Running Multi-Team Scrum: Key Challenges and How Scrum Masters Can Solve Them

Blog Author

Siddharth

Published

15 May, 2025

As organizations scale Agile across multiple teams, the complexity of coordination increases. Running multi-team Scrum isn’t just about adding more teams — it’s about managing dependencies, aligning goals, and ensuring collaboration without losing the core values of Scrum. Scrum Masters play a critical role in navigating these dynamics.

In this post, we’ll explore the top challenges in running multi-team Scrum and actionable strategies Scrum Masters can apply to address them effectively.

1. Lack of Alignment Across Teams

When multiple Scrum teams work on different parts of a product, it's easy to drift in different directions. Misalignment on vision, goals, and sprint outcomes can delay integration and impact value delivery.

How Scrum Masters Can Help:

Facilitate Joint Sprint Planning: Encourage teams to participate in a shared Sprint Planning session to align on dependencies and common objectives.
Support Product Owners in Backlog Refinement: Work closely with Product Owners to create a prioritized and well-structured Product Backlog that is shared and understood across teams.
Promote a Shared Definition of Done: Ensure all teams follow the same quality standards and Definition of Done to reduce rework during integration.

Learn more about how a certified Scrum Master training enables leaders to handle such scaling challenges.

2. Dependency Management

Inter-team dependencies often delay progress or create bottlenecks. Without visibility and planning, one team’s delay can impact several others.

Solutions Scrum Masters Can Drive:

Create and Maintain a Dependency Board: Use visual tools like Jira, Miro, or Confluence to map dependencies during PI Planning or team syncs.
Daily Cross-Team Syncs: Encourage 15-minute cross-team coordination huddles where blockers and dependencies are raised and addressed early.
Champion Agile Release Trains (ARTs): In SAFe environments, Scrum Masters may act as team coaches within the ART, ensuring tight coordination. You can explore more through our SAFe Scrum Master certification training.

3. Duplicated Effort and Technical Overlap

Without shared awareness, teams might duplicate work or choose different technical solutions for similar problems.

What Scrum Masters Can Do:

Facilitate Communities of Practice: Set up CoPs where developers from different teams discuss implementation standards, share knowledge, and align on tools and approaches.
Encourage System Demos: Organize end-of-sprint system demos involving all teams, stakeholders, and product owners. It brings visibility and reduces duplication.
Standardize Architectural Guidance: Partner with architects or tech leads to ensure cross-team technical standards are respected.

4. Ineffective Scaling of Scrum Events

Trying to replicate single-team Scrum events at scale without adaptation leads to inefficient meetings and disengaged participants.

Effective Practices:

Scaled Sprint Planning and Review: Use breakout rooms for team-level discussions, but bring everyone together for alignment at the start and end.
Rotate Scrum Masters as Facilitators: Allow different Scrum Masters to facilitate scaled events to avoid fatigue and keep perspectives fresh.
Establish a Scrum Master Sync: Set up regular Scrum of Scrums or Scrum Master Syncs to discuss issues, experiment with solutions, and ensure consistency across practices.

This is one of the many techniques covered in comprehensive CSM training.

5. Communication Breakdowns

As team count grows, so does the potential for miscommunication. Context gets lost, assumptions spread, and clarity suffers.

Scrum Master’s Role in Fixing This:

Enable Transparent Communication Channels: Encourage open tools like Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Jira to track conversations and updates.
Document Decisions Clearly: Support the habit of documenting design choices, decisions, and changes in a shared space accessible by all.
Promote Psychological Safety: Teams should feel safe to raise concerns without blame. A healthy culture of feedback prevents deeper issues.

6. Inefficient Integration and Testing

Integration issues often surface late when teams don’t test across boundaries during the sprint.

Key Actions:

Continuous Integration (CI): Encourage and support a CI approach so that changes are integrated and tested frequently.
Shared QA and Automation Resources: Work with leadership to build shared test automation pipelines and avoid siloed QA teams.
Sprint Goals that Reflect Integration Needs: Guide Product Owners to write goals that go beyond individual features and reflect shared outcomes.

7. Team Autonomy vs. Program Alignment

It’s essential to let teams stay autonomous, but they must still align with shared business objectives.

Scrum Master Guidance:

Coach Teams on Intent-Based Planning: Rather than task-based plans, encourage focus on outcomes and customer value.
Balance Autonomy and Governance: Help teams build their ways of working within broader guidelines set by leadership or program management.
Help PO and PM Align Roadmaps: Scrum Masters can act as a bridge between product and delivery, supporting both sides in achieving strategic clarity.

8. Role Confusion in Large Setups

In large-scale Scrum setups, people sometimes struggle to distinguish roles—especially between Scrum Masters, RTEs, Product Owners, and Product Managers.

What to Clarify:

Define R&R in Scaling Context: Use working agreements or RACI matrices to establish clarity.
Educate on Scrum vs. SAFe Roles: If working in SAFe, clarify how roles like Scrum Master differ from Release Train Engineer (RTE).
Training and Onboarding: Continuous learning and formal training, such as CSM certification, ensures people understand their roles clearly and consistently.

9. Burnout and Lack of Team Morale

Running parallel sprints and managing complex deliverables can burn teams out. Scrum Masters must keep a pulse on energy levels.

Interventions to Consider:

Use Team Health Checks: Periodically run anonymous surveys to assess team morale and stress.
Support Sustainable Pace: Remind teams (and management) that sustainable development is a Scrum principle.
Celebrate Cross-Team Wins: Acknowledge shared goals achieved across teams — it reinforces collaboration and builds motivation.

Final Thoughts

Running multi-team Scrum demands more than replicating the framework across teams. It requires deep facilitation, a focus on team dynamics, dependency management, and a strong culture of collaboration. Scrum Masters become system-level thinkers who enable communication, remove obstacles, and reinforce Agile values at scale.

Upskilling through CSM certification training prepares Scrum Masters to navigate these challenges confidently. Whether you’re dealing with cross-team integration, scaling events, or culture alignment, a well-trained Scrum Master remains the anchor in the complexity of scaling Agile.

For additional insights, frameworks like LeSS (Large Scale Scrum) and Nexus by Scrum.org offer guidance on coordinating multiple teams within a single product backlog.

Also read - SAFe Scrum Masters vs. Traditional Scrum Masters

Also see - Designing Feature Flags for Controlled Product Rollouts