Scrum of Scrums

Scrum of Scrums is an Agile project management approach where representatives from multiple Scrum teams meet regularly to coordinate efforts, discuss progress, and address challenges in large-scale projects. It enhances collaboration, minimizes inter-team dependencies, and promotes transparency across the organization.

Table of Contents

Approach Overview:

Agile Project Management Technique: Scrum of Scrums (SoS) is a highly effective agile project management technique that extends the principles of the Scrum framework to address the complexities associated with large-scale projects. While traditional Scrum excels in smaller settings, SoS is designed to tackle the unique challenges of managing large and intricate endeavors.
Addresses Complexities of Large-Scale Projects: Large-scale projects often involve numerous teams, intricate dependencies, and multifaceted requirements. SoS recognizes these complexities and provides a structured approach to manage them effectively. It allows organizations to maintain agility while handling substantial project scope.
Involves Multiple Scrum Teams: At its core, SoS involves the collaboration of multiple Scrum teams. These teams, which may have different focuses and areas of expertise, come together to work on a shared project. SoS ensures that these teams are aligned in their efforts and operate cohesively to achieve the project’s objectives.

Scrum of Scrums Team:

Higher-Level Team Formed: A fundamental aspect of SoS is the formation of a higher-level team, commonly referred to as the Scrum of Scrums team. This team is strategically composed of representatives from each individual Scrum team involved in the project. These representatives are typically experienced Scrum Masters or Product Owners.
Comprises Representatives from Individual Scrum Teams: The Scrum of Scrums team acts as a bridge connecting various Scrum teams. It comprises representatives who have an in-depth understanding of their respective teams’ work. These individuals play a pivotal role in facilitating communication, coordination, and alignment across teams.
Enhances Collaboration and Coordination: The Scrum of Scrums team serves as a catalyst for enhanced collaboration and coordination. It ensures that all participating teams are working towards a common project vision. By acting as a central point of contact and oversight, this higher-level team strengthens collaboration, fosters transparency, and promotes collective accountability.

Meetings for Coordination:

Regular Scrum of Scrums Meetings: A cornerstone of the SoS approach is the regular Scrum of Scrums meetings. These meetings provide a structured platform for representatives from different Scrum teams to come together and exchange information. The frequency of these meetings varies but often occurs daily or at scheduled intervals.
Facilitates Effective Communication: Scrum of Scrums meetings serve as a crucial conduit for effective communication among teams. They provide teams with the opportunity to share updates on their progress, report on ongoing activities, and discuss any challenges they may encounter. This open and collaborative environment promotes a shared understanding of the project’s status.
Discusses Progress, Challenges, and Solutions: In Scrum of Scrums meetings, discussions revolve around progress made by individual teams, challenges faced, and potential solutions. Teams collaborate to identify and address inter-team dependencies, ensuring that the project moves forward smoothly and efficiently.

Dependency Management:

Addresses Inter-Team Dependencies: Managing inter-team dependencies is a central focus of Scrum of Scrums. Large-scale projects often entail complex relationships between different components or features. SoS takes a proactive approach to identify and address these dependencies, minimizing potential bottlenecks and roadblocks.
Reduces Risk of Delays: By actively managing dependencies, SoS reduces the risk of delays in project timelines. Teams work collaboratively to find innovative solutions and adapt their plans to accommodate dependencies, leading to a smoother workflow and accelerated value delivery.
Ensures Alignment of Work Across Teams: Alignment across teams is critical in large-scale projects. SoS ensures that all teams understand their roles and responsibilities within the broader project context. This alignment enhances overall project efficiency and effectiveness.

Transparency and Accountability:

Fosters Culture of Transparency: SoS fosters a culture of transparency by encouraging open sharing of information and progress updates. This transparency extends across all levels of the organization, ensuring that everyone involved has visibility into the project’s status.
Promotes Collective Responsibility: Collective responsibility is a core principle of SoS. Instead of assigning blame when challenges arise, teams collaborate to find solutions. This shift towards collective accountability enhances team cohesion and resilience.
Encourages Open Sharing of Progress and Challenges: Teams are encouraged to openly share their progress, challenges, and potential impediments. This practice ensures that all stakeholders have a comprehensive understanding of the project’s dynamics and can contribute to its success.

Benefits:

Improved Collaboration Between Teams: SoS promotes seamless collaboration between teams, fostering a sense of unity and shared purpose among diverse teams with varying areas of expertise.
Effective Management of Complex Projects: Large-scale projects often entail intricate dependencies and multifaceted requirements. SoS provides a structured framework for managing these complexities, ensuring that teams work cohesively to deliver successful outcomes.
Enhanced Decision-Making and Alignment: By facilitating cross-team communication and coordination, SoS supports informed decision-making and alignment with the project’s strategic goals.

