Agile Coaches' Corner

This week on the podcast, Dan Neumann is joined by Ryan Ripley! Ryan is a Professional Scrum Trainer, the host of the Agile for Humans podcast, and the co-author of the new book, Fixing Your Scrum: Practical Solutions to Common Scrum Problems.

This week on the podcast, your hosts, Dan Neumann and Sam Falco, will be exploring the Nexus Framework. Joining them is Kurt Bittner, Patricia Kong of Scrum.org! In their roles at Scrum.org, Kurt is the Vice President of Enterprise Solutions, Patricia is the Product Owner of Enterprise Solutions, and Dave West is the CEO. Together with Dave West, CEO of Scrum.org, they are co-authors of the book, The Nexus Framework for Scaling Scrum: Continuously Delivering an Integrated Product with Multiple Scrum Teams, which is also the topic of today’s episode!

 

Together, Kurt and Patricia provide a thorough introduction to the Nexus Framework and take a deep dive into some of the facets of it. They explain many of the whys and the hows around it, debunk some of the common misconceptions, and share how they resolve some of the common problems that sometimes pop up.

 

Key Takeaways

What is the Nexus Framework?

It aims to address the main problem of how to coordinate across multiple teams delivering one product

When you start to scale up the number of teams involved, questions arise, which Nexus helps to address

Its main focus is on teams and the products

Nexus aims to help the organizational change problem (regardless of the practices being introduced)

It helps people apply Scrum in a larger context and addresses scaling-specific issues

Can you implement Nexus without Scrum? What happens if you implement the framework without doing Scrum well?

There are lots of ways to fall down with Scrum — Nexus won’t make or break it

You should learn how to do Scrum well before implementing Nexus

If a set of teams isn’t doing Scrum well, there are scaling techniques that you can apply

How the Nexus Framework works:

Multiple teams work to build one integrated increment at every sprint (usually three to nine teams)

There’s one Product Owner with one product backlog

There is a Nexus sprint backlog, which is a representation of and transparency around the dependencies that the teams might face

Teams still have their daily Scrums but there is a Nexus daily Scrum before that so the unit can come truly come together, understand the current issues, and properly plan ahead

There is only one Nexus sprint review as opposed to the individual sprint reviews you would see in Scrum (because of the emphasis on the integrated product)

After the review, you have the Nexus retrospective where the appropriate people come together to address the current issues and find solutions

There is also the Nexus sprint goal, which is a culmination of what the teams are doing as a Nexus for the sprint

There’s a new role called the Nexus Integration Team, which consists of a Product Owner, a Scrum Master, and Nexus Integration Team members to ensure the integration of the Nexus

With no Product Owner hierarchy, how does one Product Owner handle multiple teams vs. single team Scrum?

Understanding that they’re not looking for different job titles; it’s about a role

Clear communication about autonomy

“One Santa, many elves” i.e. there may be one person that is responsible for the product being successful but they can have lots of help

Make sure that the teams understand what the goal that is being worked towards is

 

Mentioned in this Episode:

Kurt Bittner

Patricia Kong

Scrum.org

The Nexus Framework for Scaling Scrum: Continuously Delivering an Integrated Product with Multiple Scrum Teams, by Kurt Bittner, Patricia Kong, and Dave West

Ken Schwaber

Scaling Scrum with Nexus (Scrum.org)

Nexus Framework Poster (Scrum.org)

Evidence-Based Management

Mike Rother

 

Want to Learn More or Get in Touch?

Visit the website and catch up with all the episodes on AgileThought.com!

Email your thoughts or suggestions to [email protected] or Tweet @AgileThought using #AgileThoughtPodcast!

This week on the podcast, your hosts, Dan Neumann and Sam Falco, will be exploring the Nexus Framework. Joining them is Kurt Bittner, Patricia Kong, and Dave West of Scrum.org! In their roles at Scrum.org, Kurt is the Vice President of Enterprise Solutions, Patricia is the Product Owner of Enterprise Solutions, and Dave West is the CEO

This week on the podcast, Dan Neumann is joined by his co-host and colleague, Sam Falco. They are joined by special guest, Gene Gendel, an Agile Coach, Trainer, and Organizational Design Agent. He is a proud member of the Scrum Alliance Certified Enterprise Coaches (CEC) and is Certified in Agile Leadership (CAL), Large Scale Scrum (CLP-LeSS), and Scrum @ Scale (S@S). Gene’s focus is on helping organizations and teams with improving system design and organizational structure and overall efficiency — which he engages in at all organizational levels (senior leadership, mid-level management, teams, and individuals.)

