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LeSS or Nexus?

Last post 07:19 am March 14, 2019 by Cheng Fu Yeo
6 replies
09:25 am March 12, 2019

Hi, 

Can you please clarify, LeSS and Nexus are 2 different types of Scaled Scrum? If yes, am I right that LeSS is the product of the Scrum Alliance? 


03:07 pm March 12, 2019

Can you please clarify, LeSS and Nexus are 2 different types of Scaled Scrum

LeSS and Nexus are two different types of Scaled Scrum created by different people. From my study of both they are similar but they are not the same.

This page 

https://www.scrum.org/resources/scaling-scrum

states the following

The Nexus Framework was created by Ken Schwaber, co-creator of Scrum, and was released by Scrum.org, along with a body of knowledge, the Nexus Guide, in 2015 and updated in 2018.

On the Scrum Alliance website I found this article. 

https://www.agilealliance.org/resources/sessions/introduction-to-large-…

Towards the end of that article is this statement

...[Bas Vodde](https://less.works/profiles/basvodde) and [Craig Larman](https://less.works/profiles/craiglarman), the creators of LeSS, ...

The links for their bios take you to the LeSS site where it is stated that each one was the creator.  Based on this I would assume that LeSS was not a product of the Scrum Alliance


03:14 pm March 12, 2019

Correct, there are others as well;

  • Scrum@scale (Jeff Sutherland)
  • LeSS (Bas Vodde & Craig Larman)
  • Nexus
  • SAFe
  • the spotify-model
  • ...

LeSS has nothing to do with Scrum Alliance I think.

The big difference between with LeSS compared with Nexus and SAFe:

  • LeSS really wants to simplify things, which usually means reorganizing teams. Doesn't really create new roles. Can thus be heavier to implement.
  • SAFe and Nexus for instance allow the use of component-teams which have strong dependencies, thus more coordination is needed, which results in additional roles. 

05:59 pm March 12, 2019

@Filip you are correct in all but for a couple of things.  SAFe is not Scaled Scrum. It does include some of the Scrum framework but it is in fact Scaled AGILE. It includes a lot of practices from other frameworks/practices such as Kanban, Lean, eXtreme Programming. Similar situation with the Spotify Model.  Both of those freely admit that they are not Scaled Scrum but are in fact Scaled Agile. 

As @Filip pointed out the truth is there are many scaling methods for Scrum and agile in general.  None is better than the other.  They are just better for one company than they are for another.  @Orkhan, my advice is to study multiple scaling frameworks/methodologies/practices and learn how their techniques provide benefit. Don't be too concerned about where they originated. If you want a Scrum based, it is best for you to know basic Scrum well and then you will be able to recognize ones that are true to the Scrum framework. 

We may be over-killing responses to your question but it was rather vague in the reason you asked it.  (shrug)


03:18 am March 13, 2019

Daniel, Filip, appreciated you for your answer, Thanks. 


02:09 am March 14, 2019

Hi Orkhan Efendiev

I have came across the following article sometime back, perhaps it will be able to provide you some background and clarify of both Nexus and LeSS.

https://www.scrum.org/resources/blog/how-do-nexus-and-less-differ


07:19 am March 14, 2019

*clarity of both Nexus and LeSS


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