This presentation talks about the challenges in Scaling Agile and Scaling models such as Scrum of Scrums, LeSS, DAD, SAFe and Nexus

1. Approaches to Scaling Agile
Srinath Ramakrishnan
@rsrinath

2. About me
• Over 20 years of IT experience
• 3 years of Agile Coaching experience
• Associate Certified Coach - ICF
• ICAgile Certified Agile Coach
• SAFe Program Consultant 4.0
• Certified in Scaled Professional Scrum
• Certified Scrum Professional
• PMI Agile Certified Practitioner
• Project Management Professional

3. About you
• How many of you are new to Agile?
• How many of you are working on Agile projects?
• How many of you are aware of Scaling models in Agile?

4. Agenda
• What is Scaling Agile?
• Challenges in Scaling Agile
• Scaling models
– Scrum of Scrums (SoS)
– Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD)
– Large Scale Scrum (LeSS)
– Nexus
– Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)

5. Characteristics of Agile Teams
• Teams of sizes 5 – 9 members
• Co-located
• Self Organized
• Collaborative
• Cross Functional
• Will this work for large organizations moving towards
Agile methods ?

6. What is Scaling Agile?
Product
Team Team Team
Any implementation of Agile where multiple teams build one product or a
standalone set of product features, in one or more Sprints

7. What is Scaling agile?
Product
Team Team Team
Product
Team Team Team
Product
Team Team Team
Portfolio
Product
Team Team Team
Any implementation of Agile where multiple Teams build multiple related
products or sets of product features, in one or more Sprints

8. Scaling factors faced by Agile teams
http://www.disciplinedagiledelivery.com/agility-at-scale/scaling-factors/

9. Challenges in Scaling Agile
Coordination
Synchronization
Integration
Communication
http://hendersonaikido.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/coordination-1.jpg
http://commsbusiness.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/integration.jpg
http://www.carlosdinares.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/swimmnig2.jpg
http://www.okhlaheadlines.com/upload/June8-2015-1-59ameffective.jpg

10. Challenges in Scaling Agile
Planning Manage Dependencies
Alignment to a common goal
http://i.stack.imgur.com/0sdPF.gif
http://www.littlemiamischools.com/pages/district-news/image/section-image/planning-414.jpg
https://iaonline.theiia.org/2014/PublishingImages/shutterstock_187470173.jpg
https://media.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/p/5/005/0ac/26e/13149e2.png
Governance

11. Scaling Models

12. Scrum of Scrums
• Allow teams to discuss their work, focusing especially
on areas of overlap and integration
• Each team designates one member as a representative
to participate in the Scrum of Scrums
• Scrum of Scrums meetings occur 2/3 times a week
• 4 questions
– What has your team done since we last met?
– What will your team do before we meet again?
– Is anything slowing your team down or getting in their way?
– Are you about to put something in another team’s way?
https://www.scrumalliance.org/community/articles/2007/may/advice-on-conducting-the-scrum-of-scrums-meeting

13. Disciplined Agile Delivery
13
Developed by Scott Ambler and
Mark Lines
Uses non Scrum terminology –
Iteration and Work Item List
Teams are Enterprise aware
Governance “built in”
3 Phase Life Cycle Inception,
Construction, Transition
4 Models – Agile, Lean,
Continuous Delivery,
Exploratory (Lean Startup)
http://www.disciplinedagiledelivery.com/introduction-to-dad/

14. Disciplined Agile Delivery
• The Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD) process framework
is “a people-first, learning-oriented, hybrid, agile
approach to IT solution delivery. It has a risk-value
lifecycle, is goal-driven, scalable, and is enterprise
aware”.
• Follows a hybrid agile approach to IT solution delivery
– People-first
– Learning-oriented
– Risk and value driven
– Goal-driven
– Scalable
– Enterprise aware
http://www.scrumexpert.com/knowledge/scaling-agile-approaches/
http://www.disciplinedagiledelivery.com/introduction-to-dad/

15. Disciplined Agile Delivery
• DAD is a hybrid process framework adopt best practices and
philosophies from several methodologies
• New roles
– Primary - Architect, Team Lead, Stakeholder, Product Owner,
Team member
– Secondary – Specialist, Independent Tester, Domain Expert,
Technical Expert, Integrator
http://i0.wp.com/www.disciplinedagiledelivery.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/hybrid-of-methods11.jpg

16. Large Scale Scrum (LeSS)
Created by Craig Larman and Bas
Vodde
Set of principles and experiments
Two Agile Scaling Frameworks
• LeSS: Up to eight teams (of eight
people each).
• LeSS Huge: Up to a few thousand
people on one product.
Elements:
a single Product Backlog, 1 Product
Owner
one Definition of Done for all teams,
one Potentially Shippable Product
Increment at the end of each Sprint
Self managed, Cross functional, Co-
located and long lived teams
www.less.works

17. LeSS Huge
There is one Product Backlog; every
item in it belongs to exactly one
Requirement Area.
There is one Area Product Backlog per
Requirement Area - a more granular
view onto the one Product Backlog.
Applies to 8+ treams
All LeSS rules apply to LeSS Huge
Area PO for each requirement area
with one PO for overall
prioritization
Each Requirement Area has one
Area Product Owner.
www.less.works

18. LeSS Principles
http://less.works/less/principles/index.html

19. Principles of LeSS
• Queueing Theory
– Eliminate queues where possible
– If queues cannot be eradicated, look at reducing batch size,
reduce WIP limits and queue sizes, and make each batch more
or less equally sized
• More with LeSS
– More learning and adaptation with less defined processes
– More organizational agility with less complexity
– More value with less waste and overhead
• Lean thinking
– Respect for people and Continuous improvement

20. Nexus
https://www.scrum.org/Resources/The-Nexus-Guide
• Developed by Ken Schwaber
• It is an exoskeleton that rests on top of multiple Scrum Teams who
work together to create an Integrated Increment.

