Artem Kolyshkin - Nexus: How We Do Scrum with 150+ People

1CONFIDENTIAL

NEXUS: HOW WE DO SCRUM WITH 150+ PEOPLEARTEM KOLYSHKINKONSTANTIN RAZUMOVSKYOctober 12, 2017

2CONFIDENTIAL

• Artem Kolyshkin– Senior Delivery Manager

• Konstantin Razumovsky– Agile Coach, PST by Scrum.org

ABOUT USABOUT US

3CONFIDENTIAL

CONTENTSCONTENTSThe Pain1Nexus Framework2Our Experience with Nexus3Nexus+4

4CONFIDENTIAL

THE PAIN

5CONFIDENTIAL

• 100% re-engineering of existent warehouse system that runs on the AS/400 (iSeries Server).

• The product is used by stores for day-to-day operations: ordering, inventory management, shipping and receiving, reporting, and much more.

• Accessed through either “dumb terminals”, thin clients or using a PC. The “dumb terminals” are “Green screen” interface, rather than Windows/Graphical Interface. Also, keyboard-driven, little or no mouse use.

CUSTOMER & PRODUCTCUSTOMER & PRODUCTCustomer

Product

• A big retail company in North America, that offers a broad range of retail products, home and financial services.

6CONFIDENTIAL

THE PROJECT: FROM GREEN SCREEN TO WEB BROWSERSTHE PROJECT: FROM GREEN SCREEN TO WEB BROWSERS

7CONFIDENTIAL

• Which process to use?THE QUESTIONTHE QUESTION

8CONFIDENTIAL

IS SCRUM ALONE ENOUGH FOR SCALED DEVELOPMENT?IS SCRUM ALONE ENOUGH FOR SCALED DEVELOPMENT?

cbn Group work by Eldan Goldenberg

• Discuss with your neighbor!• Vote at http://etc.ch/Y6Tp• 1 min

9CONFIDENTIAL

THE NEW PAIN: DEPENDENCIESTHE NEW PAIN: DEPENDENCIES

Data Management

Claims & Settlements

Order ManagementDeal Management

APO

Placing & Seasonal

Signage

Reporting

Employee Purchase

Workforce Management Security

Inventory Management

Shipping & Receiving

Store Analysis Management Reporting

Operational Reporting

System Utility

Daily Sales

Fast Find

Inquiry

Returns Management

Price Management

Search

Multi-Store Functions

APAP

AIM

Merchandising

Regular Order

10CONFIDENTIAL

NEXUS FRAMEWORK

11CONFIDENTIAL

• Created by Ken Schwaber and Scrum.org• Fully defined in 11 page Nexus Guide• Focused on dependencies

NEXUS FRAMEWORK: OVERVIEWNEXUS FRAMEWORK: OVERVIEW

Nexus (noun) - a relationship or connection between people or things

12CONFIDENTIAL

NEXUSNEXUS

13CONFIDENTIAL

WHAT DOES NEXUS LOOK LIKE?WHAT DOES NEXUS LOOK LIKE?


• Look at the visualization of the Nexus process. What does it look like?

• 1 min

14CONFIDENTIAL

“We need multiple-teams Scrum, not multiple Scrum teams.”Craig Larman

#ScaledScrumIsStillScrum#ScaledScrumIsStillScrum


“Nexus is an exoskeleton of scaled Scrum”Ken Schwaber

15CONFIDENTIAL

NEXUS EXPLAINEDNEXUS EXPLAINED

16CONFIDENTIAL

OUR EXPERIENCE WITH NEXUS

17CONFIDENTIAL

• Dependencies• Nexus Integration Team• Technical Excellence

LET’S FOCUS ON…LET’S FOCUS ON…

18CONFIDENTIAL



19CONFIDENTIAL

DEPENDENCIES: 1. ORGANIZING TEAMSDEPENDENCIES: 1. ORGANIZING TEAMS

20CONFIDENTIAL

DEPENDENCIES: 2. ORGANIZING WORKDEPENDENCIES: 2. ORGANIZING WORK

21CONFIDENTIAL

IDENTIFYING DEPENDENCIES: OUR PRACTICEIDENTIFYING DEPENDENCIES: OUR PRACTICE

22CONFIDENTIAL

IDENTIFYING DEPENDENCIES: OUR PRACTICEIDENTIFYING DEPENDENCIES: OUR PRACTICE

23CONFIDENTIAL

OUR PRACTICE: ROADMAPPINGOUR PRACTICE: ROADMAPPING

24CONFIDENTIAL

HOW WE DO THIS?..HOW WE DO THIS?..

