Scrum of Scrums (2-3 Teams)
By adding an additional event daily for key people from each Scrum team called a "Scrum of Scrums". The meeting requires key stakeholders from each team to attend so that the integration between teams picks up dependencies, and ensure cleaner, easier integration. Scrum of scrums is the simplest form of Scrum scaling and requires a 15-minute meeting that I follow: What we did, what we are going to do, and blockers from all attendees format.
Scrum of Scrums helps reduce the integration unknowns and ensure various teams can solve dependencies in a timely fashion. The problem is there are diminishing returns as more teams get added, and this works well if there are 2 or 3 teams working on a single project and these teams self-organise. In my opinion, more than three teams require a more robust Scrum-based framework like Nexus or SAFe. Keep "Scrum of Scrums" meeting small with a technical scrum team member from the scrum teams. I do them exactly like a daily stand-up Scrum meeting with technical items moved to the backlog.
Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) (3 or more Teams)
Note: Using the same Scrum in every team is not ideal. I like to let each team decide their rules and find their way. The culture win from team members is where Scrum's value lies. I like to leverage other frameworks like Kanban and story points.
Source Alan Reed (with thanks) |
Nexus (3 or more Scrum Teams)
Nexus is for scaling scrum teams; I have never used it, but I like the thoughts and these guys know their stuff. I like the concept of an integration team. I have used this idea with floating team members with high degrees of specialization in CI/CD. Having a central integration team ensures all the pieces come together for the deliverable. Mixed with Scrum of Scrum meetings, the number of teams can be increased and for huge products having a central architecture/integration team is a great idea to reduce dependencies and ensure alignment from the various Scrum teams.
Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD) extends Scrum
Summary: Scrum works well for small Agile teams; once going over a single team, use daily Scrum of Scrum meetings to scale to two teams. If the product is large, a dedicate architecture team that is responsible for build releases, integration of workstreams and overall architecture and using daily Scrum of Scrums to deliver allow for larger Scrum-based projects.
- Small - Use Scrum (1 team)
- Medium - Use Scrum-of-Scrums (2-3 teams)
- Large - Use SAFe or Nexus (3 or more teams)