Scaled Agile Frameworks
An Introduction
Organisations are growing and deepening their use of Agile frameworks, increasingly we are seeing larger projects coming under the Agile banner, projects for which a single scrum team is a practical limitation. To address this, Scaled Scrum frameworks have emerged to carry the principles of Scrum beyond individual teams. These Scaled frameworks attempt to foster cohesion, coordination and efficiency at scale across the entire project program. Though rooted in the same Agile foundations, each framework brings its own structure, governance model, and approach to scaling. In this introductory note, we take a closer look at the most widely used Scaled Scrum frameworks—their origins, strengths, limitations, and how they stack up against each other.
SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) – The Enterprise-Level Agile Solution
Origins & Background
SAFe - Scaled Agile Framework has emerged as a transformative response to a growing problem: “How can large enterprises apply Agile principles across multiple teams, departments, and portfolios—while staying aligned, fast, and customer-focused?”
Launched in 2011 by Dean Leffingwell, SAFe offers more than just structure— SAFe is a comprehensive framework designed to help large organisations apply Agile, Lean, and DevOps principles at scale. It provides a structured approach for managing complex product development across multiple teams, departments, or even geographies.
Built on the foundations of Lean, Agile, and DevOps, SAFe synthesises best practices from Scrum, Kanban, and XP while weaving in the strategic depth of Lean Product Development and Systems Thinking. Leffingwell, a driving force behind enterprise Agile transformation, described it as “a freely revealed knowledge base of proven, integrated patterns for enterprise-scale Lean-Agile development” (SAFe Distilled, 2017).
The framework’s evolution has been shaped by some of the sharpest minds in the Agile space—including Don Reinertsen, whose groundbreaking work on flow and lean economics helped define SAFe’s core DNA. What sets SAFe apart is its ability to tackle the tough stuff: organisational drag, fragmented priorities, and sluggish delivery cycles.
SAFe has transcended from the software world to finance, aerospace, manufacturing and healthcare. SAFe has become a strategic delivery piece for many companies, allowing them to stay competitive and agile across complex and often geographically disperse operations.
Intel, one of the largest technology companies in the world has embraced SAFe for the development of hundreds of products, spanning hundreds of teams across vast geographical boundaries. Intel has aligned its entire product development methodology to SAFe. As a result of this transformation, Intel has vastly improved time-to-market, accelerating development cycles, enabled better collaboration among these teams by creating a structured way to align cross-functional groups, greatly improved transparency and has bridged the gap between business and engineering.
The cloud computing powerhouse that is Salesforce, has adopted SAFe to orchestrate the engineering of their extensive product portfolio. SAFe has allowed them to dismantle silos, and create a level of cross-functional collaboration that keeps them agile, responsive, and ahead of the curve in a rapidly evolving market.
"By adopting SAFe, we have scaled our Agile transformation across the enterprise, allowing us to innovate faster and more efficiently. We now align our teams with business goals and improve the speed at which we deliver customer value.” - Roger P. Dickey, Chief Information Officer at John Deere
"The adoption of SAFe has enabled us to scale Agile at the enterprise level and has dramatically improved our ability to respond to changing market conditions and customer requirements. It's also enhanced cross-team collaboration, ensuring we stay aligned with our mission goals.” - Lockheed Martin
"SAFe has been instrumental in enabling us to scale Agile across our organisation. The result is better product development, faster response times, and a more collaborative approach to solving complex challenges.” - Caterpillar
These are just a few examples of how SAFe is reshaping the way large organisations operate, allowing them to scale without losing speed, flexibility, or focus. As these companies prove, SAFe isn’t just about managing multiple teams—it’s about unlocking the full potential of an entire organisation to innovate at scale, move faster, and deliver more value to customers.
“SAFe helps businesses address the significant challenges of developing and delivering enterprise-class software and systems in the shortest sustainable lead time.” – Dean Leffingwell
Key Features of SAFe
SAFe isn’t just a way to scale Agile—it’s a structured, proven system that brings clarity, speed, and alignment to large, complex organisations. Here are the features that set it apart
Agile Release Trains (ARTs)
At the heart of SAFe are Agile Release Trains—groups of Agile teams (usually 50–125 people) who plan, commit, and deliver together on a regular rhythm. It’s how SAFe keeps everyone moving in sync, even across massive programs.
