Scaled Professional Srum and Nexus on the Scrum User Group Berlin

by Scrum.org – Improving the Profession of Software Development
Scaled Professional Scrum
Focused.Effective. Viable.
Jeronimo Palacios Vela
Professional Scrum Trainer
Scrum.org
September 15, 2015
Berlin

2© 1993-2015 Scrum.org, All Rights Reserved
MIN
3
Have you been engaged in efforts to scale Scrum?
Raise your hand if your organizationdefines ‘scale’as…
• Multipleteams working on one product
• Multipleteams working on their individual products
• Multipleteams working on a suite of integrated products
• One team working on several products in parallel
• The complete IT organizationadopting Scrum
• A 360° organizationaltransformation toward Agile
Short Survey About You

Scaled Scrum
“It takes two to scale.”
– Gunther Verheyen

Focus. Transparency.ScaledScrum

Definition of Scaled Scrum
1. Any implementation of Scrum where multipleScrum Teams build
one product or a standaloneset of product features, in one or
more Sprints.
2. Any implementation of Scrum where multipleScrum Teams build
multiplerelated products or sets of product features, in one or
more Sprints.

A system’s components interact
purposefullytoward a shared
goal without externally exerted
power.
Frequent decisions of adaptation
are based on knowledge gained
through inspection and
experience.
Scrum’s DNA
Self-Organization Empiricism

Scrum
1. One team pulls
work from one
Product Backlog.
2. Each Sprint
delivers a
releasable
Incrementof
product.

Professional Scrum
Professional

Scrum
Mechanical

Scrum
Technical

Excellence
Values
and

Principles
Any Scrum
instance that
implements
Scrum’s
mechanics, its
values and
principles, and
technical
excellence.

Technical Excellence
THE MEDUSA EFFECT
Poorly maintained codebases have…

One Scrum Team Doing Work

Three Scrum Teams Doing Work

Nine Scrum Teams Doing Work

• People (communication)
• Business domains and
requirements
• Technology
• Software
• Infrastructure
• Intra-team
• Cross-team
• External
Dependencies
Dimensions Where

Identify and work around
dependencies:
– Prior to work occurring
– Ongoing
– Persistent
– In all dimensions
Reveal dependencies that
remained unnoticed:
– Frequent integration
– Acceptance testing
– Continual build and delivery
– Minimize technical debt
Dealing with Dependencies
Proactive Reification*
*Reification:
Making
something
real,
bringing
something

into
being,
or
making
something
concrete.

Your ability to scale depends on your ability
to continuously:
– Identify and remove dependencies
– Integrate work across all levels
– Create and inspect reified Increments

The Nexus
“A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can
learn in no other way.”
- Mark Twain

Nexus
–noun
ˈnek-səәs
: a relationship or connection between people or things
http://www.merriam-‐webster.com/dictionary/nexus

Scrum for MultipleTeams
1. A product has
one Product
Backlog.
2. Multiple
Teams create
integrated
Increments.

The Nexus™ – An Exoskeleton for 3-9 Scrum Teams

MIN
3
We have heard Scrum only works for singularteams. We have heard
Scrum is not enough at scale.
We wonder…
• Isn’t scaled Scrum through the Nexus still Scrum?
• Doesn’t the Nexus efficiently scale product development with
Scrum?
Scrum Is Not Enough?

The Nexus Augments Scrum
Builds on Scrum principles, values, and foundations
• Creates communication pathways
• Widens and deepens inspect and adapt mechanisms
• Fosters continued transparency
• Relies on bottom-up intelligence
Eschews fixed, defined solutionsthat add overhead.

