Evolution of Cross‑Functional Team Management and Scrum Process in R&D

Functional teams are divided into functional and cross‑functional groups to meet business domain needs. The article explains how to get such teams running, how to organize cross‑team work, improve self‑organization, monitor team effectiveness, and align roles across the value stream.

Team structure includes business teams (brand, supply chain, marketing, production, operations), product teams (by product line, e.g., C‑end, B‑end), development teams (by technology stack and domain, e.g., front‑end, mobile, back‑end), and testing teams (independent, under quality assurance). Cross‑functional product‑line teams consist of product managers, developers, and testers.

Process introduction : The basic management framework adopts Scrum, summarized as the 3‑3‑5‑5 model.

3 roles : Product Owner (PO), Scrum Master, and the Development Team (developers + testers).

3 deliverables : Product backlog, sprint backlog, and version release.

5 activities : PO adds requirements to the product backlog, requirements are reviewed, designed, and planned (KO) into the sprint backlog; two‑week sprints are used; daily stand‑ups synchronize status, identify risks, and remove impediments; post‑release review meetings evaluate delivery; retrospective meetings improve the process.

5 values : Commitment, Focus, Openness, Respect, Courage.

Physical Kanban : Early adoption of a physical board enhances interaction, immersion, and ritual, helping the team develop process habits.

Electronic Kanban : Introduced to avoid manual data loss, provide transparency, and support richer information (backlog, bugs, burn‑down charts). Benefits include automatic data capture, region‑independent access, and easy integration with other systems (e.g., DingTalk).

Jira is the primary electronic board, extended with plugins such as BigPicture (project planning), ScriptRunner (data search), EasyBI (reporting), and WebHook (integration with third‑party tools). Integration with project‑management, quality‑management, and CI/CD platforms links requirements, testing, and code pipelines.

Owner mechanisms :

Domain Owner : participates in long‑term, large‑scale project planning, performs value and system analysis, aligns product and technical architecture.

Project Owner : initiates special projects, builds project teams, monitors implementation, and evaluates outcomes.

Story Owner : handles requirement review, planning, design, implementation tracking, and value assessment.

Team effectiveness measurement : Leaders ask what the team is doing, headcount and lead time, and quality/efficiency. Data from daily activities, electronic boards, and reports provide quantitative answers.

Data reports cover historic and current workforce distribution, backlog status, sprint performance, and special‑project outcomes, enabling leaders to assess progress and value delivery.

R&D efficiency focuses on quality, efficiency, and capability, evaluated through multiple dimensions (organization level, time dimension, requirement level, role‑specific views).

Value delivery stages :

Requirement design : estimate value, cost, feasibility, map to architecture, assess risk.

Implementation : improve quality and efficiency, accelerate business incubation via technical innovation, use data analytics for value analysis.

Online operation : collect and analyze data to evaluate value achievement, support product/business decisions, maintain stability and monitoring.

Alignment of product and research : Monthly product‑research meetings align goals, synchronize progress, and focus on value, covering priority setting, risk tracking, and outcome quantification.

Overall, the framework starts with Scrum, adds electronic kanban for transparency, introduces technical PMs and various owners to boost self‑organization, and uses structured metrics and cross‑functional meetings to continuously improve R&D processes and value delivery.