Program Increment (PI) Planning
Every few months, everyone involved—developers, leaders, designers, product folks—comes together to align on priorities, make trade-offs, and commit to a shared plan. It’s transparency and teamwork in action.
Lean Portfolio Management
Forget traditional, slow-moving funding models. SAFe brings agility to the portfolio level—so strategy, investment, and execution are tightly connected, and teams are always working on what matters most.
DevOps & Continuous Delivery
SAFe bakes in DevOps practices to streamline the flow from idea to delivery. That means faster releases, better quality, and constant feedback—so teams can learn and adapt on the fly.
Customer Focus & Design Thinking
It’s not just about building things fast—it’s about building the right things. SAFe encourages deep customer empathy and uses Design Thinking to shape solutions that truly solve problems.
Built-In Quality
Quality isn’t a phase—it’s a mindset. From day one, SAFe emphasises technical excellence, test automation, compliance, and continuous improvement to reduce rework and increase trust.
Scalable Roles, Flexible Configurations
SAFe works whether you’re scaling 5 teams or 50. It comes in four configurations (Essential, Large Solution, Portfolio, Full) and includes clearly defined roles at every level—from Scrum Master to Portfolio Manager—so everyone knows their place in the big picture.
Real Metrics, Real Feedback
With SAFe, you’re not flying blind. You get meaningful metrics, inspect-and-adapt cycles, and regular retrospectives—so decisions are always grounded in data, not guesswork.
Leadership that Leads
Leaders in SAFe don’t just manage—they model. They coach, empower, and guide teams toward continuous learning and cultural change. Real transformation starts at the top.
In a Nutshell: SAFe brings structure to agility without killing flexibility. It helps big companies move fast, stay aligned, and deliver real value—without the chaos. It’s Agile that actually scales.
LeSS (Large-Scale Scrum) – A Minimalist Approach to Scaling Scrum
Origins & Background
The books: Scaling Lean & Agile Development (2008) and Large-Scale Scrum: More with LeSS (2016) introduced the world to Craig Larman and Bas Vodde by way of their new scaled scrum framework LeSS. Less was designed to help organisations extend the use of Scrum principles at scale in large, complex enterprise environments. The core premise of LeSS was to offer a framework maintains the agility, simplicity and adaptability of Scrum, in a scaled setting, one which extended beyond that of a single team.
LeSS (Large-Scale Scrum) avoids layering more processes or titles on top of Scrum—it’s about stripping away the clutter and conserving the agility. Born from the minds of Craig Larman and Bas Vodde, LeSS challenges the idea that scaling means adding complexity. Instead, it’s grounded in a powerful belief: that simplicity, lean thinking, and deep systems awareness are what truly enable agility at scale. It scales Scrum not by building up, but by breaking down silos, flattening hierarchies, and getting back to what really matters—people, learning, and delivering value together.
Inspired by the works of Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber, the co-creators of Scrum, LeSS aligns closely with the Agile Manifesto and Lean Thinking.
Vodde and Larman advocate fewer roles, less process overhead, and strong customer collaboration, promoting LeSS as a lightweight yet powerful alternative to traditional enterprise Agile frameworks.
LeSS has been adopted by a number of well-known companies across industries, especially those looking to scale agile in a leaner, less bureaucratic way than frameworks like SAFe. Here are some companies that have used or experimented with LeSS:
BMW used LeSS to scale agility within its autonomous driving division. Their success story is one of the most prominent LeSS case studies. They transitioned from a highly siloed, plan-driven structure to cross-functional feature teams, reducing handoffs and increasing learning speed.
“With LeSS, we focused on learning over control, and collaboration over process.” – BMW agile lead
Ericsson’s telecom software divisions have explored LeSS in certain product units. Their focus was on improving cross-team collaboration and eliminating technical dependencies that slowed delivery.
“More with LeSS” is the idea that instead of adding complexity, organisations should aim for simplicity when scaling Agile.” – Craig Larman
Key Features of LeSS
One Product, One Product Backlog
LeSS insists on a single Product Backlog for the entire product, managed by one Product Owner, regardless of how many teams are working. This ensures unified prioritisation and avoids fragmented backlogs that dilute product focus. As Craig Larman says:
“Multiple backlogs lead to multiple products, whether you like it or not.”
Multiple Teams, One Sprint
All teams work in a shared, synchronised Sprint cadence, which helps maintain alignment and allows for joint planning, review, and learning. This avoids coordination chaos where teams are misaligned or sprinting independently.
