target: 80-100% of committed objectives hit. Below 60% triggers PI-end Inspect & Adapt.

Iterations inside PI-2026-Q3

Iteration Dates Theme Type
I-1 2026-07-01 → 2026-07-14 v1.4.1 scaffolding (this scaffold lands here) Delivery
I-2 2026-07-15 → 2026-07-28 ice_ext absorption hardening + vocabulary-parity CI Delivery
I-3 2026-07-29 → 2026-08-11 POLARIS/LYRA preview graduation prep + PE-009 backlog refinement Delivery
I-4 2026-08-12 → 2026-08-25 v1.4.2 release (real seed data foundation prep) Delivery
I-5 (IP) 2026-08-26 → 2026-09-30 Innovation & Planning: PI-2026-Q3 close, system demo, Inspect & Adapt retrospective, backlog-refinement for PI-2026-Q4 Innovation & Planning

Note: I-5 extends to PI-end rather than a clean 2-week slice because FCC uses the final iteration as a dedicated Innovation & Planning (IP) iteration. During an IP iteration the ARTs reduce feature velocity (target ≤50% of a normal iteration), absorb feedback from the system demo, close out PI ceremonies, and refine the next PI's backlog. This is aligned with SAFe 6.0 IP-iteration guidance and kept on a 4-to-5-week slot because FCC's release-oriented PI has more ceremonial overhead than a pure SAFe PI.

IP iteration pattern (per PI)

Every FCC PI ends with an IP iteration that absorbs:

  • System demo across all three ARTs (SMC publishes the PI scorecard).
  • Inspect & Adapt retrospective (mandatory if predictability fell below 60%).
  • Backlog refinement for the next PI (BC/JVC/EC-led sessions).
  • Enabler catch-up work: CI hygiene, vocabulary parity re-baselining, three-layer reconciliation sweeps.
  • Any pattern-absorption proposals PHV surfaced during the PI.

Feature delivery is explicitly down-weighted during IP iterations to protect this capacity; SMC's flow-efficiency metric excludes the IP iteration from normal-iteration trend lines.

Holiday skip-weeks

Holiday skip-weeks are intentionally absorbed into the adjacent IP iteration rather than extending the PI boundary. Known holiday windows on FCC's calendar:

Window Dates (annual) Absorbed into
US Independence Day Jul 04 (± 2 days) PI-Qn Q3, I-1
US Labor Day first Monday of September PI-Qn Q3, I-5 (IP)
US Thanksgiving fourth Thursday of November (+ Friday) PI-Qn Q4, I-5 (IP)
Winter holidays Dec 20 – Jan 3 PI-Qn Q4, I-5 (IP) — PI closes earlier, IP compressed
Easter + Passover variable (late March / mid-April) PI-Qn Q2, I-1

When a holiday window falls into a normal Delivery iteration, velocity expectations for that iteration are re-baselined (commonly by one story-point-equivalent); SMC excludes the impacted week from iteration-level trend lines so flow metrics stay comparable.

PI ceremonies

  • PI planning — ~1 week before PI start (scheduled: 2026-06-23 through 2026-06-30 for PI-2026-Q3).
  • System demo — Last Friday of each PI. SMC publishes PI scorecard; each ART demos committed objective completion.
  • Inspect & Adapt — First week after PI close. Root-cause retrospective if predictability fell below 60%.
  • Portfolio sync — Once per PI, late in the iteration cycle. SFBI aligns with RC's portfolio tier to confirm vocabulary + cadence stay synchronized.

RC-alignment notes

FCC's PI boundaries align with RC's but FCC's scope is narrower (one authority repo + 10 constellation verticals versus RC's 20+ projects). When RC's PI planning or I&A retrospective identifies a cross-project dependency affecting FCC, SFBI authors a bridge report so the dependency lands in FCC's backlog with source + line references.

Key RC-alignment signals tracked here:

  • RC NEXUS v2.1.0 registry drift audit (quarterly).
  • RC portfolio review outputs affecting FCC's Framework or Ecosystem ART.
  • Cross-project ADR references where RC and FCC co-own a decision.
  • JV partner alignment audits RC runs quarterly and FCC consumes at PI start.

Historical PIs (informational)

For continuity with the v1.3.x series predating SAFe adoption, historical release cadence was not PI-structured. v1.4.0 closed the "ecosystem pivot" pillar; v1.4.1 bootstraps the SAFe operating model and begins the PI-2026-Q3 PI proper. Earlier release cadence (v1.3.5 → v1.3.11 → v1.4.0) is preserved in CHANGELOG.md and the per-release memory files.