Facilitation and Communication:

Effective Facilitation Is Crucial: The success of Scrum of Scrums meetings relies on effective facilitation. Dedicated facilitators play a vital role in ensuring that meetings remain productive, focused, and collaborative. They must possess strong interpersonal skills and a deep understanding of agile principles.
Facilitators Ensure Productive Meetings: Facilitators are responsible for maintaining productive meetings, adhering to defined agendas, and managing complex team dynamics effectively.
Clear Communication Prevents Misunderstandings: Clear and efficient communication is paramount in SoS. Facilitators, along with representatives from each team, must ensure that information flows smoothly between teams, preventing misunderstandings, miscommunications, and duplication of efforts.

Challenges:

Requires Dedicated Facilitators: Finding skilled and dedicated facilitators who can effectively manage Scrum of Scrums meetings can be a challenge. These facilitators need to have a deep understanding of agile methodologies and possess strong interpersonal skills.
Ensuring Active Participation in Meetings: Encouraging active participation from representatives of each Scrum team during Scrum of Scrums meetings can be a challenge. Creating an environment where all voices are heard and teams are motivated to share their progress and challenges openly is essential.
Synchronizing Efforts Across Teams: Achieving synchronization and alignment across multiple Scrum teams can be complex, especially when teams have varying priorities and workloads. Effective coordination is crucial to overcome this challenge and ensure that teams work harmoniously towards the project’s objectives.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, Scrum of Scrums is a valuable approach for managing large-scale projects in an agile and collaborative manner.
By forming a higher-level team, facilitating regular coordination meetings, actively managing dependencies, and promoting transparency and accountability, organizations can enhance their ability to deliver complex projects successfully.
While challenges exist, the benefits of Scrum of Scrums in terms of improved collaboration, effective project management, and better decision-making make it a valuable addition to the agile toolkit.
When implemented thoughtfully and with a focus on continuous improvement, Scrum of Scrums empowers organizations to navigate the complexities of large-scale projects and achieve their desired outcomes.

