#12 Dependency On Other Teams

Symptom: Your sprint productivity is impacted by another team.

Probable Cause: Dependency relationship with another team impacting the sprint

Suggested Resolution: All teams move at different paces and have a number of variables unique to that team and their productivity. When a dependency relationship exists between two or more teams, they probably are not going to work at the same pace and match each other, hence, if one team is late on another team's deliverable, then the latter is going to lose soem productivity or velocity until the deliverable is provided.

A good way to ensure that there are no impacts on a team is to avoid working on dependency stories in the sprint until the deliverables have been physically received by the dependent team. Only then can the associated user stories be considered for the sprint with no impact to the flow of work.

Ideally you are looking to minimise waste and improve the flow of work by the team, and arranging the sprint backlog in a way that supports this should help.

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