YDS: When Do You Split a Scrum Team?

When Do You Split a Scrum Team? Let's explore the options this situation presents. All of this and more are discussed in today's episode of Your Daily Scrum with Todd Miller and Ryan Ripley.

Professional Scrum Trainers Todd Miller and Ryan Ripley built this course to help those interested in Scrum get up and running quickly using the Framework. They've partnered with Daria Bagina from ScrumMastered to bring practical materials and guides to the course.

Todd and Ryan also co-authored a book - Fixing Your Scrum: Practical Solutions to Common Scrum Problems.

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[olemew]

The beginning is a master class on how to dodge a question LOL

[Elmusiico]

Fantastic conversation and some good seeds planted. Thinking about the teams I collaborate with, there are usually two initiatives being worked on at the same time. Maybe bringing up the conversation of focus and going after one initiate at a time. Rather than having two people cleaning the kitchen and two cutting the yard, focus on one thing at a time and have a retro on it. I think this would take courage for some teams to do though. Appreciate the information.

[rajadas]

Self management is the goal and takes time to reach there. At the beginning of the journey, when team is not in a position to take that decision, how to make a case to decision makers regarding splitting team? Most decisions are rooted in past way thinking like more people means more productivity, more centralized control, etc. Any pragmatic suggestion to address this situation? Thank you

[kensaiyeahyeah]

Follow up question: When do you merge Scrum Teams?

[agent]

I've split teams a few times and the #1 indicator that I've used is when stakeholders needs aren't being met. And that is because there are just too many stakeholders for the team. Each time I've done it it has been very successful as the team feels like they have an easier time focusing and stakeholders feel more supported.

[dmitryshastitko]

There are two things that make Daily SCRUM podcast the best - videos are daily and about SCRUM :)

[Glynixx]

Gents, I love the YDS casts! Will you be doing some long form ones in the future (like in the old days)? The Guide does a great job w the framework but I wish we had more resources that discuss the maturation of a team (and a SM) over time, good practices and behaviors (in addition to your book and YDS). Any hints / info on your next book? Keep up the great work! Hopefully we can have a AFH/YDS Meetup some day!

[tomaszniemiec]

I can think of two reasons for this: size and scope. While the first one is pretty obvious, the second one requires a bit more attention and is not so well-defined, to be a rule. It is about the goals that a team faces to complete. Often times it happens that we have more than one sprint goal, or it seems we need to tackle more than one of them and still be moving into the direction of the product goal, but with two separate lanes. As soon as this is noticeable and makes sense for the product, I usually then think about splitting the teams to help the groups focus. Then we go into keeping them self-managed, cross-functional and debating the PO and SM roles within them. It is a bit unclear, but I think you already know where I'm going with this.

[NERIDA]

Your videos always rock guys. I have a question. As a SM what would you if you had a team formed by 20 people which do not always complete users stories because adverse to change/impediments? Manager want to split the team into 2 teams. The product backlog would be the same. What are your thoughts? How would you solve this? Thank you

[catwoman]

Question - What happens when the scrum master goes on vacation? I know the team is supposed to be self-managed, self-sufficient. However, if there's a blocker/impediment etc. who takes care of that in the interim? PO? Back-up SM?

[googleaccount]

I feel like the sprint goal is a way to manage complexity. But many sprints may not be complex at all, just a large set of unrelated micro-asks. Are the parts of Scrum that deal with complexity necessary absent of complexity? Because then It feels ritualistic.

[andrewslater]

Is it common for a manager to have the final say for a team to split? Or should the team be able to decide on their own?

[shivambahel]

Thanks Todd and Ryan for wonderful Video. I am currently facing tough situation regarding Split of Team (I have posted in the community also). Manual Test Team members (QA specialists) wants to be in 1 separate Team as a cohesive Unit and want to help other SCRUM teams(which will be now without QA skill) in meeting the Sprint Goal. Reasons presented was really weird as they want to know everything about the Increment as 1 team and want create backup within its own team in case of unplanned leaves. They are relentless to accept any recommendation related to Cross-Functional teams. Please suggest how to resolve this situation. Can I run SCRUM with other teams and Kanban with this Team of 1 skill set?

[archiee]

Side question: what does it actually mean that a team is self--managed?

[archiee]

Same SM same PO for both teams after splitting?