Feature Teams Over Component Teams
LeSS strongly promotes cross-functional “feature teams” that can deliver complete customer features end-to-end, rather than component teams who only work on part of the stack. This reduces handoffs and delays, improving flow and accountability.
Decentralised Decision Making
Teams in LeSS are empowered to make decisions locally, reducing bottlenecks and increasing responsiveness. LeSS discourages centralised control and encourages teams to own problems and solutions.
“The people doing the work are the ones best suited to make decisions about how the work should be done.”
Empirical Process Control at Scale
LeSS, like Scrum, is grounded in empiricism—transparency, inspection, and adaptation—but scaled across multiple teams. Common events and artefacts allow teams to inspect shared progress and adapt together.
Shared Scrum Events
Core Scrum events are adapted to work at scale:
Sprint Planning 1: All teams and the Product Owner align on what to build.
Sprint Planning 2: Each team independently figures out how to build it.
Sprint Review: One joint session where everyone inspects the product increment.
Retrospective: Teams do individual retrospectives, then conduct an Overall Retrospective to address systemic improvements.
Focus on Learning, Experimentation & Systems Thinking
LeSS places a strong emphasis on continuous improvement, lean thinking, and organisational learning. It encourages teams to run experiments and analyse outcomes through the lens of systems thinking.
“Adoption of LeSS is not a process change—it is an organisational change.”
Minimal Scaling Overhead
LeSS deliberately avoids adding layers, roles, or processes unless absolutely necessary. Unlike heavier frameworks like SAFe, LeSS scales Scrum while keeping the original values and principles intact.
Organisational Structure is the Real Lever
LeSS believes the real path to agility lies not in tools, but in organisational redesign: simplifying structures, removing silos, flattening hierarchies, and building true feature ownership within teams.
“You can’t scale agility without descaling the organisation.”
Nexus – The Lightweight Scaling Framework from Scrum.org
Origins & Background
Nexus was developed to essentially answer one question: How do we scale this without losing what made it work in the first place? With this as the underpinning philosophy Ken Schwaber—co-creator of Scrum, set out to define Nexus to solve this very question.
Ken adopted a “keep it simple” philosophy when designing Nexus. Rather than adding additional layers, roles and complexity, the framework was designed as a lightweight framework catering for 3 to 9 Scrum teams working to a single goal or product. This approach was adopted to allow teams to stay agile and scale - without drowning in bureaucracy.
Nexus works by tightening coordination where it matters most: at the points where teams intersect. It introduces a Nexus Integration Team—a small group responsible for making sure all the moving parts from multiple teams come together into one working product increment each sprint. The usual Scrum events are still there, but now they’re scaled—Nexus Sprint Planning, Nexus Daily Scrum, Nexus Retrospective—giving teams a structured way to surface and solve cross-team challenges early. There’s also one shared Product Backlog, which helps keep everyone aligned and pulling in the same direction. Schwaber described Nexus as “the exoskeleton of scaled Scrum, providing just enough structure to keep multiple teams aligned without adding unnecessary complexity” (The Nexus Guide, 2015)
Where Nexus really stands out is how it compares to other scaling frameworks. SAFe, for example, brings in multiple layers of hierarchy, roles like Release Train Engineers, and heavyweight planning cycles. It’s detailed and structured—great for large, regulated environments—but can feel rigid and top-heavy. On the other end, LeSS (Large-Scale Scrum) strips things down even more than Nexus, pushing for organisation-wide descaling and a big focus on lean thinking and systems design. It’s bold, but not always easy to adopt. Nexus sits comfortably in the middle—offering just enough structure to coordinate teams, without losing agility, autonomy, or speed.
Big names like Philips Healthcare, Volkswagen, and Bank of Ireland have embraced Nexus to help teams scale without sacrificing what made Scrum successful. Philips, for example, used Nexus across global teams working on connected health solutions—getting faster feedback, tighter integration, and more meaningful collaboration. As one agile lead put it, “Nexus gave us just enough structure to stay aligned—without slowing us down.” For companies looking to scale with clarity, not complexity, Nexus offers a clear path forward. It keeps teams focused on what matters most: delivering real value, together.
Developed by Scrum.org, Nexus is designed for organisations that want to scale Scrum while staying true to its lightweight and iterative nature, making it a preferred choice for those looking to scale without compromising agility.
