Agile scaling frameworks: 4 common choices

When multiple Agile teams work together on a common product, coordination issues and dependencies will arise. Since the creation of the Agile Manifesto and most notably, the spread of Scrum, several practices and techniques have been put in place to solve those problems.

The practices and techniques which work for scaling have been regrouped by different organizations under several frameworks over the years. 4 of the most popular are briefly presented here, they are: Nexus, Scrum@Scale, LeSS and SAFe.

For each section, you will find:

The name of the framework
The website of the organization behind the framework
The link to the creator(s) LinkedIn profile(s)
The link to the framework material(s)
The creation date
A short description of the framework

In case you are interested to know more about those frameworks afterwards or are unsure about which one to select for your organization, we recommend you to have a look at this article which explains the basics behind all of those frameworks.

If you want some help, do not hesitate to reach out to us: we offer SAFe courses in and around Switzerland, are Nexus certified and are knowledgeable about Scrum@Scale and LeSS.

Nexus

Organization: Scrum.org

Creator: Ken Schwaber

Source: The Nexus Guide

Creation date: January 2018

Description: Nexus is a no nonsense framework for scaling Agile based on Scrum. It is intended for up to 9 Scrum teams working together on a single product backlog.

Scrum@Scale

Scrum@Scale

Organization: Scrum.inc and Scrum Alliance

Creator: Jeff Sutherland

Source: Scrum@Scale guide

Creation date: February 2018

Description: Scrum@Scale has for key component Scrum and has a scale free architecture, intending to propagate to virtually every departments, products and services within an organization.

LeSS

Large Scale Scrum (LeSS)

Organization: The LeSS Company B. V.

Creator: Craig Larman / Bas Vodde

Source: LeSS works

Creation date: 2005

Description: LeSS apply Agile and Scrum to very large and multi-site product development with two frameworks. LeSS: up to eight teams (of eight people each) and LeSS Huge: up to a few thousand people on one product.

SAFe

Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)

Organization: Scaled Agile

Creator: Dean Leffingwell

Source: Scaled Agile Framework

Creation date: 2011

Description: Now in its 5.0 version (end of 2019), SAFe® for Lean Enterprises is a knowledge base of proven, integrated principles, practices, and competencies for Lean, Agile, and DevOps.