Internal process improvement and or suggestions
My current situation is not anything special but I prefer to get as many educated opinions as possible before implementing change.
The company I work for is very small but they also have roles which does not fit into the current confines of Scrum.
No. of employees - 16
Roles
CEO and director x 2
PM / Scrum Master x 1
Front end dev x 4
Back end dev x 2
Full stack dev x 3
UX design and test x 2
BA / Industrial Engineer x 1
Client liaison and support x 1
Our solution provides the ability for clients to build on top of our platform. Now, by looking at our team it is clear that we do not have a product owner (this is something I am trying to address). We originally tried to give this to the client but this is definitely not working. Clients (Sometimes big corporates) do not all understand and want to necessarily go Agile. So trying to educate someone from their team takes way too much time / coaching to be effective.
The next problem we're facing is that the devs are not all "well seasoned" senior devs, some are quite junior and still need quite a bit of guidance.
Then lastly, to make things even more complicated: not all the devs work on the same project, we have either a single dev or as many as 3 devs working on a project with the two most senior devs overseeing and guiding everyone. Communication is lacking and everyone works in silos. On top of this we only have one stand up where everyone talks through their items but a lot of the time it is counter productive as the first dev talking about his client / project has nothing to do with the next dev and his or her code base.
My question: what would you suggest on how to resolve the above mentioned issues?
My thinking or possible solutions:
- Stop siloing the devs / talent pool and throw everyone into one team.
- Encourage the BA to pursue the Product Owner course and appoint her as the PO
Your suggestions will be greatly appreciated. I need guidance please.
I prefer to get as many educated opinions as possible before implementing change.
Is there any sense of urgency for change at all, and if so, where does it come from?
You gave a lot of information but you never mentioned the reason that you feel Scrum is something that will be useful. Also, there was no mention of people feeling that there are issues that need to be fixed.
If there is no desire or support for change, it usually isn't worth trying to do it.
I will comment on one thing you suggested.
- Stop siloing the devs / talent pool and throw everyone into one team.
You describe that everyone works on different projects. How would putting everyone into one team make this any different? Products are the basis for Scrum not projects. If you split up your work in projects for specific customers, one team is not going to make it any better.