Related Frameworks, Models, or Concepts	Description	When to Apply
Scrum of Scrums	– Scrum of Scrums is a scaled Agile framework for coordinating work and collaboration among multiple Scrum teams working on a large-scale project or product. In Scrum of Scrums, representatives from individual Scrum teams meet regularly to discuss progress, dependencies, and impediments, ensuring alignment, transparency, and synchronization across teams. By facilitating communication and coordination at a higher level, Scrum of Scrums enables organizations to scale Agile practices effectively and deliver value incrementally in complex environments.	– When scaling Agile practices to accommodate larger projects, programs, or organizations with multiple Scrum teams, or when seeking to enhance coordination, alignment, and visibility across teams working on interconnected initiatives. – Applicable in industries such as software development, product management, and IT services to scale Agile frameworks and practices while maintaining agility, collaboration, and delivery excellence using Scrum of Scrums ceremonies and principles.
Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)	– The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) is a comprehensive Agile methodology and framework for scaling Agile practices across large enterprises and complex projects. SAFe provides a structured approach to scaling Agile principles, roles, ceremonies, and artifacts to align teams, synchronize work, and deliver value predictably. SAFe incorporates principles from Lean, Agile, and DevOps, offering various configurations and levels (e.g., Essential SAFe, Large Solution SAFe, Portfolio SAFe) to address the needs of different organizations and industries.	– When transforming large enterprises or organizations to Agile ways of working, or when managing complex projects, programs, or product portfolios with multiple teams and dependencies. – Applicable in industries such as finance, healthcare, and automotive to implement Agile at scale, improve collaboration, and accelerate value delivery using SAFe frameworks, practices, and configurations.
Nexus Framework	– The Nexus Framework is a scaled Scrum framework designed for scaling Scrum practices and principles to address the challenges of larger, more complex product development initiatives. Nexus builds upon the core elements of Scrum and introduces additional roles, events, and artifacts to coordinate work and integration among multiple Scrum teams. By providing guidance on scaling Scrum, Nexus enables organizations to manage dependencies, streamline collaboration, and deliver integrated increments of work reliably and predictably.	– When scaling Scrum practices to accommodate larger product development efforts or when managing projects with multiple Scrum teams that share dependencies and integration points. – Applicable in industries such as software development, digital product management, and technology consulting to scale Agile frameworks effectively and improve cross-team collaboration and delivery outcomes using Nexus principles and practices.
LeSS (Large-Scale Scrum)	– LeSS (Large-Scale Scrum) is an Agile framework for scaling Scrum practices to large organizations and product development initiatives. LeSS simplifies the scaling of Scrum by emphasizing simplicity, transparency, and empirical process control. In LeSS, multiple Scrum teams work together as one product team, sharing the same product backlog and following a common set of Scrum events and roles. By focusing on organizational agility and minimizing complexity, LeSS enables large organizations to streamline decision-making, reduce coordination overhead, and deliver value incrementally with high quality.	– When transitioning large organizations to Agile ways of working or when scaling Scrum practices to manage complex product development efforts with multiple teams and stakeholders. – Applicable in industries such as telecommunications, enterprise software, and digital transformation to foster collaboration, adaptability, and customer-centricity using LeSS principles and practices.
Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD)	– Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD) is an Agile methodology and framework that provides guidance on scaling Agile practices to address enterprise-level complexities and challenges. DAD extends Agile principles from individual teams to the entire organization, offering flexibility in process selection and tailoring based on project context and organizational needs. DAD incorporates practices from Agile, Lean, and DevOps, allowing organizations to choose the right combination of practices to optimize their delivery processes and outcomes.	– When adopting Agile practices at scale or when managing large-scale projects, programs, or product portfolios with diverse teams, stakeholders, and dependencies. – Applicable in industries such as banking, insurance, and government to improve agility, collaboration, and delivery effectiveness using DAD frameworks, practices, and toolkits.
Agile Release Train (ART)	– Agile Release Train (ART) is a concept introduced in the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) for organizing and coordinating Agile teams within a large program or product development initiative. An ART represents a virtual organization of multiple Agile teams working together to deliver value incrementally and synchronize their work to achieve common objectives. ARTs operate on fixed cadences, typically spanning 8-12 weeks, and include all the necessary roles, events, and artifacts to support continuous delivery and integration at scale.	– When managing large programs or product development initiatives with multiple Agile teams, or when seeking to align teams, synchronize work, and deliver value predictably and consistently. – Applicable in industries such as telecommunications, aerospace, and healthcare to organize and coordinate Agile teams effectively using ARTs, improve cross-team collaboration, and accelerate value delivery using SAFe principles and practices.
Kanban Method	– The Kanban Method is an Agile framework for managing and visualizing work in progress, enabling teams to optimize flow, limit work in progress (WIP), and continuously improve their delivery processes. While Kanban is often associated with Lean principles and visual management techniques, it can also be used to scale Agile practices by applying Kanban principles at the portfolio, program, or enterprise level. Kanban provides flexibility in scaling, allowing organizations to customize their Kanban systems to fit their unique contexts and goals.	– When scaling Agile practices beyond individual teams or when managing portfolios, programs, or value streams with diverse work types, priorities, and dependencies. – Applicable in industries such as software development, IT operations, and service delivery to optimize flow, increase transparency, and improve collaboration using Kanban principles and practices for scaled Agile implementations.
Agile Coaching	– Agile Coaching is a practice that involves guiding individuals, teams, and organizations in adopting and improving Agile methodologies, principles, and practices. Agile coaches support teams in understanding Agile concepts, overcoming challenges, and implementing Agile frameworks effectively. In the context of scaling Agile, Agile coaches play a crucial role in facilitating collaboration, fostering alignment, and driving continuous improvement across multiple teams and stakeholders. Agile coaches provide guidance, mentorship, and training to help organizations navigate the complexities of scaling Agile and achieve their desired outcomes.	– When transitioning to Agile ways of working, scaling Agile practices, or driving Agile transformations across organizations, teams, or departments. – Applicable in industries such as software development, finance, and healthcare to build Agile capabilities, foster cultural change, and optimize delivery outcomes through Agile coaching and mentorship programs.
Agile Portfolio Management	– Agile Portfolio Management is an approach to managing portfolios of projects, programs, or initiatives using Agile principles and practices. Agile portfolio management emphasizes flexibility, adaptability, and value-driven decision-making, allowing organizations to align investments with strategic objectives, prioritize initiatives based on business value, and optimize resource allocation dynamically. By applying Agile principles at the portfolio level, organizations can improve visibility, governance, and responsiveness to changing market conditions and customer needs.	– When managing portfolios of projects, programs, or investments with uncertain or evolving requirements, or when seeking to optimize resource allocation, minimize waste, and maximize business value through Agile portfolio management practices. – Applicable in industries such as financial services, telecommunications, and product development to enhance strategic alignment, accelerate value delivery, and improve decision-making using Agile portfolio management frameworks and techniques.
DevOps Practices	– DevOps Practices are a set of principles, methodologies, and tools for integrating development and operations functions, streamlining collaboration, and accelerating the delivery of software products and services. DevOps practices promote automation, continuous integration, continuous delivery, and infrastructure as code to improve deployment frequency, lead time, and deployment success rates. In the context of scaling Agile, DevOps practices enable organizations to achieve faster time-to-market, higher quality, and better alignment between development and operations teams across large-scale initiatives.	– When scaling Agile practices to manage end-to-end delivery pipelines or when seeking to improve collaboration, efficiency, and reliability across development and operations functions. – Applicable in industries such as cloud computing, software engineering, and digital transformation to enable Agile at scale, streamline delivery processes, and enhance business agility using DevOps practices and principles.