Back to Forum

Mutiple feature teams multiple products

Last post 04:58 pm June 19, 2017 by Vasilij Savin
3 replies
Daniel Francis
07:05 pm June 13, 2017

Evening all.

 

We currently have two feature teams, one Web one mobile. They have their own backlogs. Each have their own product manager and scrum master. Team size is 11 including scrum and product role per team.

We have an increasing demand for delivery outside of the product backlog from other projects. Some will touch Web,  some will touch mobile and some will touch both. 

We've proposed a 3rd team, who will be capable of working on Web and Mobile delivery from demand outside the existing backlog. In times of slack they will help the existing feature teams with their backlog. 

However one lead is stating the CI/CD overhead will be too much and instead of creating a 3rd team, we should bolster the existing team sizes, which is against textbook. 

I'm personally against this as I believe the existing product backlogs will also be pernially pushed back because the external demand will be of a higher priority. 

Thoughts on how to proceed?

Ian Mitchell
05:38 am June 14, 2017

Each Scrum Team should be able to focus on a product without distraction each Sprint. Increasing the size of a team beyond Scrum's recommended limits will make it harder for team members to collaborate. It will not compensate for poor CI/CD discipline.

If CI/CD is a constraint, then that is the problem which ought to be solved. The current implementation of Scrum should also be reviewed - there are no "lead" or "Product Manager" roles.

Mark van Ments
07:37 am June 14, 2017

Is it really two products?

If the new requirements are higher value why is it a problem to prioritise them?

Vasilij Savin
07:52 am June 18, 2017

Hi Daniel,

I have another suggestion that can help you solve the problem. Can you reformat your feature teams into cross+functional teams, splitting mobile and web team into two halves and merging them together. This way both teams can handle both web and mobile and can easily adapt to whatever is thrown at them. It will also help create more unified look and feel across web and mobile.

By posting on our forums you are agreeing to our Terms of Use.

Please note that the first and last name from your Scrum.org member profile will be displayed next to any topic or comment you post on the forums. For privacy concerns, we cannot allow you to post email addresses. All user-submitted content on our Forums may be subject to deletion if it is found to be in violation of our Terms of Use. Scrum.org does not endorse user-submitted content or the content of links to any third-party websites.

Terms of Use

Scrum.org may, at its discretion, remove any post that it deems unsuitable for these forums. Unsuitable post content includes, but is not limited to, Scrum.org Professional-level assessment questions and answers, profanity, insults, racism or sexually explicit content. Using our forum as a platform for the marketing and solicitation of products or services is also prohibited. Forum members who post content deemed unsuitable by Scrum.org may have their access revoked at any time, without warning. Scrum.org may, but is not obliged to, monitor submissions.