How to implement Scrum with three similar web-based products [closed]

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I am somewhat familiar with the concepts and benefits of Scrum. With that in mind, I am trying to improve the failing Scrum product management structure of a company I'm now working for that has three separate B2C products, catering to the same demographic and accessible on the same website. Each product has a product owner and a unique development team behind it.

Given that the target audiences are similar (not sure if it should matter) and the 3 web products are similar in nature, what are the potential benefits/risks associated with merging the teams and having just one product owner and one development team? Some questions that come to mind are: does it make sense to have 3 product owners and three distinct backlogs if your website has three distinct products? Also, if you only have one product owner, what is the best metric off which to choose who that will be?

Answer 1

Some additional context would be useful.

How big are the teams? (Remember the 7 +/- 2 team size guideline.) Are they cross-functional?

What gives each product its individual distinctiveness? Conversely, what would be gained by adding each products' "biological and technological distinctiveness" to the product collective?

How often do you deploy to the web?

Answer 2

You state 'failing Scrum product management structure of the company', I would suggest you start with trying to understand exactly what is failing with the company's current scrum process.

I would be very cautious about simply trying to merge the three teams, doing this could be very disruptive to the company culture, come with resistance, and still not get you the results you seek.

One good way to work to understand the current failings, would be to find a way to visualize your workflow. This should help expose any bottlenecks and/or missed expectations during the development life-cycle.

Kanban is a great technique for this, and does not require any new processes or changes to be put in place! Simply draw your current workflow through swim lanes on a white board, try to limit WIP on the board, and perform your daily stand-up scrum meetings around the Kanban board. This should allow you to very quickly understand and determine what is failing in the current process.

Here is a great overview of Kanban.

I also recommend 'Lean from the Trenches' by Henrik Kniberg as another great resource.

Answer 3

This is not a team problem, but more of a management question. As a Scrum Master your role is to coach for dysfunction, and in this case you have highlighted something of concern; in that there is inconsistency between the products and possibly not optimal team performance.

Feel out your observations with the existing product owners and determine whether they find this to be a problem or not. It is each product owners prerogative to choose how they will manage this. As these different web sites may be inconsistent and affect the company brand, it is the PO's choice do / not do as it is their risk.

If they do feel the brand is at risk, the next is to put the three teams together (for a meeting) and present them all with the same problem. Then ask them to solve it and see what they come up with.

Answer 4

Think simple, if you are going to merge all three products together into one than you'll have to do the same with POs, but if your products will continue to live separately you'll have to keep PO per product.

I would assume that "similar in nature" leads to problems like "two product's has the same feature" or "what is the overall direction where all three product's going to and how they interfere". To solve this kind of problems you could use "scrum of scrums", usually it's weekly meeting which includes all teams members where each team is sharing their goals for upcoming sprint. This kind of collaboration give better understanding who is doing what and how it affects whole system.

Answer 5

Before you look at what to do with the teams, try to identify what is causing the failures.

Are you conducting retrospectives? Have the team posed any solutions / suggestions about how to improve (scrum emphasizes team and personal responsibility -- the team should be a participant in the solution)

Multiple PO's will almost certainly lead to a more chaotic environment for the team. Part of the elegance of the PO is giving the team one go-to person for final approval on the "What" questions.

But I'm getting ahead of myself -- first, understand the problems really well.

Do you need to merge teams? I don't know, but the 7 +- 2 rule is a pretty good rule of thumb. If you are working on similar things, maybe you need an architecture team. Maybe your team configuration fine, but there is some other hang up in your workflow.

Strongly consider bringing in a good scrum coach. There are a number of training and coaching consultancies out there, and those guys travel the country helping people like us to get implemented.

I've implemented scrum twice now, and I can honestly say that it would not have gone nearly as well as it did if it were not for bringing in training. (You also must have management sponsorship -- for one if my implementations, I was able to get even the CIO to participate in the training -- it was transformational)

Answer 6

A 'similar target audiences' is not good grounds to merge the teams.

Three products is good grounds for three teams, within the constrains of team size. The team needs to be large enough to include all the necessary skills while being small enough to eliminate redundant communications paths.

Beyond this it is impossible to help you determine why they are "failing Scrum" without a lot more context that you seem unwilling to provide.

Therefore the only suggestions are; hire in a high quality scrum coach or if not feasible identify the smells and apply the perscriptive solutions.