Nexus - Roles, Events and Artifacts
Roles Events Artifacts
Development
Teams The
Sprint Product
Backlog
Nexus
Integration
Team* Nexus
Sprint Planning* Nexus
Sprint
Backlog*
Product
Owner Sprint Planning Sprint
Backlog
Scrum
Master Nexus
Daily
Scrum* Integrated
Increment
Daily
Scrum
Nexus
Sprint
Review*
Sprint
Review
Nexus
Sprint
Retrospective*
*Nexus
specific

The Nexus Integration Team
• A Scrum Team
• Works off of Product Backlog
• Members are full or part time
• Compositionmay change
between Sprints
• Focus is dependenciesand
facilitationof integration

The Nexus interconnects 3-9 Scrum Teams:
– Exhibiting Scrum’s principles and DNA
–Creating one reified Increment of product
– Minimal overhead, maximized outcome

Managing Scaled Scrum
“Success in management requires learning as fast as the
world is changing.”
– Warren Bennis

• What must be done to integrate
the work?
• How frequently do you need
the work integrated into
releasable product?
• How do you measure and
manage the work and the
integration?
• What is the overhead of
integrationand delivery?
• Are you balancing cost and
benefits of this overhead with
value produced?
• Is the cost systematically being
reduced?
Core Questions When Managing Any Scaling Effort
Process Cost

Scaled Professional Scrum Practices
Dependencies Reification
Feature
teams ALM
artifact
automation
Micro-‐services Test-‐driven
development
Product
Backlog metadata Continuous
integration
of
all
work
Continuous
Product
Backlog
refinement Frequent
builds
Story
mapping Frequent testing
Product Backlog
cross-‐team
dependency

mapping
Limited
branching
Communities
of
practice Descaling
and
Scrumble
Architecture
contains
experimentation and

A/B
switches
Thin
sliced
Product
Backlog
items
compose
Sprint

backlog
for
ATDD

Descaling
• Scale up with caution
• Add practices or tools
• Reduce the overall pace by
reducing the number of teams
to a more sustainablenumber
(and/or velocity)
• Clean up and integratethe
current software so it can be
built upon in future Sprints
Productivity Teams

Scrumble
• When technical debt, domain
knowledge and test results
overwhelm forward progress,
Scrumble
• Scrumble is a period of unknown
duration and staffing when work is
done to allow forward progress to
resume
• Staffing should be minimized and
talent applied maximized TeamsProductivity

How To Measure the Progression of Your Scaling Effort?
“Our highest priority is to satisfy the
customer through early and
continuous delivery of valuable
software.”

Nexus+
“Put all your eggs in one basket and then watch that basket.”
– Mark Twain

Yes, You Can Scale Beyond The NexusValue.Dependencies.

The Challenge of Large Scale Development
• The Nexus starts to fray and create confusion at around 9 teams.
Communication grinds.
• Dependencies and integrationissues are magnified and create chaos.
• Additional engineering solutions are necessary, necessitating
enabling, integratingarchitectures.
There
is
no
guaranteed
recipe
at
this
scale
– EVERY

PROJECT
IS
UNIQUE.

You will need either:
• A full time integration team who work above the Nexus+ helping to
coordinateacross each Nexus
• An integration Nexus
• Architecture adequate to complexity
Nexus+ Integration
Google
runs
4,000
builds
and
60
million
tests
every
day

Organization and ArchitectureAdequate to Complexity
• Nexuses integrateinto a
horizontal platform providing
stabilitythrough integration
standards and facilities
• An Integration Nexus
• Have Nexuses within
boundaries that denote
collaboration and unit of
purpose, like product or value
chain area teams
• The Microsoft Component
Object Model
• Build your own iOS and SDK
to enable app development
• Product family architecture
• APIs
• UI Platform
• Internal Open Source
• Microservices

Closing
Empirical Management Explored

“The future state of Scrum will no
longer be called ‘Scrum’. What we
now call Scrum will have become the
norm, and organizations have re-
invented themselves around it.”
Source: Gunther Verheyen, “Scrum – A Pocket Guide (A Smart Travel Companion)”, 2013

About me & happy clients
Jeronimo Palacios
• Agile Coach since 2008
• Professional Scrum Trainer
• Moved to Berlin from London 3 months ago
Mail yosoy@jeronimopalacios.com
Twitter @giropa832
Blog http://jeronimopalacios.com/en/

Scaled Professional Scrum by Scrum.org
• SPS Workshops, https://www.scrum.org/Courses/Scaled-
Professional-Scrum
• Nexus Guide
• Nexus Assessments
• Agility Index
• Agility Path, http://www.ebmgt.org/agility-path-framework/agility-
guide

Scrum.org is a community. Connect.
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@scrumdotorg
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Scaled Professional Srum and Nexus on the Scrum User Group Berlin

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