Nexus: Roles, team structure and events

Nexus teams are, in fact, Scrum teams with the same structure and member types as single Scrum teams.

Nexus roles and team structure

There is still one Product Owner (PO) who is responsible for the Product Backlog and who leads the complete Product Development cycle.

However, the Nexus Integration Team (NIT), a new and additional role, coordinates, coaches, and manages the Nexus. The NIT seeks to ensure that the teams within the Nexus are operating at their best in order to achieve its goals, e.g., making sure the teams have the technical support they need to be integrated.

As in a Scrum team, the NIT consists of a Product Owner, a Scrum Master, and Integration Team members. The NIT may include one to two members from each of the Scrum teams in the Nexus, and it is typical that coaches and trainers may be members of the Nexus Integration Team as well.

Some of the artifacts (or work results) in the Nexus framework include:

• One shared Product Backlog for all teams in the Nexus.
• A Sprint Backlog for each Scrum team within the Nexus (teams maintain their own Sprint Backlogs).
• A Nexus Backlog which is composed of all the Scrum team Sprint Backlogs. This comprehensive backlog provides visibility to what each team is working on and the dependencies that connect each team.

Nexus events

Nexus events are modified versions of events performed by single Scrum teams. The Scrum teams still perform the same events within their respective teams, and the additional Nexus events are added to help manage the overall effort of the teams within the Nexus.

Let us consider each of these Nexus events.

• Nexus Product Backlog Refinement: This event helps ensure that dependencies are identified across the multiple teams working from the same Product Backlog.
• Nexus Sprint Planning: Representatives from each of the Scrum teams meet to discuss Product Backlog and determine the Product Backlog for each team. Each Scrum team then plans its own sprint.
• The Sprint: The teams within the Nexus perform their work during the Sprint, frequently integrating their work into a common environment. Each team’s work can be assessed to ensure proper integration.
• Nexus Daily Scrum: Representatives from each of the Scrum development teams meet to identify integration issues. If issues are identified, the work to address the issue is then discussed as part of the individual team’s daily Scrum and a plan of action is determined.
• Nexus Sprint Review: Teams meet with the Product Owner to review the integrated product.
• Nexus Sprint Retrospective: Appropriate representatives from each Scrum team meet to identify shared challenges and action items that will be given to the individual Sprint teams.

What are your thoughts?

What do you think, are the multiple ways that the Nexus Integration Team (NIT) can help the teams?

Use the Comments section below and let us know your thoughts. Try to respond to at least one other post.

Once you are happy with your contribution, click the Mark as complete button to check the step off, then you can move to the next step in which we will discuss the possibility of implementing more than one scaling framework.