“Nexus is a simple and lightweight framework for scaling Scrum without unnecessary complexity.” – Ken Schwaber
Key Features of Nexus
Nexus Integration Team (NIT)
Think of the Nexus Integration Team as the glue that holds multiple Scrum teams together. Their job is to make sure everything built across teams comes together into one seamless, working product at the end of each Sprint. This team usually includes the Product Owner, Scrum Masters, and integration specialists who help clear roadblocks and keep coordination smooth.
"The Nexus Integration Team is accountable for ensuring that an Integrated Increment is produced at least every Sprint." — Nexus Guide
Single Product Backlog
All teams in the Nexus work from a shared Product Backlog, which keeps priorities unified and prevents duplication or divergence across teams. This ensures that every team is pulling work aligned to a single product goal.
“There is one Product Backlog used in a Nexus. It is common for all Scrum Teams.” — Nexus Guide
Nexus Sprint Planning
This planning session brings together representatives from each Scrum Team to identify and coordinate backlog items for the Sprint. Teams align on goals, surface dependencies, and commit to work that contributes to a unified product increment.
Nexus Daily Scrum
Held by the Nexus Integration Team, the Nexus Daily Scrum is a quick sync focused on resolving integration issues and coordinating work across teams. It supplements, rather than replaces, each team’s own Daily Scrum.
“The Nexus Daily Scrum focuses on integration work and the state of the Integrated Increment.” — Nexus Guide
Nexus Sprint Review
A joint Sprint Review is held for the entire Nexus, involving all Scrum Teams and stakeholders. The goal is to inspect the integrated increment and adapt the Product Backlog as needed based on feedback.
Nexus Sprint Retrospective
This three-part retrospective starts with a cross-team discussion to uncover systemic issues, followed by individual team retrospectives, and ends with a shared session to plan cross-team improvements. It ensures continuous learning and alignment across the Nexus.
“The purpose of the Nexus Sprint Retrospective is to plan ways to increase quality and effectiveness across the whole Nexus.” — Nexus Guide
Integrated Increment
The output of every Sprint in Nexus is an Integrated Increment—a working, tested, and usable product slice that includes the contributions of all teams. This enforces shared responsibility and avoids “mini-waterfalls” between teams.
“The goal of Nexus is not to scale Scrum, but to reduce the cost of complexity that scaling introduces.” — Ken Schwaber
Focus on Dependency and Integration Management
Nexus places a strong emphasis on identifying, visualising, and managing dependencies early in the Sprint. Integration becomes a continuous activity, not a last-minute effort.
Scrum@Scale – A Modular & Adaptive Scaling Approach
Origins & Background
Dr. Jeff Sutherland created Scrum@Scale with the intention of providing a lightweight framework for scaling Scrum across the entire organisation.
Scrum@Scale was first introduced to the world in 2014 by Dr. Jeff Sutherland, the co-creator of Scrum, as a bold response to a growing challenge: how do you stay truly agile as your organisation grows?
Leveraging decades of practical experience with organisations such as Toyota, OpenView Venture Partners, and segments of the U.S. Department of Defence, Sutherland aimed to develop a scalable framework that preserved Scrum’s core strengths—its speed, precision, and flexibility.
What started as a practical approach to solving real-world scaling problems became formalised in 2018 with the publication of The Scrum@Scale Guide. It introduced the world to a modular, flexible framework designed to grow alongside your teams—not over them. Instead of adding layers of control, Scrum@Scale puts the emphasis on decentralised decision-making, clarity of purpose, and continuous improvement across the organisation.
As Sutherland puts it:
“Scrum@Scale naturally extends Scrum by allowing networks of Scrum teams to work together while maintaining flexibility.”
For organisations tired of trading agility for bureaucracy, Scrum@Scale offers something refreshingly different: a way to scale without losing your edge.
One of the key premises behind Scrum@Scale is the notion of a “scale-free architecture”. This concept was designed to offer an organisation of any size a way of scaling the framework without the addition of unnecessary complexity.
There are two primary cycles that coexist within the application of the framework, the first is the Scrum Master Cycle which concentrates on the continuous improvement aspects of the project including the removal of impediments. The second interconnected cycle is the Product Owner Cycle which Is focused on the strategic alignment of the product and the delivery of value to the customer.
