Scaling Agile Frameworks Terminology Comparison

Ever wondered about the differences between the various Agile scaling frameworks out there? Well, check this post which compare the terminology of the most popular Agile scaling frameworks!

Differences and commonalities between scaling Agile frameworks

If you are confused about the different terms used between the various Agile scaling frameworks out there, this post should be able to explain them to you.

The key thing to know is that the vast majority of those scaling frameworks have much more in common than what they would like to admit. If you are looking to know what those frameworks have actually in common, have a look at our article on this subject: Scaling Agile building blocks.

In terms of differences, what differentiate those frameworks between them would be:

Their philosophy
Their scope of application and breadth, more on this with our Scaling Agile Frameworks Quadrant

If you want to know about the main scaling Agile frameworks in the market, have a look at our Agile scaling frameworks article.

Now, let’s look at the most popular Agile scaling frameworks before going into their terminology. Those are:

SAFe
LeSS
Scrum@scale
Nexus

Agile Scaling frameworks

Below is a table presenting key attributes of those frameworks as well as their official websites should you want to explore them in details.

Scaling...	with SAFe	with LeSS	with Scrum@scale	with Nexus
Name	Scaled Agile Framework	Large Scale Scrum	Scrum@scale	Nexus
Creation Year	2011	2005	2018	2018
Created by	Dean Leffingwell	Craig Larman, Bas Vodde	Jeff Sutherland	Ken Schwaber
Organization	Scaled Agile	Less works	Scrum Inc.	Scrum.org
Website	Scaled Agile Framework	LeSS.works	Scrumatscale	Online Nexus Guide

Now we will look at the terminology used in those frameworks.

We will do that around the main Scrum elements, those are:

The events
The roles (accountabilities in the Scrum Guide 2020)
The artifacts

So let’s review them in this order…

Scaling Scrum events

Below table presents the names used for the scaled events under our four popular frameworks:

Scaling...	with SAFe	with LeSS	with Scrum@scale	with Nexus
Sprint Planning	PI Planning	Sprint Planning One	Scaled Sprint Planning	Nexus Sprint Planning
Daily Scrum	ART sync (PO sync, Scrum of Scrum)	No prescribed event but recommended practices	The Scaled Daily Scrum	Nexus Daily Scrum
Sprint Review	I&A - PI System Demo	Sprint Review (replace single teams' reviews)	The Scaled Sprint Review	Nexus Sprint Review (replace single teams' reviews)
Sprint Retrospective	I&A - Retrospective and problem solving workshop	Overall Retrospective	The Scaled Retrospective	Nexus Sprint Retrospective
Product Backlog Refinement (PBR)	Program Backlog Refinement	Multi-team PBR, Overall PBR	Scaled Backlog Decomposition and Refinement	Cross-Team Refinement

You may have noticed that only LeSS is not prescribing an event to scale the daily Scrum.

Based on Craig Larman and Bas Vode, this scaled event does not necessarily provide value and other ways to inspect and adapt between the team can be found, explored and tested. Take what works for you!

Now that we have seen the events, let’s proceed with scaling the Scrum roles…

Scaling Scrum roles

Below table presents the names used for the scaled roles under the different frameworks. There are only 3 accountabilities in Scrum so this one is fairly easy…

Scaling...	with SAFe	with LeSS	with Scrum@scale	with Nexus
Product Owner	Product Manager	Product Owner (1 for multiple Scrum teams)	Chief Product Owner	Product Owner (1 for multiple Scrum teams)
Scrum Master	Release Train Engineer (RTE)	Scrum Master	Scrum of Scrum Master	Nexus Integration Team Scrum Master (can also work in one or more teams)
Developer	System Architect	No scaled role	No scaled role	Nexus Integration Team members

Notice here that SAFe want to ensure alignment between teams with the help of a system architect for topics such as coding convention, delivery pipeline (can also be system team), technology to use, etc…

Scaling Scrum artifacts

Below table presents the names used for the scaled artifacts under the different frameworks.

Scaling...	with SAFe	with LeSS	with Scrum@scale	with Nexus
Sprint Backlog	Sprint Backlog (per team)	Sprint Backlog (per team)	Sprint Backlog (per team)	Nexus Sprint Backlog
Product Backlog	Program Backlog and Team Backlogs	Product Backlog (one only)	Product Backlog(s)	Product Backlog (one only)
Increment	System Increment	Potentially Shippable Product Increment	Fully integrated set of potentially shippable increments of product	Integrated Increment

Here, it is also interesting to note that SAFe is splitting the Product Backlog into two parts: the Program Backlog containing large items that the teams need to work on during a Program Increment (scaled Sprint, usually containing 4 to 6 Sprints) and the teams” backlogs which contains those large items decomposed as user stories and enablers which can be completed in a Sprint.