Today, more than ever, organizations need to build products that add higher value to customers and the business. To be more competitive, companies need to develop products in a faster way by reducing costs. To accomplish this goal, organizations can use the Nexus framework to scale software and product development.
To adopt this new framework, it is useful to understand the differences between Scrum and Nexus.
What is Nexus?
Nexus is a framework based on Scrum. It uses an iterative and incremental approach to scaling software and product development.
This framework helps companies plan, launch, scale, and manage large product and software development projects. Organizations that have multiple teams working on the same product can use the Nexus framework.
Ken Schwaber, the creator of the Scrum and Nexus frameworks, says that Nexus is the exoskeleton of Scrum. It protects and reinforces Scrum teams by creating connections between them and by encouraging transparency and scaling as uniform as possible.
How does Nexus work?
To scale more, organizations that have had positive results by using Scrum with one or two teams can use Nexus. In fact, Nexus requires from 3 to 9 Scrum teams to work on a single product backlog. The team’s objective is to build an integrated increment that meets a goal.
Two core elements that need to be considered for those struggling with a scaled initiative are cross-team dependencies and integration issues.
The Nexus Integration Team
An important element of the framework is the Nexus Integration Team (NIT). This team is responsible for producing an integrated increment at least every sprint. Basically, it is accountable for the successful integration of all work created by all the scrum teams.
This team works on several activities, such as identifying cross-team issues, recognizing dependencies early, and ensuring tools and techniques are understood and used.
Product backlog refinement in Nexus
The Product Backlog Refinement in the Nexus framework is a formal event that happens during the sprint. It helps to manage the complexity of multiple teams working together.
The characteristics of the refinement meetings can vary according to the dependencies in the product backlog. In fact, these aspects can determine the number, frequency, and duration of the meeting.
During refinement meetings, the product backlog should be refined enough so that dependencies are identified, removed, or minimized. In fact, it is important that dependencies get reduced before Nexus sprint planning because they get bigger at scale.
To minimize dependencies, it would be particularly important to look at the structure of the team. In addition, it can be useful to analyze cross-team dependencies and focus on modern technical practices.
Product backlog refinement objectives
One of the objectives of refinement meetings is to decompose the product backlog items enough so that the Nexus can understand which teams are able to deliver them and in what sequence.
Moreover, during the refinement meetings, it is crucial to identify, visualize, and minimize cross-team dependencies. To be as effective as possible, it is important that the appropriate members of the individual scrum teams attend these meetings.
Keep in mind
Today companies can develop products in a faster and cheaper way by using the Nexus framework, which is based on Scrum.
Product backlog refinement in Nexus happens as much as needed during the sprint. It helps to manage the complexity of multiple teams working together.
As shared above, the Nexus framework helps companies manage large product development projects. In other words, Nexus uses an iterative and incremental approach to scale software projects.
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