Towards adapting nexus for practical use to elucidate inter-team dependencies : a large-scale agile case study

Abstract

Agile methodologies were originally created for small, collated teams; but large enterprises saw and wanted the benefits of agile for their projects that consisted of multiple developers, who may even be globally distributed. This raised the need for scaled agile and the issue of how to implement a small-scale solution on a much larger scale. Bringing together the empirical data found, along with experiences and information from practitioners who interact with these frameworks daily, an evaluation was done as to what solution would the most ideal for a Fintech company, comparing SAFe, LeSS, DAD, and Nexus as possible options. Through case study research, interviews and a survey, the issues of inter-team communication, collaboration, and dependencies were raised within the enterprise’s banking build. Nexus was selected as the best large-scale agile framework for the enterprise.

This case study uses a Fintech company, building a digital banking platform, and in need of a large-scale agile solution, as they had globally distributed development teams working on the same project. Inspecting the banking build just after it’s MVP (minimum viable product) launch, the learnings of Nexus, it’s implementation and running within the enterprise, were used to understand how Nexus increased collaboration by daily communication which resolved dependencies between teams quicker by highlighting and focussing on inter-team dependencies in the Nexus Daily Scrum using a Kanban board which contained only these dependencies. Using these learning and comparing them to the theoretical version of Nexus, the study presented conclusions towards the adaptation of Nexus in a practical environment in order to better resolve inter-team dependencies. The case study provides knowledge and learnings surrounding Nexus and for those looking to implement a scaled agile solution. The enterprise, due to various factors, implemented only some of the Nexus components which leads to discussions on applications for future studies, as well as non-Nexus specific learnings that can be used as possible research topics.