What’s the difference between the Nexus Framework and other Scrum Frameworks?

Scrum and Nexus are both Agile software development methodologies, but they are designed to address different problems and work at different scales. Here are some differences and similarities between Scrum and Nexus:

Differences:

1. Scale: Scrum is designed for small to medium-sized teams, while Nexus is designed for large-scale projects with multiple Scrum teams working together.
2. Structure: Scrum has its own distinct structure, consisting of three main components: the product owner, the development team, and the Scrum Master. Nexus, on the other hand, is made up of multiple Scrum teams working together, with each team having its own Scrum Master and a Nexus Integration Team responsible for managing the overall coordination between teams.
3. Planning: In Scrum, each sprint is preceded by a planning meeting, while in Nexus, multiple Scrum teams come together to plan as a unified whole.
4. Management: The Scrum Master is responsible for managing the Scrum team, while the Nexus Integration Team is responsible for managing the coordination between multiple Scrum teams.
5. Meetings: Both Scrum and Nexus include specific meetings or ceremonies, such as sprint planning, daily stand-ups, sprint reviews, and sprint retrospectives in Scrum, and Nexus planning, Nexus daily scrums, and Nexus reviews in Nexus.
6. Artifacts: Scrum and Nexus both have different artifacts. In Scrum, these are the product backlog, sprint backlog, and potentially shippable increment. In Nexus, there are additional artifacts such as the Nexus Product Backlog and Nexus Sprint Backlog.

Similarities:

1. Both Scrum and Nexus are Agile methodologies, and they share the same core principles and values.
2. Both use iterations or sprints to deliver working software.
3. Both emphasize collaboration, teamwork, and continuous improvement.
4. Both rely on empirical process control, which involves regular inspection and adaptation.

In summary, while Scrum and Nexus share some similarities, they are designed to address different needs at different scales. Scrum is suitable for small to medium-sized teams, while Nexus is designed to facilitate large-scale Agile projects with multiple Scrum teams.

Nexus — This is a framework that talks about how to organize teams to deliver large project. Don’t touch some of the area related to organization change, system thinking and enterprise agility etc. A beautiful framework to apply when you have large project where more than 2 teams needed.

• Intended for 3–9 Scrum teams (so Like LeSS, not LeSS Huge)
• Adds an “Integration Team” that focuses on dependencies, interoperation, and integration [of code] between Scrum teams. “The Nexus Integration Team consists of individuals who are skilled in the use of tools and practices associated with scaled development work.”
• Simplistically, the Nexus framework takes the various roles and ceremonies of Scrum and adds “Nexus” in front of them. For example, “the Nexus Daily Scrum”. Although a little humorous in my opinion, this also makes sense. Nexus is the mechanism or name for the Scrum-of-Scrums in the Nexus framework. And given the name nexus literally means connecting point of many things, the name seems well chosen. So the Nexus Daily Scrum contains “appropriate representatives” from individual Scrum Teams.
• Nexus is heavily focused on this integration/SOS role. It does not seem to cover other organizational considerations like Org Structure the way that LeSS does.

LeSS — Focus on moving from project mindset to product mindset. Change organization structure around product. It is not just about building large product but more about transforming organization by applying System thinking and lean thinking.

• Similar to Nexus, LeSS focuses heavily on Scrum-of-Scrums — the gray part in the middle.
• There are two flavors of LeSS: LeSS (up to 8 teams of 8) and Less Huge (a few thousand people on one product)
• I think a lot of its value are the items around the center, which I’m not sure is actually part of the framework.

SAFe — Very complex framework to develop complex software product and complexity get multiply. Yet most popular Scaling framework and may be complexity is the reason behind. A scary big picture explain what this framework is all about.

• I like this model because its not just Scrum but Agile. For example, it has a Kanban process in the upper portfolio section. This is one way its different from Nexus, as Nexus is only Scrum.