 

Today, Dan, Sam, and Gene will be exploring the Large Scale Scrum Framework also known as LeSS! They’ll be giving an overview of the framework, going over some of the lesser-known aspects, debunking some of the misconceptions around it, and highlighting the types of organizations and organizational challenges it is best suited to address. Gene also provides many key insights and tips for the framework!

 

Key Takeaways

What is Large Scale Scrum (LeSS)?

It was initially called LSS (with the ‘e’ added later because “less is more!”)

It is Scrum

It is not multiple teams doing their own, independent Scrum; It is multiple teams working in the same Scrum, for the same Product Owner, on the same wider defined product, on the same cadence

An organizational design framework

It is not a way to scale up or make things more complex

It is often referred to as a de-scaling framework as it requires the removal of organizational overhead in order to scale up Agility

Highlights organizational problems and asks you to solve them

How to address fear and resistance when it comes to implementing LeSS:

Mid- and first-level management can be resistant to anything that is bringing about change or uncertainty — but not to worry: LeSS will not change your organization in a broad and shallow way; it is meant for deep and narrow organizational changes that take months to years to succeed

The type of organizational challenges LeSS is best-suited to addressing:

When the organization needs to get many teams working in the same direction to deliver on a project, product, or significant capability

How does LeSS help teams coordinate across their boundaries in order to pull together in the same direction?

Since there is so much transparency and visibility between the various teams in various channels with LeSS, there is almost no additional need to coordinate outside of those events

Every team in a LeSS product group is almost a clone of another team

Other important aspects of the LeSS framework:

It is highly encouraged to communicate in-person with one another

The Scrum Master is a full-time role (if a company implements LeSS they should be prepared to go to HR and makes sure that a Scrum Master is entered into the database as a role on par with any other role)

LeSS managers are capacity builders, not task managers

LeSS introduces a concept called ‘undone work’ which is a necessary evil at the beginning steps of LeSS reduction (the goal of LeSS is to shrink the undoneness to null over time)

The LeSS framework wasn’t created reactively to meet market demand; it was very proactive and has almost a decade of experiments and experiences documented behind it

In order for a LeSS product group to be formed you need to properly define the product

 

Mentioned in this Episode:

Large Scale Scrum (LeSS)

Larman’s Laws of Organizational Behavior

The Scrum Guide

The Green Book: Collection of Independent Essays About Agility, by Gene Gendel

 

Gene Gendel’s Book Picks:

Taiichi Ohno’s Workplace Management, by Taiichi Ohno

Large-Scale Scrum: More with LeSS 

 

Want to Learn More or Get in Touch?

Visit the website and catch up with all the episodes on AgileThought.com!

Email your thoughts or suggestions to [email protected] or Tweet @AgileThought using #AgileThoughtPodcast!

This week on the podcast, Dan Neumann is joined by his co-host and colleague, Sam Falco. They are joined by special guest, Gene Gendel, an Agile Coach, Trainer, and Organizational Design Agent. He is a proud member of the Scrum Alliance Certified Enterprise Coaches (CEC) and is Certified in Agile Leadership (CAL), Large Scale Scrum (CLP-LeSS), and Scrum @ Scale (S@S)

This week on the podcast, Dan Neumann is joined by his collaborator Sam Falco and special guest, Michael McGreevy! Michael is an Enterprise Agile Coach at Grow Financial and is a Certified Scrum Professional, Agile Leader, and Scrum@Scale Practitioner.

 

A couple of episodes back, Christy Erbeck shared some of her beliefs and understanding around the scaled Agile framework, SAFe. That fascinating conversation led hosts Dan and Sam along a journey to discovering other scaling frameworks. So, in today’s episode, they’re continuing their conversation around scaling and taking a look at Scrum@Scale! Michael explains some of the basics of Scrum@Scale and shares his own experiences with the framework, Agility, and scaling in general within his professional work at Grow Financial.

