Courses Is your company prepared to implement Agile at a larger scale? These are the top five ways to make sure your teams are capable of managing complex, large-scale projects!
What is Agile at Scale?
Trying to explain Agile at Scale is easy, but this depends on the approach you pick. Agile at Scale means practising Agile practices across large organization teams. Small teams can use Agile methodologies such as Scrum. To scale these methods, you will require a specific framework that matches Agile’s flexibility, speed and teamwork.
What are the Best Methods for Scaling Agile?
Scaling Agile tends to feel cumbersome depending on how you choose to implement it. Selecting the right framework can take a long way in ensuring success for your organization. Let’s dive into the top five frameworks that can help your organization scale Agile processes across teams.
1. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)
Being one of the most popular Agile scaling frameworks, SAFe assures to deliver you with flexible configurations. Its main focus is lean product delivery as it is good for large organizations. SAFe aligns business objectives with the development goals and helps maintain a productive and predictable process at scale.
Key Benefits of SAFe:
- Offers a plan for implementing Agile at the corporate level.
- Manages a team’s portfolio to ensure alignment with corporate objectives.
- Maintains uniformity through frequent feedback loops and sprint cycles.
At ValueX2, we have prepared courses for you to master SAFe with our hands-on course. Check it out!
2. Large Scale Scrum (LeSS)
LeSS takes the principles of Scrum and expands them to fit larger teams. It tends to keep things simple with fewer rules and roles than SAFe. LeSS emphasizes transparency and communication throughout the teams, making sure everyone is set and ready.
Key Benefits of LeSS:
- Utilizes Scrum fundamentals while emphasizing simplicity.
- Reduces overhead at the team level, thereby avoiding complexity.
- Promotes interdepartmental cooperation between teams.
3. Disciplined Agile (DA)
Disciplined Agile is structured with a toolkit that combines elements like Scrum, Kanban and Lean to scale Agile. Every organization has different needs and DA provides a flexible approach that will allow your team members to embrace these Agile processes. This is a perfect framework for firms that try and be adaptable and want to familiarize their processes with a structured Agile approach without being restricted to one methodology.
Key Benefits of DA:
- Flexibility to modify the framework to meet the requirements of a given project.
- Supports several approaches, including Kanban and Lean.
- Perfect for companies with a variety of project needs.
4. Spotify Model
The Spotify model focuses on coming up with independent, flexible teams where each and every team has its specific functions. This is an advantage as you get to scale Agile while keeping innovation and creativity paramount. Firms that have a culture to support experimentation and rapid quality delivery are the ones that have made this a popular selection.
Key Benefits of the Spotify Model:
- Encourages creativity in independent teams.
- Encourages a spirit of experimentation.
- Promotes scalability without sacrificing agility
5. Nexus
Being an extension of Scrum, Nexus supports organizations with large teams working on the same product. It is accompanied by the Nexus Integration Team which works on team cooperation, making sure teams are aligned and work flows smoothly.
Key Benefits of Nexus:
- Reduces cross-team dependencies.
- Ensures accountability for team members.
- Preserves team self-management and transparency.
How to Choose a Method
When you are trying to choose the right method for your organization, you should know your organization’s size, if there is existence of Agile practices, and how familiar your team is with Agile frameworks. SAFe is familiar with working well with large organizations. On the other hand, LeSS and Nexus are more suitable for businesses already using Scrum. The Spotify model is great for organizations that use a lot of technology, DA tries to bring things together, those who want to blend different Agile practices. In addition, DA has the perfect flexible approach.
Pro Tip: As a starter, try out small-scale implementations as you slowly expand the framework across the whole organization.
Upcoming Training on ValueX2
Are you interested in taking your career to the next level? ValueX2 offers you a chance to join others in the fun of Agile. Our upcoming training sessions have been designed to best fit your schedule and stretch through it. It does not matter whether you are new to Agile or you are just looking to scale your existing skills, Agile is for everyone! Check out our globally recognized Agile certifications.
Our goal as ValueX2 is not only to educate you, but to also assist you in making the best choice for your Agile scaling requirements. Joining ValueX2 will give you access to the greatest resources and instruction for successfully implementing these strategies within your company!
FAQs
Q: Can I use the Spotify model if I’m not in a tech company?
A: Absolutely! Although the Spotify model was born in tech, it has values that can be familiar with an organization needing flexible, independent teams.
Q: How do I know when it’s time to scale Agile?
A: Anytime is time to scale Agile, but what signal can help you know that its time? If your teams start growing rapidly and they are struggling to keep up, then you should consider to scale Agile.
Q: What are the five key considerations for scaling an Agile project?
A: When expanding an Agile project, keep these five things in mind:
- Coordination of Teams: Make sure your teams are in sync and have good communication skills.
- Framework Fit: Select the scaling framework (such as SAFe or LeSS) that best meets the requirements of your company.
- Cultural Shift: Make sure that every department in your company, not just development, adheres to Agile concepts.
- Leadership Support: Effective scaling requires the support of upper management.
- Automation and technologies: To increase productivity, optimize processes with enterprise Agile technologies.
Q: What are the most common challenges when scaling Agile?
A: Some of the common challenges may include; communication across teams loose connectivity, a miss in management of dependencies, not adapting the right framework to the corresponding need, and no bold leadership or value culture throughout the entire scaling process.
Bhavna is an Agile Coach and Consultant with over a decade of experience in advisory, corporate finance, IT assurance, and operations at Big 4 and within the industry in the UK and India. She has recently been the CEO of a start-up where she implemented agile practices within HR, Marketing, and Product teams.
She is also a SAFe® Practice Consultant (SPC) and authorized instructor for ICAgile Agility in HR (ICP-AHR), Agility in Marketing (ICP-MKG), and Business Agility Foundations (ICP – BAF) training courses. She provides training for agile transformation to corporate, public, and private batches, as well as consulting for enterprise agile transformation.
