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Departmental Issues - Where do they align with Scrum?

Last post 07:29 pm January 23, 2017 by Ian Mitchell
2 replies
Eileen Buck
02:39 pm January 23, 2017

I am a QA Analyst and requested that we refresh the data from Production in our Test environment. Where in the Scrum process would this discussion fall?

My boss told me that I should bring it up in the Scrum planning meeting. Since this impacts the entire department and all projects, I'm confused by that statement.

Can you please shed some light on department-wide issues and where they align with the Scrum process?

Thanks!

Ram Manga
04:07 pm January 23, 2017

Best event to bring this up is at the backlog/story grooming meeting, if you have one (story grooming is not one of the Scrum ceremonies, but is a part of Sprint planning.) And it would be a good idea to add this request as part of the story's assumptions/pre-conditions. Coming from a QA who has experienced this situation :) Good luck.

Ian Mitchell
07:29 pm January 23, 2017

> I am a QA Analyst and requested that we refresh the data
> from Production in our Test environment. Where in the
> Scrum process would this discussion fall?

Any Scrum Team member can call a Scrum for any reason at any time. There is no QA analyst role within the Development Team, or indeed any sub-roles at all, and hence no protocols to constrain collaboration. If you see the need for a discussion with other team members, then it's your responsibility to make sure the necessary conversations happen.

> My boss told me that I should bring it up in the Scrum planning
> meeting. Since this impacts the entire department and all
> projects, I'm confused by that statement.

Why is your boss dispensing this advice? If authorative guidance is needed about the correct implementation of Scrum then team members ought to be able to ask their Scrum Master.

> Can you please shed some light on department-wide issues
> and where they align with the Scrum process?

Each team ought to be able to plan and create an increment of release quality every Sprint. Any "department wide issues" must be resolvable by Scrum Teams collaborating to mitigate those issues, including any assumptions and dependencies which may emerge. This might be achieved by means of a Nexus for example.

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