Here's the reason: managers are so spread thin that they don't want to be in 5-10 standups all morning, so they combine around organizational structures rather than product(s)/deliverable(s). Another case of the software delivery matching org structure...
> because government project? although I imagine this happens in non-gov settings too, this is just my experience.
Why not split into smaller work groups? What's the advantage of 20 person teams?