 

Key Takeaways

Challenges Around Scaling:

It is unique to every organization

Too prescriptive of a framework can become its own impediment

How these challenges can be addressed:

You don’t have to use all of a framework; just what is necessary

Benefits to Scrum@Scale/Why Grow Financial is using elements of the Scrum@Scale framework:

It brings their teams together to get things done more effectively

Helps to create transparency throughout the organization

It is more simple than other frameworks

It introduces concepts for people who might not know how to start scaling

Creates complete alignment between all teams

Supports information flowing both ways (from the “lowest” teams under the development scale all the way up to the enterprise team)

It also supports information flow laterally (i.e. between the software teams and marketing teams)

There’s ambiguity with the framework so success can be determined by the teams and enterprise

More visibility into what all teams are doing and how it impacts other teams

Creates more transparency (which is key in transformation as it helps to not let any teams lag behind)

Possible challenges with Scrum@Scale:

Because the framework is so simple it is somewhat vague and difficult to get right; there isn’t a clear path to success

You need to make sure that everyone in the organization is on board and understands it

Michael’s advice on scaling:

Don’t get too prescriptive with any one framework — give it a try but be willing to adjust aspects of it or be okay with moving on to trying something else

 

NEW SEGMENT! Listener Q&A:

Q: Janis, a Scrum Master at Fidel (a growing fintech startup from the UK), describes how their company is currently in a fast-growth and global expansion phase where they’re expanding from a single agile team to multiple teams. They ask Dan and Sam to talk about the dilemma of letting the devs do code reviews for other teams vs. keeping code reviews inside the team.

 

A: It’s good that Janis is interested in making sure that the knowledge of the codebase remains strong across the team and that the knowledge does not get fragmented and siloed. However, there are more than two options to explore. Here are some other ways for Janis to have a richer conversation with their team about how they might foster shared knowledge amongst team members as their teams grow: Pairing, Promiscuous Pairing, Mob Programming, Team Reviews/Inspection/Walkthroughs, and Unit Test Automation.

 

If you have a question you would like to send in, email [email protected] or tweet using the hashtag #AgileThoughtPodcast!

 

Mentioned in this Episode:

Michael McGreevy

Grow Financial

Agile Coaches’ Corner Ep. 61: “Christy Erbeck Busts Myths About the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)”

Scrum@Scale

Scrum of ScrumsScaled Agile Framework (SAFe)

Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High, by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler

Agile Coaches’ Corner Ep. 45: “The Benefits of Mob Programming with Chris Lucian”

 

Michael McGreevy’s Book Pick:

The Age of Agile: How Smart Companies Are Transforming the Way Work Gets Done, by Stephen Denning

 

Want to Learn More or Get in Touch?

Visit the website and catch up with all the episodes on AgileThought.com!

Email your thoughts or suggestions to [email protected] or Tweet @AgileThought using #AgileThoughtPodcast!

This week on the podcast, Dan Neumann is joined by his collaborator Sam Falco and special guest, Michael McGreevy! Michael is an Enterprise Agile Coach at Grow Financial and is a Certified Scrum Professional, Agile Leader, and Scrum@Scale Practitioner

In this week’s podcast, Dan Neumann is speaking with Charlie Guse, the lead organizer for the Global Game Jam event in South Bend, Indiana. And today, they’re talking about going from zero to game in 48 hours!

 

With Agile teams — especially Scrum teams — they’ve got the notion of creating an increment within a timebox in Scrum between 1-4 weeks. Though this event is only 48 hours, there are many similarities and overlaps with one another. So in today’s episode, Charlie talks about how they go from zero to game in 48 hours and the facets of Game Jam that translate back into the work software developers do in their day jobs!

