Ken Schwaber describes the Nexus framework as “the exoskeleton of scaled Scrum”. But what does this mean? And how does Scaled Professional Scrum relate to Nexus.
Nexus is a lightweight framework to help us organise and coordinate our efforts in large scale software development. Think of it as similar to the Scrum framework (which it extends) with guidance for 3-9 Scrum Teams working together to develop a single product.
Nexus is the core of Scaled Professional Scrum. The Nexus framework scales the roles, events and artifacts of Scrum to improve the ability for 3- 9 Scrum Teams to jointly develop and sustain complex products. The Nexus framework provides foundational guidance to organisations operating in such an environment. It helps them to discover how they can create a scaled instance of Scrum having the results, productivity, creativity and value they were used to at a smaller scale.
Scaled Professional Scrum extends Nexus by offering 40+ practices that, when selected and applied in the right context, increase productivity and the value generated. Organisations create their own implementation of Scaled Professional Scrum based on the Nexus framework and the use of a selection of these 40+ relevant additional practices.
Scaled Professional Scrum avoids offering fixed, defined solutions. Every organization is unique. Every scaling initiative is unique. Scaled Professional Scrum depends on discovery and emergence through the empirical process it implements. Empiricism is not only used for the product development process but also to grow and evolve the process of scaling itself.
Every organization is unique and needs to emerge and implement its distinct solutions to the unique issues it faces. The Nexus framework, augmented by the 40+ Scaled Professional Scrum practices, is their pathway to do this.
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Comments 8
Simon,
During Sprint Review of a scaled development effort, every Scrum Team should demonstrate its individual Increment in a separate branch of the code.
Is this affirmation true? What’s your opinion?
Thank you,
regards
Carlos
Author
Hi Carlos,
This is false. For an increment to be done, and therefore shown in a Nexus Sprint Review, integration must have occurred so branches would no longer exist.
Getting to done is tough, especially at scale. That is why it is vital to do it often and no later than the end of each Sprint.
Regards
Simon
Thanks Simon! I wonder this!
Hi Simon
You mentioned earlier that you will write (in a future post) about the “40+ Practices” in Scaled Professional Scrum Nexus framework.
May you kindly share by when you expect to post this article ?
Kind Regards,
I. Khalil
Author
Hi,
It is on my Product Backlog, but I don’t have a date for this yet. Stay posted.
Regards
Simon
Hi Simon,
Looking forward to it 🙂
Many Thanks for your response & all your very helpful posts. Much appreciated !
Kind Regards,
I. Khalil
Is Nexus still alive? It seems there is much more SAFe and LeSS implementations than Nexus…
Author
Hi Art,
Nexus is widely used. Lots more organisations out there using SAFe rather than Nexus or LeSS though.
Regards
Simon