Overcoming Challenges of Virtual Scrum Teams: Lessons Learned Through an Action Research Study

Abstract

After the COVID-19 breakout, agile teams found themselves in situations that “pure agilists” and textbooks on agile methods had preferred to ignore. Whereas agile mindsets helped them to quickly shift to remote work, mere virtualization of agile practices often proved insufficient, and several challenges emerged. This paper reports on an Action Research project carried out in Lufthansa Systems Poland with the aim of (1) revisiting their ad-hoc actions to adapt to remote work; and (2) elaborating systematic solutions to maintain efficiency in such a setting. With our assistance, the participating teams found measures to mitigate issues posed by the new work environment. They devised an inter-team communication model to improve the effectiveness of information exchange that had declined in the absence of spontaneous, face-to-face communication. Moreover, they employed several other mitigation strategies, including working at least one day per week in the office, keeping webcams on during online meetings, and recapping meetings at the end of a session. Our study largely supports previous findings indicating that Scrum can be effectively applied beyond its comfort zone but also suggests that for adaptations to be successful and comprehensive, they should be developed in a structured manner.