 

Key Takeaways

• What is the Global Game Jam?
• • A global event where everyone starts at the same time and has 48 hours to create a game based on a certain theme (this year’s theme is “repair”)
  • A great way to meet new people and have lots of new ‘aha’ moments!
  • Not a competition
• How the Global Game Jam overlaps with day-to-day software development:
• • Having a theme/concrete idea to rally behind makes it easier to make informed decisions about building stuff and helps everyone come together and contribute ideas
  • A framework was developed for this year’s event so that next year they can iterate on the framework based on the feedback they receive
  • There is an emphasis on trying to find what each person’s interests are and having them focus on those as opposed to ‘shoving’ them into a position based on their availability, skill, and need
  • Cutting scope for the timebox (i.e. working together to find the core of what you’re trying to do and cut the excess until you have a core you can deliver on)
  • If people are spread out in their own rooms there is less collaboration so open areas are better
  • There is rapid prototyping, iterations, and cycles
  • Lots of opportunities for networking and making connections

 

Mentioned in this Episode:

Global Game Jam

Charlie Guse

Kintsugi

AWS Lambda

EVE Online

 

Charlie Guse’s Book Picks:

Reamde, by Neal Stephenson

 

Want to Learn More or Get in Touch?

Visit the website and catch up with all the episodes on AgileThought.com!

Email your thoughts or suggestions to [email protected] or Tweet @AgileThought using #AgileThoughtPodcast!

In this week’s podcast, Dan Neumann is speaking with Charlie Guse, the lead organizer for the Global Game Jam event in South Bend, Indiana. And today, they’re talking about going from zero to game in 48 hours!

This week, Sam Falco is hosting the podcast once again! He’s invited on his colleague and friend, Adam Ulery, who is a Senior Agile Coach at AgileThought. Adam is a perpetually curious, continuous learner who is always willing to encourage others to try new things (as he very often does himself). He is very focused on helping organizations clarify and meet their business outcomes, and loves to help companies become resilient and rediscover their curiosity.

 

Today, they’re sharing their best tips for new Scrum Masters. When Sam and Adam were new Scrum Masters they found that there were not a lot of experienced Scrum Masters that were accessible to them. In fact, they didn’t even have access to many of the common resources that exist today! So today they want to share all that they’ve learned over the course of their careers and lend a hand to all of the new Scrum Masters out there!

 

Key Takeaways

• Tips for the new Scrum Master:
• • Seek to understand where the team is in terms of their Scrum maturity level
  • Observe the team without immediately trying to make changes to the way the team does things to inform yourself about where they are
  • Ask yourself: ‘How well is what they’re doing working for them? Are they working well together as a team?’ If these things look good in-person even though they could look incorrect on-paper you may not want to change these things
  • Do some sort of an assessment with the team to establish a baseline for where they are and how they’re executing Scrum (then periodically reassess down the line)
  • Have the team self-assess
  • Create a shared team vision
  • Regardless of your experience level, educate yourself on the craft
  • Get involved with a community group to improve your area of practice (and if there isn’t one where you are, start one)
  • Indulge in books around your craft — they’re a great resource for taking you to the next level
  • Go to conferences, big or small
• Tips for the new Scrum Master who is assigned to a pre-existing team:
• • Start by working with them on the areas that need improvement (based off of an assessment) by getting the team’s input and having the team decide what they’d like to work on (assuming they’re mature enough to want to do that)
  • Receive constant feedback by creating an open channel with the team to communicate
  • Have transparency with what you’re doing there and what you want for them
• How to become a more effective Scrum Master:
• • Find a mentor
  • Be a mentor — just because you’re new doesn’t mean you have nothing to offer
  • Become a speaker — you’ll discover you know more than you thought you did

 

Mentioned in this Episode:

The Scrum Guide

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change, by Stephen R. Covey

Tampa Bay ScrumMasters Guild

Ken Schwaber

Agile Project Management with Scrum, by Ken Schwaber

Software Estimation Without Guessing: Effective Planning in an Imperfect World, by George Dinwiddie

The Water Dancer, by Ta-Nehisi Coates

 

Adam Ulery’s Book Picks:

Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Killing Sacred Cows: Overcoming the Financial Myths That Are Destroying Your Prosperity, by Garrett B. Gunderson and Stephen Palmer

The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? by Rick Warren

The DevOps Handbook: How to Create World-Class Agility, Reliability, and Security in Technology Organizations, by Gene Kim, Patrick Debois, John Willis, and Jez Humble

 

Want to Learn More or Get in Touch?

Visit the website and catch up with all the episodes on AgileThought.com!

Email your thoughts or suggestions to [email protected] or Tweet @AgileThought using #AgileThoughtPodcast!