Team portfolio scrum: An action research on multitasking in multi-project scrum teams

Abstract

Multi-project agile software development is a relatively new area of research. While original Scrum caters to co-located teams working on a single project, multi-project Scrum teams are a day-to-day reality, especially in small organizations. Multitasking across projects is frequently associated with loss of effectiveness, but this assumption is not sufficiently supported by empirical evidence. In order to better understand the phenomenon, we review existing literature across scientific domains and execute an action research project. Our findings show that the Team Portfolio Scrum (TPS) practice designed to support multitasking across projects is perceived to be useful, but with an associated increase in overhead.