YDS: When Do You Split a Scrum Team?

When Do You Split a Scrum Team? Let's explore the options this situation presents. All of this and more are discussed in today's episode of Your Daily Scrum with Todd Miller and Ryan Ripley.
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[@Elmusiico]

Fantastic conversation and some good seeds planted. Thinking about the teams I collaborate with, there are usually two initiatives being worked on at the same time. Maybe bringing up the conversation of focus and going after one initiate at a time. Rather than having two people cleaning the kitchen and two cutting the yard, focus on one thing at a time and have a retro on it. I think this would take courage for some teams to do though. Appreciate the information.

[@simplemanideas4719]

I love that!!

[@agent425]

I've split teams a few times and the #1 indicator that I've used is when stakeholders needs aren't being met. And that is because there are just too many stakeholders for the team. Each time I've done it it has been very successful as the team feels like they have an easier time focusing and stakeholders feel more supported.

[@rajadas6432]

Self management is the goal and takes time to reach there. At the beginning of the journey, when team is not in a position to take that decision, how to make a case to decision makers regarding splitting team? Most decisions are rooted in past way thinking like more people means more productivity, more centralized control,etc. Any pragmatic suggestion to address this situation? Thank you

[@dmitryshastitko8742]

There are two things that make Daily SCRUM podcast the best - videos are daily and about SCRUM :)

[@AgileforHumans]

THANK YOU!

[@Glynixx]

Gents, I love the YDS casts! Will you be doing some long form ones in the future (like in the old days)? The Guide does a great job w the framework but I wish we had more resources that discuss the maturation of a team (and a SM) over time, good practices and behaviors (in addition to your book and YDS). Any hints / info on your next book? Keep up the great work! Hopefully we can have a AFH/YDS Meetup some day!

[@NERIDA82]

Your videos always rock guys. I have a question. As a SM what would you if you had a team formed by 20 people which do not always complete users stories because adverse to change/impediments? Manager want to split the team into 2 teams. The product backlog would be the same. What are your thoughts? How would you solve this? Thank you

[@shivambahel]

Thanks Todd and Ryan for wonderful Video. I am currently facing tough situation regarding Split of Team (I have posted in the community also). Manual Test Team members (QA specialists) wants to be in 1 separate Team as a cohesive Unit and want to help other SCRUM teams(which will be now without QA skill) in meeting the Sprint Goal. Reasons presented was really weird as they want to know everything about the Increment as 1 team and want create backup within its own team in case of unplanned leaves. They are relentless to accept any recommendation related to Cross-Functional teams. Please suggest how to resolve this situation. Can I run SCRUM with other teams and Kanban with this Team of 1 skill set?

[@catwoman888]

Question - What happens when the scrum master goes on vacation? I know the team is supposed to be self-managed, self-sufficient. However, if there's a blocker/impediment etc. who takes care of that in the interim? PO? Back-up SM?

[@tomaszniemiec]

I can think of two reasons for this: size and scope. While the first one is pretty obvious, the second one requires a bit more attention and is not so well-defined, to be a rule. It is about the goals that a team faces to complete. Often times it happens that we have more than one sprint goal, or it seems we need to tackle more than one of them and still be moving into the direction of the product goal, but with two separate lanes. As soon as this is noticeable and makes sense for the product, I usually then think about splitting the teams to help the groups focus. Then we go into keeping them self-managed, cross-functional and debating the PO and SM roles within them. It is a bit unclear, but I think you already know where I'm going with this.

[@tomaszniemiec]

Yes, that is such good advice guys about 'creating 10 Scrum Teams, by slicing a ten man good team'. I've also never seen it work. And also: it never works no matter how you split the initial team. If you take out two guys and create a new team with them and some others - they still have to go through the same processes and team building stages (norming, storming, etc.) as the initial one AND they probably will act different. This is also why you don't copy the Spotify model kids :P

[@googleaccount5225]

I feel like the sprint goal is a way to manage complexity. But many sprints may not be complex at all, just a large set of unrelated micro-asks. Are the parts of Scrum that deal with complexity necessary absent of complexity? Because then It feels ritualistic.

[@AgileforHumans]

Are we *sure* that the "micro-tasks" are not complex?

[@archiee1337]

Good point. How to create a sprint goal having just many small tasks that do not relate to each other too much?

[@olemew]

The beginning is a master class on how to dodge a question LOL

[@AgileforHumans]

So there is no correlation to Scrum teams that are working on multiple products and the need to split teams? Perhaps you haven't seen this in the wild but the conversation we had in that class was with a 20 person team working on 3 different products (which we've seen many times) and they asked us if they should split their teams up. Or perhaps you just gave us a master class in trolling 🤣

[@olemew]

​@@AgileforHumans I love your channel, so 80% joking, 20% serious. Let me explain the serious part. I always pause the video and try to answer the question of the day. At 0:40 Ryan made a straightforward question. I was expecting something about max team size according to the scrum guide, not having a common sprint goal, functional vs org, daily syncs that don’t add value, clash of personalities within the team, bad performance, etc. But Todd did what I call a “pro-move”, which is bringing up another question without answering either the original or the new question. So, for the record, Todd, I saw what you did there!!

[@AgileforHumans]

Ha! I suppose at that moment in time I had my consulting hat on and went straight to the root of the core problem of a team we had just had a conversation with. I ask a lot of questions 🤣 ~Todd

[@andrewslater9826]

Is it common for a manager to have the final say for a team to split? Or should the team be able to decide on their own?

[@archiee1337]

Good question

[@archiee1337]

Same SM same PO for both teams after splitting?

[@AgileforHumans]

Possibly. Could be a different Scrum Master. Likely the same Product Owner.

[@archiee1337]

Side question: what does it actually mean that a team is self--managed?

[@kensaiyeahyeah123]

Follow up question: When do you merge Scrum Teams?