Managing backlog for a person who works on multiple teams

Patrick Wright

Our Jira instance is configured with a board for each scrum team where the board is filtered using the built-in Team field.  This way, it is easy for a team to see their backlog and what is assigned during a sprint.

We have a few team members that are "cross-functional" in that they do work for multiple teams.  For instance, if Team A is working on Project A and Team B is working on project B, Person P is working on both Project A and Project B, and thus working for both Team A and Team B.

The problem is, when Person P joins is a part of Team A's standups and planning, he/she (and the rest of the team) has no visibility as to the work being done for Team B.  This means it is hard to accurately plan that person's available capacity as well.

I am wondering if anyone has encountered this situation before and if you have any good advice as how to best manage this scenario?

Andrei Eleodor Sirbu

Hello Patrick, it's never easy to follow an individual's capacity when they're working on different projects. 

Nevertheless, assuming your teams only work in Scrum and not in SAFe what I would recommend is to create a plan in Jira Plans and call it "Cross-Project" or "Cross-Functional Members" , or any other term suitable for your organisation. 

Then : 

1. Start to configure the plan to retrieve the issues from project A, B, C etc. For Scrum Teams, use each team's scrum board as a source for the plan. 

2. Add each team to the plan. On the team's configuration menu, select their newly imported team board as source for the issues. Then set their sprint length (2 weeks by default I believe)

3. In the plan's settings, groupe the issues by "Team" then tick the box "Display capacity on timeline view"

4. From "Filters" select to filter the plan by assignee. 

So let's say Mark has story points assigned both in team A Scrum Board and Team B Scrum Board. This configuration will show you straight away how much capacity Mark has in Board A and Board B. He can use it during the stand up meetings to display his work in different areas of your instance. 

If you're not familiar with plans, let me know and I will break it down to you with screenshots. 

 

Kind regards

Andrei Eleodor Sirbu

PMO