Scrum of Scrums in Scaled Agile
Scrum of Scrums (SoS) remains one of the oldest and, at the same time, widely used techniques in Agile.
Origin
The Scrum of Scrums technique was first applied in 1996 by Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber, pioneers of the Scrum methodology. Later, in 2001, Jeff Sutherland described Scrum of Scrums in his article “Agile Can Scale: Inventing and Reinventing Scrum in Five Companies”:
Scrum of Scrums, as I’ve used it, is responsible for delivering working software of all teams in accordance with the Definition of Done by the end of the sprint or by the release during the sprint.
Purpose
Scrum of Scrums (also known as Meta Scrum) is a scalable Agile technique used to integrate the actions of multiple Scrum teams working on one project. SoS helps teams interact with each other, integrate the results of their work, and coordinate their actions to achieve a common goal. This is particularly crucial in projects with dependencies and/or where the sequence of work is essential.
Scrum of Scrums Meetings
In regular Scrum of Scrums meetings, representatives from different Scrum teams are present, usually the Product Owner or Scrum Master. The discussions cover work status, dependencies, obstacles, and issues related to synchronization and coordination.
Advantages of Scrum of Scrums
Scrum of Scrums has many advantages, including collaboration, information exchange, problem-solving, and more. Here are additional benefits of Scrum of Scrums:
- Inter-team collaboration
- Dissemination of information across Scrum teams through their representatives
- Alignment of teams that have deviated from the course
- Creating a platform for issue resolution
Application of Scrum of Scrums
Organizations typically use Scrum of Scrums as a technique when working on large projects and complex products. This technique is commonly employed as part of scalable Agile frameworks such as SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework), Large Scale Scrum (LeSS), Scrum@Scale (S@S), among others.
Tag:Agile, Project, Terminology