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Scaling in Scrum

Last post 06:19 am May 15, 2020 by Sander Dur
6 replies
06:56 pm May 14, 2020

The version of the PSPO I exam that I took, and didn't pass (yet), asked more than one question about how to split people into different Scrum Teams.  That's scaling right?  The thing is, I didn't a CTRL-find in the Scrum Guide for scale and scaling with zero results.  So, what does the Scrum Guide teach us about to make several Scrum Teams?  I don't think I got those questions correct and would like to learn before I take the exam again.


06:58 pm May 14, 2020

That should say "I did a CTRL-find..."


08:16 pm May 14, 2020

how to split people into different Scrum Teams.  That's scaling right?

They should be encouraged to self-organize into Scrum Teams, each of which is sufficiently cross-functional to deliver feature-complete increments of release quality. When this is done well, it reduces the need to scale, in so far as there should be little work to integrate across teams.


08:46 pm May 14, 2020

Splitting is not necessarily scaling. In my experiences, scaling refers to more than two teams. For example, Scrum is most effective when you have a Development Team of at least three individuals. The Scrum structures are designed to coordinate the activities for this number of people or more and tend to be more overhead than necessary for an individual or two people working together. Likewise, coordinating the work between two teams is relatively straightforward, but becomes more complicated with 3, 4, and more teams.

If you need to split a team, consider that the Scrum Guide says that a Development Team is self-organizing. This would allow the Development Team to decide when and how to split itself. Since a Product Owner is aligned with the product and its associated Product Backlog, there's no need to split. Likewise, there's only one Scrum Master, so it would not be a decision to split the Scrum Master but if to split the time or find a second Scrum Master.


10:01 pm May 14, 2020

@Thomas I have heard of a company that has multiple Agile Teams and therefore multiple of everyone, including the Scrum Master and Product Owner.

You said that the Scrum Guide says that the Development Team is self-organizing.  While that's true, it also says that the Scrum Team is self-organizing, so is it wrong that the Scrum Master would be the one that splits the staff into separate Development Teams as needed?


10:40 pm May 14, 2020

I have looked at your test and the questions on scaling are about self organization, how the Scrum Team creates itself which is pure Scrum, not scaling as it would apply to having a group of 10 people deciding if they were 1 team or 2 on their own and what self-organization is about.  The other thing I see is right out of the Scrum Guide where it asks about how many Product Owners if you have 1 product and multiple teams.  As per the Scrum Guide 1 PO per Product, not team.  

These are pure Scrum Theory questions and not based on scaling as others above have stated.  Only 1 question that you had wrong was in any way related to the above topics.  I hope this helps.  


06:19 am May 15, 2020

While that's true, it also says that the Scrum Team is self-organizing, so is it wrong that the Scrum Master would be the one that splits the staff into separate Development Teams as needed?

This would mean that the Scrum Team has a directing member who points out people who go to which team. A Scrum Master guides, facilitates, coaches, teaches, actively does nothing and collaborates. Directing is not one of those things. 


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