After receiving Scrum Master training from Jeff Sutherland, our team has undergone
some significant changes in both organizational structure and process improvement.
Much of this change is directly influenced by the advice and instruction provided
by Jeff, including applying Scrum beyond the borders of our software development teams.
Scrum provides a model
for scaling up in an organization so that the entire operational branch
of the organization is managed with Scrum. This is known as Type
C Scrum.
The first level of Type C Scrum above the actual product development teams in the
Scrum of Scrums (SoS). The Scrum Masters come to a daily SoS standup
attended by organizational leaders who can actually remove impediments as
identified by the Scrum Masters. We have been convening SoS for a few weeks
now and what follows is a true story. The names have been changed to protect
the innocent.
SoS Day 1
Scrum of Scrum Master (SoSM): Morning, folks. Let’s start with the
Alpha team.
Scrum Master 1 (SM1): I have an impediment to getting a defect cleared
so that we can ship our product on time. We need the content group to enter
some data into the product CMS so that we can harvest it.
SoSM: So, what’s the problem? Have you asked them to enter the data?
SM1: I did. The content group said that the CMS data entry
tool doesn’t support that feature.
SoSM: That’s weird. Team Gamma released that feature into the
CMS data entry tool 3 weeks ago.
SM1: We know, but that version hasn’t been deployed to production.
The content group doesn’t have the feature.
Chief Technical Officer (CTO): Really? I’ll check with the I.T.
Director.
SoS Day 2
SoSM: Morning, folks. Let’s start with the Alpha team. Yesterday
you reported an impediment about getting some content through to the production system.
SM1: Yes, [The CTO] and I walked down to I.T. and found out they
hadn’t picked up the latest drop of the CMS data entry tool.
CTO: I.T. didn’t realize the CMS tool deployment was blocking our product
shipment. There were other things that were ahead of deploying the CMS
tool in I.T.’s priority list, but we cleared it up and the software deployed
last night.
SM1: The content group is entering the data we need into the CMS right now
and we will build with the released data later this morning. We’re on track.
Synopsis
Before SoS, this issue might very well have resulted in the defect fix not making
it into the current release. As companies grow, the left hand grows farther
and farther from the right. It is often hard from teams in different places
within the organization to understand each other’s needs. This is exactly the
sweet spot for SoS and I am a true convert.