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Multiple projects with one team

Last post 12:23 pm October 31, 2019 by Tony Divel
5 replies
06:03 pm October 30, 2019

Hi, do you have any experience and what would you propose in following case?

We have a team consisting of around 10 developers working and then maintaining multiple projects. The problem is, that there are quite big differences between them, so they are not completely interchangeable, only about 2-3 are actually aware of particular projects and are able to develop new features and process bugs.

In this particular setting, is it worth separating the projects into different boards and doing the "scrum calculations", such as velocity and planning etc. separately for every project with some overhead, or has it proven acceptable and usable for you to have just one for all and ignore the differences as? 


05:16 am October 31, 2019

Let’s leave projects aside for the moment. What does the team’s Product Owner think is the best way to maximize product value?


05:35 am October 31, 2019

Separate it, so you can focus just on one project when you are looking ať the board. Its true that putting it all together is a little mess. 


06:50 am October 31, 2019

Separating it to projects, so anyone involved in the product can focus on just one, also every product has separate sprint goals, roadmap etc. 


09:39 am October 31, 2019

You're frequently mentioning projects. How many products do you have?

Scrum is centered around the creation and delivery of products and services, not the execution of projects. The roles, artifacts, and events will make more sense if your people form teams and your teams form around products.


12:23 pm October 31, 2019

I've been in this situation where an organization wants to do Scrum but continues to stretch people and teams across multiple projects. 

The Scrum Framework should make visible the challenges associated with this approach whether it be constructing / meeting a Sprint Goal, backlog refinement, team focus, producing a releasable increment each Sprint, etc. 

Separating the projects onto different boards may help you organize the work and make it a little more transparent but you'll be adding overhead but it likely won't address the root cause of the challenges here. 


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