21. Nexus
• It keeps the basic principles of Scrum with added integration and
coordination activities above the individual teams.
• The foundation of a Nexus is to encourage transparency and keep
scaling as uniform as possible.
• The goal is to maximize the outcome with a minimal coordination
overhead.
• One “Done” integrated increment at least should be delivered for
every Sprint.
• Typically three to nine Scrum Teams work on a single Product
Backlog to build an Integrated Increment
• For larger initiatives, there is Nexus+, a unification of more than
one Nexus

22. Nexus – Roles, Events, Artifacts
Roles Events Artifacts
Development Teams 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*
Nexus Sprint
Retrospective*
Sprint Retrospective
Refinement*
* Nexus Specific

23. Nexus Integration Team
• The Nexus Integration Team is a Scrum Team that
consists of:
– The Product Owner
– A Scrum Master
– One or more Nexus Integration Team Members
• Takes ownership of any integration issues and is
accountable for ensuring that an Integrated Increment
is produced at least every Sprint.
• Common activities – cross-team issues, raising
awareness of dependencies early, ensure integration
tools and practices are used

24. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)
• Developed by Dean Leffingwell
• Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) defines itself as “an
online, freely revealed knowledge base of proven
success patterns for implementing Lean-Agile software
and systems development at enterprise scale. It
provides comprehensive guidance for work at the
enterprise Portfolio, Value Stream, Program, and Team
levels.”
• One of the main concepts of SAFe is the Agile Release
Train (ART) - a self-organizing group of teams that
works together based on a common backlog

25. SAFe House of Lean
www.scaledagileframework.com

26. SAFe Principles
1. Take an economic view
2. Apply systems thinking
3. Assume variability; preserve options
4. Build incrementally with fast, integrated learning cycles
5. Base milestones on objective evaluation of working
systems
6. Visualize and limit WIP, reduce batch sizes, and manage
queue lengths
7. Apply cadence, synchronize with cross-domain planning
8. Unlock the intrinsic motivation of knowledge workers
9. Decentralize decision-making

27. SAFe – Big Picture
http://scaledagileframework.com/

28. New Roles
• Program level
• Release Train Engineer – Chief Scrum master for the train
• Product Management – owns, defines and prioritizes the program backlog
• System Architect – provides architectural guidance and technical enablement to the team
• System team – provides process and tools to integrate and evaluate assets early and often
• Business Owners – Key stakeholders of the Agile Release Train
• Value Stream level
– Value Stream Engineer – Facilitate Value Stream process and execution
– Solution Architect – Responsible for Tech and Architecture vision at Solution level
– Solution Management – Responsible for the Value Stream backlog
• Portfolio level
– Program Portfolio Management – responsible for Strategy and Investment funding, Program
Management and Governance
– Enterprise Architect – drive holistic technology implementation across the enterprise
– Epic Owners – responsible for driving individual epics through to implementation

29. Release Planning
• 2 days every 8-12 weeks
• Every one attends in person, if at all possible
• Each team comes out with PI objectives which are brief
summaries in business terms what each team intends to
deliver at the end of the PI
• There is a Program Board which lists out all the features, the
milestones, the dependencies, and anticipated delivery dates
of all the teams in a PI

30. Scaling Methods and Approaches
Version one 10th Annual State of Agile Survey

31. Heart of agile
3. How will you get people to pause and reflect on what’s happening
to and around them?
4. What experiments will your people do at different levels in the
organization to make a small improvement?
http://alistair.cockburn.us/Using+the+Heart+of+Agile+on+the+problem+of+scaling
1. Independent of anything else going on,
how will you increase collaboration?
2. Accounting for everything else going on,
how will you increase trial and actual
deliveries to consumers?
These questions are designed to help an organization decide
which small change to make next in the pursuit of Agility, and to
ground that change in the context of this organization, instead
of relying on someone else's revealed wisdom

32. Thank you
@rsrinath
https://in.linkedin.com/in/srinathramakrishnan
ramakrishnan.srinath@gmail.com

33. References
• https://www.infoq.com/news/2015/11/agile-scaling-tour
• http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2016/04/15/what-does-it-mean-to-scale-agile/#1ad782795678
• https://blog.codeship.com/scaling-agile-questions-to-ask-before-choosing-your-agile-framework/
• https://www.quora.com/Whats-the-difference-between-the-Nexus-Framework-and-other-Scaled-Scrum-
Frameworks
• http://www.disciplinedagiledelivery.com/introduction-to-dad/
• http://www.slideshare.net/ChemaGarciaMartinez/scaling-agile-at-enterprise-chema-garcia
• http://www.disciplinedagiledelivery.com/introduction-to-dad/
• https://www.infoq.com/news/2014/07/compare-agile-scaling
• http://arlobelshee.com/scaling-agile-the-easy-way/
• http://sdtimes.com/dont-scale-agile-before-you-ask-yourself-these-questions/
• http://www.cio.com/article/2974436/agile-development/comparing-scaling-agile-frameworks.html
• https://scrumcrazy.wordpress.com/2015/08/17/large-scale-agile-and-scrum-vs-waterfall-agile-is-6x-more-
successful-14-the-cost-and-10x-faster-payback/
• www.scaledagileframework.com
• www.disciplinedagiledelivery.com
• www.less.works
• https://www.scrum.org/Resources/The-Nexus-Guide
• http://stateofagile.versionone.com/