How to scale your scrum with Nexus

The Scrum ecosystem is thriving and it is visible in the variety of successful solutions provided for the same problem thus giving the Agile practitioners a plethora of choices to choose the one that best fits their needs. The scaling framework of Scrum now has various offerings with their own terminology, practices, ceremonies as well as practices. The few most used scaling frameworks are:

1. SAFe
2. SaS
3. LeSS
4. Disciplined Agile Delivery
5. Nexus

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All of them have their own pros & cons, limitations, and guidelines. One needs to be careful while selecting a particular scaling framework based on their requirements.

In this article, I want to focus on the Nexus framework. Adopting nexus is very easy as it doesn’t require too many new ceremonies, roles, and artifacts. So here is my understanding of the Nexus framework.

Nexus Definition

●?????A group of three to nine Scrum Teams that work together to deliver a single product.

●?????A Nexus has a single Product Owner who manages a single Product

Nexus Theory

Nexus helps teams solve common scaling challenges like

1. Reducing cross-team dependencies
2. Preserving team self-management and transparency
3. Ensuring accountability.

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Nexus helps make dependencies transparent. These dependencies are often caused by mismatches related to:

1. Product structure: The degree to which different concerns are independently separated in the product will greatly affect the complexity of creating an integrated product release.
2. Communication structure: The way that people communicate within and between teams affects their ability to get work done; delays in communication and feedback reduce the flow of work.

Nexus provides opportunities to change the process, product structure, and communication structure to reduce or remove these dependencies. Scaling the value that is delivered does not always require adding more people. Increasing the number of people and the size of a product increases complexity and dependencies, the need for collaboration, and the number of communication pathways involved in making decisions.

The Nexus Framework

Accountabilities in Nexus

Nexus Integration Team = The Product Owner + a Scrum Master + appropriate members from the Scrum Teams (people with the necessary skills and knowledge to help resolve the issues)

●?????Accountability: To ensure that a done Integrated Increment is produced at least once a Sprint.

●?????Scrum Teams Role: To?address integration issues within the Nexus.

●?????The Nexus Integration Team provides a focal point of integration for the Nexus which includes addressing technical and non-technical cross-functional team constraints that may impede a Nexus’ ability to deliver a constantly Integrated Increment.

●?????Role: Coaching, consulting, and highlighting awareness of dependencies and cross-team issues

●?????Membership in the Nexus Integration Team takes precedence over individual Scrum Team membership.

Nexus Events

Nexus adds to or extends the events defined by Scrum. They are timeboxed in addition to their corresponding Scrum events. It might not be practically possible for all members of the Nexus to join events so only the required members can join.

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Nexus Artifacts and Commitments

Like scrum, nexus also has a nexus guide, one can download it from here .