Hello 👋, It’s Vibhor. Welcome to the 🔥 paid member only🔥 edition of Winning Strategy: A newsletter focused on enhancing product, process, team, and career performance. Many subscribers expense this newsletter to their Learning & Development budget. Here’s an expense template to send to your manager.
The case study below is one of many stories from my consulting career.
It’s a complete walkthrough of a real-life struggle between two Scrum teams that were forced to merge after an executive decision.
9 years ago, I was assigned to fix this broken merger.
The case study includes:
all the steps I took
the emotions I felt
the challenges I faced, and
the outcomes of all that effort
This case study aims to give you a glimpse into the thought process involved in high-stakes situations like this one.
I hope you find it useful.
Let’s get started.
Intro
Let’s say you’re a Scrum Master for a financial services company (eg. a bank).
You've been assigned to support 2 teams that were recently merged after a company reorganization. Both teams previously worked on separate payment processing applications — one for consumer payments and another for business transactions.
The merger was driven by Senior Management's decision to create a “unified” payment platform that serves both the consumer and business needs.
Problem:
While both teams are skilled, they have developed significantly different working styles and technical approaches over the years.
Team A: Follows strict test-driven development and pair programming practices.
Team B: Prefers individual work and end-of-sprint testing.
Tensions are rising as Team A members insist everyone should pair program, while Team B members resist this change. Further:
The unified backlog is becoming problematic as Team B members struggle with Team A's technical user stories
Team A criticizes Team B's testing approach
Daily Scrums have become uncomfortable, with minimal cross-team communication
Sprint velocity has dropped by 40% since the merger and is highly unstable
3 experienced developers have already requested transfers to other departments
The Product Owner is frustrated because features that used to take 1 sprint now take 3 sprints to complete
Your Assignment:
Analyze this situation in relation to the Scrum framework
Develop a plan to help these teams blend effectively while maintaining productivity