More than 15 scrums teams, lot of dependencies, frequent changes, multiple big projects, Is this not a challenge ?
Yes, it is.
When multiple teams are working together on a project, there are many cross-team issues and dependencies that need to be resolved.
In Naukri, we follow scrum methodology and scrum of scrums is the the technique which we use to solve such problems.
What is SOS (Scrum of Scrums) ?
A Scrum of Scrums is a group team made up of representatives from each of several other teams. Usually the representatives are the Scrum Masters from each team, although sometimes technical leaders and product owners also participate. The scrum of scrums meeting is an effective technique in scaling Scrum to large project teams. These meetings allow clusters of teams to discuss their work, focusing especially on areas of overlap and integration. Its purpose is to support agile teams in collaborating and coordinating their work with other teams.
In Naukri, We have two SOS groups. First group (SOS Team 1) has engineering managers/leads from each scrum team as the members. Other group (SOS Team 2) is represented by senior engineering leaders from each engineering group.
Each engineering group can have multiple scrum teams.
SOS Team 1 discusses issues at scrum level, upcoming projects and any interdependencies between other scrum teams.
SOS Team 2 discusses issues at more strategic level, whereby general direction of entire Naukri engineering is discussed and high level issues like resources, project status etc. are discussed.
“It’s not a meeting of Scrum Masters to report some kind of status, but a platform for :
- Ensuring that the technical integrity of the system is maintained as all new projects are discussed.
- Any team on the floor who got a problem to raise and get fast help/ support from other teams.
- A platform to share learnings
Agenda for scrum of scrums meeting is similar to daily standup meeting. In daily standup, we discuss following things at individual level.
- What did you do yesterday?
- What will you do today?
- What obstacles are in your way or slowing you down?
Scrum of Scrums is a very good practice, but its success depends on one key factors – effective coordination. This is what we focus more by doing better communication/coordination.
For better and faster communication and co-ordination we use whatsApp and slack apart from emails.
By starting SOS we have solved our biggest problem of communication. Lot of inter-dependency problem have reduced to much extent as all dependencies are discussed in SOS.
Sounds interesting ? Want to try SOS, consider this pattern when:
- You have multiple interdependent agile teams
- You have a large backlog of organizational impediments
- You are transitioning to Agile development
Want to be part of our SOS meeting. Its simple. Join Us 🙂
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