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Pros and Cons of multiple teams working from a single backlog

Last post 03:54 pm January 17, 2019 by Daniel Wilhite
3 replies
Caitlin Harvey
08:42 pm January 16, 2019

I was wondering what people's experience is with having multiple teams working from a single backlog? What has worked/not worked? What are the pitfalls?

Ian Mitchell
10:59 pm January 16, 2019

Timely integration of release-quality work is the main issue. That's why the Nexus Framework introduces a Nexus Integration Team role, to provide assurance. However the actual work, including the management and resolution of any dependencies, ought to be left to the teams themselves.

Chris Belknap
01:06 am January 17, 2019

Dependency Management is also a concern.  Nexus introduces the Nexus Backlog Refinement event to assist with this.

Feature based teams (vs component teams) can also help with this.

Daniel Wilhite
03:54 pm January 17, 2019

Everything @Ian and @Chris said.  But I will add one thing.  The fewer teams you have working together out the backlog the easier it is.  That is why Nexus starts at 3 teams and not 2.  Two teams is much easier to coordinate across but the same rules apply.  Timely integration, dependency identification/management will kill you if not done. 

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