Agile Coaches' Corner The Nexus Framework for Scaling Scrum with the Scrum.org Team
This week on the podcast, your hosts, Dan Neumann and Sam Falco, will be exploring the Nexus Framework. Joining them is Kurt Bittner, Patricia Kong of Scrum.org! In their roles at Scrum.org, Kurt is the Vice President of Enterprise Solutions, Patricia is the Product Owner of Enterprise Solutions, and Dave West is the CEO. Together with Dave West, CEO of Scrum.org, they are co-authors of the book, The Nexus Framework for Scaling Scrum: Continuously Delivering an Integrated Product with Multiple Scrum Teams, which is also the topic of today’s episode!
Together, Kurt and Patricia provide a thorough introduction to the Nexus Framework and take a deep dive into some of the facets of it. They explain many of the whys and the hows around it, debunk some of the common misconceptions, and share how they resolve some of the common problems that sometimes pop up.
Key Takeaways
What is the Nexus Framework?
It aims to address the main problem of how to coordinate across multiple teams delivering one product
When you start to scale up the number of teams involved, questions arise, which Nexus helps to address
Its main focus is on teams and the products
Nexus aims to help the organizational change problem (regardless of the practices being introduced)
It helps people apply Scrum in a larger context and addresses scaling-specific issues
Can you implement Nexus without Scrum? What happens if you implement the framework without doing Scrum well?
There are lots of ways to fall down with Scrum — Nexus won’t make or break it
You should learn how to do Scrum well before implementing Nexus
If a set of teams isn’t doing Scrum well, there are scaling techniques that you can apply
How the Nexus Framework works:
Multiple teams work to build one integrated increment at every sprint (usually three to nine teams)
There’s one Product Owner with one product backlog
There is a Nexus sprint backlog, which is a representation of and transparency around the dependencies that the teams might face
Teams still have their daily Scrums but there is a Nexus daily Scrum before that so the unit can come truly come together, understand the current issues, and properly plan ahead
There is only one Nexus sprint review as opposed to the individual sprint reviews you would see in Scrum (because of the emphasis on the integrated product)
After the review, you have the Nexus retrospective where the appropriate people come together to address the current issues and find solutions
There is also the Nexus sprint goal, which is a culmination of what the teams are doing as a Nexus for the sprint
There’s a new role called the Nexus Integration Team, which consists of a Product Owner, a Scrum Master, and Nexus Integration Team members to ensure the integration of the Nexus
With no Product Owner hierarchy, how does one Product Owner handle multiple teams vs. single team Scrum?
Understanding that they’re not looking for different job titles; it’s about a role
Clear communication about autonomy
“One Santa, many elves” i.e. there may be one person that is responsible for the product being successful but they can have lots of help
Make sure that the teams understand what the goal that is being worked towards is
Mentioned in this Episode:
Scaling Scrum with Nexus (Scrum.org)
Nexus Framework Poster (Scrum.org)
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