Nexus

Why Nexus?

According to scrum.org

Nexus builds upon Scrum’s foundation, and its parts will be familiar to those who have used Scrum. It minimally extends the Scrum framework only where absolutely necessary to enable multiple teams to work from a single Product Backlog to build an Integrated Increment that meets a goal.

For teams already practicing Scrum, this is a significant advantage. Because Nexus is intentionally minimal in its additions to Scrum, the learning curve is gentle and the transition cost is low. Teams don’t need to overhaul their existing processes — they build on what they already know.

Nexus at a Glance

According to scrum.org

A Nexus is a group of approximately three to nine Scrum Teams that work together to deliver a single product; it is a connection between people and things. Nexus seeks to preserve and enhance Scrum’s foundational bottom-up intelligence and empiricism while enabling a group of Scrum Teams to deliver more value than can be achieved by a single team.

In short, Nexus is a scaled Agile framework — a structured approach that allows multiple Scrum Teams to collaborate effectively on a single product.

Nexus at a Glance Nexus at a Glance

Think of Nexus as Scrum with a few targeted additions:

  • One additional artificat: Nexus Sprint Backlog
  • Five additional events
    • Croess-Team Refinement
    • Nexus Sprint Planning
    • Nexus Daily Scrum
    • Nexus Sprint Review
    • Nexus Sprint Retrospective
  • One new Role: Nexus Integration Team (NIT)

Combined with the original Scrum events, the full structure of a Nexus Sprint looks like below

  • Cross-Team Refinement
  • Sprint
  • Nexus Sprint Planning (Nexus specific)
  • Sprint Planning
  • Nexus Daily Scrum (Nexus specific)
  • Daily Scrum
  • Nexus Sprint Review (Nexus specific): it replaces the original Sprint Review
  • Nexus Sprint Retrospective (Nexus specific)
  • Sprint Retrospective

Nexus Specific Role - Nexus Integration Team (NIT)

The Nexus Integration Team (NIT) is accountable for ensuring that a valuable Integrated Increment is produced at least every Sprint. NIT members need to have a teaching mind-set to help Scrum Teams resolve their issues whenever possible.

The NIT consists of three roles:

  • Product Owner — Accountable for ensuring that the Nexus delivers maximum value each Sprint. There is one Product Owner across the entire Nexus, maintaining a single vision for the product.
  • Scrum Master — Holds overall responsibility for ensuring the Nexus framework is understood and properly practiced. This person often also serves as Scrum Master for one or more of the individual Scrum Teams within the Nexus.
  • Nexus Integration Team Members — One or more members who are typically drawn from the Scrum Teams within the Nexus. They focus on the technical and coordination work needed to deliver a cohesive, integrated increment each Sprint.

Nexus Specific Events

Nexus adds five events to Scrum:

  • Cross-Team Refinement
  • Nexus Sprint Planning
  • Nexus Daily Scrum
  • Nexus Sprint Review — replaces the original Sprint Review in Scrum
  • Nexus Sprint Retrospective

Cross-Team Refinement

Cross-Team Refinement is a formal event where Nexus teams collaborate to review and refine Product Backlog Items (PBIs), ensuring they are sufficiently independent for teams to work on without excessive conflict. It has two goals:

  • Decide which teams will work on which PBIs
  • Identify cross-team dependencies

As many Scrum Team members as necessary should participate — enough to properly understand and decompose the PBIs. There is no fixed timebox for this event.

Nexus Sprint Planning

Nexus Sprint Planning takes the refined Product Backlog as input and has two goals:

  • Formulate the Nexus Sprint Goal
  • Eliminate or minimize cross-team dependencies

All Scrum Teams should have appropriate representatives present — meaning members who can help refine PBIs, surface dependencies, and coordinate work across teams.

The Nexus Guide does not specify an explicit timebox for this event. However, since Nexus extends Scrum rather than simply replacing it, the combined time of Nexus Sprint Planning and each team’s Sprint Planning should fit within the original Sprint Planning timebox. The NIT plays a key role here, ensuring that dependencies are visible and communicated through the Nexus Sprint Backlog.

Nexus Daily Scrum

The Nexus Daily Scrum brings together appropriate representatives from each Scrum Team to inspect and adapt at the Nexus level. It has two goals:

  • Inspect the current state of the Integrated Increment
  • Identify integration issues and newly discovered dependencies

While the Nexus Guide does not define an explicit timebox, the Daily Scrum’s 15-minute timebox serves as a practical reference. Following the Nexus Daily Scrum, each team holds its own Daily Scrum, also within 15 minutes per the Scrum Guide.

Nexus Sprint Review

The Nexus Sprint Review replaces the individual Sprint Reviews held by each team. Rather than separate reviews, a single unified review is conducted at the Nexus level, covering the entire Integrated Increment delivered during the Sprint.

Nexus Sprint Retrospective

The Nexus Sprint Retrospective is structured in three parts:

  1. Cross-team identification — Representatives from across Nexus team meet to identify shared issues and impediments affecting the Nexus as a whole.
  2. Team-level retrospectives — Each Scrum Team holds its own Sprint Retrospective, incorporating both the cross-team issues identified in step one and their own team-level concerns.
  3. Nexus-level synthesis — Representatives reconvene to discuss common issues and agree on an improvement plan going forward.

While the Nexus Guide does not specify an explicit timebox, the entire retrospective — all three parts combined — should fit within the Sprint Retrospective timebox defined by the Scrum Guide.

Nexus Specific Artifacts

Nexus Sprint Backlog

The Nexus Sprint Backlog is used to highlight and track dependencies across teams. It is typically updated at least daily, often during the Nexus Daily Scrum. The Nexus Sprint Backlog consists of:

  • The Nexus Sprint Goal
  • Product Backlog Items that have cross-team dependencies

Integrated Increment

In Nexus, the focus shifts from individual team outputs to the combined result: the Integrated Increment. This is the integrated aggregation of all work completed by all Scrum Teams in the Nexus. It must be usable and potentially releasable, representing a cohesive product rather than separate deliverables. The Integrated Increment is inspected at the Nexus Sprint Review.