Network of Teams

Play Description

Pattern Summary

A “Network of Teams”, also known as a “Scrum of Scrums”, “Agile Release Train” or “Team of Teams”, is team of multiple agile teams working together to frequently deliver a product, solution or service on a regular cadence. It is an organizational structure that helps make cross-team work coordination easier and more effective.

Related Patterns

Enterprise Backlog, Team Sync, Scaling the Product Owner, Scaling the Scrum Master, Scrum Master Team, Product Owner Team

Symptom Categories 

Cross-Team Communication, Dependency Management, Cross-Team Coordination, Alignment with Goals, Organizational Structure

Symptoms Addressed

The following symptoms are likely to be improved or addressed by implementing this pattern:

• The organization’s current structure slows or prevents multiple teams from coordinating, collaborating and delivering a product, service or solution together effectively. This could be due to the organization being structured into functional departments (accounting, finance, IT, compliance, marketing), instead of in cross-functional teams and teams-of-teams.
• Multiple teams that are developing a product, service or solution together are struggling to effectively deliver a cohesive, well-designed product. The problem could be so severe that the product does not function when the work of each team is integrated and delivered.
  
• Multiple teams that are developing a product, service or solution together are not managing or eliminating cross-team dependencies effectively, resulting in delays in delivery or integration defects.
• Multiple teams working together are not effectively achieving strategic goals or strategic work. Instead, their time is spent on tactical work and minor enhancements to existing product(s).

Detailed Description

Scaling Agile teams is typically necessary when a project or organization reaches a level of complexity, size, or scope where a single team can no longer efficiently handle the workload or meet the business needs. Here are key scenarios where scaling Agile may be required:

• Business Growth and Increased Demand
• Need for Faster Time-to-Market
• Large or Complex Projects
• Inter-dependencies Between Teams
• Cross-Functional or Specialized Expertise
• Distributed Teams or Geographical Constraints

Use When

1. When there is a need to coordinate work across teams. This is a simple, straightforward way of determining the need.
2. When multiples teams are working to deliver large, complex products or solutions, and it has become too difficult to manage the work without one. This is usually triggered by the size of the effort, complexity, cross-team dependencies, and/or impediments that impact more than one team.

Do not use When

1. When work involving multiple teams can be effectively managed without a formal “Team of Teams”.
2. When coordinating work across a portfolio of products and the interdependencies among the products is minimal. (In this case, using a MetaScrum to scale Product Owner activities may still be appropriate.)

In Frameworks

Scrum@Scale defines a “Scrum of Scrums” as a network of teams with a need to coordinate, delivering a product increment together every Sprint (Scrum@Scale Guide), while the Scaled Agile Framework defines an Agile Release Train (ART) as “a long-lived team of Agile teams that incrementally develops, delivers, and often operates one or more solutions in a value stream. (© Scaled Agile, Inc.)”. As such, the Team of Teams is often the foundational structure required when scaling agile efforts because events, activities, and work often incorporate the need to collaborate across organizational teams, often with separate and distinct responsibilities.

The Team of Teams approach coordinates these efforts, making it easier for organizations to frequently and consistently deliver value at scale. In Scrum@Scale, further scaling can be achieved by creating a “Scrum of Scrum of Scrums” with representatives from each Scrum of Scrums, while in SAFe an Agile Release Train can be further scaled by creating a Solution Train or introducing Lean Portfolio Management.

The LeSS framework (Large Scale Scrum) include a shared Sprint Planning and shared Sprint Review but discoruage a formal Cross Team Sync event in favor of a more organic “Let’s Talk” approach that encourage use of Scouts, Communities of Practice and Communication in Code.

How to Use

There are multiple ways to implement this pattern, including the bottom-up/seed-to-oak, mytosis and grafting transformation patterns.

Here’s one way to apply this pattern:

1. Identify the product or development value stream
2. Identify one or more individuals who are strong in agile and your preferred framework.
3. Persuade them to participate in your agile scaling effort.
4. Form a team around these individuals.
5. Support the team in their efforts to become proficient (successful).
6. Once the first team is successful, form a second team, repeating the model until the entire organization has reached your desire level of agility.