Help: External Dependencies & Teams
I work as a project manager mainly with telecoms operators, and the typical situation I face is:
1. Dependency on software, hardware, and other components being delivered by others parts of the organisation or vendors as separate activities
2. Dependency on teams and individuals outside the Scrum development team
What’re your recommendations and experiences to manage these with Scrum?
My thoughts:
1. I act as Project Manger for managing delivery of dependencies from external projects and resources
2. I act as Scrum Master for the Scrum Team for developing our Product
3. I help the Product Owner manage the Product Backlog external dependencies
4. I facilitate the Develoment Team working with external team members as needed
Erik
What actually brought the team to Scrum in this case? Do they have a complex product delivery environment which they need to learn about, understand and stabilize, and does having Sprint Goals help?
It is difficult initially for Scrum Teams to effectively manage external dependencies.
The one item that helped me work through this with my teams is the following line from the Scrum Guide:
- Development Teams are cross-functional, with all the skills as a team necessary to create a product Increment;
My suggestion to my Scrum Teams is to not rely on "alignment" with other entities to hopefully complete work within the sprint time box. Because it is critical for Development Teams to be 100% in control of the ability to deliver each sprint, we simply refuse to accept any items until any external dependencies are resolved or mitigated somehow.
It just isn't fair for a team to miss their sprint forecast because of actions/inactions outside of the team, and it provides a much better experience for that Development Team in full control of their forecast.
Forcing enough organizational change to create a development team "with all the skills as a team necessary to create a product increment" may be very difficult to achieve in practice during early phases of Scrum adoption. The Scrum Master needs to meet the organization where they are.
I recently wrapped a gig where this was prevalent with external team dependencies to complete incremental work. We had to compromise and adjust PBI inclusion into the Sprint Backlog to anticipate when the external deliveries could be completed. Was it ideal? No. Did we adapt to work within the boundaries we encountered? Yes.