Discover the Features of the LeSS Framework
Framework Breakdown
Date of creation | 2014 |
Popularity | Rarely used (4 % in 2021) |
Documentation | Highly detailed |
Training | 4 types of certification courses |
Selection criteria | Number of teams: 2 to 8 Level of agile capability/experience of the teams: HIGH. Level of dependence: MEDIUM Planning horizon: 1 sprint |
Application scope | This is the right framework if you want to keep a lightweight framework with lots of dependent teams |
The principle at the core of LeSS is “More with LeSS”.
Agile Roles at Scale
Product Owner
A single Product Owner for all of your teams.
Scrum Master
One Scrum Master to cover three of your agile teams maximum.
Agile Events at Scale
Sprint Planning
Your Sprint Planning is comprised of two parts:
The first part includes the Product Owner and representatives of your teams in order to distribute the functionalities and discuss coordination needs during the Sprint with your teams.
The second part is where your teams all perform their standard Sprint Planning at the same time, based on the functionalities they have been given.
Daily Scrum
Each of your teams holds a Daily Scrum. A team can welcome representatives from other teams to their Daily Scrum to enhance coordination between teams in light of their inter-dependencies.
Product Backlog Refinement
This can take a range of different formats depending on the functionalities under discussion, as some will require coordination across several teams.
In this case, you organize a global Product Backlog Refinement in order to give the Product Owner a chance to introduce the future functionalities to the representatives of all of the teams.
A global Product Backlog Refinement gives rise to multi-team or single-team Product Backlog Refinements.
Sprint Review
At the end of each Sprint, you organize a Sprint Review with all of the members of all of your teams.
Sprint Retrospective
You also organize a Sprint Retrospective in two parts: one retrospective per team, followed by a global retrospective with the Product Owner, the Scrum Masters, team representatives, and managers.
The Scrum Guide suggests a three-hour Retrospective for a Sprint lasting one month. Using LeSS, you may choose the following timeboxes:
Retrospectives per team: 1 h 30 min.
Global retrospective: 1 h 30 min.
Set up the LeSS Framework
Advantages
By having a single Product Owner as the focal point for all teams and one Scrum Master for three teams, LeSS has gone for a minimalist system structure.
Enhancing the existing Scrum events with as few additions as possible fosters collaboration between the teams.
Points of Caution
Having a single Product Owner covering several agile teams means that your teams must be especially committed and extremely attentive during the Product Backlog Refinements, as they contribute to drafting the functionalities.
If you put one Scrum Master in place to cover three teams, it's a good idea to ensure that your agile teams are particularly mature.
During Sprint Planning 1, if you have just two teams, everyone can take part. If there are more than two teams, just one or two representatives per team will be able to participate.
Over to You!
Initiate Adoption of Agility at Scale for the UX-Booking Scope
Having successfully transitioned to agility at scale for Fidelio, SoEasyHotel has decided to take the plunge for the UX-Booking scope! 🚀
To ensure that the launch is successful, SoEasyHotel has entrusted you with onboarding all four teams! Everyone on the teams is familiar with team agility, which they apply daily, but know nothing about agility at scale.
You bring everyone together and must explain to them what is going to change for them in this new way of working.
How will you explain to the members of the four teams the things that are going to change for them in this new way of working?
Onboard Two Additional Teams
A few months later, UX-Booking is a victim of its own success! The mechanism has been granted a budget extension 🥳. You must onboard two more new teams, and the level of cross-team dependence is becoming high.
What risks do you incur if you persevere with the LeSS framework?
Answer Sheet
You can consult the answer sheet to check your work.
Let's Recap!
The LeSS framework offers a way to transition to agility at scale without adding new roles so that responsibilities are not spread out too thinly.
In the same way, the framework does not add new events, but it indicates that existing ones can simply be adapted to a multi-team format.
This framework requires strong, agile capabilities and ideally experience with single team agility from your teams, so that they can do “More with LeSS”.
Do you now have a firm grasp of the LeSS framework? Let’s move on to learning about the SAFe framework.
