Ask HN: How should we organise small teams?

1 points by theanonymousone 2 months ago | 3 comments

Hi.

Years ago I was asked in an interview to mention a disadvantage of Scrum, and I answered it doesn't work for big teams. I got the job.

Now, I have seen multiple times that Scrum has even more problems with smaller teams, composed of e.g. less than five people: If we want to adhere to the rule that the PO does not write code, then there will be issues. And Scrum ceremonies will be quite comical in a team of three, even assuming a part-time SM.

What do you think works best to organise a small team of engineers working on a single product within a large organisation, within Scrum or Scaled Agile frameworks? Currently we simply form "autonomous" sub-teams within a larger team with some flexibilities such as arbitrary participation in some ceremonies etc. Is there a better way?

Thanks

notarobot123 2 months ago | next |

There is no silver bullet. Talent, passion and the purposeful alignment of effort are the only necessary ingredients for a productive team. Adopting the rituals of teams that get this right won't make your team successful if it doesn't also have those core ingredients.

roenxi 2 months ago | prev |

> If we want to adhere to the rule that the PO does not write code, then there will be issues.

There shouldn't be any problems with that. Either there is a problem with the PO or there is a soft skills gap somewhere in the room.