Scrum@Scale Case Study

Summary

Despite having a strong vision, enthusiasm to execute using Scrum, and participation from the business, this Global Financial Services company’s software development team found themselves 4-5 months behind schedule and challenged by prolonged decision-latency, unclear priorities, and drawn-out meetings.  Trainer Fred Mastropasque discusses how he used Scrum@Scale to refactor the teams and speed up delivery.

Team Organization and CPO Selection

When Fred joined the initiative, the team had 15 team members, 1 Scrum Master, and 3 Product Owners, which were operating as a committee. Immediately, Fred knew the large team size and committee-style Product Ownership would be barriers to speed and proposed the team split into two smaller teams, coordinated through a Scrum of Scrums. Each of the two teams had its own dedicated Product Owner, while the third Product Owner, who was most closely associated with the business, became the Chief Product Owner (CPO). A story-mapping session with the Product Owner team provided a clear roadmap, and MetaScrum coordination helped to ensure alignment among the teams across a single product backlog.

Results

Within the first Sprint working in this fashion, the teams’ velocity increased by 40%, and after four Sprints, they were 280% faster. They were able to bring the delivery time in by four months, landing the project on time, and leading to dramatic savings for the business.

They have since implemented an Executive Action Team and are working toward rolling the Scrum@Scale implementation across three additional groups within the organization.