The Nexus Framework for Scaling Scrum: Continuously Delivering an Integrated Product with Multiple Scrum Teams

The Nexus Framework for Scaling Scrum: Continuously Delivering an Integrated Product with Multiple Scrum Teams

by Kurt Bittner, Patricia Kong, Dave West
Released December 2017
Publisher(s): Addison-Wesley Professional
ISBN: 9780134682686

Read it now on the O’Reilly learning platform with a 10-day free trial.

O’Reilly members get unlimited access to live online training experiences, plus books, videos, and digital content from O’Reilly and nearly 200 trusted publishing partners.

Start your free trial

Book description

Improve and Accelerate Software Delivery for Large, Distributed, Complex Projects

The Nexus Framework is the simplest, most effective approach to applying Scrum at scale across multiple teams, sites, and time zones. Created by Scrum.org—the pioneering Scrum training and certification organization founded by Scrum co-creator Ken Schwaber—Nexus draws on decades of experience to address the unique challenges teams face in coming together, sharing work, and managing and minimizing dependencies.

The Nexus™ Framework for Scaling Scrum is a concise book that shows how Nexus helps teams to deliver a complex, multi-platform, software-based product in short, frequent cycles, without sacrificing consistency or quality, and without adding unnecessary complexity or straying from Scrum’s core principles. Using an extended case study, the authors illustrate how Nexus helps teams solve common scaling challenges like reducing cross-team dependencies, preserving team self-organization and transparency, and ensuring accountability.

  • Understand the challenges of delivering working, integrated product increments with multiple teams, and how Nexus addresses them

  • Form a Nexus around a new or existing product and learn how that Nexus sets goals and plans its work

  • Run Sprints within a Nexus, provide transparency into progress, conduct effective Nexus Sprint reviews, and use Nexus Sprint Retrospectives to continuously improve

  • Overcome the distributed team collaboration challenges

Register your product at informit.com/register for convenient access to downloads, updates, and/or corrections as they become available.

Table of contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Dedication Page
  5. Contents
  6. Foreword
  7. Preface
  8. Acknowledgments
  9. About the Authors
  10. Chapter 1 Introduction to Scaling Agile
    1. Why Agile?
    2. Why Scrum?
      1. What Is a Product?
      2. What Is Scrum?
    3. Why Nexus?
    4. Simplicity Is the Key to Scaling
  11. Chapter 2 Introducing Nexus
    1. What Is Nexus?
    2. Nexus Extends Scrum
    3. The Nexus Integration Team
    4. Nexus Events
      1. Refinement
      2. Nexus Sprint Planning
      3. The Nexus Daily Scrum
      4. The Nexus Sprint Review
      5. The Nexus Sprint Retrospective
      6. Questions to Ask in Every Nexus Sprint Retrospective
    5. Nexus Artifacts
      1. Product Backlog
      2. Nexus Goal
      3. Nexus Sprint Backlog
      4. Integrated Increment
      5. Artifact Transparency
      6. Definition of “Done” in Nexus
    6. What Do You Need to Get Started with Nexus?
    7. Closing
  12. Chapter 3 Forming a Nexus
    1. Evolving a Cross-functional Team
      1. Practice: Opening the Code Base
      2. Practice: Form Teams around Increments of Business Value
      3. Practice: Form Self-Organizing Teams
    2. Growing a Nexus
      1. Starting Small and Then Growing
      2. Using Pairing and “Internship” to Grow Scrum Teams
      3. Why Only Three to Nine Scrum Teams in a Nexus?
    3. Forming the Nexus Integration Team
      1. Who Is on the Nexus Integration Team?
    4. How Does a Nexus Work?
  13. Chapter 4 Planning in Nexus
    1. Consolidating and Validating the Product Backlog
      1. Refining the Product Backlog
      2. Cross-Team Product Backlog Refinement
      3. Product Backlog Item Dependencies
      4. Optional Practice: Using Story Mapping to Understand Capabilities and Dependencies
      5. Optional Practice: Using a Cross-Team Refinement Board to Understand Dependencies
    2. Planning a Sprint in a Nexus
      1. Establishing the Nexus Goal
      2. Estimation and Sizing Product Backlog Items
      3. Optional Practice: Connecting Product Backlog Items to Value Delivery
      4. Building the Nexus Sprint Backlog and Scrum Team Backlogs
    3. Closing
  14. Chapter 5 Running a Sprint in Nexus
    1. The Nexus Daily Scrum
    2. Providing Transparency Inside and Outside the Nexus
      1. Optional Practice: Product Backlog Treemap
      2. Optional Practice: Visualizing Product Backlog Burndown and Velocity
      3. The Nexus Sprint Review
      4. Optional Practice: Using the “Exposition” (Expo) Format for Nexus Sprint Reviews
      5. Optional Practice: Using Offline Review Techniques for Nexus Sprint Reviews
    3. Nexus Sprint Retrospective
    4. Closing
  15. Chapter 6 Evolving the Nexus
    1. Optional Practice: Organizing Scrum Teams around Features
    2. Optional Practice: Managing Code Like an Open-Source Project
    3. Optional Practice: Organizing Teams around Personas
    4. Expanding the Nexus Integration Team
    5. Updating and Refining the Product Backlog
    6. Nexus Sprint Planning, Revisited
    7. The Nexus Daily Scrum, Take Two
    8. The Nexus Sprint Review, Take Two
    9. The Nexus Sprint Retrospective, Take Two
      1. Too Much Work, Not Enough Progress
      2. Growing Technical Debt
      3. Unavailable Product Owner
      4. Inadequate Build and Test Automation
      5. Forming a Plan to Improve
      6. The Challenges of Scaling Scrum
    10. Closing
  16. Chapter 7 The Nexus in Emergency Mode
    1. Product Backlog Refinement, Take Three
    2. Nexus Sprint Planning, Take Three
      1. Facilitating Large-scale Distributed Sprint-Planning Sessions
      2. Nexus with Mixed Hardware/Software Development
      3. Teams Working at Different Sprint Cadences
      4. Mixing Scrum and Waterfall Approaches in a Nexus
    3. The Nexus Daily Scrum, Take Three
      1. The Nexus Daily Scrum with Distributed Teams
    4. What to Do When the Nexus Starts to Struggle
      1. The Nexus Integration Team in Emergency Mode
      2. Descaling
      3. Using a Health Check to Understand Team Sentiments
      4. Scrumbling
    5. The Nexus (Pseudo) Sprint Review and Retrospective
    6. Closing
  17. Chapter 8 Retrospective on the Nexus Journey
    1. What Worked Well
      1. The Nexus Daily Scrum
      2. The Nexus Integration Team
      3. Release Frequency
      4. Productivity
      5. Self-organization
    2. Areas for Improvement
      1. Managing Technical Debt
      2. Scaling the Product Owner
      3. Skill Development
      4. Transparency and Trust
    3. What’s Next?
    4. Closing
      1. Where to Learn More
  18. Glossary
  19. Index

Product information

  • Title: The Nexus Framework for Scaling Scrum: Continuously Delivering an Integrated Product with Multiple Scrum Teams
  • Author(s): Kurt Bittner, Patricia Kong, Dave West
  • Release date: December 2017
  • Publisher(s): Addison-Wesley Professional
  • ISBN: 9780134682686