Best 5 Agile Scaling Frameworks Compared: Which One Should You Use? - TalentESO

Best 5 Agile Scaling Frameworks Compared: Which One Should You Use?

by TalentESO Team

Dec 12,2022

Agile is the premier project management approach for industries and companies worldwide. It is preferred because of its simplicity and flexibility. The Agile mindset is crucial and the teams should adopt it for better results.

Agile should not be considered a project management approach but a product development philosophy continuously evolving in practice. Agile in practice gives emphasis on iterative development, collaborative teamwork, and accurate estimation.

The Agile methodology believes in assembling a single, effective, cross-functional team of individuals committed to achieving product goals. It’s really important that the team is proficient in Agile to ensure improved performance.

You should think about scaling when there is more work to be done than your team can handle in a reasonable period of time. Selecting the right framework is essential to achieve that. Your implementation could fail if you don’t select the right framework.

Scaling is necessary when your team’s workload outweighs its capabilities. You should not think about scaling if you don’t need to as implementing scaled agile frameworks can be complex and consuming.

What is Agile?

Agile methodology is a way to manage a project by breaking it up into several phases. It involves continuous improvement at every stage and constant collaboration with stakeholders. Teams go through the process of planning, executing, and evaluating.

Agile is considered the most popular approach to project management due to its flexibility, adaptability to change, and high level of customer input. Your team’s proficiency in agile is most important as scaling will create problems if isn’t so.

When it comes to software development and project management, agile is an iterative approach that helps teams deliver value to their customers faster and with fewer headaches. In agile software development, requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between cross-functional teams.

Requirements for Scaling Agile Teams

Before introducing scaling agile methods there are certain requirements that need to be in place to minimize the risks for the adoption of a scaled agile approach on an enterprise scale. There are certain prerequisites that need to be met and these are: 

  • Agile is considered the most popular approach to project management due to its flexibility, adaptability to change, and high level of customer input. Your team’s proficiency in agile is most important as scaling will create problems if isn’t so.
  • The teams should all be structured as cross-functional and self-organizing Scrum teams.
  • The teams should focus on technical excellence such as doing continuous integration and automated regression testing.
  • The teams should have a potentially deployable product.
  • The teams should focus on doing continuous integration and automated regression testing.
  • Any organization can adopt the scaling agile method only if the agile teams have the above characteristics of agility.

Agile Scaling Frameworks

Nexus

Nexus is a framework used for developing and sustaining scaled products and software development initiatives. Nexus uses scrum as its building block. The Nexus framework consists of roles, events, artifacts, and techniques that bind the work of multiple scrum teams.

Multiple Scrum teams are combined to create an integrated increment and the Nexus framework rests on top of them. The Nexus integration team is a Crum team that consists of the product owner, Scrum master, and one or more Nexus integration team members.

LeSS

The LeSS framework is used for scaling Scrum to multiple teams who work together on a single product. The LeSS framework applies the principles and ideals of Scrum in a large-scale enterprise context. The simplicity of LeSS has earned it the label of a “barely sufficient” framework.
LeSS offers two configurations which are Basic LeSS for two to eight teams and LeSS Huge for more than eight teams. With LeSS you can achieve a lower cost of implementation by implementing practices that teams already use in Scrum.

SAFe

SAFe is a set of organizational and workflow patterns for implementing agile practices at an enterprise scale. The framework includes structured guidance on roles and responsibilities. How to plan and manage the work.

SAFe transforms how you work to improve employee engagement, time to market, team productivity, and the quality of your products and solutions. No matter how much your organization’s size is, SAFe is a proven, scalable, and configurable solution.

Disciplined Agile(DA)

Disciplined Agile (DA) is a process decision framework that offers guidance to help teams optimize their processes according to the unique needs of each specific project. This framework has a hybrid nature that pulls the best elements from several proven methodologies.

It allows teams to follow the agile method while tailoring it to their unique needs. DA provides the required flexibility for a highly experienced agile team. The Disciplined Agile enterprise helps you create a culture and structure conducive to learning and innovation.

 

Scrum@Scale

Scrum@Scale is a natural extension of the Scrum framework. It empowers organizations to achieve business agility and deliver greater impact by scaling the Scrum framework out to teams. This framework helps Scrum teams and enterprises deliver products collaboratively in the same complex environment.

Scrum@Scale focuses on the entire ecosystem of teams in order to transform overall organizational culture. Scrum@Scale can help scale the framework and is a great solution for organizations of all sizes.

 

Conclusion

Each of the Scaled agile frameworks mentioned above allows multiple teams to work together to maintain their Agility. The framework that best suits your team can vary depending on factors such as available funding, organizational approach, and product complexity.

Selecting the best framework helps you in scaling agile teams and seamlessly integrating their work. Before choosing the right framework you should consider factors such as the experience level of your team, organizational maturity, and the complexity of the solutions being built.

Hope this article was helpful.