25CONFIDENTIAL



27CONFIDENTIAL

INTEGRATED INCREMENT MUST BE “DONE”INTEGRATED INCREMENT MUST BE “DONE”

28CONFIDENTIAL

• Accountable for Nexus integration• In normal mode acts like a virtual team• Raises awareness of dependencies • Ensures integration tools and practices are known and used

• Serves as consultants, coaches, and communication links

• Facilitate shared architecture

NEXUS INTEGRATION TEAM: THEORYNEXUS INTEGRATION TEAM: THEORY

29CONFIDENTIAL

• Facilitating cross-location communication and decision making issues

• Facilitating grooming sessions for dependencies identification

• Ensuring Nexus rules are understood and followed, e.g:– Integrated Increment meets DoD and deployed to STG env– Sprint-related information is transparent for all stakeholders

• Continuous deployment process runs like clockwork• Common engineering excellence practices are in place and

supported by all teams

NEXUS INTEGRATION TEAM: OUR PRACTICENEXUS INTEGRATION TEAM: OUR PRACTICE

ProductOwner

SolutionArchitect

DevOps QA

Delivery ManagerProject ManagerBA

30CONFIDENTIAL



31CONFIDENTIAL

TECHNICAL EXCELLENCE IN NEXUS: THEORYTECHNICAL EXCELLENCE IN NEXUS: THEORY“Many software development practices areneeded to create an Integrated Increment.Most of these practices require automation.The automation helps manage the volumeand complexity of the work and artifactsespecially in scaled environments.”

Nexus Guide

32CONFIDENTIAL

TECHNICAL EXCELLENCE: OUR PRACTICETECHNICAL EXCELLENCE: OUR PRACTICE

AutoManual

Automated tests cover 97% of requirements

33CONFIDENTIAL

NEXUS DEFINITION OF ‘DONE’NEXUS DEFINITION OF ‘DONE’

DoD

• All acceptance criteria are met• All required types of auto-tests are created• Story tests are all green• The story is in the QA environment• All smoke tests are green• Regression tests are more than 85% green• Code review is done before merge and all review

issues are resolved• Non-functional requirements are implemented• Architectural, developer's guidelines, standards

conventions must be obeyed• REST API is documented• There is no new sonar ‘major’ issues• Git branch is deleted after merge• PO has accepted the story

34CONFIDENTIAL

NEXUS+

35CONFIDENTIAL

1. Low cohesion between some parts of the Nexus.2. Complexity of long-term scaled planning.3. Monotony of scale. 4. Difficulty/cost of changes.5. Keeping up engineering excellence (moving to level 4).

NEW CHALLENGESNEW CHALLENGESAs we grow and have exceeded 150 size we have faced some new challenges:

36CONFIDENTIAL

AT SCALE YOU ARE UNIQUE (TRIBUTE TO JURGEN APPELO)AT SCALE YOU ARE UNIQUE (TRIBUTE TO JURGEN APPELO)

ProductBacklog

https://medium.com/agility-scales/stop-your-agile-transformation-right-now-6cf2ef2fa1a#.vbk4oydgh

37CONFIDENTIAL

OUR BARBAPAPA (TODAY)OUR BARBAPAPA (TODAY)

APO Area (9 squads)

Original Nexus (now 12 teams)

Integration Area (5 squads)

ProductBacklog

38CONFIDENTIAL

NEXUS POINTS OUT FAULTS AT ENTERPRISE LEVELNEXUS POINTS OUT FAULTS AT ENTERPRISE LEVEL


“Scrum is like your mother-in-law, it points out ALL your faults”Ken Schwaber

© Mountain Goat Software, 101 Inspiring Quotes about Agile

39CONFIDENTIAL

1. Nexus helps to capitalize on your existing Scrum experience.2. Nexus (scaled Scrum) is still Scrum.3. New roles/artifacts/rules address the pain of dependencies and integration.4. Automation and technical excellence are crucial at scale.5. Nexus+ recognizes uniqueness at scale and only provides guiding principles.6. Nexus is a catalyst for business agility, but not a silver bullet.

LESSONS LEARNEDLESSONS LEARNED

40CONFIDENTIAL

REFERENCES

41CONFIDENTIAL

REFERENCESREFERENCESwww.scrum.org/Nexus Scaled Professional Scrum with Nexus

2 day course about Nexus and ~50 scaling practices

Minsk, 20-21 November 2017

42CONFIDENTIAL

• Artem Kolyshkin– [email protected]– linkedin.com/in/akolyshkin

• Konstantin Razumovsky– www.proscrum.by– linkedin.com/in/razumovsky

QUESTIONS?QUESTIONS?

Artem Kolyshkin - Nexus: How We Do Scrum with 150+ People

Education