Scrum Teams
I have been working scrum for the past several months and I am having the most difficult time finding value in what we do as a team. We were paired with developers that do work for an application, we on the other hand we work with 15 different applications. Our team is mainly break/fix and they are a team that can plan. My main concern and question is how we can work together. I am not getting value or able to value the work they do as our team doesn't know the work they do nor do they understand or have willingness to learn or do our work. We are a floundering Scrum Team. i have suggested that our team be split up so that we can work in a different way (Kanban). This has been rejected as viable option. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
This has been rejected as viable option
Rejected by whom? Who is making the decisions about how teams are organized?
This was decided by our Solution owner whom I've spoken to about this many times before. I just sat through a one-hour long meeting (Backllog) with our team and spoke to one issue concerning a scrum rule we decided was no longer of value to anyone on the team. We decided that each of us will value work assign points and the group within the team will discuss if something is under or overvalued during backlog. Team A values their work and Team B values their work, I don't pretend to understand their work and they will not pretend to understand or know anything about the work we do. Just another rule out as a team have decided we will not follow. Team A and B are both on the same scrum team.
I think we can say that you've not been "working scrum for the past several months", and that you're not "a floundering Scrum Team". There's no Scrum and no team. My advice is to start with an open acknowledgement of this position, so the gap to implementing Scrum (or indeed any form of lean or agile practice) can then be seen and navigated. Find out who can then create a sense of urgency for the rules to change, including rules about who is accountable for solutions and their ownership.
I second @Ian's opinion. I can not find anything that indicates Scrum in your comments other than the use of the term "Scrum Master". Your mention of Team A and Team B being part of the same scrum team is a big clue that the Scrum framework is not being used.
@Ian's advice is exactly what I would do if I were faced with this. Trying to hold on and call something Scrum is not a good thing for your organization. It would be better to define your own terms and practices. Having the input from the individual(s) that championed the current process would be useful in understanding the expected results. Work with that information to help formulate something unique to your organization that will help.
I agree with point mentioned above. Even if one has scrum rituals like standup and retro, scrum is much more than that. The teams need to be empowered and take accountability. I sense from your description the morale is low and a lack of enthusiasm. I
It seems the one "team" is a development team, but is the other team a testing team or are they an application user team? Do the app team work with other dev teams also? If they a testing/QA team I would embed one person from this team full time on the dev team. Maybe rotate this role. Alternative if they are a application user team (say a call center), then I would designate one person as a Product Owner (PO) for the dev team. Create a backlog that the PO add items to and priorities, and let the dev team discuss and point the items. I realise you have the "one team" restriction, but just some thoughts.