Identify the Criteria to Make the Right Choice
In order to make an informed choice about the framework for your scope, I suggest you begin by answering the following four questions:
How many teams will have to work together?
For example:
Do you have more than nine or so agile teams that need to collaborate with each other? If so, your agility at scale effort will get even more complex. You will most likely need to create a Scrum of Scrums or even multiple Scrum of Scrums if you choose that practice. If you choose SAFe or LeSS, they have different ways of handling this amount of teams.
This issue is not addressed in this course, but if this topic interests you, you can look at what SAFe and its Large Solution configuration has to offer or investigate LeSS Huge, which is recommended if you have more than eight teams working in the LeSS framework.
What level of agile capabilities do your teams possess?
Remember, if the agile capability and readiness of your teams is low, then it's perhaps not quite time to transition to agility at scale just yet.
What is the level of dependency between your teams?
Is there no cross-team dependence? In that case, do you really need to transition to agility at scale?
What is your planning horizon? One sprint? Several sprints?
Use a Decision Support Tool
Don't forget that setting up a framework and its daily use entails costs for your company:
Training sessions are highly recommended when you start putting it in place, especially if the framework is complex.
Staffing new roles and the associated support
Agile at scale events, whose cost depends on how often they are held and the number of participants.
In order to ensure a good return on investment, you should choose the framework that is best suited to your needs. For the purposes of this course, I have selected two frameworks: LeSS, SAFe, and one practice: Scrum of Scrums.
Works for me! 😁 Why these frameworks and practices in particular?
Because they’re different enough to cover a range of different scopes and at the same time maintain a repertoire of company methodologies that is both comprehensible and coherent.
Use the decision support tool for the Scrum of Scrums, LeSS, and SAFe frameworks below to guide you in your selection:
Frameworks | Number of teams | Agile Capability/Experience | Level of dependence | Planning horizon |
Scrum of Scrums | 2 to 8 | Medium | Low | 1 sprint |
LeSS | 2 to 8 | High | Medium | 1 sprint |
SAFe | 5 to 12 | High | High | 1 increment, or sprints |
Whoa! I'm not sure I know how to use this tool. 😅 How does it work?
Don't panic! Let's decipher this together. In concrete terms:
If you have fewer than five teams:
Scrum of Scrums and LeSS are enough, as the cost SAFe incurs would not allow you to get a good return on your investment.
Opt for Scrum of Scrums if you have low cross-team dependencies and average agile capability.
Opt for LeSS if you have a lot of cross-team dependencies and mature agile teams.
If you have more than five teams:
Scrum of Scrums is still relevant if your teams have a low level of interdependence.
LeSS is appropriate if:
Your teams have medium dependencies.
You want to keep the planning horizon to one sprint because your scope is subject to frequent changes.
SAFe is appropriate if:
Your teams are highly interdependent.
You prefer a planning horizon that is longer than a sprint.
Set the Pace for Your Company
Even if your scopes use different frameworks, you can still phase and synchronize them all together to:
Make it easier to tackle a few dependencies on the margins.
Set a rhythm that will be shared across the entire company.
You can even apply this company rhythm to departments other than IT, such as HR for instance, to align the recruitment work with the needs of the teams.
Over to You!
The big day has arrived: it’s time to help SoEasyHotel select its frameworks.
For each of the Fidelio and UX-Booking scopes, which framework would work the best and why?
Answer Sheet
You can check the answer sheet to see which framework is the best fit for the Fidelio and UX-Booking scopes.
Let's Recap!
In order to choose a framework, you must be familiar with and evaluate criteria such as the number of stakeholders and the level of dependency between your teams.
Setting up a framework and using it on a daily basis will entail costs for your company, but these will vary widely from one framework to another.
A decision support tool can help you make an informed choice.
Have you chosen the framework that is best suited to your scope? Excellent! Now let's have a look at the features of the frameworks and how to set them up.