Unlike frameworks like SAFe that introduce fixed roles and layers of hierarchy, Scrum@Scale takes a more natural, team-first approach. It builds on the Scrum teams you already have, encouraging them to scale organically by working together through lightweight coordination tools like the Scrum of Scrums and the Executive MetaScrum. That’s why organisations looking for a flexible, low-overhead way to grow often turn to Scrum@Scale—it helps them expand without slowing down or losing their agility.
"Scrum@Scale naturally extends Scrum by allowing networks of Scrum teams to work together while maintaining flexibility." – Jeff Sutherland
Key Features of Scrum@Scale
Scrum Master Cycle
The Scrum Master Cycle focuses on how teams coordinate, remove impediments, and continuously improve. It includes roles and events that support the delivery side of the organisation, ensuring teams are aligned, efficient, and constantly learning.
“The Scrum Master Cycle helps deliver working product to customers by coordinating the work of multiple teams and removing impediments.” – Scrum@Scale Guide
Product Owner Cycle
This cycle ensures there is a unified vision and a clear flow of prioritised work across teams. It includes elements like the Executive MetaScrum and ensures stakeholders are engaged and value delivery is optimised at scale.
“The Product Owner Cycle aligns the organisation on a shared vision, prioritisation, and customer feedback loops.” – Scrum@Scale Guide
Executive MetaScrum
This is a scaled version of the Product Owner's backlog refinement process, where executives, stakeholders, and Product Owners align on the highest priorities. It creates a single, transparent view of strategic goals and drives the backlog across teams.
“The Executive MetaScrum provides alignment between business stakeholders and Product Owners to maximize delivered value.” – Scrum@Scale Guide
Executive Action Team (EAT)
The EAT is a leadership-level Scrum Team responsible for removing systemic impediments and ensuring the organisation supports agile ways of working. They also uphold Scrum values and help shape organisational transformation.
“The Executive Action Team is responsible for implementing and sustaining the agile ecosystem.” – Scrum@Scale Guide
Scaled Daily Scrum (SDS)
A short, daily synchronisation meeting where representatives from multiple teams share progress, dependencies, and blockers. It helps maintain alignment without disrupting team-level focus.
“The SDS provides visibility across teams, facilitating resolution of impediments and alignment of priorities.” – Scrum@Scale Guide
Continuous Improvement and Impediment Removal
Scrum@Scale places strong emphasis on retrospection and problem-solving at all levels—from team retros to organisational changes. Impediments that can’t be solved by teams are escalated to higher cycles (like the EAT) for resolution.
“Impediment removal is not just a team issue—it's an organisational responsibility.” – Jeff Sutherland
Scaled Retrospective
A structured reflection across teams to uncover cross-team issues, improve coordination, and build better systems for collaboration. It enables continuous learning at scale.
“The Scaled Retrospective identifies systemic issues that hinder agility and drives improvement across the ecosystem.” – Scrum@Scale Guide
Minimum Viable Bureaucracy
Scrum@Scale promotes the idea of keeping overhead and hierarchy to a minimum while still maintaining alignment and decision-making capabilities. It allows teams to stay nimble and focused.
“Minimum Viable Bureaucracy is the least amount of structure and governance needed to support collaboration and decision-making.” – Scrum@Scale Guide
Choosing the Right Agile Framework: SAFe, LeSS, Nexus, or Scrum@Scale
Choosing the best-fit framework for you application and allow your teams to scale is all about matching the specifics of the organisations needs, structure, philosophy and industry to what the framework provides.
Scrum works incredibly well for small, focused teams, but as organisations expand and the complexity of work increases, keeping multiple teams aligned becomes much harder. That’s when scaling frameworks like SAFe, LeSS, Nexus, and Scrum@Scale come into play—each offering a different approach to managing growth while preserving the core values of agility.
SAFe is often the go-to for large enterprises that need structure, alignment, and a strong connection between delivery teams and business strategy. It adds roles, layers, and planning cycles that help coordinate across departments, which is why companies like Porsche and Cisco rely on it when working on large-scale, cross-functional initiatives. SAFe works best when you're dealing with high compliance, long-term roadmaps, or complex portfolio management.
If your goal is to remove complexity rather than manage it, LeSS might be your answer. It’s ideal for organisations that are already fairly Agile and want to go deeper—not bigger. LeSS focuses on simplifying structures and maximising learning by having multiple teams work from a single backlog, just like BMW did in their autonomous driving division. It’s about flattening hierarchies, cutting waste, and delivering together, not in silos.
