I am often asked why are PI Objectives needed when the features have already been determined and handed over to the teams? Why repeat the process in re-defining something that is already known?
Features are built by the product management team with possible inputs from the development as well as business owners. Still the development teams may not have complete visibility across features till the PI planning. Often a feature maybe too big for a single team to handle and may be split between one or more teams.
The idea of PI objectives is to get a revalidation of not just the features assigned but also the teams understanding of the same. Agile is not about merely assigning the task to teams but for there to be a collaborative scope of work that is derived from self-configuring teams.
While the end result might look like simplified summaries of the feature, achieving SMART PI objectives require the teams to have an in-depth knowledge of team velocity, competencies, milestones, any major refactoring and any dependencies that might be known or emerge during the team break outs.
Once the PI objectives are synthesised by the technical teams it is important for them to understand the business value of the intended work which is where the business owners value assignment plays a role. Now the teams are able to get a better business understanding and a sense of priority of their inputs for the PI.