Scrum of scrums

Many Wikimedia engineering teams are using the scrum agile method. To keep projects and teams abreast of one another, we have a weekly scrum of scrums (SoS) meeting where representatives from each department exchange updates. The meeting is currently held on Wednesdays at 17:35 UTC (10:35 Pacific), and is facilitated by a rotating chair.

Resources

 * Etherpad: https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/Scrum-of-Scrums
 * Video call: https://plus.google.com/hangouts/_/wikimedia.org/scrum-of-scrums

Expectations

 * Be on time, we'll start without you
 * Engineers speak
 * Keep it BRIEF, and relevant; we only have 30 minutes, and we will be strict about the time box
 * Each team representative is responsible for bringing findings here, back to their team
 * If you'd like something you say to make it into the weekly Tech News, tag it with #technews (see inclusion criteria and deadlines).

Rules of engagement

 * If you must miss a meeting and cannot send a proxy, then before the meeting you must enter your answers to the SoS questions (below) on the meeting Etherpad
 * Be prepared. Have your updates and dependencies ready, and, review/update the dependency wall before the meeting.

Each representative answers the following:
 * What has your team done since we last met?
 * What will your team do before we meet again?
 * Is anything slowing your team down or getting in their way?
 * Are you about to put something in another team’s way?

Facilitator responsibilities

 * Ensure meeting starts/ends on time
 * Ensure conversation stays focused and relevant; direct conversations to happen off-line as needed
 * Ensure there is an owner for cross-team commitments when possible (e.g. if one team needs a particular patch reviewed urgently, try to get someone in the room to commit to helping them out)
 * Ensure dependency wall is up-to-date
 * Ensure clear notes are taken and posted (traditionally emailed to engineering@lists.wikimedia.org, wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org as a link to a wiki page (see below)).
 * It is valuable to highlight particularly important action items/needs/touchpoints
 * It is also valuable to keep track of which teams are present at SoS and encourage missing teams to respond to the questions/review the dep board via email