Role clarification - Which role performs detailed technical system flows in a multi-team effort?
Hi all,
I am a program manager and just onboarded onto a ServiceNow implementation project that involves multiple development teams. The development teams are aligned to the system that they support
The teams are transitioning to agile approach. I would rate their current agile adoption status as "hybrid agile" model using the nicest terms. They've adopted some of the ceremonies and "procedures" of agile but still struggle with the philosophy.
ServiceNow acts the "front-end" and the other systems are all back-end integrations. Many of our stories require detailed technical system flows to show the interactions between the systems. In our current model, the ServiceNow Product Owner is expected to provide the detailed technical flows as part of their story building.
The problem is this is causing a chokepoint on our SN product owners. They are overburdened and creating a bottleneck. On top of gathering business requirements, building feature roadmap and aligning with leadership, they are also expected to do these very time consuming detailed system flows and collaborating with the product managers and engineers of the backend systems.
In this situation, is the product owner of the front-end system the appropriate role to perform these system flows? If not, who should perform the detailed technical specs in a multi-team model?
Any advice or information is appreciated.
Young
Is it actually possible to obtain detailed technical specifications which you can then have confidence in?
If so, why bother with Scrum at all? The framework is meant for complex conditions of high uncertainty, where innovation is the key to success. Using Scrum, teams learn empirically -- Sprint by Sprint -- to build the right thing at the right time.
The teams are transitioning to agile approach. I would rate their current agile adoption status as "hybrid agile" model using the nicest terms. They've adopted some of the ceremonies and "procedures" of agile but still struggle with the philosophy.
I wasn't aware that there were ceremonies and procedures in an agile "model". In fact, I am not entirely sure what an agile model is. The Manifesto for agile software development expresses some philosophies and principles that can help teams become more efficient at adjusting to change. But I would not call that an agile model.
It seems you have some kind of specific "model" in mind in order for you to 'rate their current agile adoption status as "hybrid agile" model using the nicest terms'. What you describe seems to be very structured with many gates to moving forward. I would agree that it doesn't seem to be capable of allowing teams to adjust to changes easily.
From a Scrum perspective, @Ian has given you what I consider to be the perfect answer. From a perspective of what would work best for your team and organization, you should be asking them and not us. Your process is specific to your organization and ServiceNow. So only the people in those organizations can provide answers that would benefit the situation.
Thanks all.... I see that it's not really a Scrum question.
The Scaled Professional Scrum course may provide help. Read the Nexus guide to see if this is the right model (multiple teams on 1 product) and if so, consider signing up for the SPS class.