For companies juggling multiple Scrum teams on a single product, Nexus brings just enough structure to make it work. It introduces a Nexus Integration Team and a few key ceremonies to manage dependencies and keep all the moving parts in sync. KLM used Nexus to help align their flight software teams, ensuring smoother collaboration and fewer last-minute surprises. Meanwhile, Scrum@Scale is perfect for organisations that want to grow at their own pace, extending Scrum principles without adding heavy frameworks. Used by innovative firms like Spotify and Tesla, it's a flexible model that scales with you, not ahead of you.
Below is a detailed view of each framework’s applicability for specific organisational requirements:
SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework): Structure for the Enterprise
SAFe is often chosen by large enterprises that need to scale Agile across hundreds or thousands of people. It introduces defined roles (like Release Train Engineers and Solution Architects), structured events, and multiple planning layers to align strategy and execution. SAFe is particularly strong in environments that already operate with a top-down hierarchy and need governance, compliance, and budgeting visibility.
When to choose SAFe:
You’re operating in a highly regulated industry (e.g., finance, healthcare, aerospace).
Your organisation needs alignment across multiple portfolios or business units.
Teams are accustomed to formal structures, and leadership demands visibility and reporting.
Project characteristics that suit SAFe:
Programs with interdependent systems.
Projects that require coordination across dozens of teams.
Long-term planning with fixed budgets and deliverables.
"SAFe gave us the framework to align our teams around value delivery, without losing governance." – Senior Program Manager, Global Bank
LeSS (Large-Scale Scrum): Simplify to Scale
LeSS takes a minimalist approach, extending Scrum without adding extra layers or roles. Its focus is on descaling the organisation—removing bureaucracy rather than adding it. LeSS works well in companies that are willing to flatten hierarchies and empower autonomous teams. It emphasises systems thinking and transparency, often challenging entrenched structures.
When to choose LeSS:
Your organisation is open to structural change and reducing middle management.
Teams are cross-functional and co-located or at least have strong communication channels.
You want to scale Scrum by doing more Scrum, not reinventing the wheel.
Project characteristics that suit LeSS:
Products that benefit from deep customer learning and iterative delivery.
Teams with a shared backlog working toward the same product.
Projects where learning and adaptation are more important than upfront certainty.
"LeSS isn't about scaling complexity—it's about removing it." – Craig Larman, co-creator of LeSS
Nexus: Lightweight Coordination for Scrum Teams
Nexus is an excellent choice for organisations that already use Scrum effectively and need a way to coordinate multiple teams working on the same product. It introduces the Nexus Integration Team, shared events, and an emphasis on integration and dependency management—without overwhelming teams with heavy processes.
When to choose Nexus:
You have 3–9 Scrum teams working on the same product.
The teams are mature in Scrum and need lightweight coordination mechanisms.
You want to keep Scrum intact and avoid process bloat.
Project characteristics that suit Nexus:
Medium-sized initiatives requiring regular integration.
Projects where shared ownership and cross-team alignment are essential.
Products that require end-to-end testing and continuous delivery.
"With Nexus, we focused on learning over control and collaboration over process." – Agile Lead, BMW Autonomous Driving
Scrum@Scale: Modular and Adaptive
Scrum@Scale, created by Jeff Sutherland, is a highly adaptable framework built to scale naturally from one Scrum team to many. It introduces two intersecting cycles: the Scrum Master Cycle (focused on process) and the Product Owner Cycle (focused on value). Its modular nature allows organisations to implement only what they need and grow organically.
When to choose Scrum@Scale:
You want to scale Scrum without prescribing every detail.
Your teams and leadership are already Agile-savvy.
The organisation values agility and is open to distributed decision-making.
Project characteristics that suit Scrum@Scale:
Decentralised projects with product owners in different regions or domains.
Initiatives that evolve rapidly and need a flexible structure.
Programs that emphasise team autonomy and local control.
"Scrum@Scale helped us grow without becoming bureaucratic." – Product VP, Tech Startup
Making the Decision: Organisational Fit is Key
Ultimately, the “best” framework depends on how your organisation thinks, works, and evolves. Here are a few guiding questions:
Do we need strong governance and top-down alignment? → SAFe
Are we trying to simplify and empower teams? → LeSS
Do we just need a way to coordinate a few Scrum teams? → Nexus
Do we want to grow Scrum organically without a heavyweight model? → Scrum@Scale
Some organisations even blend aspects of these frameworks—starting with Nexus or Scrum@Scale and adopting SAFe elements as needed.
