Nexus is a framework that extends Scrum, designed for organizations where multiple (3 to 9) Scrum teams work simultaneously on a single product. Like other ‘scaled Agile’ solutions, Nexus adds extra roles, events, and artifacts to streamline collaboration and integration between teams. The ultimate goal is for all teams to deliver an integrated and ‘Done’ product increment every sprint.
A growing number of Scrum teams inevitably leads to additional coordination challenges: dependencies in code, shared infrastructure, or overlapping features. Nexus focuses on solving these integration problems through a number of specific events, a shared backlog, and a central point of contact for integration.
This is a dedicated team, composed of representatives from the Scrum teams (e.g., Scrum Masters, technical integrators) who focus on:
While not always formally designated as a fixed group of people, a set of individuals coordinates integration in every sprint.
All teams work from a single Product Backlog. This also means a single Product Owner or an overarching role (Lead PO) who determines which items have priority. The teams distribute the backlog items among themselves, but the priority and definition of ‘Done’ are the same for everyone.
To prevent teams from conducting conflicting Sprint Planning sessions, a joint Nexus Sprint Planning is held first. Here, representatives from all teams review dependencies and decide who takes on what. Afterward, the teams conduct their detailed planning in sub-sessions. This ensures that each story is implemented by only one team and that the sequence is logical (e.g., Team B builds the API first, then Team A implements the front-end).
Each team holds its own Daily Scrum. In addition, there is the Nexus Daily Scrum, where representatives from all teams (Scrum Masters or team members) briefly coordinate on integration issues, dependencies, or other cross-team bottlenecks. This prevents problems from only surfacing at the end of the sprint.
At the end of the sprint, the product increment as a whole is demonstrated and evaluated. This way, stakeholders see not only what each team has done, but also how the total delivery functions. In the Nexus Retrospective, all teams together discuss what went well in collaboration and integration, and what improvements are needed.
Nexus is designed for situations with 3 to ~9 teams that jointly deliver a single product. If you only have two teams, the additional overhead is often too great. With more than 9 teams, Nexus can still work, but a framework like SAFe might be more relevant—depending on the organizational culture.
An e-commerce company has five Scrum teams: one for checkout, one for product catalog, one for search functionality, and so on. By implementing Nexus, they have:
Nexus is a lightweight framework that extends Scrum to solve problems related to integration and dependencies in multi-team environments. With a central Nexus Integration Team, shared planning, and daily cross-team alignment, Nexus aims to deliver a ‘Done’ increment every sprint. This allows for relatively simple scaling to multiple teams without losing sight of Scrum's core principles.
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