From a SAFe Agile perspective, does anyone tie PI Objectives to deployed code in production as it concerns the PI Objective being completed (stated and completed within a discrete PI)? If so, how do you manage this process from a performance standpoint?

Let me separate this response into two sections - SAFe guidance and Reality. 

SAFe guidance: Measure the PI 1 Objectives during System Demo as part of the Inspect & Adapt event of the PI 2 Planning event.  More details ==> https://scaledagileframework.com/inspect-and-adapt/

So, it is quite possible that completed Features (related to the PI Objectives) at this stage may not have undergone extensive testing or gone live (depending on the deployment strategy of the organisation). 

Reality: I have always seen PI Objectives stated during PI 1 - whether these are granularly measured during PI 2 I&A event remains a question.  As Scott points out below, PI Objectives are linked into Epics and Features (more as a soft link) - so, when the Feature and/or Epic gets marked as "Done" (Definition of Done) - this indicates the PI objectives are met in an implied sense.  This "Done" status is traditionally done by the UAT Test Manager within the Project.  

 

Some organizations define “done” as “the code is deployed to production and being used by customers”. In this case, tying PI Objectives (things Mitchell calls Epics or Features) to a set of deployed code makes a lot of sense. On the other hand, we separate the act of building and validating, from deployment, and from release to customers. So, for us, there’s no real business benefit to tying PI Objectives directly to deployed code. So, we haven’t done the work to pull those things together. We have the data, because we know changesets went into a release, what builds make up those change sets, and we do have linkage between user stories and change sets, and user stories to features to epics to themes, etc, but we don’t have a way to visualize the data the way you describe.

With a structured approach to connecting PI Objectives with deployed code, you can enhance the performance metrics and ensure that the delivered value aligns closely with business expectations.

Here’s a recommended structured approach:
1. Define and Align PI Objectives
2. Break Down Objectives into Features
3. Implement Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD)
4. Monitor Deployment and Performance
5. Review and Adapt
6. Document and Communicate