Our company is developing 2 generations of a product in parallel. Our product cycle is about 2-3 years. Today we're working on:
- generation N "production": next product to be released, getting things into the market, new features, fixing bug
- generation N+1 "research": concept work, studies, prototypes, research, requirements analysis
We're follow the Scrum methodology (roles, backlog, sprints, ...) in our team where possible, but the transition is still in progress. Especially: the rest of the company is (still) following a waterfall approach. The focus of our management is mostly on generation N.
Our company so far tried the following project structures, but all have severe drawbacks:
symbols:
(+) = good
(‒) = bad
Two separate teams for production (generation N) and research (generation N+1):
- (+) good progress in the research for generation N+1
- (+) Production team can focus on generation N.
- (‒) The research team has the more interesting job, the production job is not so popular.
- (‒) Knowledge loss when transferring a project from research to production.
- (‒) The research team never experiences the problems of the production team and vice versa. Especially the research team does not investigate all of the relevant aspects.
One team for both generations:
- (+) Good knowledge sharing between generations.
- (+) No handover required.
- (‒) N+1 does not get the attention it deserves as the management focus in on N.
- (‒) So there are not many innovations in generation N+1 as we did not have time for it.
Have only one team but dedicate 2 (or 3) "researchers" to focus on generation N+1:
- (+) Good knowledge sharing between generations.
- (+) No handover required.
- (‒) In the beginning: Inefficient meetings (daily, sprint planning) as the two sub teams work on different topics.
- (‒) In the end: The research progress is slow, as the researchers get pulled into production problems.
How should we set up our projects in this environment?