Conclusion: Scaling Agile Is About Fit, Not Fashion
There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to scaling Agile. While frameworks like SAFe, LeSS, Nexus, and Scrum@Scale all share roots in Scrum and Agile values, each brings a different philosophy to the table. The best framework isn’t the one with the flashiest features—it’s the one that fits your organisation’s size, culture, goals, and appetite for change.
SAFe offers a structured roadmap for enterprises that need coordination at scale, especially in industries where compliance, long-term planning, and portfolio alignment are critical. As John Deere’s CIO, Roger Dickey, put it:
“By adopting SAFe, we have scaled our Agile transformation across the enterprise, allowing us to innovate faster and more efficiently.”
[Source: impirique.io]
On the other end of the spectrum, LeSS is for those ready to embrace radical simplicity. BMW’s shift toward feature teams in their autonomous driving division illustrates how LeSS can reduce handoffs and boost learning.
“With LeSS, we focused on learning over control, and collaboration over process.” – BMW Agile Lead
[Source: impirique.io]
Nexus offers a lightweight coordination layer for organisations with multiple Scrum teams working on a single product. As Ken Schwaber explained,
“Nexus is the exoskeleton of scaled Scrum, providing just enough structure to keep multiple teams aligned without adding unnecessary complexity.”
It’s ideal for teams that want to stay true to Scrum, while scaling their collaboration effectively.
And for those looking to grow without locking themselves into rigid roles or layers, Scrum@Scale offers modularity and adaptability. Used by companies like Spotify and Tesla, it supports scaling that’s responsive, not prescriptive.
“Scrum@Scale naturally extends Scrum by allowing networks of Scrum teams to work together while maintaining flexibility.” – Jeff Sutherland
[Source: Scrum@Scale Guide, 2018]
In the end, scaling Agile is less about the framework you choose and more about how you use it. Ask yourself: What kind of agility are we really trying to achieve? Then choose the path that gets you there with clarity, purpose, and the least amount of friction. Because the goal isn’t more Agile—it’s more impact.
References:
Leffingwell, Dean. SAFe Distilled: Applying the Scaled Agile Framework for Lean Software and Systems Engineering.Addison-Wesley Professional, 2017.
Scrum@Scale Guide. The Scrum@Scale Guide. Created by Jeff Sutherland and Scrum Inc., 2018. Accessed April 11, 2025. https://www.scrumatscale.com/scrum-at-scale-guide/
Schwaber, Ken. The Nexus Guide. Scrum.org, 2015. Accessed April 11, 2025. https://www.scrum.org/resources/nexus-guide
Larman, Craig, and Bas Vodde. Large-Scale Scrum: More with LeSS. Addison-Wesley Professional, 2016.
Larman, Craig, and Bas Vodde. Scaling Lean & Agile Development: Thinking and Organisational Tools for Large-Scale Scrum. Addison-Wesley Professional, 2008.
Reinertsen, Donald G. The Principles of Product Development Flow: Second Generation Lean Product Development. Celeritas Publishing, 2009.
Recommended Books:
"SAFe Distilled: Achieving Business Agility with the Scaled Agile Framework"
By Richard Knaster and Dean Leffingwell
→ The authoritative guide to understanding and implementing SAFe in large enterprises.
"Large-Scale Scrum: More with LeSS"
By Craig Larman and Bas Vodde
→ A foundational book for understanding LeSS, focusing on descaling rather than adding complexity.
"Scaling Lean & Agile Development: Thinking and Organisational Tools for Large-Scale Scrum"
By Craig Larman and Bas Vodde
→ Explores systems thinking, lean principles, and the organisational changes required for LeSS.
"The Nexus Framework for Scaling Scrum: Continuously Delivering an Integrated Product with Multiple Scrum Teams"
By Kurt Bittner, Patricia Kong, and Dave West (Scrum.org)
→ A practical guide to implementing Nexus, co-created by leaders at Scrum.org.
"Scrum@Scale: The Agile Framework for Transforming Your Organization"
By Jeff Sutherland and J.J. Sutherland
→ Offers both strategic insights and tactical implementation tips from the co-creator of Scrum.
"The Principles of Product Development Flow"
By Donald G. Reinertsen
→ Highly influential in SAFe thinking, this book discusses lean economics and flow in product development.