Scrum works well. when its only one project and sprint planning is really focused to that one projects. However the reality in most companies is that many of them are going towards a some kind of service based architecture.
In these cases or in cases where a number of projects are being developed at the same time, scrum planning gets confusing. Since each team is so focused on the current sprint and back log only, it becomes very tough to build dependencies between systems or services at the same time.
Enterprise SOA Sprint planning - ESOP just a fancy name conceived is based on restructuring projects and run dependent projects on the same sprint time line.
All projects will go to sprint planning the same day. The dependent stories are discussed in a common spring planning meeting where both teams are present and then the teams split to plan other stories.
This brings in awareness in all teams and they are aware of the service contract they need to fulfill as a part of this sprint. At the end of the sprint these contracts get fulfilled.
The product owners of each project are typically so focused on thier own project that often they tend to put cross service stories at a lesser priority than thier own stories. The parallel sprint planning would allow them to look at the big picture and plan the stories well.
This also is a fun event. At the end of the sprint the two systems are indeed talking to each other instead of building them in some kind of step approach.
Another fun thing to do is for the scrum masters to switch as moderators of the two teams in the planning meeting. Especially after a few sprints these planning meetings become fairly boring exercise. Switching scrum masters for the spring planning brings about a fresh breadth of air.
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