An important aspect of Agile is continuous improvement. For ones on the Agile scrum teams this improvement can only be ATTAINED in an environment that allows for and endorses continuous learning. The Innovation and Planning sprint offers just this occasion for scrum team members as it gives a structured break in the development cycle to re-evaluate the team’s CURRENT skills with those needed in the sprints ahead.

SAFe provides for periodic Innovation and Planning sprints, which serve a variety of purposes, including: providing an estimating buffer for meeting objectives; a dedicated time for Inspect and ADAPT and Release Planning activities; a cadence-based opportunity for innovation; time for continuing education; time for working on the technical infrastructure, tooling, and any other impediments; and time for backlog refinement.

As per ScaledAgiledFramework.com:

“Innovation and planning iterations provide a regular, cadence-based opportunity, every PI, for teams to work on activities that are difficult to fit into a continuous, incremental value delivery pattern. These may include: 

• Time for innovation and exploration, beyond the iterations dedicated to delivery 
• Work on technical infrastructure, tooling, and other impediments to delivery 
• Education to support continuous learning and improvement 
• A dedicated time for the PI System Demo, I&A workshop, PI planning events, and backlog refinement, including final prioritization of FEATURES using Weighted Shortest Job First (WSJF) 
• Final integration of the solution, including verification and validation, if RELEASING on the PI boundary 

Final user acceptance testing and documentation, and any other readiness activities that are not feasible or economical to perform at every iteration”