Poor dependencies execution

  • Product is being developed by several development teams working as streams with dependencies (e.g. FE and BE, infrastructure team, 3rd party integration)

  • There are open issues that can be resolved only by dependent team

  • There is no common planning or/and integration points 

  • Not resolved merge conflicts when pushing to the integrated main branch

  • There are taken into a iteration tasks which cannot be completed without others dependent tasks that were not included and not done yet

Discovered by combination of metrics:

Number of Open Work Stoppages, when high meaning that work is being blocked due to dependency (for example, dependency on other teams incl. 3rd party services as one of the key factors)

Velocity: Committed vs. Completed, when team does not meet commitments and completes iteration with tickets in blocked status, or not on time with delivery of tickets which have been postponed due to dependency during active iteration during solid amount of time

Average Velocity and Throughput, when velocity / productivity dramatically changes without any updates in team availability/setup mostly meaning that stories are not completed during iteration and moved to further sprint due to dependency

Scrum Cycle Time, when Max & Average Time increases due blockers or suspended processes in delivery pipeline (Number of Open Work Stoppages)

Lead and Cycle Time, when unacceptably high or when lead time too big compared to cycle time (long decision making process which team has to resolve the issue)

Reaction/Resolution Target Fulfillment, when not met or targets are too easy

Backlog Health, when low with scope not being ready for development due communication protocols not being properly managed between teams / services causing dependencies 

Delivery Forecast via Burn-up, when completed line is too static with sudden jumps and/or when scope line is too volatile

Recommendations: 

  1. Build delivery plan - product and sprint levels

  2. Enhance Sprint execution

  3. Introduce or enhance EngX in delivery

  4. Introduce or enhance methods of work

  5. Introduce or enhance monitoring & controlling

  6. Introduce or enhance planning process

  7. Introduce or enhance risks management