1. Challenges When Using Scrum in Globally Distributed Teams
Graduate Thesis Sweta Shah GRAD /Fall M.S. Project Management Guided By Dr. Thomas Sheives Harrisburg University of Science & Technology

2. Key Elements of Thesis Presentation
The key elements of this thesis presentation is as follow:
Introduction
Statement of Problem/Justification
Literature Review
Methodology
Result
Discussion
Conclusion

3. Introduction
The thesis focuses on challenges faced during scrum implementation with projects having globally distributed teams.
To thoroughly understand these challenges, the thesis paper also addresses the core characteristics of a Scrum team, benefits of scrum framework and the nature of Global Software Development projects.
This paper will foster agile practitioners and professionals working for GSD projects to research more efficiently in the area of challenges and their solutions so that more and more organizations can adopt Scrum framework as a viable approach for global software development projects.

4. Statement of Problem/Justification
The interest of organizations towards implementing agile practices is growing at a rapid pace.
However, there seems to be a problem of significant inadequacy in the process of precisely identify, synthesize and report the facts of agile/scrum practices with GSD projects.
The thesis has been conducted with the prime objective to come up with practical solutions to the challenges as well as to support the research community, scrum and GSD professionals.

5. Literature Review
The Literature Review section of this thesis covers following aspects:
Overview of Scrum Framework
Overview of Global Software Development/Distributed Team Settings
Scrum Implementation within GSD/Distributed Team Settings
Challenges when implementing Scrum practice within the projects consisting teams located at the distinct geographical parts of the globe

6. Literature Review Continued
Scrum Framework: The Scrum is an iterative and incremental agile software development framework for managing product development. The product in scrum gets divided into small chunks and then released at frequent intervals. GSD/Distributed Team Settings: The Global Software Development process comprises several teams or groups in which skilled employees are located in distinct areas of the globe.

7. Literature Review Continued
Scrum Implementation within GSD/Distributed Team Environment:
An agile framework such as Scrum, utilize technical and managerial processes to adapt and calibrate changes in the product and its development. So it becomes easy to achieve the end product with desired quality and time limit.
On the other hand, GSD can confer the benefit of less expense.
Through implementing Scrum approach with distributed team environment, organizations can leverage the combined benefit which includes high productivity, less time and budget.
However, the combination of Scrum practice with globally distributed teams may arise some challenges due to socio-cultural, geographical, professional and many other differences.

8. Literature Review Continued
When using Scrum framework as software development life cycle with globally distributed teams, the organizations might face following challenges: Challenge during Scrum meeting Difficulty in tracking progress Challenge during Product Backlog Management Interference High demand for maintenance Delivery Synchronization Over-specialism Communication challenges Over commitment

9. Literature Review Continued
In scrum projects with distributed teams, face to face communication becomes rare during daily scrum meeting. This may produce the risk of communication gap and difficulty in sharing common knowledge and updates.
For product owner, it becomes challenging to prioritize the backlog on which all the distributed teams get agree.
Lack of mutual understanding may impact on the productivity. Low productivity and average product induce the demand for constant change and maintenance.
In distributed teams, few teams may contain highly experienced members compare to other teams. This situation may impact on other team member’s efficiency due to team fear and technical inadequacies.

10. Literature Review Continued
Higher management sometimes overcommits with the client because of multiple teams and a large number of employees. However, time zone differences, professional and cultural disparities affect the pace of work.
Geographical and time zone differences restrict team’s interest to regularly update, estimate and track the work progress using effective tools.
To make sure that distributed teams are working well, the management often interferes more rather than letting the team be self-organized and cross-functional.
Misunderstanding the length of the delivery cycle or iteration may cause the delay or failure in product delivery.
Language barrier, geographical distance, weak communication tools are the remarkable challenges that scrum projects face during having globally distributed teams.

11. Methodology
The qualitative data collection approach will be followed in order to accomplish the methodology section of this thesis.
The qualitative data collection method includes document review, personal observation, and profound interviews.
As a part of qualitative data collection approach, two different methods have been followed.
Method-1: The review and profound study of papers and journals.
Method-2: The interview of professionals working in Scrum projects with globally distributed teams.

12. Methodology Continued
The objectives of selecting qualitative data collection approach:
Provides data that is easily understandable
Time and location flexible
No requirement of following specific structure and standard
Data collected from this approach helps in generating questions of the related work
It encourages an individual to focus towards finding solutions to the question or challenges of the related work and domain.

13. Methodology Continued
Method-1 includes the thorough study of few papers that place great emphasis on communication challenges observed during scrum practice in distributed settings.
Method-2 includes interviews of two professionals working in Scrum projects with distributed teams.
The set of questions was made based on the challenges and scenarios mentioned by different authors of the papers, journals, and articles reviewed throughout the thesis.

14. Results (Section-A)
Section-A of results conveys the communication challenges of distributed Scrum practices raised by several authors.
The following reasons may produce the problem of communication with distributed environment in Scrum projects.
Less frequent social networks
Language barrier
Weak communication tools
Time zone differences
Work culture differences

15. Results (Section-B)
The findings reported from the interview with the scrum master are as follow:
To facilitate the scrum process with teams located in distant parts of the globe, the actions taken are as below:
Thoroughly understand the client requirement
Spare first two iterations to recognize and finalize the key requirement
Set up multiple platforms to support instant communication
Follow Scrum team characteristics, Scrum artifacts and ceremonies with appropriate manner

16. Results (Section-B)
The findings reported from the interview with the scrum business analyst are as follow:
To facilitate the Scrum process with teams located in distant parts of the globe, the actions taken are as below:
Encourage explicit communication
Set up robust band width to support communication
Practice Shift work culture
Attend seminars, training to update and gain the in-depth knowledge
Cultivate trust and respect among teams

17. Discussion
The limitations and challenges observed during scrum implementation in GSD, establish the remarkable set of lessons learned which can provide aid to organizations to embrace scrum framework for distributed team settings.
The knowledge gained from these lessons-learned can support scrum professionals to overcome the challenges associated with global software development.
The discussion section of this thesis will portray both lesson-learned and solutions to alleviate the challenges observed in distributed scrum.

18. Discussion continued
Lessons-learned discussed in this section are as follow:
Many challenges have been identified during the transitioning process of projects from traditional/waterfall software development life cycle to agile/scrum.
Lack of coordination between central and distant teams impacts on product delivery cycles and eventually on the relationship with the client.
Over-commitment with the client gives rise to low quality, work overload, and employee fatigue.
Some employees prefer to work individually by avoiding team collaboration which creates negative impacts on team activities.

19. Discussion Continued
Solutions to the challenges discussed in this sections are as follow.
Follow agile coaching to make transitioning process smooth
Encourage team collaboration and social network
Make commitments by considering key requirements and team size
Conduct agile/scrum training
Improve communication skills and platforms that support communication.

20. Conclusion
To the best of my knowledge, the implementation of Scrum can be apt and successful in globally distributed teams but only with the accurate instrumentation of some industrial and personal practices mentioned below.
Proper acknowledgment of challenges and limitations
Build collaborative environment so that it becomes easy to overcome the challenges
Spread best of your knowledge so teams and projects can get advantage
Enhance the interest towards learning and ameliorating technical skills
Evolve process-based and behavioral skills to get yourself adjust to multi- cultural environments.