Challenges in Scaling up a Globally Distributed Legacy Product A case study of a matrix organization

This paper presents our experiences with a 120-person matrixed software engineering product team, spread across three countries that successfully scaled their adoption of Scrum. The product is a legacy, mission-critical software system that conforms to stringent healthcare regulatory standards. We are practicing Obeya wall that brings solution to our large team communication challenges and OYA day that helps solving challenges in fostering innovation, and learning culture and collaboration. We also are describing our experience of defining focus areas of project manager and product manager. These roles are not defined in scrum guide, however, is relevant in our experience in scaled up distributed scrum environment. The authors bring our experiences as a Scrum Master, Product Owner and an architect who have been integral part of the journey and establishing these practices over several years. These practices have helped in scaling as well as stabilizing the team to an extent where each product version is meeting milestones on time and taking strong steps towards shorter release cycles of quarterly releases. This paper also summaries our lessons learned, and recommendations.