Scaling scrum in a large globally distributed organization: A case study

Maria Paasivaara*, Casper Lassenius

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference article in proceedingsScientificpeer-review

61 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We present a case study on scaling Scrum in a large globally distributed software development project at Nokia, a global telecommunications company. We discuss how the case project scaled Scrum while growing from two collocated Scrum teams to 20 teams located in four countries and employing a total of 170 persons. Moreover, we report scaling challenges the case project faced during this 2,5 year journey. We gathered data by 19 semi-structured interviews of project personnel from two sites, interviewees comprising different roles including managers, architects, product owners, developers and testers. The project was highly successful from the business point of view, as agile enabled fast response to customer requirements. However, the project faced significant challenges in scaling Scrum despite attempts at applying the Large-scale Scrum (LeSS) framework. The organization experimented with different ways of implementing scaling practices like implementing common sprint planning meetings, Scrum-of-Scrums meetings, common demos and common retrospectives, as well as scaling the Product Owner role. We conclude the paper by reflecting on the scaling approach used in the case organization in contrast to the LeSS framework.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings - 11th IEEE International Conference on Global Software Engineering, ICGSE 2016
PublisherIEEE
Pages74-83
Number of pages10
ISBN (Electronic)9781509026807
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 26 Sept 2016
MoE publication typeA4 Conference publication
EventIEEE International Conference on Global Software Engineering - Irvine, United States
Duration: 2 Aug 20165 Aug 2016
Conference number: 11

Conference

ConferenceIEEE International Conference on Global Software Engineering
Abbreviated titleICGSE
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityIrvine
Period02/08/201605/08/2016

Keywords

  • agile transformation
  • large-scale agile
  • LeSS

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