Which Agile Framework Should Your Company Adapt

Like all things in life, agile frameworks also have their pros and cons. Take a look at the advantages and disadvantages below to decide whether this is the correct business solution for you.

Advantages of Agile Frameworks:

• Daily team meetings (scrums) can be beneficial to determine if everyone is on the same page during the process and to maintain control over the deliverables.
• Productivity in teams will increase due to the collaborative nature of the agile framework.
• Transparency in the process leads to accountability from individuals and teams.
• A disciplined agile enterprise helps to foster an organizational culture that is focused on learning, changing, and innovating.
• It is best to implement for boosting commercial success. Especially if the overall objective is growing the organization's product offering or income.

Disadvantages of Agile Frameworks:

• A lack of ownership and pride from individuals who collaborated in the process.
• Daily check-ins can become exhausting with a lot of talking, but with no commitment and anyone actually "pulling the trigger".
• It tends to take away the limelight from the self-organized teams because there is constant interference from group leaders, but also almost makes them extinct when it comes to decision-making.
• A one size, fits all approach to agile frameworks does not apply to all businesses.
• Larger teams, with demographic differences, could pose a challenge in this framework due to time zones, availability and language barriers.

There are quite a few different agile frameworks out there. But, we’re going to explain the method behind the agile madness to some of the most popular ones:

SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework)

SAFe is a combination of Agile, Lean and DevOps principles. Although, many agile experts find SAFe to be almost too prescribed and a bit complex, it still holds a lot of benefits for those who manage to get it right.

SaS (Scrum@Scale)

This is one of the newest members to the Agile framework family and literally attempts to do and accomplish what a Scrum does within a single team but only with the bigger picture in mind. Therefore, the goal of SaS is to keep the product and the process cycles separate, but with an overlap.

SoS (Scrums of Scrums)

This framework is ideal for teams of 3 – 9 teams consisting of 3 – 9 team members each. In an SoS framework, team leaders meet on a daily basis to discuss completed projects and what the next steps are.

LeSS (Large Scale Scrum)

This is an adaptation of the single team Scrum. The basic concept behind it is to only talk when needed and about things that matter the most at that specific time. It encourages cross-team interactions to promote learning and growth among team members.

Nexus

This framework’s main goal is to reduce complexity and the dependency that teams so often have on each other by creating opportunities for processes, communication and product structures to change. Nexus usually consists of a group of 3 – 9 scrum teams with just one product backlog and product owner.

DaD (Disciplined Agile Delivery)

This framework gives guidance on the what and the things you need in order to make it happen, but how you do it is completely up to you.

Enterprise Kanban

Unlike many Agile frameworks, Kanban couldn’t be bothered about how your business is structured. Its main focus is to optimize workflow in accordance to customer needs vs expectations, promoting continual growth and learning and encouraging leadership. Kanban is a particular favorite since it can be applied to any value stream or workflow at any level of a company/business or project process.