Five new Scrum Teams have been created to build one product. A few of the Developers on one of the Scrum Teams ask the Scrum Master how to coordinate their work with the other teams. What should the Scrum Master do?
(choose the best answer)
Correct Answer: A
Explanation
Teach them that it is their responsibility to work with the other teams to create an integrated Increment that is inclusive of all five team's work.
Explanation: According to the Scrum Guide, the Scrum Team is responsible for all product-related activities, including coordination and integration with other teams. The Scrum Master should teach the Developers how to work with the other teams to create a potentially releasable product increment that meets the Definition of Done and the Product Goal. One way to facilitate this coordination is to use a Scrum of Scrums meeting, which is a daily or periodic meeting where representatives from each team share their progress, plans, and impediments. The Scrum of Scrums meeting is not mandatory, but it can help the teams align their work and resolve dependencies.
The other options are not correct because they violate the principles of Scrum, such as self-management, empiricism, and transparency:
B: Collecting the Sprint tasks from the teams and merging them into a consolidated plan for the entire Sprint is a centralized and controlled way of coordination that undermines the self-management and autonomy of the teams. The Scrum Master should not act as a project manager or a coordinator, but as a servant-leader and a coach who enables the teams to manage their own work.
C: Visiting the five teams each day to inspect that their Sprint Backlogs are aligned is a micromanagement and inspection approach that does not respect the trust and transparency of the teams.
The Scrum Master should not interfere with the work of the teams, but support them in creating a shared understanding of the product vision, goals, and requirements.
D: Teaching the Product Owner to work with the lead developers on ordering Product Backlog in a way to avoid too much overlap during a Sprint is a suboptimal and inefficient way of coordination that does not leverage the collective intelligence and creativity of the teams. The Product Owner should not rely on a few individuals to order the Product Backlog, but collaborate with all the teams and stakeholders to maximize value delivery.
References:
[Scrum Guide], section 2.2: "The Scrum Team is responsible for all product-related activities from stakeholder collaboration, verification, maintenance, operation, experimentation, research and development, and anything else that might be required." Scrum Of Scrums - Guide to Agile Scaling Frameworks - Agilest: "The coordination of the various teams is done in a Scrum of Scrums meeting which can be held daily, twice a week, or at a minimum, once a week. Each Scrum team has its ScrumMaster or a designated team member attend the Scrum of Scrum meeting as its representative."
