MetaScrum Group

Play Description

Also Known As/Similar To

Lean Portfolio Management (LPM), Solution Management, Product Management, Product Triad

Pattern Groups

Scaling Structures, Scaling the Product Owner

Challenge Categories

Sprint Alignment, Communication and Coordination, Decision-Making, Prioritization, Resource Allocation, Dependencies, Stakeholder Engagement, Performance Monitoring, Organizational Structure,

Challenges Addressed

This pattern can address two key challenges:

1. Lack of strategic alignment across teams: The MetaScrum group ensures leaders, stakeholders, and product owners are aligned on the product’s direction.
2. Difficulty in prioritizing and managing dependencies: The group resolves conflicting priorities and manages resource allocation and dependencies across teams or portfolios.

Definition

A MetaScrum group is a group of leaders and stakeholders for a product, product group (portfolio), or value stream who meet with product owners to guide the strategic direction of a product. Leadership and stakeholders are selected based on their interest in the success of the product or product group (portfolio), as well as the knowledge of the target audience the product, product group (portfolio) benefits.

MetaScrum has two meanings:

• A group of individuals who meet regularly to align the work of agile teams with the product’s (or organization’s) strategy. and
• An event where a group of individuals align the work of agile teams with the product’s or organization’s strategy (this definition describes the group).

A specific type of MetaScrum is the Executive MetaScrum, which brings together a dynamic group of senior leadership in the organization to guide organization strategy, as well as set priorities for one or more product groups (portfolios) in an organization. Typical membership includes individuals involved in product marketing, sales and distribution, and C-levels (e.g., “CEO”,”CIO”,”COO”,”CTO” or similar) in addition to product owner(s).

In Frameworks

In SAFe, the participants in Lean Portfolio Management, function much like an Executive MetaScrum, working with Epic Owners and Business Owners to guide the direction of a portfolio of products.

In  Scrum@Scale, the MetaScrum aligns product ownership, leadership, and stakeholders for better scaling and decision-making across multiple agile teams. This pattern can also be implemented to form an Executive MetaScrum comprising executives and product or portfolio owners.

How To Use It:

• Convene the group regularly to ensure consensus and coordination for prioritization and resource allocation.
• Ensure that key decision-makers are part of the MetaScrum group to maintain legitimacy and influence.
• Use this group to maintain consistent communication between teams and stakeholders.

Tags/Keywords

MetaScrum, MetaScrum (Group), SAFe, Scrum@Scale