I am currently working as a consultant for a state agency that has faced challenges with collaboration due to siloed departments. I believe that implementing Agile/Scrum practices can help address communication/siloing issues between three "departments" that must work closely together on their deliverables. The group consists of approximately 20 people, but due to state public records laws, no more than four of the nine "officials" from a certain department can be present at the same meeting. Those numbers are fictitious but make the point. This applies to both in-person and virtual meetings, regardless of the topic being discussed.
The only way to have them all present is to give public notice of the meeting (lots of red tape) and then go into a closed executive session during the live meeting. However, this is not feasible for daily scrums or reviews/retros.
I have some thoughts, but what suggestions might you have to work around this rule?
One thought is that they could leverage technology for asynchronous communication, such as using a collaboration tool for daily stand-ups and having virtual reviews and retrospectives. Maybe recording the dailies and disseminating them to the members who are not in attendance - perhaps rotating some of the elected officials in and out on certain days of the week.
My first thought is that since regulatory language includes very specific definitions of terms and you mentioned "in the room" and "present", does that explicitly include virtual attendance. If not, with a WebEx tie-in, you could meet the letter of the law and still have real-time attendance. Poorly written and out-of-date laws are often full of legal loopholes.
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1 reply by Alicia Mitchell-Mercer, DPA
Jan 25, 2023 8:22 PM
Alicia Mitchell-Mercer, DPA
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Yes, unfortunately. I mentioned in my post that includes virtual meetings.
My first thought is that since regulatory language includes very specific definitions of terms and you mentioned "in the room" and "present", does that explicitly include virtual attendance. If not, with a WebEx tie-in, you could meet the letter of the law and still have real-time attendance. Poorly written and out-of-date laws are often full of legal loopholes.
Yes, unfortunately. I mentioned in my post that includes virtual meetings. Saving Changes...
A lot depends on how closely the participants from each silo need to work together to deliver the scope of work.
One option is to use a rotating ambassador-type approach where one member of each department will attend and be expected to bring the concerns or input from their department to the table and take updates and useful info back to their teams. This is similar to what happens in a large initiative with a "Scrum-of-scrums".
Kiron
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1 reply by Alicia Mitchell-Mercer, DPA
Jan 26, 2023 11:33 AM
Alicia Mitchell-Mercer, DPA
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Dept. 1 drafts the document, which is the final work product. Dept. 2 consists of officials that must weigh in on the document while it's being prepared and approve the final work product. Dept. 3 is technical and is involved to the extent that they give Dept.1, which is drafting the document, guidance to ensure the language in the final work product meets technical requirements.
That's helpful. Thank you.
Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
If you let me say this, do not try to find the silver bullet (just in case is the situation). Agile will not eliminate siloes and most of the time makes the communication harder.The only way to face your situation is forgetting about methods or approaches and try to implement a solid stakeholder management process (just to give it a name that is used by the PMI). Just my recommendation based on my personal experience, no more than that. Saving Changes...
A lot depends on how closely the participants from each silo need to work together to deliver the scope of work.
One option is to use a rotating ambassador-type approach where one member of each department will attend and be expected to bring the concerns or input from their department to the table and take updates and useful info back to their teams. This is similar to what happens in a large initiative with a "Scrum-of-scrums".
Kiron
Dept. 1 drafts the document, which is the final work product. Dept. 2 consists of officials that must weigh in on the document while it's being prepared and approve the final work product. Dept. 3 is technical and is involved to the extent that they give Dept.1, which is drafting the document, guidance to ensure the language in the final work product meets technical requirements.
That's helpful. Thank you.
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1 reply by Kiron Bondale
Jan 26, 2023 5:05 PM
Kiron Bondale
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Alicia -
depending on the relative priority of this project, another option is to have one participant from Dept 2 and Dept 3 be part of Dept 1's working team. They will still continue to attend all their normal department meetings, but would participate in all the project working sessions.
This approach eliminates the risk of delays due to external dependencies.
Dept. 1 drafts the document, which is the final work product. Dept. 2 consists of officials that must weigh in on the document while it's being prepared and approve the final work product. Dept. 3 is technical and is involved to the extent that they give Dept.1, which is drafting the document, guidance to ensure the language in the final work product meets technical requirements.
That's helpful. Thank you.
Alicia -
depending on the relative priority of this project, another option is to have one participant from Dept 2 and Dept 3 be part of Dept 1's working team. They will still continue to attend all their normal department meetings, but would participate in all the project working sessions.
This approach eliminates the risk of delays due to external dependencies.
my suggestion will be to split the ~20 into 2 or 3 teams. Decide who from the group need to be together, include cross-functional members. Then you can make the scrum master of each team to coordinate with each other or can conduct scrum-of-scrums. Its subjective how the work is related, do look for logical partitioning of the group. You would be able to adhere to the laws. Agile is flexible.
Vipin Saving Changes...
Latha Thamma reddiSr Product and Portfolio Management (Automation Innovation)| DXC TechnologyMckinney, Tx, United States
